Home Remodel: Calculating a Budget Ahead of Time

​Planning your home remodel is both exciting and potentially overwhelming. Local general contractors can be a great source of knowledge to help you plan your home remodel. Not only can they help you install your remodel, their experience working with homeowners in your area give them an understanding of design trends and what works with local home designs. This experience can help you get a firm understanding of what you want to achieve. Once you have a direction for you home remodel, you can begin calculating a budget ahead of time.
 
The importance of creating a budget
You may feel that a budget is not necessary to start and that you’ll keep track of expenses as you go. While there may be home projects where this approach works, such as when refinishing a piece of furniture, home remodels are on a larger scale of complexity and cost. Once you go down a direction with a remodel, you may be committing to additional costs to complete a job. If you have not completed remodels before, these costs may not be well known upfront.
 
Designing a budget for you remodel
The first step in creating your budget is to understand the steps involved in completing your project. As you understand each step of the process, you can then evaluate what materials, designs, and features you want to incorporate. Even if you don’t plan on hiring a home remodeling contractor to complete the work, this is a crucial step that can be helped by experience. Understanding exactly what steps will be involved, design options, as well as material and sourcing options, will allow to build your budget.  
 
Once you have each step of the remodeling outlined, you can start to build you budget. Take the cost of home remodel components such as wood, tilings, sinks, etc. and add the cost to each phase. Then, add in the costs for other materials such as nails, grout, caulk, etc.  Next, add in labor costs. If you are planning on doing it yourself, still give yourself an hourly cost – it will give you an idea of the investment you are putting into your remodel. That said, there will likely be areas that require expertise, including plumbing, electric wiring, roofing, or structural engineering that will require you to hire contractors.
 
Once you have all of these items in your budget, you should have an idea of what it will take to complete your remodel.  If you are looking for a professional home remodeler, start with Mares & Dow Construction.  We have been in business since 1983, serving residents throughout the Bay Area.  Contact us today to get started on your next project.