Even if you’re happy with your home, undoubtedly, there is an area that you feel needs improvement. Perhaps your dining area feels messy, or you don’t like the tiling on your floors; there will always be something you can change. Often the best home remodeling ideas are cheap and easy to implement. With slight tweaks and touches to the interior and exterior of your home, you’ll have a more appealing look and feel.
However, when remodeling your house, proper planning is required. You can conduct the remodel from room to room or do the entire house. Do research to find remodel plans that fit your budget. This review will look at several cheap house remodel ideas, including how to prep for the project if construction work is involved, prioritize projects, etc.
Prepare for Construction Waste
If your cheap house remodel ideas comprise construction work, you should plan for construction waste cleanup. Construction work can generate lots of waste due to activities such as demolitions as well as product packaging and surplus construction materials. Typical waste generated from construction work includes bricks, cables, ceramics, concrete, glass, insulation, metal fragments, pipes, plastic, wood, etc.
Why do you need a dumpster rental for your construction project? Because according to the TSB (Technology Strategy Board), 13% of construction site materials go to landfills. Also, construction sites account for roughly 32% of waste in landfills.
To help fix this problem, you can implement an SWWP (site waste management plan) prior to the commencement of construction work. This will define how materials will be managed to minimize waste and how to dispose of any waste legally.
Also, there are options available to reduce construction waste, such as reusing and recycling these materials on site and reducing the amount of waste produced by your cheap house remodel ideas in the first place.
Prioritize Your Projects
Whether you’re implementing cheap house remodel ideas in a new or old house you’ve just bought or a house you currently live in, it’s never easy to decide which projects you should prioritize. Below is a brief guide to help you:
Have A Plan Before You Start Remodelling
It’s always a good idea to comb through what you already have prior to commencing cheap house remodel ideas. For instance, if you’re thinking of custom cabinets in your kitchen, you might find that the existing ones don’t have to go; they can be refurbished.
Put Safety Issues Above Everything Else
When conducting house improvement, you should prioritize things that might pose a risk to you and your family. For instance, ceiling leaks, cracks in your siding, etc. When left unattended, problems like these can be very expensive to fix.
Consider the Time of Year
Some home remodel ideas will cost less to implement during specific times of the year. In most countries, autumn and summer are the biggest seasons for home remodels, meaning the price is higher. However, you can save a lot of cash by scheduling your home remodel in seasons such as winter because there is little to no demand for home remodeling.
Consider Every Aspect of Your Home
As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither can your remodeling project. Embarking on cheap house remodel ideas for your home can be demanding.
You need to consider every aspect of your home. What does this mean? It means you should decide how the remodeling will take place. But ideally, you should start with structural improvements and then evaluate the needs of all rooms in the home.
Start with Structural Improvements
Start with structural improvements if you want to implement cheap house remodel ideas. For instance, if your roof is leaky or old, call a residential roofer to advise whether you should conduct repairs or replace it entirely. Structural improvements should be done because they can affect the integrity of your home and cost a lot of money in the long run.
Evaluate the Needs of Your Home Room by Room
Move from room to room with a handbook and pen and note down all improvements you should make. Start with spaces used by everyone like the lounge, kitchen, and washrooms, and work your way to areas with little traffic like bedrooms.
Plan for Problems When Remodeling
Even cheap house remodel ideas can experience problems. Therefore, you should be prepared for things like delays by having a small supplementary budget for unexpected costs and allocating a couple more days for your remodeling to be finished. This will help prevent overspending and anxiety so you can stick to your plan till the end.
Make Inspections Before New Installations
Before making new installations in your home when remodeling, it’s important to conduct inspections or call an expert. Why? An inspection helps you know the current state of fixtures before renovating. As a matter of fact, sometimes, when changes are made, they can create problems that will be expensive to fix. Some of the problems to check for include:
Cracks
When inspecting your house, it’s important to check for cracks on external and internal wall surfaces. Cracks on walls can be an indicator of serious problems like moisture penetration. When left unattended, cracks can comprise the structural integrity of your home.
Damaged Tiles
Over time tiling can get damaged, which results in breakage, chips, cracks, and looseness. Not only does this affect the aesthetic appeal of your floor, but it also allows for moisture build-up under the tiling, which requires more cash to fix.
Faulty Plumbing and Leaky Pipes
Faulty plumbing comprises improper installation or loose plumbing, which causes leakage. Leaky pipes can be a health risk because they can cause slips and falls, but they can also compromise the structural integrity of your home when the water starts sipping into your walls and floors. Call plumbing services to conduct an inspection on your plumbing.
Remove Any Health Hazards
Remodeling a house is exciting, but these projects can also uncover several health hazards which should be fixed to prevent bigger problems in the future.
