Looking at renovating your home?

If you are, be sure to take the time out to note the following 5 DIY home renovation tips. They may just help you account for something you hadn’t considered before.

1. Note your limitations

No matter how ambitious your initial renovation plans are, you need to sit down to assess the limitations that exist. Soon enough, you’ll probably find that excessive ambition will likely go against the ability of putting together a strong renovation plan.

In terms of limitations, these could range from how much money you actually have at your disposal for the renovation to the structure of your home. Because if your home’s structure isn’t as sound as you thought it was, your renovations may need to be approached in a different way or you may need to call them off.

Of course, it could also mean renovations are necessary to improve the structure and strength of your abode. But under these circumstances, it may be a better approach to call in professionals to do some renovations in the interest of making your home more solid.

2. Allocate your money appropriately

If renovations are possible, there’s now the matter of which renovation jobs are going to require more money. You need to identify this so that you can allocate your money appropriately. There would be nothing worse, in a financial sense, then throwing too much money down the drain on one project that didn’t need it and then realising you’re short on a renovation project that is far more important.

3. Focus on the roof first

Unless you’re actually building a home from scratch, then the roof should be your first point of focus in a renovation. Why? Well, because it is the quintessential element of your home that keeps it protected. If you renovate all these other areas of your home but then fail to address a damaged roof in need of repairs, then any damage it sustains could have an extended impact on the rest of your home, such as leaks in your roof leading to water seeping in and damaging your ceilings and walls. Of course, if your roof is fully maintained and has no notable damage, then you can move onto your other renovation projects.

4. Harmonise your design

When it comes to a renovation, you should aim to have a design that is harmonised throughout your home. Whether you’re harmonising it with current design choices or changing it to a brand new design scheme throughout is up to you. But, ultimately, a harmonised design will be more rewarding and more appealing than one that contradicts itself at every corner.

5. Account for weight

If your renovation will require you to remove levels and rebuild them, then be sure to account for the eventual weight that will placed on your rebuilt floors and levels. There’s a famous story among architects - whether the story is true or not is still debated, however - of an unnamed architect who had built a library. Aesthetically, it looked fantastic and it was sturdy. However, one the library was occupied, it began to sink into the ground. The story goes that this happened because the architect had forgotten to account for the weight of the books.

Whether or not this story is true or not doesn’t matter. It acts as a perfect example of why it is very important to ensure whatever you rebuild during a renovation will be able to handle the eventual weight applied to it.

Got any other DIY tips you’d like to mention? Go ahead and share them with us in the comments below.

* Image source: Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net