Once you’ve decided to make changes to your home, that feeling of excitement will grow and grow until you break ground on your latest project. Home renovation projects have a way of filling grown adults with such glee. There is just something so thrilling about changing or adding rooms in your home – you have to experience it for yourself to understand.
As exciting as these extension projects are, there are five things that you need to consider before starting them:
1. How Long It Will Take
A typical extension project for your home can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months to complete. You must allow for surveying and design time, planning, and drawing time. That doesn’t include the time it will take to get the correct permits or find the best contractor for the job.
Home extension projects should never be completed in a rush, take your time to complete the project, or else you might regret it later.
Time is one of the important factors you need to consider before embarking on a renovation project.
2. How Much It Will Cost
Budgets are a necessary part of any home renovation project, so take the time to decide how much you are prepared to spend to achieve your extension dreams. Be realistic and honest about the money you have available to dedicate to your project.
Don’t forget to include VAT into your budget; this will reduce your spending power by around one-sixth of your total budget. VAT costs will be levied against materials as well as all builders’ fees.
3. How Much Value It Will Add
Your home extension project needs to make sense for it to work. Don’t add rooms or extensions just for the sake of building on – make sure that your extension project will add value to your property. This is particularly important if you have recently bought a new house by browsing Toronto homes for sale.
You might want to extend every room, but something will have to give. You need to weigh up the costs of these projects with how much value they will add to your house.
4. Laws
By law, homeowners need to make sure that any new building or extension plans for their property have been approved by the relevant local authorities. These plans differ from place to place so be sure to check in with your local department to ensure that your plans are within the laws of your neighborhood.
5. Neighbors
All renovation projects, no matter how well they are planned, will affect your neighbors. You need to ensure that your extension project doesn’t negatively impact their views or cause too much noise.
It is the neighborly thing to do, to check in with them before commencing any building work. This might not be an actual law, but it will help you to curry favor with the people that you and your family will have to live next door to for years to come.
The easiest way to do this is to let them know your plans, how long they will take, and what impact you can foresee for your neighbors.
