How to survive a dusty home renovation

Article provided to Centenary Landscaping Supplies by Lifestyle Website: The Home Edition.

So you’ve made the bold move to renovate! Whether professional or amateur, a renovation can be a testing time particularly if you’re planning to remain in the home during construction. Believe it or not, People always underestimate the amount of dust and noise that’s generated during any sort of building or renovation work. However, the decision to remain in the home instead of seeking alternative living arrangements isn’t always simply a choice, it’s the only option!

So here’s 6 tips on surviving your dusty renovation project, relationships intact, children alive and neighbours on speaking terms!

Public Speaking

Not all suburbanites know their neighbours, or at least speak with them regularly. In fact, as you travel closer to town with smaller house blocks in the inner suburban suburbs, the chances of knowing anything about your neighbours decreases rapidly! This makes it even more important to inform your closest allies (or enemies) of the impending racket!

Drop over prior to your reno with a bottle of wine or 6-pack of beer and let them know of your future home improvement plans. There’s nothing worse than a disgruntled neighbour constantly hounding you throughout construction over everything from noise to dust. Most people will feel much more comfortable with the situation if you keep them in the loop and be mindful of their home.

Tackle in Stages

If your project is a lengthy ordeal it might be best to tackle it in stages. Set weekly progress goals and don’t move on until you’ve achieved the last. If DIY’ing there’s a good chance most of your work will take place on the weekends.

Remember, a weekend is only 2 days and you’ll have to live with the mess you make for another 5 days! So break up the work into manageable chunks and plan to leave your project every Sunday evening in a state you can live with for the next few days.

Build a Safe Haven

In larger scale DIY, remodelling or renovations, it’s always best to have a clean, complete room to retire to at the end of the day. You’ll spend your whole weekend sweating it out ripping out plasterboard and jackhammering tiles so the last thing you want is trying to get clean and relax in the middle of ground zero.

If your project is a whole house update, consider completing the master bedroom and ensuite first cab off the rank. Then come knock off time you can retire to a completed, renovation free sanctuary that is your bedroom. When renovations drag on, it can become oppressive constantly dealing with mess, dust and general disarray, having somewhere to get away from it all is imperative.

Remove it, Cover it or Seal it

You’ll learn to tolerate mess, but you don’t want to be dealing with the dust for months after the reno’s are over. It’s simple, remove anything that’s not necessary be it furniture, crockery, art or linen. Pack it away and store it in the shed, garage or even a hired storage locker far, far away from the dust!

If it has to stay, cover it! Drop sheets over your furniture, floors and bench tops cut down on cleaning time and also allow you to ‘fold away’ the renovations throughout the down time.

Everything else, seal it! Spare bedrooms, scarcely used storage space, even the pantry! Blue painters tape and plastic drop sheets will save you hours of cleaning. You can even get temporary worksite zipped doors that can allow you access when required but seal your space airtight!

Get Outta Town

Sometime’s, for one’s own sanity, a break away from the project is required. When DIY’ing it’s easy to get bogged down dreading your weekends with the never ending project looming large over head. Likewise, when the professionals are in, you can often feel like privacy is at a premium. You do remember that morning when the painter walked past on the scaffold whilst you were in the shower right?

If the budget can extend, a weekend trip to the coast might be just what the doctor ordered. There’s nothing quite like an eggs benny on the beach after a long, uninterrupted sleep in a clean bed!

Know When to Fold ’em

It’s one thing to be able to hang a picture or bog and repaint the wall, but a new laundry, bathroom, kitchen or deck? A successfully completed DIY renovation is a rewarding accomplishment and a cold beer sitting on your recently completed deck has never tasted as good! However, sometimes it’s best to leave it to the professionals for your sanity, your relationship and your home value!

A professional builder, tiler, plumber or landscaper will more often than not get your job done faster, more efficiently, at a higher quality all while your heart rate remains resting (until the bill comes). And with professional building work comes the insurance that your renovation project will stand the test of time.

Soldier on fellow DIY enthusiast