How to Avoid Top 5 Renovation Mistakes
When it comes to investing in older commercial property renovations are often part of the equation. Doing your due diligence is key to ensuring the quality of the work and materials used in your construction project are to your standards as well as to building code compliance.
The cost of renovations can vary greatly from builder to builder based on a variety of factors. So, it is important for you to understand what can be altered, reduced ,or even eliminated. That requires thorough proper planning and management and is best done in partnership with the right construction company. To help you plan accordingly and manage your costs, there are several crucial renovation mistakes you should try to avoid.
The key thing to remember is that to protect your real estate investment, paying for quality work is definitely worth the money. So take the time to plan ahead and avoid costly mistakes.
5 Things to keep in mind in planning your construction project:
1. Failing to do a thorough Inspection: Older buildings often contain hazardous materials (e.g. lead, asbestos, mercury, etc.). As these materials are regulated by the EPA as well as state and local ordinances, and a hazardous material survey may be required to identify and dispose of them safely. Having a good understanding of what your architecture and engineering teams will be dealing with before renovation activities begin is critical to staying on budget and deadline.
A comprehensive site inspection will enable your team to see actual site conditions, versus what may appear in site drawings, and to figure out how to address any issues in advance. This will help you minimize change orders as you progress through your renovation.
This is also a good time to consider building codes. Because building codes and laws are continuously changing, they can turn out to be costly in the end if you don’t consider them and ensure you are in compliance from the start of your project.
2. Skimping on Quality Materials: To many novice real estate investors, choosing inexpensive materials may seem like a good idea as a quick and easy way to save money. It never is. Low-quality materials tend to wear out faster and require more-frequent maintenance, repairs, or even replacement, which adds up over time.
To ensure you are choosing the best materials for your project, it is important to determine how each individual space will be used prior to beginning your project, (e.g. what needs to be removed, or installed, etc.) Partnering with a quality and reputable supplier will be critical to making sure your standards are adhered to and not derail your project with delays.
3. Overlooking Building System Lifecycles: Your building systems have natural lifecycles, meaning they’re only intended to last for so long before they’ll need repairs or replacements. Heating and air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical, all have a natural life cycles, or EUL (Expected Useful Life). If you figure out what the EUL of those systems are before you begin construction, you can save considerable costs over the long-term by replacing systems while walls are already down, rather than having to tear recently renovated areas down a second time.
4. Not Allowing for a Flexible Budget: When it comes to renovations, surprises are hard to avoid. You can pretty much bet that you will have at least one and often an expensive one. You can plan for these type of surprises by building-in 5%-15% flexibility on the total project cost so that you can stay on budget even if something arises. Adding this extra buffer will help you avoid additional stress or delays.
5. Rushing the Process: Today everyone seems busy and in a hurry. So most clients will approach a renovation with a hard deadline in mind, often not leaving enough time for the planning process. Planning, or preconstruction phase, is the most critical part of your renovation project. It can either make your break your budget—and deadline. A good standard rule is to add 10% more time than you think it will take as a more realistic approach to planning your project. For more on this topic, read our blog post on the Value of Preconstruction.
If you need help planning your next renovation project, contact us to learn more about how we can help.