Whether you’re looking to save for a kitchen, basement, or bathroom remodel, it’s undeniable that approximating a budget can be tricky – especially with how material prices are changing by the day and labor shortages are continual. 

In order to get an idea of what your home remodeling costs may be, it’s a good idea to start creating a basic, but broad, budget checklist. The goal is to list out all the major renovation components in order to figure out if your project requires a $20,000 budget or a $200,000 one.

Start By Defining Your Renovation

First and foremost, list out exactly you want to remodel. Is it the kitchen flooring and appliances? The bathroom shower and fixtures? Or maybe you’ve got bigger plans, like building an in-laws suite in the backyard. Whatever it may be, create a checklist of each renovation item – we also recommend ranking them in order of significance and time-sensitivity. Now is the time to be as detailed possible (and if you have questions – reach out! We’ve done this literally hundreds of times).

Do Your Research

Now that you’ve got your checklist, you can start researching average costs for your planned renovation. Keep in mind that these averages will vary depending on your city, finishes, and square footage – so make sure to be thorough and find averages with similar factors to your planned renovation. At this point, you should begin building a spreadsheet that includes each portion of the project and the approximated cost for labor and materials.

Create an Approximate Budget

By now you should have an idea of what an average cost is for your planned renovation and what you can afford to pay for each item – which means it’s time to find an architect to develop the plans so that you can find a contractor that can complete your project within your budget. If you’ve created a budget plan that is detailed enough and includes your choice of finishes and fixtures, your conversations with contractors should be smooth(er) sailing with more realistic timelines.

One caveat – most prices you see online are typically at the low end; similar to how airline tickets online don’t include all the taxes and fees right until you’re about to buy, so if you want to be conservative add 10% to your budget. 

If that number ends up being eye-popping in size, don’t worry – there are a lot of places to find savings without compromising quality (something that looks like that $5,000 firepit can be found for $500) – and we’re more than happy to walk you through where you should save and where you should splurge.

Ready to start your new renovation project? Give us a call.