Tips to Save Money on Home Refurbishment

It can be an incredibly costly business, making changes to your household. Whether it’s buying new furniture, fitting more up-to-date appliances, adding an extension or creating a total interior redesign, there are plenty of areas in which your finances will be peppered with invoices and extra costs. It doesn’t matter if you’re working on a tight budget or not – being aware of the ways with which you’ll save money on refurbishments will stand you in good stead to achieve your dream results without breaking the bank in extra charges and superfluous costs.

Shop Online

The online marketplace is a gift to consumers looking to save money. Often, heading to a local store and buying all your materials and furniture there will be a good deal more expensive than the options available on the internet, despite tempting offers of discounts in shop windows. That’s not to say that walking around a homeware store is a bad idea; it can give you ideas, and the staff will give you helpful tips. But you should always head online for the best deals that deliver to your area.

There are specific price-comparison websites which will list products such as sofas in order of price and quality, giving you, the consumer, a wide spectrum of choices when it comes to refitting your home. As well as comparing prices, you’ll be exposed to international products that are simply not accessible to the store shopper, yet can be the cheapest option of all, even when shipping is factored into the equation.

Do It Yourself

Dependent of course on your own level of DIY skills, what you’re planning, and your ability to spend a lot of time on your home improvement project, where possible you’ll save a good deal of money on doing the job yourself. Perhaps working solo on an extension or on complicated technical electrical wiring will be a little ambitious and even dangerous. However, with smaller projects like re-carpeting, plumbing fixes and paint jobs, there’s no reason you can’t do the job yourself.

In order to perform adequate DIY on your house, you’ll want to be confident that the end result won’t be a botch job, leaving you in a state of regret that you ever took on the project. Usually, all this will require is a willingness to be patient. You may need to ask for help and advice from friends and relatives, and it’s important to keep a cool head when confronted with problems. It’s your home, and you’ll want it to look fantastic, so exercise caution when doing it yourself.

Buy Materials Yourself

A great shortcut to your DIY project is to enlist the help of a surveyor or specialist, who’ll charge you some money to detail exactly what materials you’ll likely want to use for whatever project you’re working on. They may come into your house to take a look at things if required, or you may just be able to head to a help desk in your local DIY store for assistance. There’s always excellent advice available on the internet, too, which will inform your material purchasing.

Simple piping materials for your plumbing improvements can be picked up from reputable sites such as Custom Fittings Ltd, while electronic items, carpentry tools, carpets and more can be found on specialist sites that not only offer great deals, but also come with a wealth of area-specific advice – and valuable returns policies – which will make your life easier when it comes to saving money by doing the bulk of your reconstruction work yourself.

Sell or Reuse What You Can

If you’re buying anything from a new desk to a fitted kitchen, you’ll probably be getting rid of older items that are perhaps a little tired-looking, outdated or out of fashion. Their destiny need not be the junkyard though. All household items have some value, and you’ll be surprised to find that recycling through reselling to other homeowners is a great way of getting rid of your old items and making a little cash on the side.

Consider sites such as Gumtree to advertise what you’ve got – you’ll be able to set whatever price you want, and ask the buyer to collect if that would suit you better. On the other hand, there are some items of furniture or household materials that could be reused in future renovations or even in your present project. If you’ve got the space, store wood, metal, wires, spares, bits and bobs, and even items of furniture in a garage or a loft – you never know when you might need them, saving you money in the long-run.

Think Durability as Well as Price

It doesn’t matter if you’re thinking of selling your property in the next few years or whether you’re settled for good – solving household refurbishment issues with cheap materials and quick, low-price fixes are likely to haunt you down the line, creating additional costs. Like any material goods, you need to weigh up the price of the product alongside its longevity, reliability, durability, and safety in your home. When selling your house, for instance, buyers will be pleased to hear you’ve fitted floors that are expected to last 20 years.

In order to make these astute judgments, a great place to start is online review websites and the blogs of independent professionals. Research those who are experienced enough to make great recommendations on everything from the type of wooden flooring you buy to the best form of insulation and double-glazing. Armed with this information, you’ll prevent future disruptions through breakages at the same time as saving costly repair jobs in the future. If you’ve got the money, you should see your purchases as an investment you add to your property and not a needless extra cost to your project.

Home improvement projects can range from replacing worn-out and squeaky beds to ripping open the walls and floors of your house to replace old pipes, wires, floors, and insulation. Whatever your refurbishment, save money with these tips so that you’re renovating in a smart way.