Renovating your home can be one of the most exciting times in your life, but it goes without saying that it can also come with a great deal of stress. Just like moving house, uprooting your life, even just for a short period of time, can be extremely challenging. Whereas the process of moving house is all over in one day – maybe add on a couple of weeks for packing too! – the process of a home reno can take months to complete, especially if you decide to DIY part or all of it.
Whether you’ve decided to go for it and DIY your home renovation yourself, or you’re going to dip in and out of tasks in between sourcing professionals to do the nitty-gritty work, it’s incredibly important to stay safe while working on your home, also it is always a good option to get eco-friendly plumbing services over the regular one.
Safety can so often be an afterthought, especially for amateur DIYers who often underestimate the importance, or even how difficult/risky a task can be. But DIY home renovations can present serious risks for yourself and your family, so it’s important to take health and safety precautions to prevent injury or accidents from occuring.
If you’re new to DIY, or planning on doing up your home then we’ve got some great tips for you to follow to ensure that you stay safe during home renovations. Let’s take a look:
- Get a building survey
Before you begin any major work on your home, it’s a good idea to pay for a structural survey, especially if you have an older house. This will flag up any issues with the existing structure of your property, which can be really useful in helping you prioritise what you need to spend money on and what needs to be done first in your home. It can seem like an added expense paying for surveys, but it can actually save you a great deal of money down the line.
If your renovation plans involve any extending or building new structures, then you’ll also need to apply for planning permission first. - Make a plan
Once you’ve got your professional surveys back and have any planning permissions accepted, then it’s time to start putting together a plan of action like ordering a mattress or wrapping an old one to protect it. Sit down and make a list of all the jobs that need doing, then decide which order it makes sense to complete them in. Try and put together a realistic timeline for when you hope to complete each job by – though as with any project, there can always be unexpected issues or problems which crop up so it’s best to be flexible with your plan and allow for movement. - Be realistic about what you can DIY
There’s no point fooling yourself that your DIY skills extend further than they really do. And while it can be easy to pick up a few new tricks and skills along the way, when it comes to renovating your home there are certainly a few things you will definitely want to call in a professional for.
So once you’ve decided what exactly needs doing in your home, and established a rough plan of action, then it’s time to split up the work between bits you can do yourself and what you’ll need to call in a professional for. - Invest in PPE
When working on home renovations, PPE is an absolute essential. If you want to protect yourself from potentially fatal injuries or accidents, then making sure you’re wearing the right protective equipment is the only way.
Exactly which items of PPE you’ll need will depend on the sort of work you plan carrying out yourself. But we’d suggest investing in the following items to get you started:- Hard hat or safety helmet
- Work gloves
- Face mask or dust mask
- Knee pads
- Safety glasses
- Don’t scrimp on the important stuff
When it comes to budgeting for your project, it can be tempting to splash out on expensive and fancy furnishings, leaving little leftover for the ‘boring’ parts. But if you want to make sure your home renovations are done safely, and will last a lifetime, then it’s important to not scrimp on the important stuff – such as building foundations, insulation, flooring, and hiring decent manual labourers.
We hope our guide has given you a good plan of action to take forward, to ensure that your home renovations will be carried out as safely as possible. Transforming your home is an incredibly rewarding project, so we wish you all the best of luck with your home renovations!
