Home Remodeling New
Home Remodeling Process
How Does the Home Remodeling Process Work?
- 1. Planning & Preparing for a Major Houston Home Remodel
- 2. Preparing a Wish List
- 3. Collecting Remodeling Ideas and Product Ideas
- 4. Allowing Enough Time for Preparing and Planning
- 5. Developing a Remodeling Investment Budget
- 6. Decorator / Designer / Architect / Remodeler
- 7. Selecting a Qualified Contractor for Remodeling
Preparing a Wish List
Collecting Design & Product Ideas
Another important early step in the preparation process is collecting design ideas and product information to incorporate into your remodeling ideas.
These can be internet photos you have collected or images from magazines. Houzz and Pinterest are great resources to use for inspiration images.
These photos will be extremely helpful communicating with your remodeling designer. As they say, a photograph is better than a thousand words. These inspirations will develop conversations with the design team and lead to a collectively better finished product.
The product ideas will assist in identifying final product selections. These product specifications are a benefit to developing owners product allowances and finalizing plan details for placement.
Allowing Enough Time for Preparing and Planning
This is a topic that causes our clients the largest amount of heartburn. If they have never undertaken a major home remodeling Houston project before, they will undoubtedly underestimate the required time line from wish list to completion of their project.
By underestimating your time requirements, the homeowner welcomes a significant amount of unwarranted stress into their lives. This results in either higher cost or sometime postponements, which in turn generates ill will for all concerned as a rule of thumb, a homeowner should allow 2-3 times the amount of time required to actual complete construction of the project.
If you do not know how long the construction side of remodeling home project will take, start with looking at a calendar and determining when you would like the physical work to actually take place, such as when kids are out of school or having your home in top shape for a holiday season.
Work backwards making note that this will be a time-consuming process, blocking out seasonal down time, vacation time and high demand times of in your life. You can never over plan and never start the process too early. Just ask someone you know, the better the planning, most often the better the outcome.
The pre- planning phase of the home remodeling Houston process provides the guidelines for serving the owners interest in matters of design, construction cost, schedule and quality expectations.
By the owner providing very defined direction and a decisive ability to make decisions is a formula for a successful design process. For more information on this topic visit Houston home remodeling planning.
Developing a House Remodeling Investment Budget
A critical step in the home remodel journey is preparing a realistic construction budget. We like to refer to this as the investment budget. This is a line-by-line cost schedule of relevant cost items that you are expecting to occur as home remodeling cost. This budget will allow you to prepare and plan for the financial matters of your house remodel project.
This is not a task that requires you to get sheet rock prices or square foot unit pricing, although that will assist you greatly. Remodeling contracting is a process of looking at key product components such as cabinets or plumbing fixtures or appliances and once again determining what is most important to you. Evaluating the cost / value relationship is the process that owners need to go through in making the tough decisions.
These products are what drives a $25,000 kitchen remodel to $50,000 or even $100,000. Will it be porcelain tops over solid surface, or Viking Appliances over Thermador? It is the product selection that drives the product allowances and overall investment budget.
A major kitchen remodeling project should range from 12% – 17% of the value of the home. A major bathroom remodeling project cost will range 8% – 12% of the home’s value.
Major whole home remodel is harder to estimate as a percentage of the value of the home due to the complexities of structural & MEP changes.
One thing is certain that drives the demand for home remodeling Houston. Remodeling homes requires a smaller investment then building a new home.
To learn more about how comparing house remodel to building a new home follow this link; Build New Home or Renovate – Houston Luxury Home Land Values
Decorator / Designer / Architect / Remodeler
Home owners have many options for developing a remodel home design. They can directly hire one of four professionals or they hire a design team for a collaborative approach.
A collaborative design team approach is hiring home remodel contractor to be responsible for both design and construction providing the owner with one person fully accountable.
This process is also known as Design Build. To learn more about this approach visit Design Build Contractors.
For smaller house remodeling projects an owner may feel more comfortable with the design services of one of four professionals. We will discuss the appropriate professional and their services offered to the general public.
