Three Important Things To Remember When Renovating Your Home
Each year millions of Australians decide to carry out renovations around their home, from small jobs replacing floor tiles to a massive restructuring of entire portions of their home. This can be a very time-consuming project to undertake while working your regular job and, because of this, people often make mistakes or forget to organise certain items that are necessary to complete a renovation safely. This can lead to more damage to your home and it being out of commission for even longer, something nobody wants to deal with. Here are three things that are easy to forget when doing renovations that can save you time and money.
Skip Bins
Whether it is a small or large project, every renovation job has one thing in common: lots of excess waste. You will quickly be surprised how much garbage builds up when renovating your home, which is why, no matter what renovation you decide to do, you will almost always need a skip bin to fit your rubbish in safely. Many people wrongly assume they can fit all the old building materials into their normal rubbish rotation, but this is simply never the case and often can be quite dangerous as regular rubbish routes do not take certain building materials that are too heavy, caustic or flammable. Skip bins are the safe way to dispose of all your rubbish and, if you haven't organised one before you start renovations, it will be sorely missed and may lead to your home being damaged by material sitting around that should have been disposed of in the skip.
Council Permits
For many types of home renovations, you will not need a council permit to begin construction, which means that many people wrongly assume that you do not need a council permit for any renovation. There are different state and territory laws for renovations, but in general, you should remember a few scenarios where you likely will need permits to do any renovation work:
- Any building classified as heritage will almost certainly need council and state approval before you begin work on changing it.
- If there is council construction on the road or pavement outside your home you may need permission to start work, as you might be impeding their work, which takes priority.
- If you live in a bush fire prone area, or an area affected by flooding, you will need council permission for work.
Plan Your Renovation
While you are free to do any type of renovation on your home year round, it is wise to plan certain renovations in different months so that you beat the rush on relevant building materials and trades. For example, you should avoid renovation around Christmas and January, as that is the time when most people are off work and when most people have time to do their renovation or construction projects. By planning your work months in advance, you also give yourself time to look for cheap deals on equipment, saving you money. In general, it is best to plan all renovations months in advance to both avoid the rush during peak periods as well as get good deals on services and materials.