Top 21 Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid While Renovating Your Toronto Home

Renovating your home can be difficult and hard on you if you’ve never done anything like it before. You have to think of it as a one time opportunity. Get it right the first time and you will be more than satisfied with the outcome but if you make mistakes, it will be a complete waste of your money and time.

Rosedale Kitchen Renovation

Here are the top 21 mistakes that can easily be avoided when it comes to renovating your home:

1. Don’t set an unrealistic budget: Setting an unrealistic budget can do more harm than good. If you set your budget somewhere too low, you won’t have enough money to cover the costs for any unexpected problems that you may run into. However, setting your budget way too high won’t be such a good idea either. This can make you spend extra money on unnecessary things, that you could have set aside for something more useful.
2. Underestimating the safety risks: Never underestimate the safety risks. When you’re in or around a zone that is being built on, always make sure that you are following safety precautions and make sure that you are wearing the protective equipment that you need. This includes gloves, working boots, safety glasses and most importantly, helmets. Not paying attention to these safety risks can cause long term health and/or physical problems to you.
3. Unrealistic expectations: When renovating your home, make sure that you don’t expect something that is unreasonable, because then, once your renovation is complete, you’re going to be upset because you didn’t get what you thought you were getting, meanwhile your expectation was unreasonable.
4. Overbuilding: Never overbuild when you’re in the process of renovating. Most of the time, this will result in a bad outcome because when the time comes to resell your home, you will not make any of the money back that you spent on the overbuilding section of the home. You will not get any profit out of it.
5. Using the wrong paint: It is very common for home owners to use the wrong paint tone or type when renovating their home. Make sure to make very important details to small details so that you won’t end up regretting your decision and being upset that your space didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to.
6. Not ordering extra flooring: Contractors say that when you are buying new flooring for your home, you should always order 20% more than you need. This is so that you have extra flooring to use whenever something breaks or doesn’t turn out the way you wanted it to.
7. Not planning out your ideas: It is very important to plan ahead and to plan for exactly what you want so that no miscommunication happens between you and the contractor. It is also important because you need to know what you want or else things will go the wrong way and you will end up being upset with the end result that you got.
8. Ignoring the lighting: Lighting plays a very important role in any part of the home. It makes small spaces look bigger, It brightens up the room and it gives out happy vibes. Using light colors in your home is also a key factor because it makes tight spaces look larger and less tight.
9. Not hiring professionals: Hiring professional contractors also plays a key role when choosing to renovate your home. Most people go for the cheaper ones but that should never be the case. Don’t choose your contractors based on what they will charge you. Choose them because you know they will do good work and you know that they won’t disappoint you.
10. Measuring incorrectly: Always ALWAYS double check your measurements before writing down a final number. Measuring incorrectly can lead to problems such as materials coming in with the wrong size which can cause other complications later on. Make sure to also always specify in what unit you are measuring. For example, are you measuring in inches, feet, metres, or centimetres…
11. Rushing your contractor choice: Hiring the right contractor is probably the most important thing that goes into renovating your home. Don’t rush. Get to know them and make sure there is good communication between you two. If you aren’t so sure about their work, ask to talk to some of their previous clients and ask how satisfied they were with the outcome. Check out their website and read their reviews….
12. Ignoring minor details: The worst mistake you can make while renovating your home is probably ignoring the minor and important details. People think that if it’s such a small problem, it doesn’t need to be fixed, but that is never the case. Smaller problems that aren’t fixed immediately can lead to more serious and difficult to fix problems later on. Problems like minor electrical or plumbing issues are included in this category.
13. Renovating the wrong area of your house: Renovating the wrong area of your house is a common mistake made by multiple families. When thinking of renovating, make sure that you fix the more important parts of the home like the bathrooms, rooms or kitchen rather than something that idn;t need much work in the first place.
14. Buying cheap materials: Even though buying cheap materials can save you money on the spot, it can cause problems later on such as breaking easily, scratching easily and breaking down easily. Make sure to have good quality materials in order to avoid these problems.
15. Renovating without considering workflow: The workflow from the kitchen sink, to the refrigerator and the stove is very important to have clear so that whoever is working in the kitchen doesn’t have to go over obstacles while cooking, baking or cleaning.
16. Don’t focus on appearance: Focusing on appearance should be the last thing you think about when renovating your home. Don’t think about how other people will see your home or think of you when they pass by. Do what you want, for you.
17. Don’t select appliances last: Selecting your appliances for your home last isn’t a very good idea. Always know what you want to have so that in the end, you will be ready and your decision on appliances won’t have effect the duration of the renovation. Know which appliances you want, but don’t buy them just eat. Wait until they are ready to be installed.
18. Don’t be too trendy: Being too trendy can be great for the time that you are living in your home but if in the future, you think about selling it, the trend that there was in the previous years may not be a trend anymore. Always go for the modern look, and don’t go too crazy on the trend part. It can cause difficulty for your house to sell in the future.
19. Don’t rush the job: Never rush the job and never rush or pressure the contractor to finish the job quickly. This can lead to some mistakes and it can lead to important things and details being missed. Let the contractors take their time because good things always take time.
20. Don’t miscommunicate: Always stay on good terms with your contractors. Make sure everything is always clear between you too and that you both understand each other so that there isn’t a miscommunication and everything is clear. Be as transparent with each other as possible.
21. Don’t “Do It Yourself”: Yes, doing the renovations can save you money, but it can also cause a lot of problems in the future. You need someone who is experienced to do the job for you so that you won’t be disappointed in the end result. Doing the renovations yourself can take a longer time, therefore wasting most of your time for something that probably would come out better if a professional did it for you.