Renovating your home – all the steps you need

Renovating a home can be stressful. Every one of us wants to take this big step with complete peace of mind, with both aesthetics and costs tailored to their needs. How do you avoid running into unpleasant pitfalls, with the risk of spending twice as much and with unacceptable results?

Let’s see what aspects there are to remember before, during and after the renovation of a house. This article we will provide a rough outline regarding financial factors that may help in quantifying your expenditure.

1. Try to get a clear picture of your tastes and needs and those of the people who live in the house with you. There is nothing worse than relying on an expert and not being able to explain what your housing needs are – a potential mishap is just around the corner.
2. Put your trust in an expert, who can empathise with you and understands your requirements. This is crucial, because they will then coordinate the entire design project, organising step by step all the work, monitoring the tasks and the timetable.
3. During the survey stage, you and your designer will work out where, and at what height, the different components in your house, such as sockets or bearing walls, are to be positioned. If you need some inspiration, you will find some tips for dividing up the space in a new house in this article.
4. You will draft the final design with the expert, finding the right compromise between the possible architectural works and the living requirements of the people who will live in the home.
5. This step will be assigned to a ‘bill of quantities’, i.e. a list of works to be carried out, indicating the average market costs and the value of the quotes you have been given.
6. Identify several companies, ask for at least 2 or 3 quotes and quantify the unit prices for each job. Evaluate the different quotes, taking into account not only the price but also the services provided and the jobs previously carried out by the companies in question.
7. If more than one company is required, recall that it is mandatory to appoint a safety coordinator.
8. Complete all the required documentation and paperwork before, during and following the job. The appointed expert will be able to help you meet the various deadlines.

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Try to estimate the costs you come across in the various quotes by comparison with market prices. As a guideline, a breakdown can be made by considering the costs of the technical work and the paperwork.

It is difficult here to establish the cost of an individual job with any degree of certainty because each home and each renovation is unique and requires accurate evaluation. There are, however, several indicators regarding average market costs for each individual job available online to compare with budgeted costs. Our advice is to consider an additional 10% of the total, to cover any unexpected expenses (which, unfortunately, often occur during renovation).

As far as the costs of paperwork are concerned, we provide here a number of broad indications. However, recall that prices may vary considerably depending on the expert you choose, the type of design project and the city you live in.

• To carry out surveys, the design project and drawing up of the main paperwork, the cost may be estimated at 5 to 6% of the total estimate of the job.
• For the designer who will oversee the job on site, the percentage estimate ranges from 2 to 4%.
• The cost of paperwork can vary from €200 to €400. A permit costs approximately €500.

During the job, remember to monitor both deadlines and the overall quality of the work carried out. Our advice is to entrust the work to an expert who will protect you and oversee all stages of the design.