A little PSA on renovating your home

[1tonne]

@aftergodsheart Yes exactly, and now that I've done it I would be more comfortable doing it again. Also I don't think it's wasteful financially at all, from my observations (in my market at least), people have been paying a premium for a house which is in a ready-to-go state.

 

[dead2selflive4him]

@serena23 I’m thinking about upgrading my storm water plumbing, and potentially adding another runoff along my property into the storm water system.

Did you need council approval to change yours?

 

[alicamy]

@dead2selflive4him Any new connection into mains should require council approval. You should be able to get your plumbing drawings for free from council, give them to your plumber. I recently added a second toilet on the other side of my house to the jumpup and was going to add a second connection, but the plumber was able to make it work by going around the back of the house.

 

[clg219]

@dead2selflive4him You will want to know your local approvals process. Typically speaking, stormwater to gutter doesn't require approval. A surface spoon drain in some cases is also a viable option that doesn't require pipes. I've been able to do that for my property, only dropping to a drain at the very end.

 

[1939donn]

@serena23 Minimum 20% contingency in cost and 6 months schedule. Engage professionals. Engage an architect.

 

[annee]

@serena23 Just about finished a bathroom and powder room Reno.

Total cost 14k

Purely because the demo was done ourselves and from the help of family

 

[serena23]

@annee Good price!

 

[turningbacknow]

@annee I've just found out there's mould below my shower. The fact that it's gonna cost $10k to pull up the ensuit and redo things - minimum - sigh.

 

[marcocardenas82]

@serena23 Appreciate the timely advice, I'm about to blow some money on this myself

 

[johnmarkf]

@serena23 Now update your insurance

 

[jasperdog]

@serena23 Another tip:

• Do it yourself and save 90% of the costs
• Do it yourself and it's gonna take 9x longer

Personally, I do basically everything myself, don't care if it takes years. Some things you might bite the bullet on, but in general, youtube will make you as good (or better) than a 'professional'.

 

[kimberlily22]

@jasperdog +1 no one’s going to care about doing it right as much as you

 

[fengqiwu2011]

@jasperdog I don't think YouTube will necessarily make you better than a professional, but you will 100% care more about your home than anyone else will.

That care plus the time you can dedicate to it without losing money means it can be a much, much better result.

 

[enfeoffment75]

@fengqiwu2011 Yeah unsure it's this simple, a friend commented that seeing a professional tiler job in ours vs his diy job led him to hire tilers moving forward. There are skills if you get the right tradey

 

[tejaslaxer]

@jasperdog Agreed, especially for things that if you do “wrong” won’t cause massive issues down the line

 

[squirrel_sa]

@serena23 Lol at HiPages.

Speaking from within the trades, the kind of people using HiPages to drum up business are what we call bottom feeders. The kind of people undercutting everyone else to get the work.

Sure, this sounds great to you, the end consumer. Tradies compete on price, great deals for you. Right?

Tradies don't charge what they do just because they can. We know we have to be competitive, but also provide real, tangible value to the customer so they can see where their money is going, and be willing to pay just a little bit more for our specific service. Whether that's in quality of end product, or quality of service. Basically the old predicament of good, quick, cheap - pick two. The bloke that's undercutting to get the work? Well he's already sold himself into being cheap, so that leaves one of the other two. The problem is that time is also money, so to make money while undercutting, you're also committing to either rushing it or providing a substandard end result for your business to make money. Which leads to the final truism - you get what you pay for.

Decent tradesmen don't need HiPages. They're already busy without it. Nothing beats word of mouth.

 

[laudian73]

@squirrel_sa Depends on your situation, in a reno with the intention to sell a lot of the time that is exactly the type of service you are looking for. You don't need a high quality expensive job when you just want the job done to standard, quick and cheap. Most of the time you aren't looking for long term value.

Renovating your PPOR to live in is a different story.