Knowing how to plan a home renovation allows you to understand exactly what you’re getting into. Whether it’s budget, timelines, building your team, or where to stay during your renovation, a good plan can make all the difference as you begin a process that can transform your living space and lead to tangible improvements in your everyday life.
Renovating your house should be exciting, not stressful, and understanding how to plan a home renovation sets clear goals and expectations that allow you to navigate the process carefully.
Key Takeaways
- Planning a home renovation helps prevent unexpected costs and stress throughout the process.
- Establishing clear goals and expectations allows for better decision-making and project execution.
- Determining a realistic budget is crucial for understanding what renovations are feasible.
- Building the right team of professionals early in the process provides valuable insights on costs, timelines, and design requirements.
- Creating a timeline helps manage the renovation process effectively and keeps your project on track.
Why You Need to Plan Your Home Renovation Carefully
Renovating your home isn’t as simple as creating a wish list and hiring someone to bring it to life. It requires careful design, diligent budgeting, honest and accurate timelines, and a team that can execute your vision.
But knowing how to plan for a home renovation also helps you avoid unwanted surprises. Will you need to move out of your home while builders are working? Will the work you want done be possible with your budget? Does the scope of your renovation require that you apply for development permits which can delay construction for months?
Knowing how to plan for a home renovation will help you answer these questions in advance and approach your project with the information you need to ensure it goes smoothly.
How to Plan for a Home Renovation
1. Establish Your Goals
Before you meet with designers or builders, it’s important you figure out what you’re looking to accomplish and why. The term “renovation” can describe projects that vary in scope, size, and price range. Before you start building your team, be sure you are clear on what you are looking to accomplish.
Are you looking to add more square footage to your home? Are you looking to create the feel of more space by removing barriers and going more open-concept? Do you need more bedrooms for kids who are getting older?
Ask yourself why you are looking to renovate and how you hope these changes will improve your home and your life. When you understand your goals, you can meet with a designer who can provide you with scenarios and options that will help you accomplish them.
How to Determine Your Goals for a Renovation
- Have conversations with your partner or family: This might seem obvious, but having open and honest conversations can help crystallize your goals. How could your home better serve everybody who lives there?
- Consider where your life will be in five or 10 years: Renovations shouldn’t just be about meeting your immediate needs, but also about what’s ahead. For example: If you have kids, what sort of space will they need when they become teenagers?
- Create a wish list: Write down every single thing you want from your renovation and then prioritize what you want and need most.
- Determine Your Budget
As you kick off your home renovation journey, we’re happy to share some great names of renovation contractors who can give you an estimate of your project’s costs. Just keep in mind that you’ll get more accurate numbers once your renovation plans are mostly designed. The more detail you have in your residential and interior designs, the better the cost estimates will be.
Knowing how to approach your home renovation from the start makes the whole process much smoother and more exciting. By figuring out your budget and working with the right team, you can feel confident as you transform your space into something you love.
What to Remember When Building a Budget
Establishing a realistic budget is an extremely important step in planning for a renovation. Just because you saw that a project cost a certain amount while watching HGTV, as an example, that doesn’t mean it’s going to cost the same in Calgary.
Local pricing differences can profoundly affect the cost of renovations, which often seem to be more expensive than anticipated.
Once you have a design for your renovation, you’ll be able to go back with floor plans and more details to get more accurate estimates from builders. Even a preliminary estimate, though, can give you an idea of how much a renovation will cost and whether you need to scale down some of your plans before getting started.
3. Build Your Team
Whether you’re planning a renovation or building a custom home, having the right team on your side can have a huge impact on every single step of the process. You will likely need a residential designer, an interior designer, and a builder, at the very least. Our team can coordinate most other consultants required.
The earlier you can get a builder involved in the process, the better, as they’ll be able to provide insight into costing and timing, while your designers can advise you on whether permits may be required and help you bring your vision and goals for your renovation to life.
4. Establish Timelines
The timeline for every renovation is likely to be different and depends on a variety of factors, including the scope of your project and whether permits will be required. In Calgary, timelines can even be different depending on what area of the city you live in.
What’s allowed on an acreage might require a development permit in an inner-city community, so it’s important that you check with the City of Calgary and understand what’s allowed and how long the process can take.
This is especially true if the work you’re going to get done is going to require that you live elsewhere for a period. In those cases, you’ll need to figure out where to stay during home renovations and for how long.
How to Plan for a Home Renovation: Timeline
When you’re considering renovating, remember that timelines can vary depending on the scope and complexity of your project. In general, though, you should expect:
- Design and Municipal Approval Phase: This typically takes 3 to 7 months, depending on the specifics of your home renovation and whether a development permit is required. You may also need a building permit if you are developing your basement for the first time, making structural changes, such as removing walls, or creating new openings in interior or exterior walls, such as windows and doors.
- Construction phase: The scope and complexity of your project will absolutely impact how long construction takes. A simple kitchen renovation, for example, will likely take less time than redoing the entire floor of your home or adding extra square footage. It can take anywhere from three months to a year.
Design Your Dream Home with Ellergodt Design
Choosing the right design team can be the difference between a renovation that feels overwhelming and one that feels exciting, seamless, and truly transformative.
For decades, Ellergodt Design has helped Calgarians reimagine their homes with thoughtful planning, creative problem-solving, and designs that feel both functional and deeply personal. If you’re ready to start your renovation journey with confidence, we’d love to help you bring it to life.
View our past Renovation Projects and contact us today to take the first step toward a home you’ll love for years to come.
FAQ
This will depend entirely on what sort of home renovation you are looking for. The larger the scope and complexity of your project, the more it will cost. In some cases, it may even be easier and more cost-effective to build a new home.
You need to establish your own needs and prioritize them, rather than following someone else’s home renovation timeline.