How to Avoid Damaging Your Home During Your Renovations

Whether it’s a while new kitchen or you’re just having new flooring laid in the family room, renovating can be an exciting time. However, you need to be cautious and avoid damaging other areas of your home. Here are some tips for protecting your house while renovations are under way so that you get the benefit of the remodel without a major mistake and the consequent headache.

Take Off the Doors

If tradespeople will be dragging tools, rolls of materials and other items into the house, you may want to consider taking off the doors. This avoids scratches, dents and chunks of wood being gouged out, especially if the doorways are narrow. Take a few moments to learn how to take the entry door of your house off and rehang it afterwards. Considering the cost of a new door starts at $1500 and goes up from there, protect them by taking them down and putting them out of the way during renovations.

Cover Your Floors Properly

Some tradespeople will take the time to put on booties over their work boots, but some won’t. There’s also the chance that dirt and grit from the renovated area can be tracked through other areas of the house and damage your floors. Lay down some tarp, heavy-duty plastic or painter’s dropcloth to protect the floors from the entrance to the renovation area. Don’t forget to cover the route from the renovation area to the bathroom, as well as the bathroom floors.

Remove Expensive Items

It will cost you less to pay a professional piano mover to come pick up your Steinway and store it for a week than it will cost to have it fixed if it’s accidentally gouged with a tool or some other misfortune occurs. The same can also be said about heirloom glass, expensive art and costly leather furniture. Either move it to another area of the house or have it put in a Chatsworth storage unit or one in your area. Draping a sheet over these items is not sufficient.

Be Careful of Overloading Your Floors

If you have an enormous library and are redoing the floor in there, don’t stack thousands of pounds of books in the spare bedroom. The same can also be said for enormous fish tanks, pianos and heavy oak furniture. Just because it all fits, it doesn’t mean your house can hold it all up. You can damage the structure of your house and even crack the plaster of the ceiling below the weight. If you need to store heavy items out of the way, consider the garage or a storage unit.

When renovating your house, you’ll doubtless want to keep costs low. Protecting the rest of the house from damage is just as important as the price quote for the job. These tips will help you avoid any unexpected costs by avoiding accidental damage during renovations.