6 Things You Need to Know Before Starting a Home Renovation Project

Going through a home renovation can be a though thing to do (especially in Thailand), so here are 6 things to consider before moving forward for your next renovation project :

1. Budgeting
Whether your budget is big or small, home renovation can often be over budget. I recommend to create a spreadsheet including all the project expenses so you can easily see where you are going through and adjust it if it's over budget by choosing less expensive material or cut things out. Consider to add 10% on the top of your overall budget for flexibility. 
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2. Define what you want
This stage can goes in same time than budgeting or after budgeting. Define what you want before start the project renovation and make a selection of all the materials that will be used during the project will help you to save a time and money, if you have the budget you can hire an interior designer to help you to bring your ideas to life but if not then you will have to select the material that fit to your budget by yourself. To select all the materials before find a contractor and ask for quotation will also help to get a correct quotation because for a contractor the labour cost will change depending of the material used (ex: install a classic or a recessed faucet won't be the same labour cost). Once you have selected all the materials you want to use (sanitaries, lighting, doors, painting...) then you are ready to go to the next step by finding a contractor.

3. Find a contractor
​In Bangkok more than anywhere else it's not easy to find the right contractor, i heard a lot of stories about contractor who just disappear after got some problems with the customer regarding the work quality so be aware of it and you shouldn't hire any contractor in a hurry.
Here are a few tips that i can give you :

• Ask them to see their portfolio or go to see the work they have done on site if possible
• The quotation should be clear with as much details as possible so no confusion about what is including or not in the quotation
• The quotation price it's all depending of your expectations, low price will often mean low quality or they didn't include everythings in the quotation then you will have to pay extra later but high price doesn't always mean high quality so just make sure with them about what is include in the quotation
• The first impression and feeling that you have with the contractor it's also very important because it's the person that you will deal with during all the project renovation

4. Before start the project
Once you have choosen the right contractor get a project planning and a detailed contract in place before any work begins

5. Follow up the project
During the project renovation a project manager will be there to follow up the progress of the project but you will have to go on site sometimes to check if there are no misunderstanding between you and the contractor to anticipate any further issues.
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6. Handover
Before to make the final payment to the contractor, make sure that everythings is working properly (sanitaries, electricity...) and after that you can make the final payment.