Remodeling is a great way to rejuvenate and freshen up a room or area of your home. New flooring in the bedroom, new painting and fixtures in the bathroom and new appliances in the kitchen go a long way to improve a home’s value. However, if a house is outdated and everything needs to be remodeled does it make sense to go with a new build?
Remodeling Your Home
The costs of remodeling your home is the biggest driver of how much you can accomplish. If your budget is tight you can stage the process by focusing on completing smaller projects over a longer period of time. For instance, you can easily remodel a bathroom with new flooring, paint and light fixtures one month and then wait to remodel another room later in the year.
Exterior paint lasts around 7 years, appliances last about 7 – 10 years, HVAC systems last 10 – 15 years and shingles last about 20 years. While every house can be remodeled, not all of them should be. If your home’s foundation is bad, it can be tens of thousands of dollars to repair it. Also, the layout and features of a home may be too restrictive to allow a redesign and remodel of the existing space. Raising ceilings, adding rooms and removing walls might not be feasible even after you have outgrown your home.
New Build
If you expect to stay in a home for more than 10 years then it usually makes more sense to tear down and go with a new build. The expense of a new build will on average be about 20% higher, but material costs, labor and other items can vary widely depending upon the area of the country you live in.
Other things to consider when evaluating whether you should remodel or do a new build include available lots and permitting requirements. If you live in an area that is overbuilt or not allowing new construction, then a new build is probably out of the question. One often overlooked factor with a new build are the permitting requirements. It is a good idea to determine if there are any roadblocks with building a new home in your desired location. In a growing city, there usually aren’t any issues, but with more established, older neighborhoods there could be significant hurdles to building a new home.
Building a new home has lots of advantages and in the end you get the benefit of living in a new home that no one else has ever been in. See here to take a look at some of the possibilities of building a custom home.
In the end, remodeling is cheaper and can be easily done if you have a tight budget, but going with a new build is better and provides you with more modern designs, better quality windows and doors, more efficient heating and cooling and customization of your home. If you’re looking for more information about whether to remodel or go with a new build you can read more here.