Making a Budget for Construction and Remodel Projects

So there is an old proverb that says “count the cost”. In other words, whatever it is I want to do, I need to look at all the costs involved to accomplishing that project and figure out if I have enough to pay for that project. Even before looking at costs a budget must be established. For example, ask yourself: How much money do I have to spend on this project? What amount of money can I spend so I don’t go over my budget? Do I have $10k, $20k, $50, $100k to spend on this project?. Answering these questions before contacting contractors will really help the process. A budget is simply the amount of money you have or want to spend on a project. If you need help with a budget we can help.

Before starting in on a construction renovation or remodeling a building, it’s important to look at what you want to do and what it will cost to do it. And the cost is more than just painting a room for example. If you want to paint your room or you want to hire a general contractor to paint your house, there are usually more costs involved in accomplishing that project than you think. Originally you may think all I need is to get some paint and hire a painter, he will come in and paint my room. Yes that’s true! That is the overall general outline of what you want done. But there are many steps and material costs along the way to accomplish that project.

For example after hiring a contractor he will need to come into the room and prep the room for painting. This could involve a number of steps and a number of days. There is material costs involved in prepping a room for painting. There are costs for his time prepping a room. Then you get to the painting part. This is just one example.

I was just talking to a client today who outlined all these things that they wanted done. OK their list was about 10 things and they listed those 10 things off in about 5-10 minutes, as a walked me through what they wanted done. OK, but in each one of those things they want done, there may be another 10-20 steps to accomplish that one thing. So it’s important to understand what’s my budget, how much am I willing to pay for this, and have a realistic outlook of the various steps to a accomplish your goal.

Here’s another example… I need to go to the grocery store to pick up some groceries. But think about the number of steps involved in doing that… you need to get dressed, get your wallet, your keys, your shopping list, drive to the grocery store, shop around the store, try not to buy items that were not on your list , load your groceries back in your car, drive back home, unload your groceries from your car, put the groceries away in your house where they need to go. Now you have accomplished getting some groceries. But there were a number of steps involved in accomplishing that goal. Those steps are often times what homeowners need to understand and what each of us needs to understand to accomplish a project realistically.