Have you just bought a house, or has your family outgrown your current house as it currently stands? Then chances are that you are going to have to answer the question, “Demolition or Renovation – What’s the best option for your situation?”
This is a difficult question to answer. There may be some things that you really like about your house currently that you want to keep. On the other hand, your house may be too old and if little maintenance has been completed over the years it may be hard to justify the expense of keeping your current features.
We understand, it’s not a simple choice, there are multiple solutions that could be achieved. Within this article we cover the main factors you need to consider when it comes to ‘demolition or renovate’. Hopefully this information provides the detail required to decide what’s best for your own home and your own circumstances.
Is demolition or renovation more expensive?
The answer to this question is “it depends” on the condition of the existing property. There could potentially be structural issues that the existing house has, it may be that it’s cheaper to knock down the house and start again. If you want to add extra features like energy efficiency and similar, it may just be too hard to keep the existing property.
On the other hand, if most of what you need is more cosmetic or just changes like expanding the size of your house to fit a growing family, then a renovation may make more sense. If your house looks good structurally, then it may make more sense to renovate.
Are there any regulations that you need to worry about?
You may not simply be able to knock down your house, even if you want to. There may be regulations regarding heritage overlay (so at a very minimum you may need to keep the facade) and there may also be planning regulations around the size of a property you can build on a block – and how far it needs to be built back from your property boundary.
Can you recycle some of the materials?
You might find that the shape of your house just doesn’t work anymore but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you cannot reuse some of the materials. Doors, window frames, fittings, electrical equipment etc – some of these things may be able to be reused as part of a renovation or demolition job.
What is your budget?
One major reason that many people may choose a renovation path is because they can manage a renovation in stages so a large amount of money isn’t required in a short timeframe. If you don’t have the full budget now you can still get started now and build your dream home in stages – modernising and changing your house one room at a time.
Hopefully, this article has given you some things to think about when it comes to your own home and deciding whether your goals are best filled with ‘demolition or renovation’. If you’d love a no obligation chat with a member of the team, please give us a call today.
