Who doesn’t love flipping through an online portfolio of a home remodel’s “Before-and-After” pictures? What those pictures don’t show, however, are all the in-between pictures.

Fogle Constructors is centered around integrity. We are as honest and transparent as possible, allowing us to build long-term, loyal relationships with our clients. To that end, we like to “get real,” about what the home remodeling process entails so our clients are 100% prepared, willing, and able to meet whatever arises along the way.

7 Ways to Prepare Yourself for a Fulfilling Home Remodel Experience

We can never promise a “stress-free remodel” because that simply doesn’t exist. What we can promise is a low-stress home remodeling journey – – – as long as you are prepared for what to expect.

Homeowner awareness around these seven key home remodeling preparation tips can help keep you open and prepared from the Before to the After.

1. Prepare for the unexpected

If we could offer you a very broad piece of advice for any construction endeavor it would be: Prepare for the unexpected. Anything from weather and supply shutdowns (or pandemics!) to unanticipated events in your personal/family life can arise without notice.

Keeping an open mind and choosing a contractor who is honest, with a reputation for direct communication and transparency, are your best bets for opening the doors to a home remodel that brings you pride and joy for years to come.

2. Work with a licensed, experienced contractor that you actually like

You must spend time vetting your prospective contractors. This means:

• Verifying their license through the Florida DBPR website portal using their license number (their DBA name might be different from the listing name)
• Looking through their portfolio to ensure there are plenty of examples of home remodels that share a similar style to your vision/design
• Contacting recent (or current) customers to ask questions pertaining to things like contractor communication, integrity, quality, punctuality, etc.
• Making sure you like and trust the contractor you’ve met with

You’ll be working closely with your contractor and their crew for weeks or months, depending on the complexity of the project. That means we practically live with you on a day-to-day basis. The home remodel experience is far more positive and collaborative for homeowners who like, respect, and trust their contractors.

The bottom line here is to trust your gut instincts. If a “famous” high-end contractor doesn’t resonate with you, pick a different one. If you have to pay a little more for the contractor you felt the most comfortable with, it’s worth every penny.

3. Create your home remodel budget with a 10% to 15% contingency fund

So, you’ve maxed out your remodeling budget to the penny choosing the last of your favorite fixtures and now you’re waiting for the finished project to emerge.

Then, during the demo phase of the project, your contractor opens up a wall and…uh oh! He and the crew peer into a mess of outdated electrical or plumbing work that is nowhere up to code standards as well as a mess of mold, mildew, and structural rot from an ancient and unaddressed leak. How are you going to pay for that?

The problem with estimates is that they’re given in regards to the “right now scenario,” which doesn’t accommodate for all of the “unforeseen scenarios,” that can arise.

Examples of things that add extra costs to an original bid include:

• Unforeseen issues in the interior wall or structural components of your home
• Change orders
• Backorders that extend the construction project and/or result in more expensive rush orders for substitute fixtures/products
• Things that weren’t originally built to code (these have to be repaired/replaced for our work to pass inspections)
• Load-bearing structures that aren’t loadbearing at all (we might have to redesign that part of your remodel)
• Manufacturing-driven rate hikes (recently, the combination of a cargo ship stuck in the Suez canal and record ice storms in Texas completely stymied the availability of materials. The result? Unanticipated price hikes)

When you’ve reserved a 10% to 15% contingency fund these snafus may be somewhat annoying, but they won’t add a tremendous amount of stress.

4. Say goodbye to the regular daily routine

This can be particularly hard for anyone who already knows they are shaken by disruptions and/or for sensitive children. Preparing yourself for an irregular routine, that may change every 24-hours during certain points in the project timeline, helps everyone roll with the punches.

5. Consider staying elsewhere

A bathroom remodel doesn’t typically change things up too much, other than the noise and the dust (more on that below). However, kitchen remodels and larger home renovation projects can make the home almost uninhabitable if you are sensitive to longer-term disruptions or if you don’t have an area of the home you can passably convert to a temporary kitchen or comfortable living space.

We don’t recommend staying too far away, because we’ll need to get in touch with you and there are things you’ll need to visually approve or sign off on from time to time. However, if you can get a weekly/monthly rental, stay in a friend/family’s guest home, or rent a motorhome for the most disruptive parts of the home remodel (your contractor will tell you when those will be), it can keep you and your family more grounded.

6. Protect your furnishings and yourselves from construction dust

Construction dust is insidious because much of it is about the same texture as powdered sugar. Your contractor will give you a list of instructions on how to protect valuable furniture, furnishings, and closet/dresser contents. We’ll also do our utmost to protect your home from the mess using ample plastic sheeting and masking tape.

Either way, it’s a good idea to prepare for a professional deep clean once we’re gone and to change your HVAC filters to prevent trapped construction dust and airborne debris from recirculating through your home when the home remodel is complete.

7. Don’t forget about your pets

Often, clients spend so much time preparing their family for the home remodeling experience that they forget about their pets. Visit petmagazine.com’s post, Home Remodel Tips When You Have a Pet, for specifics.

Depending on your pet’s personality type, you may want to board them (just like the humans) during the more intense remodeling phase(s). Otherwise, having them safely and quietly housed in a separate space with food, water, toys, their bed, etc., is enough.

The team at Fogle Constructors is dedicated to getting real and preparing all of our homeowners for the construction phase of their project. As a result, we’ve built a large list of satisfied clients who can trust us to create the best home remodeling experience possible. Their “After” testimonials are even more important to us than the “After” portfolio pictures.

Ready to join the Fogle Constructors family of clients? Contact us to schedule your consultation.