Finding the right person or team of professionals is a question that only an owner can answer for themselves. Financial logic suggests that smaller projects warrant a smaller team. Researching and vetting a short list of professionals is what is essential in hiring the right professional for you.
Decorators are great with furniture, fabrics and color. This is what they do. If this is a skill set that you do not possess, and then having a Decorator as part of your team could provide some stunning results. The size of the home remodel will determine what and how much of role the Decorator will play in the overall project.
Designers are great for homeowners that are having issues with space and finished products. Designers are very useful in providing as built drawings of existing floor plans and drawing up plans for taking bids. Most good designers will introduce you to new products and trending design ideas.
We have found that most designers are not the most appropriate professional for when you remodel the house that will affect the structure. Most designers are not required to be licensed, but are a good fit for developing plans for smaller projects with a quick turnaround.
Architects are licensed professionals who not only offer design guidance but will process the training and ability to determine the impact of home modifications on the overall structure of the home. They are well suited for an entire house remodel that requires adjustments to foundations and roof lines or the moving of load bearing walls to create open space areas.
Houston remodelers are not required to be licensed in Texas, but are in many states. A good home remodeler is a professional general contractor, which will provide a homeowner all the required services (one stop shopping) needed for a project of any size.
That is because they are required for most house remodeling ideas to apply for a building permit and required to meet compliance inspections by the local municipality.
One of the requirements for most significant projects is to provide detail drawings with the application for the building permit. The greatest advantage for a homeowner for using a Houston remodeler is that the home remodeler is fully responsible and accountable for both design and construction.
This serves as an effective solution to homeowners getting caught in the middle of disputes between uncooperative professional advisers or professionals determining who is responsible for design errors.
Selecting a Houston remodeler makes sense for an owner when the project involves multiple skilled trades and some degree of complexity to the project. There are different types of home remodeling contractors near me.
They come in many sizes and skills, from self-performing individual tradesmen to full-service remodeler. To understand the variety of different home remodel contractors.
Hiring a Houston home contractor can be a challenging event if you have little experience. Your goal in hiring a residential general contractor that is aligned with your interest and is like minded.
It requires researching their web sites, studying their portfolio and reading their reviews to create a short list to interview. It helps to prepare questions to interview your remodeling contractor.
Clearly understanding the remodeling contracting process goes a long way at establishing the ground work for selecting the best home remodel contractor that fits your needs. We will explore the most effective means of qualifying and hiring your home remodeler.
Selecting a Qualified Contractor for Remodeling
If you have not hired an architect or designer to prepare the required documents (project blueprints & specifications), you will need to interview and request a contractor for home remodeling to provide you a detailed proposal of their scope of work, including inclusions and exclusions.
Prepared with this information from several contractors, you can carefully review these documents and prepare a thorough question and answer process to complete your hiring of a qualified contractor for remodeling homes.
It’s appropriate at this point for you to understand that this hiring process is a give and take process. A professional remodeling contractors will be interviewing you at the same time you are interviewing them.
This is a good practice that will result in both parties getting to know each other, while establishing a level of expectation and performance standards. It is also a successful method for establishing the basis of a trusting and efficient working relationship.
I cannot overstate the importance of this relationship development process. If you as a homeowner do not have a warm and trustful feeling that the home remodeler does not have your best interest at heart, it does not matter how much money he can save you or how good he says his workers are.
You are likely to regret ever entering into a legal relationship with them. Keep one important point in mind when hiring your house remodeler, even a good contract will not fix a detrimental experience and poor workmanship with a GC. A contract will only provide a remedy for the damages, not the loss of time of joy from your remodel home. Hire for character, quality and consciousness.
There are many factors to weigh in making your decision regarding hiring a qualified contractor for remodeling a home, such as insurance, time in business, cooperation and knowledge shared during the interviewing process.
The willingness to work with your advisers, the day-to-day habits of housekeeping during the construction process and the overall friendliness and courtesy you can expect from his workforce.
