When you’re planning to renovate your home, it’s natural to hope that your project will be completed on time. After all, it’s hard to live a normal life when you’re missing a kitchen or have one less washroom to use. But the reality is that home renovation delays aren’t just normal—they’re common. As a result, it’s important to understand why they creep up so that you know how to minimize their impact on your project timeline. Here are the 4 most common home renovation delays:
Backordered materials
Imagine that you’ve finally found the perfect light fixtures for your new kitchen. Then imagine being told that they’re on backorder and won’t be available for another 12 weeks. 12 weeks? Your electrician is scheduled to install them in 10 days!
Backordered materials are one of the most common causes of home renovation delays. After all, it’s hard to predict when certain materials will take longer to arrive. Unfortunately, you usually can’t get around this problem by simply visiting another retailer and asking for the same product. This is because a given product often comes from the same supplier.
What can you do to minimize this delay? Select and order all of your materials and fixtures before you begin your renovation. This way, if a product is on backorder, you’ll have the time to spare to wait for it to come in.
Permit delays
If you’re planning to do a substantial home renovation, you may need to get a building permit from your city or town. Unfortunately, this is another common stage where home renovation delays creep up.
Obtaining a building permit for your renovation can be a lengthy process. This is because the municipal departments that issue these permits are often understaffed. In addition, whereas some municipal staff will let small problems with your application slide, others are sticklers who expect every detail to be in order before they’ll approve your project.
To minimize delays when obtaining a building permit, be sure to have all of your documents and plans ready when submitting your application.
Subcontractor schedules
Unless you’re doing a small project, your renovation probably requires the skills of multiple subcontractors. Your general contractor is responsible for hiring the subcontractors and coming up with an overall schedule for the project. However, if even one subcontractor can’t start on time, it can cause home renovation delays.
If this happens to you, your first instinct may be to tell your general contractor to hire a different subcontractor for the job. However, your general contractor likely hired a particular subcontractor because they trust them to get the job done well. As a result, most renovation experts suggest waiting for the original subcontractor to become available.
Pre-existing conditions
In some cases, you run into home renovation delays because you have to repair damage to your home before you can remodel it. This can happen if you have mold, electrical issues, or water leaks behind your walls. If there are visible signs of damage that your contractor can spot while walking through your home, it may be possible to factor repair time into your overall schedule. However, it’s hard for contractors to predict the type of damage they’ll find once they start removing walls.
Understand and anticipate common home renovation delays
It may be hard to avoid home renovation delays entirely. But if you understand how they can happen, it’s possible to be ready for them and to minimize their impact. Be sure to include buffer time in your renovation schedule to account for delays, and have extra funds on hand for unexpected repairs or changes.
Thinking of renovating your home to give it a makeover? We can help. Schedule a complimentary consultation.