10 ways to save on apartment repair without losing quality
Apartment repair is able to empty a person’s wallet with any income. Therefore, it is always worth looking for what you can save on without loss of quality during work.
Do repairs from November to March during construction sales
Most often we do repairs in the spring and summer, so in winter in building stores the demand for finishing materials falls. To increase turnover, retail outlets from the end of autumn to spring arrange promotional and holiday sales, reducing prices by 5-15%. During this period, you can significantly save on the purchase of expensive floor coverings, tiles, wallpapers. Advantageously, you can buy and building mixtures.
Be sure to compare prices in stores and on sites. It happens that discounts are only available when ordering online, or only on the trading floor.
Redo the entire apartment at once
Repair the whole apartment at a time - so the total amount of expenses for decoration will be much lower than with a phased repair of rooms.
After work in each room, for example, after pouring floors or leveling walls, unused materials or solutions will remain. It is not always possible to keep them intact until the next stage of decoration. The paint may dry out, the building mixture may become damp, and drywall is nowhere to store. Will have to buy new building materials.
Hiring a team of craftsmen to repair the whole apartment will also be more profitable. The costs will not include re-purchase and delivery of materials. And on a turn-key basis repair teams usually make good discounts.
Do the preparatory work yourself
Any person, who does not even know anything about repair, will be able to remove the old wallpaper, clean the layer of paint with a building hairdryer. For such work, it is not necessary to hire a team of craftsmen. Dismantle the interior doors, plumbing, tiles from the walls in the bathroom and in the kitchen yourself - the budget savings will be significant.
Buy materials rarely, but in large volumes
In many stores, there is free delivery when purchasing goods for a certain amount. Try to take this opportunity.
If the delivery is paid, complete the order so that the volume of purchased materials at a time is maximum. Take into account the weight of the goods and their dimensions so that they can fill the car for transportation as much as possible. So you save both money and time.
Do not buy anything just in case
Calculate the amount of materials as accurately as possible. There are special universal formulas for this. And only after a meticulous calculation, buy the necessary amount of materials, adding to this another 5-10% of the received number.
Force majeure circumstances are always possible - the tile will break, a piece of wallpaper will tear. But do not buy "in reserve" more than this percentage, since there is a possibility that the material is not used.And if you don’t take a roll of wallpaper back to the store, it will be much more difficult to take large-sized drywall — the cost of transportation may exceed its cost.
Do not be afraid to ask for a discount
Feel free to negotiate discounts. They are made in large construction markets and in small shops. Pre-analyze the prices of the goods you need on various sites in the region. Inform about the desire to receive a discount on a certain amount or percentage. The seller will call the head of the department and he can give you a discount or make a purchase at the wholesale price. Stores are eager to cut prices on discontinued materials and out-of-fashion collections.
Do not save on quality
Always try to consider the price / quality ratio. Do not buy frankly cheap materials that sometimes do not survive and the warranty period. But not always an expensive advertised brand produces the best products. Look at reviews about repair materials - ask your friends for opinions, get information on specialized websites and social networks. Professionals in forums often discuss the quality of materials.
Do it yourself small decor
Another way to save on decoration is to make your own decor. You can easily stick various panels, mirror tiles; lay decorative bricks on the wall already prepared and aligned by the craftsmen.
Design walls using stencil painting or special rollers. Use vinyl stickers with various scenes. This will help to make the interior unique and save on wallpaper. In the classic style, polyurethane moldings and ceiling skirting boards are often used for decoration. Decorating their walls and ceilings is also easy.
Save on rough finishes
The quality of the entire repair depends on the basic rough finish. But at some of its stages you can save. For example, when installing a stretch ceiling, special processing of the floor is not required (except for the bathroom).
Instead of leveling the walls with a large number of building mixtures, it will be simpler and cheaper to use drywall or OSB boards. In old brick houses, non-bearing walls are sometimes more profitable to tear down and replace them with structures of metal profiles and drywall sheets.
But you can’t save on the installation of wiring and pipes.
Buy finished furniture
Furniture produced in serial production costs less than custom-made furniture. Therefore, with a limited budget, give preference to her. In advance, before drawing up a repair project, consider the dimensions of individual pieces of furniture, determine where they will stand. This will help to correctly calculate the number and place of installation of electrical outlets, lamps. You can also accurately design niches for furniture, if they are provided for in the design of the room.
