3 Factors To Consider When Budgeting For A Kitchen Or Bathroom Remodel

Kitchen and bathroom remodeling companies are an essential component of upgrading a home, but you need to be prepared when you reach out to these professionals with a project. Of course, you have to have money to pay for any kind of major home renovation project, but just how much money do you need?

Here are a few of the factors you need to balance in your mind as you go over what kind of financial commitment you’re willing to make.

Living Duration

This is one of the biggest factors. How long you plan to live in a home should directly impact what you’re going to invest in it for a few reasons. From a fashion/trend perspective, you’re unlikely to want to have kitchen and bathroom remodeling companies coming in every 2-3 years for a “refresh,” so what you decide for the kitchen bathroom design is something you’ll live with for a very long time.

If you’re planning to live in the home for five years or less, then you’re likely viewing any kitchen or bathroom remodel as increasing investment value. You want to spend minimal amounts of money to balance out the sales potential. If you’re going to be living in the home to raise a family for years, maybe even decades, then you may want to go “all-out” on getting the kitchen or bathroom of your dreams designed specifically for you.

Prioritize Your Renovations

If you’re dealing with a “blank check” budget, you can safely ignore this factor. However, if you’re dealing with limited funds, you’ll want to take a good hard look at which aspects of remodeling are the most important so that you can focus the budget there.

For example, suppose you’re remodeling the kitchen, but your appliances are still in good working order, and you’re happy with their performance. In that case, splurging on a new stove, microwave or dishwasher is unnecessary. On the other hand, if you’re remodeling a bathroom and the tile is looking very old, moldy, and cracking in many places, then you’ll want to prioritize the floor. The priorities for your remodel should get the most money, while lesser priorities can be ignored or get less premium investment.

Keep Contingency Money Set Aside

As a general rule of thumb, whatever your total spending on a kitchen and bathroom remodel will be, it’s best to prepare 20% of that money for contingencies. This is especially true for older homes, where there may be aspects of the structure that you are completely unaware of that might be out of date and need addressing.

For example, if your kitchen and bathroom remodeling companies inspect the plumbing and realize that your water pipes are old enough to be lined with lead, this should be replaced. Having some money set aside, so lead pipes with a health risk are replaced by modern water pipes that are safer for the entire family to manage with contingency money.

By keeping these things in mind, you should be able to create a budget and, more importantly, stick to it without any crippling expenditures that upset your finances.