What No One Tells You Before Starting a Kitchen Remodel
A kitchen remodel is often required for those who are looking to improve their surroundings, especially in a room that experiences a lot of wear and tear over the years.
It’s one of the most disruptive of home improvement projects, often revealing hidden issues structurally as well as electrical or plumbing problems, too.
If you’ve never had a kitchen remodel done before, then there are certainly a few things to know that you might not have been told about.
The Hidden Costs
For any Custom Kitchen Remodeling, the initial budget is rarely one that’s final. In fact, you are likely to need around 15-20% as a contingency fund for anything that might appear unexpectedly, like structural defects, for example.
In older homes, plumbing and electrics will rarely meet modern safety standards and therefore require a complete overhaul.
It’s good to budget for essential, invisible costs like building regulations fees, skip hire for debris, structural engineering reports, and additional insulation.
Practicality Reality Check
When it comes to the practicalities of a kitchen remodel, you might find that you have a bit of a reality check to contend with.
For example, your new cabinets might not fit exactly because a lot of old houses are rarely level, and therefore, the new options will require filler strips and carpentry work.
You should never start any demolition until all of the materials, like your cabinets, appliances, and tiles, are sitting in the garage or home, ready to go. Otherwise, delays in supply chains can cause weeks of waiting for completion without a functioning kitchen available.
Living In Construction Disruption
As mentioned above, you will likely be without a kitchen for a while. A complete remodel will take much longer than many of the estimates offered by contractors. That’s why it’s important to be prepared to live without a working kitchen for weeks or even months.
You’ll also find that there’s dust everywhere, and that will spread across the entirety of your home. This may result in daily cleaning or sealing off rooms in their entirety.
Creating a second, temporary kitchen setup will be a struggle and an additional expense when you need to buy more appliances to make your food with.
Common Design Issues
Often, with kitchen remodels, there are common design issues that occur, such as window placement issues where you place a sink directly under it. That can lead to constant water splashes on the glass.
The wrong kind of storage can provide issues, and so you want to avoid too many cabinets and instead opt for deep drawers so that everything fits and is easily accessible.
Central lights are inadequate, and therefore you’ll want to look at layered lighting from lighting under cabinets to overhead lights and pendant lights, for example, to illuminate the space properly.
It’s good to check that the dishwasher can open while you’re standing at the sink, as well as other appliances needing the right amount of clearance.
All of these are perhaps unknown to those facing a kitchen remodel for the first time, so it’s good to know all about what to expect.
