Nailing Your Columbia SC Home Renovations Budget

After years of decline, it appears that Columbia SC home renovations are on the upswing again. If you're planning a Columbia SC home renovations project of your own, be sure to use an often neglected tool in your planning – a budget!

Establishing a Columbia SC home renovations budget cap and looking for painless ways to reduce your overall cost will stop you from spending more than you can hope to recoup when it's time to sell your home one day.

To figure out what's safe to spend, you'll need to determine how much of your home's value is represented by the room you're planning to redo.

Budgeting Your Columbia SC Home Renovations Project

In general, your kitchen accounts for 10% to 15% of your property's value; bathrooms, 5% to 10%; half-baths, 5%, and a finished basement or attic, 10% to 15%. To calculate your budget cap, multiply that percentage by your property value. So if you're planning, say, a major kitchen renovation on a $400,000 home, you wouldn't want to spend more than $60,000. Of course, budget to spend less than the calculation if that's more than you can afford.

When remodeling existing space, you can trim your costs by minimizing changes to the footprint. Any wall you don't move or remove will save $3,000 to $5,000. Ask your contractor if it's possible to avoid stripping open the walls and ceilings. That could save you another $2,000 to $5,000, even after workers make some temporary holes to snake in new wiring and pipes.

Putting new bathroom or kitchen plumbing fixtures and appliances in the same spot their predecessors were located could slash your project cost by $2,000 to $3,000 because the existing pipes and electrical lines can be reused.

Homeowners doing their own Columbia SC home renovations often tackle things like painting themselves. Doing so can save you up to $1000 per room. If you really want to save, consider doing your own demolition as well. As long as you can do the job correctly and safely, pulling out appliances, plumbing fixtures, cabinets, and tiles could save you $2,000 to $5,000 or more.

If doing a kitchen remodel, look for scratch and dent sales where you might pick up a new appliance with low visibility damage that could save you some serious dollars per appliance. Countertops are another area where you can either save, or spend through the nose. For example, choosing a simple squared-off edge profile (called "eased") rather than a more complex pattern could save $500 to $1,000.

These are just a few of the many ways you could save some dollars on the budget of your Columbia SC home renovations project. For more home improvement tips, visit our Columbia SC Home Improvements section under Columbia SC Real Estate Categories to your right for more articles and information.