How to plan renovations

Hi there! We just bought a house and we are planning to do some renovations. Any tips general tips about the topic?

Probably we need, at least, a builder, someone to renovate the floors and a painter. Anyone has good contacts in Aargau/Zurich? The house is in Baden, Aargau.

And last thing, we are thinking about renovations which increase the value of the house (minergie maybe?), any idea?

Tax aspects : Split your expenses in different year to maximize tax deductions.

Increase ecological grade of the house : you need a CECB plus report first in order to investigate best options and allow you to obtain financial help from governement.

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Congratulations!
There are plenty of ‘tips’ but, if you’ll deal with several companies, seek professionals to drive the process and optimise (also financially) your renovation project.

If you’re planning to improve the energy performance of your house - exterior insulation, or change the heating system, or better windows, or solar panels - check the local authorities. Sometimes there are subsidies/grants to support a part of the renovation costs. Also very important: don’t forget to ask for an asbestos screening before any intervention if it’s an old house. And if you’re planning to start a significantly amount of renovations yourself, check if a small insurance can be useful.

And don’t forget to check the building potential of the plot
 maybe you can make it bigger, and it will increase size and value.

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A budget to guide the process is key (and don’t forget to reserve an amount to the unexpected and unforeseen situations.)

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Hi all, resurrecting this thread, as I’m in the same situation, trying to plan a renovation our 1981 single family home. We want to invest quite heavily, including opening up the kitchen (tearing down walls), renew/replace the kitchen, bathrooms, floors, windows, paint, roof, electrical, plumbing and heating. Budget is around 400k (we could spend more if absolutely needed).

We are a bit lost on how to start, especially if we need an architect or if we should approach a construction manager (Bauleiter) or a building company.

I had an initial conversation with an architect, and he told me that they could help with a concept (new floor plan, rough cost estimate), but that they would suggest to find a local builder to take the lead, for cost reasons.

Anyone here with experience in larger renovations? Who should we talk to?

A “Generalunternehmer” would be probably the right choice as long as they are experienced with remodeling work and you already have a good idea about what you would like to do.

Essential would be a thourough analysis of the current state. Not that something gets overlooked which could be interesting for synergy reasons.

I did the same. I hired a ‘kunstmauer’ to knock down the wall, take out the kitchen and he sub-contracted the electrician to do all the re-wiring (who was useless, I suggest you find your own good tradesmen).

Kitchen and bathrooms can be just turnkey services from various local companies.

Same for windows from a window company.

We just did the wall teardown and kitchen and floors prior to moving in. The rest we did piecemeal over the years to live in the house a bit and get a feel for what we wanted to change. Since then we replaced windows, front door, repainted, re-did the garden and terrace. Next up will be bathrooms, re-tiling, new roof, conversion of basement, etc. etc.

A house is a moneypit. If you can live in it first for a bit I would suggest doing that as what we wanted changed as we got used to living in the house and its quirks. Plus it is much more manageable to do a single project at a time such as replacing all the windows.

I think it depends really on your own knowledge and your motivation to spend your own time on planning this renovation. Looks certenly like a bigger construciton site on your house. So I believe it’s worth the money to talk with an architekt or a Hochbauzeichner.

Simply because they see a lot of different buildings and know which adaptions make sense. E.g. you talk about opening the kitchen. Maybe it would be nice to replace/resize some windows, include a hidden storring space in your kitchen etc. But I personally would/did stop after the suggestions.

Afterwards just talk to several building companies about your ideas and wishes and go with them who fully support your ideas. If you have a company doing several steps you can ask them to do the Project lead / Bauleitung. It is normal for them to coordinate with other companies, even if they would offer the same service.

My strong advice about heating, plumbing, maybe AC etc: Inform yourself about the state-of-the-art. Most companies have full order books, they often have no need and no motivation to spend time in out-of-the-box thinking or in investigation a new approach.
A good ressource would be energiesparhaus.at if our are german speaking.

Hi all, thanks for the helpful replies.

