!!!!!Warning most of these tips do involve you getting your hands dirty!!!!
If you are pretty practical or are just happy to roll your sleeves up there are tons of ways to save money while renovating your property.
Below I will offer some top tips to save MONEY on your next project.
Tip 1 – Saving money on electrical work
Electrical work is skilled work which only qualified people can do. But before the cable is taken out of the van the electrician first needs to lift floor boards, drill holes ready for the cables, chase walls and even fix back boxes ready for sockets. This is something that you can do or a labourer at half the cost of getting the electrician to do it.
Go through with the electrician before work starts and figure out best routes to run cables and as long as they say it’s safe there is nothing stopping you doing this part of the job.
If anything they would thank you for it and at the same time you are saving a shed load of money…
Tip 2 – Saving money on loading up the site
If it’s a landscaping job or building project, materials need heaving around. For example, If you live in a particularly hard to reach place. Or your having works undertaken in the rear garden but the only access is through the house, or access is just a really long awkward trek, then a great way of saving money is to what we call “loading the job up” which essentially is getting all the materials in the area ready for the builder.
This will save a mega amount in labour costs, you could also have the materials arranged to be dropped well before the builder is due, giving you lots of time to load the job up so you’re not rushing it.
“I would love it if one day one of my customers they would load the site up ready for me”.
Again depending on the size of the works it could save a lot of money for you.
Tip 3 – Site preparation
Prepare the area ready for the tradesperson. Sounds so simple. but literally I can spend an hour moving peoples stuff before I can do the job. So have all furniture out of the way, and even lay dustsheets down if you have them. This helps the builder out and keeps morale high, speeding the job up and saving time and money. A friend of mine did such a good job of this once that the place look liked a crime scene there was plastic sheeting everywhere. Although we laughed it saved so much time and also the additional time it would take at the end of the job clearing up. Which to be fair builders are not great at….
Tip 4 – Bathroom cost saving
If you’re having a bathroom refit and have lots of tiles to come off the wall, what about get them all of before the bathroom fitter starts work and dispose of them?? This saves the labour costs of the bathroom fitter, but be careful and be sure to wear all the correct Personal protective equipment (PPE).
Tip 5 – Carpet cost saving
Another good tip is if you are having carpets laid, clear out all the rooms ready and even have a go at taking up all the carpet and underlay. This again saves labour costs and gets the job started that much earlier in the day, meaning the fitter can potentially get more done in the day for you.
Tip 6 – Painting on new plaster
A good way to save money painting on new plaster work is to do what we call the whitewash yourself.
This is just a matter of painting the entire newly plastered wall with a watered down emulsion usually a white matt emulsion hence the name to give the plaster a first coat. Once dry this coat highlights any imperfections to the decorator and any coats on top of this will be more uniform in finish.
The beauty about this coat is that you don’t have to worry about lots of cutting in the important thing is covering all the new plaster. You will easily save money doing this yourself.
Tip 7 – I am obsessed with used selling sites like gumtree and free ads. On the build up to a project I scour these sites looking for anything that could be of possible use for my project. One of the best savings I have had recently is where I purchased 10 x packs of rock wall insulation for £15 a pack usually £38 per pack. You can find anything from internal doors, to patio slabs.
Tip 8 – Save on waste disposal
In line with tip 7, these selling sites are not only good for finding great deals they are also perfect for getting rid of stuff.
A good example is, I was doing a bathroom refit and the old suite coming out was not in bad condition. So rather than me pay to dispose, I offered it online for free to collector. This was gone the same afternoon they took it all. Saving disposal costs, saving more waste going to landfill and helping someone out all in one go.
You don’t need to necessarily give things away, ask for a few quid and make a bit of money to go towards the project. This not only saves money in disposal but also you are getting some tea and biscuit money.
Tip 9- cancel gym membership
The beauty about a lot of these money saving tips is you will be saving money further by putting your gym membership on hold because while you are carrying out these works you will definitely not require a gym session.
.
Please remember with all these money saving tips to check with a professional before you carry out any works.
Also get a price for two options for the job, one for the trade person to carry out the labour intensive work and the other for them not to undertake that part of the job. This will then be clear from the outset the savings that you can make.