Home Renovation Costs You Shouldn’t Overlook
Posted by on Feb 15, 2021 in
It can be a lot of work to find a new home in Ottawa that suits both your needs and your budget. So you may have thought about renovating your current home or condo instead of trying to move. The end product of a home or condo renovation can be fantastic — but it can also come with a very high price tag! If you’ve got a renovation in your near future, then it pays to think about these costs ahead of time. Here are some of the most common renovation costs you should be aware of:
- Bringing your home up to code
- Unexpected structural changes
- Dealing with poor building practices
- Higher utility bills
- Dining out more often
- Moving out temporarily
Bring Your Home Up to Code
The point of building codes is to do everything from making sure your home is safe to ensure that your home or code is energy efficient. Since technology has evolved over the years, building codes have had to do the same. For example, you may have heard of people who’ve had to have their whole house rewired before being able to sell it since they weren’t “up to code.” While you’re having your house remodelled, your builders may discover that something isn’t up to code — which means you’ll have to get that fixed as well. This is important to make sure your home is safe – but it also means extra costs!Unexpected Structural Changes
Remodelling or renovating your home can mean a lot of changes. You may find out that a load-bearing wall or column doesn’t fit in with your new “open concept” plan. So you either have to change your plan – or see about getting additional construction done. Either way, you are looking at additional costs.Dealing with Poor Building Practices
What may look fine from the outside isn’t necessarily fine once a renovator starts taking down walls or digging up floors. Unfortunately, a previous contractor or even the builder may have cut corners and your new contractor (and you) are just discovering that as renovations get underway. It may be something as simple as new insulation but it could also be as complicated as new wiring. No matter what the size of the issue, you’re looking at additional costs to fix it.Higher Utility Bills
Another thing you need to plan for during home renovations is additional utility costs. While some of your contractor’s tools may be battery-operated, they’ll likely have some tools that need to be plugged in as well. On top of this, you may have lights on or water running more often than usual to check the status of construction and make sure it isn’t impacting anything. So while it won’t be a huge increase in expenses, higher utility bills are still something to keep in mind.Dining Out More Often
You may not have realized how much you use your kitchen until you decided to have it remodelled. Even if you aren’t someone who cooks a lot, you likely use your kitchen to make most of your meals. If you can’t access your kitchen while it’s being remodelled, then your costs for eating out or ordering in will definitely go up.Temporarily Moving Out
Depending on how extensive your renovations are, you may need to temporarily move at least some of your stuff out – or even your entire family. For jobs like painting or having the floors redone, the smell can be overwhelming so you may need to plan to be out of the house for a few days after those things are done. Not everyone has friends or family they can stay with so make sure your budget also includes money for a few nights at a hotel here and there. You won’t mind spending the money so much if you plan for it.How can renovations impact my home and condo insurance in Ottawa?
When you’re planning to make some renovations to your home in Ottawa, it’s important to think about how they may impact your home or condo insurance:- If you’re having extensive work done, you may need to alter your policy so it covers buildings under construction. This is not part of the standard home or condo insurance policy.
- Do you plan to move out for a while? If so, this can actually void your home or condo policy if you don’t have a plan to ensure your home is properly watched (e.g. you stop by every day).
- Liability. This can be a major issue if a contractor hurts themselves on the job. You should be clear on what your home or condo insurance policy does and doesn’t cover.
- Are you renovating to start a home business? If so, depending on the type of business you’ll be running you may need to purchase additional or even different home insurance.
