Renovators often make the mistake of overcapitalising. The tendency to get carried away is only expected because remodelling or renovation projects involve the human heart. Having said this, it might be prudent to factor in the various unexpected expenses while estimating home renovation costs. It might not save you a lot of money but at least it will better prepare you for the bills, payable at the end of the project. Let me take you through 5 such unexpected costs of renovation.
1# Council approval
The local council needs to approve remodelling projects. In fact, even if you wish to sell the property on a later day, the buyers will ask you to show the council approvals. Let us say you blow off a load bearing wall to undertake a modification and you fail to inform the local council. Naturally, the given case will warrant not only action from the council but also a lot many damage-salvaging expenses from your side.
2# Insurance coverage/Indemnity
Make sure that your entire project is duly covered by insurance. It will be unwise to think that renovation projects cannot bring along an untoward incident. They certainly can. For all you know, a collapsed ladder can injure a worker or the process of blowing off a wall can go awry, thus damaging property in the adjoining area of your home. This implies that you must be fully insured both in terms of liability and property coverage.
3# Costs incurred due to poor access to property
Sometimes, the job becomes cumbersome because you just can’t facilitate movement of renovation materials smoothly to and from the home. If the delivery truck or machinery fails to find quick access to the property, it will only cost you more. You can bill it as “logistic goof up”.
4# Cost of garbage removal
Though you might choose to ignore it assuming it to be trivial, rubbish removal is an important part of any renovation project. Remember that we are talking about wrecking balls and crowbars here. In other words, it’s not the fortnightly rubbish of your home we are talking about, it’s the proceeds from a large part of your existing property’s wreck.
5# Opportunity Costs
Next but equally vital (or even more so) is the Opportunity Cost involved. Irrespective of the quality of the contractors you choose you will always need to give your personal time to a renovation project. Time used here might disallow you from investing time into your business thus causing monetary losses (Opportunity Cost I talked about).
Renovations are figments of our dream and I feel that it is the blood of our artery which infuses vitality and colours into our walls. This being said, you should also factor in all the unexpected costs of renovation in an effort not to overcapitalise.
Has your renovation project fallen within your budget?
Related Posts