Electrical Wiring
Electrical wiring is one of the most important things to check for when remodeling a house. You can call an electrician to check for an improper connection, uninsulated wires, wire gauge, etc. Inspecting electrical wiring can prevent health hazards like electrocution.
Moisture
Moisture is one of the most common and annoying problems homeowners face. Not only does moisture contribute to mold growth, but it can also affect the air quality. This is a health hazard, especially for kids but adults as well.
Pest Infestation
If you have noticed pests such as ants, rodents, termites, etc., you should hire a professional to inspect your home before remodeling. An inspection will reveal areas in your home that have been damaged by pests preventing the pests from spreading further. You can call an exterminator to remove the pests if it’s an infestation. Failure to check for pests before remodeling can lead to an infestation which can make your house inhabitable.
Invest in Your Lawn
Whether you reside in an urban or rural neighborhood, investing in your lawn is one of the best cheap house remodel ideas. You can invest a lot of cash to improve your lawn, but even small investments will make a difference. For instance, you can:
Lighting
You can boost your lawn with lighting; for instance, you can line the pathway with lamp-trees and ensure they’re solar powered so your power consumption doesn’t increase. You can also hang string lights from one end to the other. Illuminating your lawn with trendy lights creates a fresh look and feel in your outdoor living area.
Plant Grass and Flowers
One of the easiest ways to improve your lawn is by planting grass and flowers. You can plant wild grass, which doesn’t cost much to maintain apart from the occasional mowing. You can also line your pathways with brightly colored flours or call a tree arborist to recommend which trees can be planted on your lawn to make it more appealing.
Vegetable Garden
You can also plant a vegetable garden to improve the look of your lawn and cut your grocery costs. However, it shouldn’t be too big, just a couple of box planters with bell peppers, chilies, coriander, mint leaves, parsley, zucchini, etc.
Vamp Up Your Outdoor Living Spaces
When considering cheap house remodel ideas, consider vamping up not only your indoor living spaces but also the outdoors. Some of the areas you can improve include:
Balcony
Balconies are outdoor living spaces offering freshness, peace, and serenity when remodeled. There are many ways to enhance balconies, including outdoor seats, small planters, grass-like carpets, etc.
Patio
A patio is an open area that offers a hardscape to your lawn. With options such as concrete to standard paving blocks, you can transform your patio into the ideal dining area.
Sundeck
If you don’t have a sundeck, you can call a deck builder to construct an elevated or ground-level deck. Then you can add outdoor lounge seats and a small coffee table to watch as the sun sets. You can add a fire pit if you want to use the deck at night.
Improve Your Storage Capacity
There are many ways to increase the storage capacity of your home when remodeling or renovating. Some of the best ways to add space to your home include:
Adding Shelves in Your Garage
One of the most flexible spaces in any home is the garage because not only can it be used for vehicle storage, it can be used to house appliances such as chest freezers, washers, dryers, etc. Add shelves on the walls to get more storage space to make your garage more useful. Also, call a garage door maintenance company to inspect your garage door often.
Transform Nooks and Crannies
If you have unused nooks and crannies in your home, you can hire a remodeling company to help you make the most out of them. They can add custom-made cabinets and shelves to help you store items in these otherwise unusable spaces.
Invest in the Long Run
Are there cheap house remodel ideas that can add value to your house? Yes, you can conduct long-term improvements to improve the value of your home, such as:
Adding Solar Panels or Roofs
The benefits of adding solar panels to your roof are well-known. For starters, solar panels can help lower your electricity bill and even earn you some cash if your solar panels produce more energy than you consume. You can also install solar roofs, an alternative to solar panels; they are typical asphalt or metal roofs with panels embedded in them.
According to Forbes, it costs roughly $16,000 to install solar panels on a roof in the United States. This is by no means cheap; however, since solar helps reduce your electricity bill, it’s considered a cheap investment with an ROI of between eight and ten years.
Solar panels also have a useful life of about 25 years, meaning you get roughly three times your ROI. Solar panels can increase the value of your property which is vital when you want to sell your house or need to use it as collateral for a loan.
Installing Energy-Efficient Windows
Installing energy-efficient windows in your home not only improves its aesthetic appeal, but as the name suggests, your home becomes more energy efficient. According to fixr.com, energy-efficient windows cost roughly $3500, excluding labor.
Like solar panels, this isn’t cheap, but when you swap your current windows for energy-efficient windows, you can recoup your ROI in about eight years. How? Because they help decrease your heating and cooling costs to the tune of $500 per year.
In conclusion, cheap house remodel ideas can offer your space a fresh feel and look. From general interior upgrades like kitchen and bathrooms to outdoor upgrades like patios and sundecks, there are numerous cheap house remodel ideas that you can implement to transform your dull house into an appealing home.
