5 Aspects of a Build That Could Blow Your Renovation Budget

When people are considering a home renovation or a new build the first thing that springs to mind is cost, Naturally!
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How much will this cost and how much will that cost? What is the square meterage price of a home extension or new build?
 
Dollars, dollars, dollars…. Of course, they matter, it is super important to consider your budget initially when thinking about your home renovations.  After all you will be spending hundreds and thousands of hard-earned dollars, so you want to make sure you are getting the best bang for your buck.

BUT- what aspects of the build cost more than others and how do you know when and where to rein in the budget for your renovation.
 
You can always take money from one area of your renovation and put it someone else that is more important to you.
 
I have prepared a list different items that can sometimes blow out your budget that you may not even know about….. until the cost analysis begins with your builder.  
Sometimes when discussing cost reductions with your builder you are too far along the design path to be able to back track on and reduce the price without the need to spend more time AND money on re drafting the plans.
 
 Hopefully, this will help shed some light and better prepare you for your home renovation or home extension here in Perth, Western Australia!

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Floor to ceiling tiles Do you really need them…. 
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​Where you tile on the walls can really blow out your renovations budget. If you decide to do floor to ceiling tiles in all wet areas you will need to increase your budget up to a further $10,000 in some cases, this will be based on a standard 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom home with separate laundry.
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Opting for a skirting tile 200mm high around all walls in wet areas and just tiling the walls shower height in the shower area can save you big money.

Not doing floor to ceiling tiles also allows you to change the look and feel of your bathroom more often for less, by just painting the walls. It also makes it easier later to demolish and re renovate as there are less tiles to remove.
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These days people are switching it up in the bathroom and doing feature walls in  VJ panels or another different type of feature wall to bring about more texture into the bathroom and to save cost on tiling supply and labour. 

Tile Choice – Which Tile You Choose 

The tile you choose can alter the price of your build contract price quite a bit, not only due to the actual price of the tile, but furthermore….

The tiling labour will change depending on the type of tile that you are laying in your new bathroom renovation, on your kitchen splash back, or whatever it may be that you are laying the tiles for your home renovation.

 A smaller mosaic tile will take a longer time for the tiler to lay, the longer it takes a tiler to lay the tiles the more they will charge to lay the tiles. The tiles are usually priced on a square meterage rate for the install, however not always, more difficult tiles may be priced on an hourly rate or day rate, for example penny rounds or smaller hexagon mosaics.

Large format tiles 900mm *900mm and over, which are all the rage right now, involve a significant more amount of care and labour when laying, therefore the cost of install goes up. The type of tile whether it is rectified or not will also potentially alter the price.
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 So, speak with your builder when you are deciding on the tile choice and don’t only look at the price tag of that tile but also discuss with your builder the impact on install price to lay the tiles.  You could save thousands here without even knowing….

Windows and Doors

The glazing costs on your home renovations can change significantly depending on the choice of glass, the style of door and the material of choice for your windows and doors.

Double glazed windows are starting to be more commonly used in residential building here in Perth. They are a great way to help with the electricity bills and help with noise reduction, however, are you aware that some companies can charge double or triple the cost for double glazed windows and doors.
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The style of door you go for whether it be a slider, a stacker or a bifold door will alter the price generally a slider door is the cheapest option, followed by a stacker door and the most expensive type of door will be a bifold door. You may also wish to have a thicker commercial frame for all your glazing this will increase the price further.
 
 Also, timber windows and doors are generally more expensive to supply and install than aluminum standard grade glass. Further to this, timber frame windows and doors are harder when it comes to maintenance over time. You will need to paint the doors and windows around about every ten years, if those windows are high up on the top storey, the painter will require scaffold which further increases the cost to paint.
 
Discuss with your builder the different options for your windows and doors and make sure you are aware of the final specification your builder is allowing for. 

Knocking Down Walls

When doing a home renovation and / or home extension it is almost guaranteed that you will need to knock a few walls through. We always recommend trying to work with the design/floor plan you have and limit the number of walls that you remove from the existing home.

The reason why we recommend this is due to the high cost of removing those walls, especially when most homes walls in Perth are brick and double brick for external wall.

Therefore, the cost of demolition and debris removal is high. Further to this the re-engineering of the wall may create the need for bigger beams and steels to go in the roof which brings about further build costs.

​However, it is inevitable that you will need to move a few walls to make way for a more functional home, this is why it is important to get a builder on side while the design process if under way.

Cabinetry 
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This is a big one!

When I get asked the question- How much will it cost to renovate my kitchen? I often say to the homeowner. How long is a piece of string?

Kitchens can cost as little as $2,000 at the lower end for a cosmetic renovation and up to and beyond $100,000!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
The materials you select, the design and layout of the kitchen including what actual cabinetry you put in i.e. drawer’s vs cupboards alters your price significantly.

 We recently did a project where we changed most of the cupboards in the kitchen to drawers for the homeowners and the increased cost just for this change alone was $2,400 alone.

The choice of bench is always one of the bigger ticket items in the kitchen. Gone are the days when you choose laminate as your cheap option and stone as the most expensive.

 These days you can get a very low-end stone option for almost the same price as a laminate and some of the laminate options are more expensive than stone!

Further to this you can have Bamboo bench tops, concrete bench tops and even now days porcelain bench tops like a giant tile as your bench top.

In some cases, the bench tops cost more than the actual cabinetry.
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 Therefore understand and knowing your cabinetry is super important, designing a kitchen and other cabinetry in your home is important to get right as you will use it every day and the kitchen is the heart of the home and where most of the house hold chores take place. So, you want to get it right without overspending.

Conclusion
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Building a home is an expensive task but if you make sure you are talking to a builder in the early stages of your build to ensure that you are putting your money towards the things that you like and the things that you absolutely must have then you will ultimately win!

Tile choice and tile placement can alter the price of you build contract by thousands, but its up to you to decide if it is worth it or not. The money you save on not tiling all the wall could be spent on better bench tops.

The glazing you opt for in your home is also an aspect of any renovation that can easily blow out your building budget. There is so many different glass options along with styles of doors and materials chosen for the frames of the windows and doors, just get an understanding of these costs so you can make better decisions. 

The kitchen is the heart of the home, however be mindful that cabinetry can range in prices for things you may not even be aware of, such as modern day porcelain bench tops costing plenty, while a cheaper engineered stone may be half the price of such a bench top.

Also, while planning out a renovation it is important that you try to remove the least number of walls as possible.  While moving/knocking down  walls can really modernize a home by opening it up, getting rid of all the bricks and debris is an expensive task.

The most important thing to do and smartest thing to do when planning out and designing a renovation is to get your builder on site initially to get an understanding of what certain materials cost so you can be more in control of your budget.

At Distinct Renovations we offer a deign and build solution that helps you design something that is in line with your budget. Too many things get designed and never built due to budget blow outs from a  design stand point.
​Reach out to us now for more info on how we can help you!