I got some inputs from someone in my extended network, who is in the construction business in another region. He recommends to hire an independent construction manager (Bauleiter/Hochbauzeichner) to take the lead, rather than an architect or local tradesmen. The architects are expensive, and in this case, can’t really do much, as most of the work will be realization, rather than planning. And management of a construction is not the core competency for a local tradesman like the bricklayer. Finally, he advised against a Generalunternehmer (GU), as they will provide a full service package at a fixed price, but will budget in a significant risk portion into their fix price. This works great for new constructions, but tends to be very expensive for renovation projects. So his strong recommendation was to look for a competent Bauleiter, who is capable of basic planning, requesting quotes, work supervision and quality control.

He also explicitly advised against splitting the work over a longer time period, if you have the budget to do it in one go. There is significant synergies/cost reductions if you already have the construction site up.

I will definitely do some more research, but my next step is starting to look for a construction manager.

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Sounds like a reasonable plan to me

Hi @kane! I really need to react here :sweat_smile: I don’t know if you have quotes already but there are hourly rate sheets available where you can review the cost breakdown of every task and every stage of the design and construction process. This doesn’t mean you need an architect from A to Z if you don’t want to. You might consider bringing an architect to do the pre-design and design development; and afterwards continue with a construction manager. Some offices already work closely with construction managers. Why not request a couple of quotes, with costs for each phase, and then compare. Coming back to “architect vs construction manager vs general contractor”, yes, these roles may overlap but I’m not sure one becomes an expert outside its domain: everyone to their own trade.

Finally we can still think (with or without architect) on the relation between cost and value. This is a situation that many face during a renovation project and it can be applied to all the decision making. Take for instance the choice of flooring
 Should one go for an entry-level material that does the job or would you consider to spend more because you’re adding long term value to the house? (here, value can be linked to questions of health and well-being - i.e. natural or synthetic paints
 - or value linked to the quality of the material for the future
 or value linked to pure aesthetically reasons
) This can be also considered on a tight budget work frame, would one prioritise the living and kitchen zone, and and opting for a low-cost bathroom? Or, even within the bathroom, why cover all the walls with tiles, when not walls require them? There are so many possibilities, but not all professionals will spend time to guide you through.

As a closing thought, if you have enough time to steer the entire process, I think it’s beneficial to keep the full picture in mind. And, during my work, I learned that communication is key in every renovation or new construction process.

Keep us posted ! :slight_smile:

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Thanks for your reply, my statement was maybe a bit oversimplified :wink:

We talked to an architect who was recommended to us, and they offered a turnkey service for 15-20% of the total renovation budget, obviously subcontracting most of the work.

I understand that architects can be very helpful in designing floor plans, choosing materials, showing options, et cetera. But for us, probably not needed, as we are not planning to drastically redesign the home. We are opening up the kitchen, enlarge the bathroom by moving a wall and do a couple of other small changes, but the majority of the work (and budget) goes in renovations like replacing windows, new heater and underfloor pipes, adding insulation, replacing plumbing and electrical and so on. Therefore I’m currently looking for a construction manager to lead our renovation. Do you find that a sensible approach?

I do understand the difference between cost and value, and I’m not trying to be cheap where it counts, i.e. I’m happy to pay more where we will get good quality and something we’ll enjoy for a long time. I think for me, it’s important to finding someone who can identify things which are expensive and not of much value and show alternative options, or can also point us to where it makes sense to spend more because it’s worth it.

Currently we are waiting for offers from three construction managers we approached and will hopefully choose the right one in January.

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Yes, I understand you completely but I had to lobby a little bit :sweat_smile:

The core part of the intervention will (almost) pass unnoticed and eat the biggest piece of the budget. While comparing offers, I would look carefully to the support the construction manager can provide you and ask for an expected planning that times the (client’s) decisions and the interventions. If some options are over the budget, try to see if it would be possible to anticipate a second round of improvements in the years to come (i.e. pipes, empty electric tubes standing-by
)
As for the visible part (materials etc) ask for samples whenever possible and compare them on site. This will allow you to preview as closely as possible the results. Lastly, I would keep interactions with sellers at material supply stores to a minimum :innocent: