I’ve been renovating properties for a good few years now,  and the thing that I seem to hear the most off clients is, “I’m gonna do the next one myself”. Well,  fair play to ya! But before you do, let me just run a few things past you first because it ain’t a walk in the park if you don’t know what you’re doing!? There are a lot of things to take into consideration before hand. As the saying goes. “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. It’s as easy as that! 
So the best thing to do, and what I do is first is find the market your aiming your renovation at. Ask your self what are you trying to achieve with your property and who is going to be living in it? There’s  no point spending loads of money renovating a property if it’s going to be rented out to an Lha Tennent. The chances are, it’s going to get wrecked and you will have to do it all again after 6 months. So wether it will be Lha, hmo for professionals, hmo boutique or if you’re doing it to flip etc you will need to think of how much you want to spend on it and the look you’re trying to achieve. If it is for Lha, you can keep everything very basic. With lha we usually use the cheaper materials and more of plane bland colour like a full house magnolia paint and all white wall tiles in bathroom and shower areas, “cheap and cheerful” as they say. But if your going for professionals and your higher end market we would use a lot more colourful colour schemes different tones, nicer pottery in your bathrooms with more expensive taps and kitchens etc.

  
If you are doing the work yourself then I would advise on checking you’ve got the right tradesmen for the job. There are a lot of cowboy builders out there that “talk the talk” but can’t “walk the walk”. A good way of finding a good tradesman is references, but make sure you ring them and ask a few questions about the jobs they’ve done then cross reference them with your tradesmen to see if it adds up as they could be relatives or  bezzi  mates for alls you know. Also ask them if they have a cscs card which should have their picture with  qualifications they have, and ask if they have public liability insurance most good tradesmen will have it ask them to show it you. Also you can use sites such as “my builder”.

  
   When you get a quote, don’t always automatically go for the cheapest one, think it out a bit, go with your gut feeling as well. They might of under priced it as they don’t know what the job entails exactly, so just give a figure hoping they’re in the ballpark then try add to it later. Sometimes when you meet a tradesman you can get a feel if they’re going to  be good the way you get on and interact with them which keeps them and you more at ease and if you do use them they’re probably going to try that little bit extra for you or might just do that other little job that you forgot to mention on the phone……yes, you know who you are! And tea and biscuits go a long way also.

If your providing the materials it can be beneficial to use the same place/ merchants time and time again as you will build a rapport up with the merchant and are more likely to get notified of special offers and discounts which could save you money over time and they will also offer advice and try to help you out any way they can with your renovations.

IF YOU AINT GOOD WITH YOUR HANDS THEN LEAVE IT ALONE!

There’s no point trying to get involved if you haven’t got any building skills……leave it to the professionals, as you may end up making your property look shoddy and could affect the end value, or stop someone from moving in if it’s being rented. And it will probably take longer and cost more money if you get involved in the long run.

  

If you do end up getting involved and think you can do a bit, then don’t cut corners, make sure you don’t leave any jobs unfinished because you couldn’t be bothered,  or you thought it would be ok, it shows on the end product and people pick up on things like this and it could affect your sale or rent!
I hope this helps all you diy enthusiasts out there. 

If you do need any advice or quotes please don’t hesitate to contact  C.Dunne Joinery & Building on: 07841704828 or email : cdjoinery-building@outlook.com or face book page :https://www.facebook.com/pages/CDunne-Joinery-Building-ltd/1278312268954413