I always find myself seeing families who do more checks when they buy a car or an appliance, rather than when they have to check how their money is spent on renovating their home
The costs for a renovation must be divided into three broad categories:
- Cost of the company
- Cost for the purchase of supplies and materials
- Cost for the professional
Generally the percentage of incidence of the various costs is:
- Cost of the company 40%
- Supplies and materials 50%
- Professional 10%
The cost of the company
Renovating a house has a cost that varies, only for building and plant works, between 250 € / sqm and 500 € / sqm . The variability is high and depends on the location, the difficulty in accessing the site, the interventions to be carried out and the technical and qualitative choices
For this reason I do not consider credible the offers in which we advertise ” Complete renovation for € 10,000 “, ” Remodeling of the bathroom for € 3,000 ” or ” Complete renovation for € 249 / sqm “
If you choose these offers in the event of a minimum unexpected costs could go up a lot and you will be allowing others to choose how to renovate your bathroom or your home
On the contrary, the company should draw up the budget on the basis of a project and a metric calculation or which is drawn up by the professional according to the needs of the client
The cost of supplies also called “materials”
The cost of construction works is not the only one to consider. There is another, more incisive: it is the cost for materials and supplies
Usually, in fact, the construction company does not include the “materials” (floors, cladding, sanitary ware, etc.) in the estimate, but simply installs them
The “materials” have a much more variable cost than the cost of building works. Buying a floor could cost € 15 / sq m but also € 120 / sq m while the installation, which is carried out by the company, has a much lower fluctuation, usually between € 30 and € 40 / sq m
Therefore, when evaluating a quote, it is essential to consider the desired supplies as they have a very variable cost and are usually excluded from the firm’s budget
The cost of the professional and administrative practices
Relying on a professional is the best investment you can make in this area. Usually the professional is an architect who allows to best interpret the desires and needs, optimizes the solutions, follows the construction site and takes care of compliance with building regulations. The main objective of an architect in a renovation is to obtain the maximum relationship between quality and price. Watch this short video:
The cost of the professional for a complete job is usually 10% of the entire cost for the renovation. The tasks are:
- Preliminary study to assess the technical feasibility and general costs of the intervention
- Executive project with indicated interventions to be carried out, preparation of documents useful for the stipulation of the contract as metric calculation and detailed drawings
- Assistance in the choice of materials, bathrooms, kitchens and furnishings
- Presentation of administrative procedures to the Municipality and the Land Registry
- Direction of works, coordination with the company, closure of the works and delivery of the documentation
The budget
Only when a budget is defined has the right path been taken . Never think of spending as little as possible because this way you don’t have the chance to make the right choices. The “least possible” must be quantified. It can also be 5000 euros but must be defined because on the basis of that limit it will be possible to identify the best possible choices
Without experience it is very difficult to assess what the total cost will be