After all this is a service business that takes place in your house, around your family for an extended period of time. You may think at times that they are never going to finish their work and will be moving in with you. To this I promise you, a good house remodeler is as motivated to complete a project as much you are to have them finish.
Most people look at Houston home remodeling contractors as individuals that repair homes. In part they are right. There are contractors that do general home improvements or specialize on kitchens and bathroom remodels. This in fact is a part of the industry but does not represent the home remodeling contractor you should hire for a major home remodeling project.
A contractor for remodeling homes that does major remodeling projects is a seasoned master builder. To understand the distinction further you will need to read this link about home remodelers near me.
What is the Home Remodeling Architectural Design Process?
With your design team assembled and your collection of ideas in hand, it’s time to put pen to paper. The actual architectural design process consists of 3 essential stages.
The first phase is the concept stage where the designer captures the geographic block form of the general proportional space desired.
The second stage is called the developmental phase. This stage begins to develop a scaled plan with dimensions.
The third stage is the working drawing stage completing wall sections, wall sections and MEP layouts.
Preparing Yourself and Family for a Home Remodel Project
Financial
This topic causes considerable stress and conflict before, during and after a home remodel project. Pay a little more for a professional and the results will translate into greater value in your home and enormous sense of pride.
Secondly, do not bite off more than you can chew. If the pricing is pushing your budget to the max, scale back the scope of work or look for acceptable alternative products. It is much wiser planning a contingency reserve for the unexpected surprises then living with stress of trying to figure out how to complete your project.
This will only result in greater schedule delays, interruption of the use of your home and likely greater cost from remobilizing back to the project.
Align your Expectations with your Home Remodeler
The home remodeling journey will go much more enjoyable if you and your remodel contactors interest and project goals are aligned. This means both parties are entering into a good faith relationship with a win / win attitude.
The house remodeler should clearly understand the homeowner’s vision and should be sensitive to the conditions stipulated by the homeowner. The homeowner should understand that as diligent as the remodel contractors may try, there is going to be dirt, dust and noise.
There are also likely to be lost work days that push an optimistic completion date. It is a two way-street that is best traveled together with each other interest in mind and reaching the same goal.
Be Decisive
It is acceptable to mull things over when faced with a decision regarding your dream project. Ask as many questions as you can to get a complete understanding about your options, what the consequences of the change will be and the pending what if’s.
But, be decisive when you make your decision or choice. Nothing will run up cost or slow a project down more than not making decisions or changing your mind too often.
Contain Your Emotions
This is often a great challenge for homeowners who have become personally invested in their projects. Find a constructive way to share your disappointment when things don’t go as planned or discussed. Communication of details can get lost in translation. It is best that you and your remodeler agree on several key items:
Losing it will not get you what you desire. Find a location away from the dust and noise that you can visit if you feel your blood pressure rising or tearful. In most cases, the trades do not make mistakes on purpose and when told of their mistakes, they feel bad for their short comings.
Home Remodeling Cost – Remodel Cost / Value
Home remodeling cost vary dramatically with the type and size of the house remodeling project. But there are some rules of thumb to guide you through preparing and accessing the remodel cost / value decisions that owners face in every project.
The cost for remodeling a house should be prepared before construction improvements begin but after remodeling design and construction documents have been prepared. Clearing defining remodeling contract prices and product selection allowances will keep your project on budget.
Keep in mind, that it is wise to also include a contingency for your home remodeling cost. It never fails that the actual cost and estimated time of completing the project takes far more in resources than the owner is expecting.
Start Your Home Remodeling Houston Journey with Experts You Can Trust
There are many moving parts to the complexity of planning and preparing for Houston home remodeling project for the family home. It is my desire that this guide will be of some value in your pursuit of your house remodel project.
If you have further questions regarding the home remodeling process or would be interested in considering discussing your remodeling need with us, we would be pleased to be of assistance to you in any way we can.
Marwood Construction is committed to quality craftsmanship and unparalleled customer service. We look forward to serving your luxury housing needs.
