What Homeowners Must Do Before Gutting a Home

What Homeowners Must Do Before Gutting a Home

Homeowners are often interested in updating their homes in order to fetch a higher price when it comes time to sell. But before homeowners start smashing up walls and other items in the home, make sure you have done your research.

Is the house a fixer-upper or does it just need one major area remodeled? The gutting process can be fun, especially at first. But it is easy to go too far or do something that you will regret if you have not made a plan beforehand.

Homeowners will want to make sure to do the following before you embark on completely gutting a home.

Are You Happy With the Layout?

While the exterior dimensions of a home are set without adding an addition, homeowners need to be happy with the way the space inside is layed out. Are you happy with the size of the master bedroom? Is enough space devoted to the kitchen and the bathrooms? Where is space wasted, if anywhere, that can be used to make another space larger?

Before walls come down or any other demolition starts, this is the time to get accurate measurements of each area and to put everything down on paper. You also need to have accurate measurements of the items that will go into rooms to make sure you have enough room.

Homeowners have to think about things like the size of the refrigerator or stove in the kitchen, the bathtub and vanity in the bathroom, the king size bed you just have to have in the master bedroom. These are just a few of the decisions you must make before you randomly start tearing the house apart.

Be sure to take a night to sleep on it before you make any firm decisions. Homeowners will save yourselves time, money, and headaches by doing the work ahead of time, instead of making big changes on the fly only to find out your new layout still doesn’t work.

Structure and Foundation Inspection

Prior to starting any remodeling, homeowners have to make sure the base of the house is strong. That means that your foundation and the structure of the house itself are in good shape. No matter how new and shiny you make the house look, if the structure or foundation are weak, it is all for nothing.

The average investor or homeowner will not have the knowledge of how to properly inspect the foundation or structure. Investing in paying a qualified professional to handle this before you sink money into anything else is well worth the money.

Choose Your Team

This is an area homeowners should not procrastinate in. Once the process of remodeling starts, everything will move fast, so be prepared ahead of time. Do your homework and interview different contractors so that you find the ones that you trust and can work with.

One of the most important team members will be the home inspector. They can start you on the right path and will often have contacts with other contractors.

What is Popular in Your Area?

Homeowners will also want to learn what is helping homes sell in your area. You need to know what to spend your money on to get the most out of your budget.

Each area is a little different, and what is really important in one area is not as important in another. Homeowners that do the research and spend wisely will end up with a great investment.