Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Renovating the Property of your Dreams

Most people have that perfect family home, the dream property they want to live in and many of us never have the opportunity or drive to make our dream come true, but there are others who make their dream a reality and those people live the dream.

Living your dream must be an amazing feeling but it also may be a lot of hard work and money. When you decide to undertake any type of renovation you need to make sure you have the funds available, getting quotes on jobs is one thing but actually putting the money down to have the job is another thing altogether. If you get a quote for a job for example having the property gutted, make sure there’s a date which states when the quote is valid to. Sometimes quotes are for there and now and when you go back a few weeks or even months later the quote has risen. Making sure you have the funds available for any of these problems is a must, hidden costs and charges are always a problem in any type of renovation.

Things often go wrong which means more money needs to be spent to rectify the problem but also if you gut a property you may find after this that structural or even wiring for the electricity needs to re-done or repaired, of course this costs money and time. In any property renovation if you have a dead line or a month you definitely want to be moved in by, you should keep a timetable and a timeline on what should be done when and how long each task should take. If you keep this timeline up tom date you will have more of chance of knowing what’s to be done next and how the long the project is extending by if problems do arise.

You will want to make the property to look exactly like your dream but yes sometimes this is impossible due to materials or even your budget. What you can do though is to put all your effort, time and love into the renovation and make it the dream home you’ve always wanted. If you have no trade experience in renovating a property it’s a good idea to bring in the professionals but of course if you want to do bits yourself but you can still bring in the professionals for things such as:

Gutting the property: taking it back to a shell if necessary and starting from scratch, sometimes the easiest thing to do

Electrical services: installation of new wiring, plug sockets or new ariel cables for inside and out

Installation of partition walls: making large rooms into smaller rooms or moving walls around using the space in a different way to how it’s set out now
Installation of heating: installing new radiators and connecting them to installing under floor heating and even air conditioning units

Installation of cavity walls: to keep you and your house warm the installation of cavity walls and insulation is a good idea especially in older properties

Plastering of walls: once you have stripped the walls of paint, wallpaper you may want to re-plaster the walls so you have a new surface to work with when you decorate

Painting and decorating: you may not be one for painting and decorating, so why not get someone to do it for you. Painting of doors, windows, flooring and also walls as well as wallpapering the walls

Window installation: may it be old stained glass windows to double glazing being installed and fitted

Whatever your dream may be, it is possible with the right property and the right amount of money, but don’t give up make your dream a reality today!


Jene Pedder is the Webmaster of ARCH Building Solutions who specialise in Renovating Properties.

Thursday, 10 January 2008

Property Renovation – What May Need Doing

Have you bought a property at auction in need of renovation or purchased a property for business purposes that needs renovation, if so you might need the assistance of professional property renovators.

Property Renovation covers a wide range of activities, from structural repairs and new building work to converting a property into a house or business premises or even a set of apartments to refurbishment of the property all with the intent of renovating the property to the very highest standard. Once the property renovation has been done properly by the professionals you are likely to add considerable value to the property, which is what property developers are after of course.

Many property developers nowadays are buying a large house or warehouse and converting it in apartments. Apartments are great for first time buyers they usually cost a little less than a house and gives first time buyers the opportunity to afford to buy or rent somewhere as well as without the stress of looking after a garden. Selling or renting apartments can make a property developer a lot of money if they put the property on the market at the right time and right price. Of course with apartments you get to sell or rent each one individually usually making more money than just selling or renting one whole property for one price.

You may have a property that needs gutting before any renovation work can start, this may seem like a simple job whacking walls down, stripping walls but it can take time and a lot of energy and if you don’t have the time yourself or want a quick turn around the best idea is to get some professional renovators who can come in and gut the property before any other works starts. It’s not only gutting of the property that may be necessary but the installation of new electricity, water or gas systems may be necessary.

After the property is gutted, the areas that may need renovating and the help of professionals are:

• Electrical services

• Installation of partition Walls

• Installation of heating storage, radiators and or air conditioning units

• Installation of cavity walls and insulation

• Plastering of all walls

• Painting and decorating

• Window installation (double glazing)

If you have a listed building property that needs renovation you need to get permission from the English Heritage. They will give you a set of guidelines that you must follow, and they will regularly come and check the progress of the renovation and that the renovation is in keeping with the age of the property and that any original features are restored carefully.

If you’re a property developer and have bought a property that’s in need of renovation before you rent or sell the property on and you require professional help with renovating any part of the building or the whole building, there are specialist renovation and building supply companies to help you. You may feel you can do parts of the renovation yourself and also save some money, but you may also want a quick turn around and know you can’t complete the properties renovation in the time you have. If so contact a property renovation company today.


Jene Pedder is the Webmaster of ARCH Building Solutions who specialise in Property Renovation.