Remodeling your home, personal comfort and value

Studies of households planning renovations by the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) find that nearly 39% of homeowners in Canada have renovation plans and while a majority of renovations will be performed by hired contractors, 42% of homeowners planned to do the entire job themselves, proof that do-it-yourself renovations are alive and well among those who have the skills, knowledge and audacity to take on complex jobs. As well, the average amounts allotted to renovations by 47% of households is $5,000 or more, and the average price of renovations for all spending levels is $14,140.

If you’re a homeowner with big renovation projects in mind, you should read this.
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Is it worth it?
For sale…
For comfort…
Your house, an interlocking system
Additions to an existing building
Renovating the bathroom
Renovating the kitchen
Finishing the basement
Adding a new room
Backyard
Those other projects that make a difference

Is it worth it?

Before spending a little or a lot, look ahead. Are the kids still young or are they nearing the time when they’ll be leaving to strike out on their own? Or is there a new one on the way? Are your heating costs likely to rise rapidly because you depend on a single system (oil, electricity, natural gas, etc)? Can you easily add a back-up that will give you an alternative?

Look around. What about the neighbourhood? Are property values likely to rise or fall? Certain trends appear to favour a baby boomer migration from the inner cities to the suburbs or even the countryside. Is it worth investing tens of thousands of dollars in an inner city home that will be difficult to sell? Conversely, it may be a very profitable to upgrade a country or suburban home that may be in demand for a long time to come.

A major home improvement must satisfy two essential conditions i.e., your family’s comfort and enjoyment, and the addition of value to the property in anticipation of an eventual sale (Payback). In both instances, it will be up to you to determine your renovation projects according to your needs and budget, but also bear in mind that certain types of renovation projects add more value to your home than others.

For sale…

If you’re renovating with the single intention of selling in the near future, avoid over-personalizing the project. Since it’s not unusual for new occupants to immediately redecorate the principle rooms of their new home, if you need to paint, avoid using loud and vibrant colours or hang eccentric wallpaper or install flashy ceramics in the kitchen and bathroom. Rather than improving your chances of finalizing a sale, these initiatives may go as far as causing an eventual buyer to reject your home. At the bare minimum, prior to putting your house on the market, you should repaint the walls, replace damaged countertops and cupboard doors, and clean and re-grout dingy or worn floor and wall tiles, etc.

For comfort…

Of course, we don’t remodel or renovate solely for the purpose of selling our homes. The need to improve a space, change one’s surroundings and upgrade old and worn out appliances and systems becomes inevitable over time. The scope is important. Although a kitchen or bathroom remodel can cost but a few thousand dollars or tens of thousands, in the long run it may be worth the price to do the remodel that suits you. And don’t forget payback.

An important word of advice: Be it for comfort or for sale, you owe it to yourself to do a quality job, as a poorly executed renovation initiative will be a constant irritation to you as the home occupant and it will definitely be a major obstacle when the time comes to sell your home.

Your house, an interlocking system

Consider your house as an interlocking system where a change in one area may impact on the entire home. For instance, in a bathroom remodel, you may add an additional sink, a larger Jacuzzi-style bathtub or even a fully equipped second or third bathroom in the basement. But did you think of the water heater? A forty-gallon unit may no longer suffice. As well, more hot water use will produce more water vapour and may upset the humidity balance in the entire home causing condensation and the risk of dangerous mould. Can your existing ventilation system handle the additional load?

New high-efficiency windows and doors may cause the same problems. Even though not efficient from a heating point of view, the old windows and doors probably allow some air flow in and out of the house. New units are designed to prevent this and thus, you may experience a buildup of humidity with all the problems that result.

The point is that before moving ahead with renovations in one area, make sure you’re aware of how other areas may be affected and that your home’s basic systems are in order. These include:
  • Electrical systems – Years of experience and strict building codes have created home systems that are remarkably problem-resistant and maintenance free, so electrical work in existing homes is usually related to expansion of the old system to accommodate additional rooms or additional loads. For example, older homes used to come equipped with 100-amp breaker boxes that were adequate for the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. Today, this is no longer the case. 200 amps is the minimum and even larger systems are becoming the norm. This is a job for the experts, so for all rewiring and/or additions you’ll need the services of an electrician.
  • Plumbing systems are, like their electrical counterparts, very reliable and maintenance free. Most problems occur at the end of the line i.e., faucet valve gasket replacement, toilet component repairs, shower heads, etc. Since a major kitchen and/or bathroom renovation scheme often means repositioning water inlet and drainage systems, it’s likely that you’ll need a plumber to reroute existing systems and take care of the final hookups to tubs, showers, sinks, toilets, etc. Other improvements include expanding the water heating system or the addition of a water softening/purification system.

  • Heating/air conditioning and purification – Today’s systems are both more compact, efficient and, in new homes, are often viewed as part of interlocking systems that includes ventilation, heat exchange and air purification. If you have persons with respiratory problems, you may need to seriously consider these options. In the majority of cases, you’ll need to hire a heating and ventilation expert, an electrician for electrical hookups and a carpenter to repair and finish damaged walls, etc.
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