Home owners will often be put off from engaging in home improvement projects because it most of the time is a very expensive and cumbersome task. What if we told you that it doesn’t have to be so? You can actually be able to comfortably engage in your home improvement project with a very minimal budget.
In this article, we will share with you 3 simple ideas on how to maximize on your small home improvement budget.
1 Start by first knowing what needs fixing
Before you engage in any home improvement activity in your home be it a large scale construction job or just some subtle improvements, you must be able to determine whether the task at hand is for utility or aesthetic value. As a rule of thumb, aesthetics must never come before utility. Therefore, you have to first thoroughly inspect your home so that you can ascertain what needs fixing. If you can focus on these, first, you are likely to stay on budget.
2 It doesn’t hurt to consult a professional
There are many creative ways you can get a professional to advise you on what needs improving in your home without having to spend much. For instance, with just about $100, it’s possible to get a realtor to give your home a quick look and later give you some ideas on things you can do to improve your home within the budget you have in place.
3 Invest in a good paint job
As far as home improvement is concerned, nothing gives a home a new and fresh appeal like a fresh coat of paint. As long as you don’t have major underlying repairs that are needed, home improvement can be as simple as a good paint job and you are good to go.
All in all, when it comes to your home, the best way to keep your improvement costs down is always doing repairs the moment there’s a need and not waiting for the situation to get worse. It’s much cheaper to repair a 3 inch crack than it is to repair a 3 meter crack.
[caption id="attachment_382" align="aligncenter" width="590"]
Before you engage any professional contractor for your home or office space improvement project it’s very crucial for you to do your due diligence because not all contractors are the same. It will therefore be in your best interest to be able to identify the kind of contractor who has a proven track record of quality work as this type of person will guarantee you success in your own project.
In this article we are going to share with you the 4 top traits of a good professional contractor.
1 The contractor must have a good reputation
Generally speaking, a contractor’s reputation will be determined by the collective reviews of his/her past and present clients. This therefore means that any professional contractor you come across who has a good reputation is a reflection of the quality of their work. The same can be said for a contractor with a bad reputation as this is an indication that they will not give you a good job.
2 The contractor must have sufficient experience
Professionals will usually get better and better the more they get to practice their trade and this is especially true for contractors. This therefore means that a contractor with plenty of experience is more likely to produce for you a good job when compared with one with minimal experience because the former has gotten an opportunity to practice and hone their skills. It’s therefore a good idea for you to prioritize experience and ensure that it’s experience doing good work.
3 The contractor should be a very good listener
It’s common for contractors to have their own ideas and biases when it comes to how they do their work and in some cases, these biases may creep in as they are doing your work because they were not paying full attention as you were giving them instructions. As you are interviewing professional contractors, it’s always a good idea to ensure that they are good listeners as this will ensure that there’s minimal breakdown in communication between you and him/her during the course of doing your project.
4 The contractor should have integrity
It’s very important to work with a professional contractor who has the utmost respect for his/her profession and also respect for you as their client. This therefore requires the contractor to have a lot of integrity as it’s this quality that will ensure that they respect their end of the contract, they charge you fairly, and are always willing to own up to their mistakes and correct them.
The best way to ensure that you end up with a contractor with these traits is focusing on your due diligence and most of this will entail getting reviews from their past and present clients.
There is no dispute that opting for DIY when it comes to your home improvement projects has tremendous benefits. It’s however worth noting that if you do it wrong, it can end up being disastrous for you.
In this article, we are going to highlight the 3 main cons of DIY when it comes to home improvement projects especially if they involve a lot of construction work.
1 It’s likely to be more expensive in the long run
The belief or rather assumption that engaging in DIY for your home improvement projects is a very good cost cutting measure will only hold true if things go well, and in most occasions, they seldom do. The main reason professional contractors don’t come cheap is because they invested time, money and sweat in building their skills therefore they will charge you a premium for it. Assuming that you can simply go online, look at a tutorial and become a master in construction is a fallacy especially if you have no background in construction. What this means in summary is that you may opt for DIY but end up making a mess of the work and this will force you to bring in a professional to repair your errors and do the job how it was meant to be done in the first place, and this will ultimately cost you more.
2 It’s a very time consuming venture
Considering the fact that you have very little or no experience in the task you are about to engage in, you will need to set aside time to learn the skill itself as well as about the tools and material you will need for the job. This, plus the time it will take you to do the job itself factoring in all the errors before you finally get it right will take you triple or even quadruple the time it would have taken a professional to get it done. Therefore DIY is only practical if your project is not time sensitive.
3 The work will be of low standards
The reality is that as long as you haven’t had sufficient experience which has to be gained over time, the quality of work you are likely to produce will be nowhere close to the quality of work a professional will produce. In fact, you should be content with work that is of low standards during the period you are still a DIY novice.
Before you make the decision on whether to engage in a DIY project, it’s a good idea to weigh the pros and cons first. A word of advice would be for you to first start with smaller construction projects around your home as you slowly hone your skills before you take up larger home improvement projects.
Generally speaking, a contractor’s reputation will be determined by the collective reviews of his/her past and present clients. This therefore means that any professional contractor you come across who has a good reputation is a reflection of the quality of their work. The same can be said for a contractor with a bad reputation as this is an indication that they will not give you a good job.
Professionals will usually get better and better the more they get to practice their trade and this is especially true for contractors. This therefore means that a contractor with plenty of experience is more likely to produce for you a good job when compared with one with minimal experience because the former has gotten an opportunity to practice and hone their skills. It’s therefore a good idea for you to prioritize experience and ensure that it’s experience doing good work.
It’s common for contractors to have their own ideas and biases when it comes to how they do their work and in some cases, these biases may creep in as they are doing your work because they were not paying full attention as you were giving them instructions. As you are interviewing professional contractors, it’s always a good idea to ensure that they are good listeners as this will ensure that there’s minimal breakdown in communication between you and him/her during the course of doing your project.
It’s very important to work with a professional contractor who has the utmost respect for his/her profession and also respect for you as their client. This therefore requires the contractor to have a lot of integrity as it’s this quality that will ensure that they respect their end of the contract, they charge you fairly, and are always willing to own up to their mistakes and correct them.
The best way to ensure that you end up with a contractor with these traits is focusing on your due diligence and most of this will entail getting reviews from their past and present clients. 