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Why Are Renovations So Expensive?

Here’s 4 reasons why renovation costs seem more expensive at first glance.

Making the decision to renovate your home is not a simple one. It is both an emotional and a monetary investment. We understand that your home is your haven and by making it better you’re looking to improve many aspects of your life. We also understand that you may be wary about price mark-ups that are predatory. So let’s talk about why renovations can cost more than you think, and why they may cost as much as they do? Here’s our take on it!

1. Cost of skill and labour

You get interior designers to work on your home because they bring with them an experienced expertise and a whole team. Every stage needs to be executed properly. Their work hours need to be compensated in accordance with their level of knowledge and time spent.

Even a “basic” renovation needs extensive planning and designing. Following that, the hacking and masonry jobs will be done to alter the walls and make it fit the new design. At every stage of the renovation various experts will be working on your home. Electricians, plumbers, painters, carpenters and so many others will all have a part in revamping your home. Only with the collaboration of all these professionals can your dream home come together as visualised by the homeowner, helped by the designer. All the pieces will be installed and the finishing touches will be done.

2. The “Invisible” Work

Changing light fixtures for aesthetics goes so much deeper than just buying new things. The wiring and electrical charge directed toward the light needs to be looked into and amended accordingly. If you want your bathroom waterworks to function differently, there is a lot of plumbing that needs to be done to reroute the water to where it now needs to be. It is not as simple as just putting up a new shower head. Your home has default electrical lines and plumbing behind the walls and under the floors. So, when you make changes to the outside the inside needs to change too.

3. The cost of raw materials

Everything in your home has a price tag that is largely based on the raw material that it is made of. The type and quality of the material will determine how high or low the price is. Let’s take marble, a very popular choice of material for example; each square foot of marble comes at a hefty price point. Similarly, good quality wood comes from rather expensive lumber as well. Handling these materials also comes at a cost. As heavy as marble is, it is a delicate material that can crack or get scratched. It requires extra care to wrap and transport it which is not cheap.

The market is filled with substitutes that look like the real thing. You must have come across stick-ons that look like marble or paint styles that’s “just like real rosewood!”. However, these substitutes will never match up to the real thing. They do not have the durability of real materials, and look differently to light, due to subsurface qualities of real materials that matte finishes of stick-ons won’t ever have.

3. The cost of raw materials

We know you deserve the best for your home, and sometimes the best fits need to be custom-made. When factories manufacture a product en-masse, the costs are more spread out due to the economics of scale. When the focus is on creating only one very specific product, that item alone bears the brunt of the cost. Additionally these cannot be replicated as it is designed to match your home design and odds are, the specific item will never be requested again. Many other factors come into play as well, when a custom-made piece is needed, the layout of a space and the specific measurements are accounted for plus your personal choices within this space influences the design of the piece.

We hope this helps to explain why renovation costs may be higher than what you initially thought, but all still within good reason, and a renovation is still worth every penny. If you are currently looking to renovate your home and want a reliable team to work with, reach out to us at enquiries@areanacreation.com. We will help create your dream home within your desired budget.

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