Major Home Renovations

Many homeowners love tackling various DYI projects. The Kiwi DIY DNA. They paint their walls, they might install shelves, they even build a tree-house for their children. All these are fun projects for the weekend but major home renovations is another topic altogether. Major renovations are often dangerous, definitely need years of acquired skills and are extremely stressful. One option is to try to project manage the renovation yourself but this is even more stressful as we will see below. The best solution is to hire a reputable building company for any home renovations in Remuera.

What Are Major Home Renovations?

In simple terms, major home renovations involve structural work to your home. This might include work on walls, the roof or infrastructure like water pipes and electrical wiring. Plumbing and electrical work absolutely must be left to qualified tradespeople but the big structural works like making open-plan living areas, converting a basement into a granny-flat, or adding another bedroom, these also should be carried out by certified contractors.

Why Hire Renovation Builders?

There are seven key reasons to hire a renovations builder.

  1. Experience
  2. Staff
  3. Tools
  4. Safety
  5. Supplies
  6. Planning
  7. Completion

1 Experience In Major Home Renovations

The quality of the outcome is one of the reasons why you should always hire experienced home renovation companies to undertake these projects. Good quality comes from years of experience and expert training in all of the many different trades needed for a top-class home renovation. Mistakes are costly to rectify both in time and money so hiring a qualified professional builder will save cost in both of those aspects.

2) Having Staff Or Knowing Sub-contractors

The quality and speed of work are directly linked to having the right, trained staff on hand to do the work. There is no need to learn how to do a specific task, the right person is on hand. However, if a building contractor does need specialist skills, then they will already know good quality sub-contractors they can call in. At Fever Pitch, we are Licensed Building Practitioners which means we have to undergo ongoing training to keep us up-to-date with the latest training best-practice.

Another key relationship that the best builders have is with architects and designers. A good renovation builder will be able to introduce you to an architect who can draw up the design in the first place, and then after everything is agreed, the actual building plans to submit to the council and for the builders to work from.

3) Having The Right Tools

A major renovation needs a bit more than a hammer and an electric drill. To get a job done quickly and accurately needs a whole range of expensive industrial-grade power tools plus the skills to use them. Good tools in the right hand will certainly make the job faster and lower cost but good tools in the wrong hands can lead to expensive mistakes.

4) Worker Safety

One of the other reasons why major renovations are a job for experts is the safety of the workers. If you decide to ask a handful of your friends to help you do such complex renovations, you risk the life and the physical integrity of all members of your group. Skilled workers are also aware of the Health and Safety issues they need to adhere to.  Another safety reason is that the property owner is liable for insurance for workers and Public Liability in case a neighbour’s property is damaged. If you are carrying out the renovations, you must have those insurances however, if you hire an industry certified builder like Fever Pitch, we carry those insurances so you don’t have to pay for them

5) Building Supplies

When we quote for renovations people are often surprised at the cost of the materials. They are expensive but that is the market in New Zealand. Clients often think they can get a better deal but there are two costs involved.

The first is that since we buy a much bigger volume of materials than one homeowner would, we receive volume-related discounts.  The other cost, which is a hidden cost, is the time it would take someone to sources, assess, and negotiate all of the vast array of different materials we need for a major house renovation.

6) Planning

There are two aspects to planning. There is the Council Consent and the building drawings but let’s leave that aside since it has already been granted before we start work.  The bigger part of planning is organising staff, sub-contractors and materials to be onsite when they are needed. No-one wants them standing idle nor do we want them late. Similarly, we don’t want to have to pay for materials before we actually need them. Successfully planning the timely availability of labour and materials is probably the hardest part of a major home renovation.

7) Completing The Home Renovation

The turnaround time is yet another reason why you should hire a building company for major home renovations. Many keen amateurs start a project with lots of good intention, but that enthusiasm peters out after set-backs, errors, escalating costs etc. We often see projects that were started but never finished. When you hire a professional building firm, you know the project will be finished completely otherwise we don’t get paid.

Summing up

As you can see, there are seven key reasons for outsourcing major renovation works to expert builders. You will save time, money, and end up with a top-quality finished home renovation project.

A recent article on stuff.co.nz said that more families are looking at renovations rather than moving. If you are thinking of renovating your home, please give us a call on 021 209 2214 or email at admin@feverpitchbuilding.co.nz and we will be happy to come and chat to you about your plans.