You might want to hang about while your home is being renovated but the tradesmen would quite like you out the way - and that means moving right out.
Builder Wade Haldane, of Renovation Works, who does substantial renovation jobs, says the best thing is to go and stay elsewhere.
“It’s very hard to live in a renovating house. From the very first discussion I do bring that up with clients and say ‘look, before we go and get plans drawn up for building consents we need to understand the process as well'.
“Three things I focus on when I first meet with people is the scope of what they want done, how much they would like to spend on the house, what is their budget and, lastly, how long things are likely to take.
Start your property search
“When I talk about time and budget I also say, ‘look, it will take longer if you try to live in the house because the trades are working around you’.
“It’s important people understand that, because going out and renting is an added cost to the budget exercise.”
Another renovator, who preferred not to be named, says it depends on the size of the job but for smaller jobs, such as bathrooms, if the house often already has another bathroom it’s not such a big deal if people stay.
Likewise for a kitchen if the owners just use their barbecue for cooking.
But often, especially for bigger jobs, people might plan their holidays for when the renovations are scheduled.
“If it’s a villa, you know, a half a million dollar job, they’ve already got plans to move out because it’s a construction site basically.
“Most of the owners will go away for six weeks on holiday and come back and it’s pretty much done.”
Owen Strawbridge, of Strawbridge Build, likes people to move out, saying there’s a safety issue.
“For a major renovation we always encourage them to move out for most of it. We have done it before where they said ‘well, we don’t really have anywhere to go’ but there’s a lot of cost to making the premises safe and liveable at the end of every day.
“And quite often we’ll be doing bathrooms and kitchens so they won’t have the bathroom and kitchen so it’s quite hard to try and make it work.”
But the main problem is safety, he says.
If the owners are still in the house workers have to clear all their tools and equipment up and make sure the home is safe before they leave, and that can add a lot of work each day.
“And they want a temporary kitchen set up so you have to try and set that up. It’s easier if you can do it all in one hit.”
People need to budget alternative accommodation into their renovation costs because sometimes the work can take a while, he says.
“Some of them will either rent or stay with friends and family. We did one last year that was 10 months and they just had to move out and rent for that time.”
That was a full make-over of the house: “It’s just not possible for them to be there all that time.”
