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How to Renovate a House: Beginning

There are things that you need to keep in mind when you want to renovate your place. Renovating once place is quite hard and quite messy where sometimes you have to live in another place or have a vacation to let the contractors like roofing contractors in Royal Oak Michigan do the renovation for you. But before you leave for the renovation, most of you would like to help in the decision making on your renovation.

Design and Planning Phase

A sketch on a sandwich napkin, full-blown architectural plans, or just a firm set of thoughts about how the remodel should progress. It is cheaper and less frustrating to correct mistakes before the remodel takes physical form. You should be more precise on what you want to accomplish with the renovation and specially the specifications of everything from the color of the tile to the thickness of the wall. Here you can read some of the steps to go through during the design and Planning phase.

  1. Ensure that you have funding for your renovation. If you are thinking of renovating your place in the first place, you should save up so that you can ensure you will finish the renovation of your house on schedule.
  2. Draw up a simple “yes/no” list of do-it-yourself projects and projects you want professionals to do. In order to save up some money, you should think of doing simple tasks like paint the gutters and even scrape some rust. You should make a checklist on what they are going to do and what you can do yourself.
  3. Look for contractors and subcontractors for those jobs you do not want to do yourself. You can hire professional contractors or part time contractors to do stuff that are hard for you to do or wherein you do not want to do in the first place.
  4. Apply for permits. Before doing some construction and renovation around, you should better apply for all the necessary permits so that you can do stuff legally.

Foundation, Roof, Water Issues, Siding, Windows Phase

Foundation fixes; roof replacement or repair; stopping water infiltration; installing or repairing siding and windows. Large projects must be done first because subsequent projects are impacted by them.

  1. Protect your future renovation work by making certain the house won’t collapse on you (foundation, major structural problems) and that it will remain dry (roof, siding, windows).
  2. Secure the foundation.
  3. Make major foundation repairs to areas such as weakened walls, joists, and carrying beams.
  4. Repair or replace roof.
  5. Replace seriously damaged windows that may threaten future remodeling work. If not seriously damaged, leave it for later in the process.
  6. If the siding is so damaged that it will allow water infiltration, repair or replace the siding. If not seriously damaged, leave it for later in the process.