Planning ahead can spare you from serious headaches during a home improvement project. Here are a few things that you can do to help ensure that your project goes off without a hitch.
Take Care To Avoid Fines
Getting into trouble with your city or county’s building or fire department could throw a real wrench into your home improvement plans. Be wary about going through the right channels and complying with all relevant regulations when you get your project underway.
First and foremost, you have to apply for any required permitting from your local building department. If you’re not sure if any aspect of your project requires a permit, make it a point to find out. For certain types of permits, it may be necessary for a licensed professional to apply. Generally, a person must be a licensed plumber in order to get a plumbing permit. Likewise, only electricians can pull an electrical permit. Doing work without a permit could subject you to hefty fines. Even worse, it might be necessary to redo all of the work in its entirety. Permitting isn’t terribly expensive, but some work requires in-person inspections. Be aware that waiting for inspections might throw off your timeline.
Waste disposal issues could also subject you to fines from your city or county’s department of code compliance as well fines from a private waste management company. Homeowners associations and condominiums also tend to have stringent regulations and fines regarding the disposal of demo debris and other construction waste. To avoid these types of annoying and costly problems, look online for a residential dumpster near me. You can find a company that will drop off a dumpster for project waste materials directly at your location and pick it up onsite once it’s full.
Leave Room in Your Budget
Building some contingency into your home improvement budget could spare you from avoidable frustration and challenges if costs turn out higher than you predicted. In assessing the potential cost of a project, bear in mind that labors and materials in an estimate may be approximations. Having some breathing room with project costs will lessen the blow of surprise expenses that could throw your timeline for a project track or force you to sacrifice part of the scope of work that you’re aiming to complete.
Choose Contractors Carefully
When you’re hiring a contractor to handle any part of a project or take care of everything, you have to shop competitively. If you’re looking for small changes or particular renovations like flat roof insulation or silicone rendering of exteriors, you should go for firms like proguard exteriors that are well-known for these particular services. For major improvements, it’s generally a good practice to get at least three estimates. Don’t automatically default to the lowest estimate that you get, particularly if it’s considerably lower than the other proposals that you’ve received. A very low bid should be a red flag. You should also consider the detail in an estimate because it speaks to a contractor’s competence and professionalism.
If you’ve ever heard a horror story about a friend or neighbor’s renovation project, odds are that it involved a shady contractor. People who hire contractors have to put a lot of faith and reliance into them. Unfortunately, having to entrust contractors with so much responsibility makes homeowners extremely vulnerable to financial harm if they choose the wrong person or company for their project.
One of the most common complaints that people tend to report about unpleasant experiences with contractors is that they don’t finish their work as promised. Contractors have to work continuously to keep getting work, and having to go out to give estimates to prospective customers can divert their attention from their existing customers. In these types of situations, property owners could be waiting weeks or even months for contractors to return to a half-finished jobsite, and they might be stuck without a working kitchen or bathroom until then.
Of course, this isn’t to say that every contractor in your area is going to take your money, do some work, and then leave you high and dry. However, it is imperative that you choose who to work with discerningly. Look up a contractor online and confirm that he or she has a professional license and a business license in good standing. See if there are any prior or pending claims with the Better Business Bureau. In addition, make it a point to look up reviews on third-party sites rather than putting too much stock into client testimonials on a contractor’s website.
