Renovating your home can do a great deal to improve comfort, property value, and even energy efficiency. It’s important to be smart when it comes to renovating though as costs can add up quickly.
We’ve put together a guide to the things you ought to splurge on to assure quality and long-term savings and the things you would do better to save on.
SPEND: Invest in good-quality, durable flooring
Floors not only play a huge part in the overall appearance of your home but they are there to keep your feet and posture healthy, insulate the bottom of your house, and protect you and your family from the elements.
Don’t skimp out on your flooring when you renovate. It’s crucial to choose a hard-wearing and long-lasting material as well as a design that will be able to withstand you and your family and everything that goes on in your home. By investing now, you’re saving yourself costly repairs in the future.
Whether timber, laminate, carpet, tiles, or stone, make sure you choose the best quality flooring.
SAVE: Stick to DIY paint jobs
Professional painters can be expensive – especially if you have a larger room or walls that aren’t in the best condition. Save yourself the frustration of having someone in your house and buy your own paint and brushes.
Use painter’s tape to mark off areas you don’t want to be painted, lay down some old newspaper on the floor, get into some old clothes, and paint your own walls. This is great if you want to add a touch of creativity to your room, too. Experiment using homemade stencils, stamps, and painter’s tape to create designs.
SPEND: Choose insulated windows and doors
While they can seem a big upfront cost, insulated doors and windows can save you a lot of money in the long term from energy savings.
Lifestyle Windows offers ThermalHEART™ doors and windows with a poly-amide strip between the aluminium interior and exterior components to minimise heat transfer. This gives it outstanding insulation properties to maintain the temperature of your rooms. Furthermore, polyamide has similar expansion rates to aluminium to ensure that the extrusion designs can maintain excellent structural integrity.
Their Designer Series offers a wide range of styles including casement windows, awning windows, louvre windows, stacking and sliding doors, bi-fold doors, and hinged doors.
SAVE: Lay your own tile
Tile is a very effective insulator, especially behind fires and bio-fires. It’s long-lasting, durable, and aesthetically pleasing. It’s also relatively easy to install by yourself.
Purchase your tiles, cement board, tile spacers, tile adhesive, grout, and trowel. Using the cement board as a secure base, apply the tile adhesive and press your tiles into place until they feel snug. Press a spacer against each edge and install all of the tiles.
Once done, cover the tiles with the grout and scrape off the excess with the trowel.
It can be a costly job to renovate your house, but it doesn’t have to be! Follow our guide for saving and spending options to make sure you’re only springing for the must-have renovations.
