11 Ways to Save Money and Time on Your DIY Home ProjectPosted by Josie Bumgamer on December 3rd, 2020 You don’t want to miss out on these tips before starting your project!
Just because you are looking to save money does not mean you should buy materials that won’t last long. After all, you want to have your dream home be a place you enjoy, not a place you despise! If you are an investor renovating for your tenants, you still want those renters to feel happy in the place you are offering them. There are many ways you can save a lot of money on the best products such as buying a different color to the same product that would cost more in white or clear. A great example of this is mortar for a tile project. If you have a small space that you are looking to renovate and not an entire house, you can also purchase left over materials from neighbors in your neighborhood as oftentimes, other homeowners, renters, or investors can have paint, tiles, and other material that they didn’t end up using for their home DIY project. That said, don’t go overboard on the cost savings. If there is a material that costs more but you know is going to save you time or money down the line, then invest in that. A great example would be pre-mixed grout; the convenience of having it pre-mixed and therefore mixed right, can justify the fact that it can be double or triple the cost. If you are not familiar with how to mix grout it can cause issues with the renovation which can end up costing you more in the long run.
If you are searching around for something specific, this one may be a little harder. However, often times you just have a specific goal in mind such as making the home or apartment space look more modern, changing up the aesthetics a bit, or maybe you have a specific color you would want to use but not a specific design. For all these cases, you should see the “great deal” offers that the store has. Whether it be flooring vinyl or tile, backsplashes, or any other material, you have the options in front of you to save up to 60% in a lot of cases when compared to the materials that aren’t on sale for that week. These sales are often for a specific amount of time or until the specific product/material runs out, so if you don’t have a set timeframe to do the project then it may be a good idea to stay up to date on what the sales are and take advantage when you see one you like. Which brings us to the next point…
These past few points have covered a larger philosophy when taking on a DIY project for your home or a rental unit, and that is being flexible on the colors, design, and sometimes material you would be using. If you have a specific design in mind, then the DIY project may cost you more than you were initially budgeting for. Likewise if you have a very specific teal color you want to use then you won’t be able to take advantage of the great sales the store could be having or the amazing materials someone could have left over from their own home renovation project. However, if your goal is to make your dream home beautiful instead of a splitting image of a Pinterest pin, then you will be able to do so within your budget.
Whether you go down the road of renting tools or decide you want to buy your tools instead, you need to know which tools you want to use. Something as simple as the right roller for a paint job can save you a ton of time and frustration as some rollers can soak up too much paint which causes a lot of paint to start dripping on the walls from the amount of excess paint being put on the walls at a time. Other rollers don’t soak up enough which causes you to continuously bend down and put more paint on the roller – this can be very exhausting if you are not used to the motions of painting for hours on end and maybe even for several days in a row. The right power tools can also make a difference as not all “power tools” have the same “power”, you can do the same motion over and over again without seeing progress, which can be doubly as frustrating as just seeing progress in small increments. Along those lines, buying the right tools can be a savings in the long run. Lets say you are changing the old vinyl floors that came with your home into nice floating floors. You’ve done the research, you’ve watched the YouTube videos, you found the floors you want to use – now it’s time to get to work. However, the first thing you notice is that those floors are really stuck on there! You must use a floor lifter which will run you about bucks, not too bad. So, you get to work on the floor lifter with a little bit of torch work. Now that you are done, you realize you would prefer to smooth out the floors first so you’re going to need to sand the floors. A rental can run you between - 0 depending on how long you will need it for, but if you purchase it it’ll run you a couple of hundred bucks and you can rent it out to other people once you’re done with it. This can be especially beneficial for owners who have more than one property as you would likely want to change the proverbial floors in all your units, one at a time. The upfront investment may be worth it in the long run. It’s good to run through your options first to see what words for you before committing to one option or the other.
In the world of home renovations, especially on a do it yourself project, measuring how much material you need can be a tricky task. Knowing that you won’t run out of material is paramount to your renovation success. You surely do not want to start putting down grey floors and finish off with brown! The best way to go about this is to purchase extra and sell the material that you did not use. Not only will running out of material ruin the aesthetics of a project, but it will also delay the project if the store you bought the material from or the neighbor you purchased it from don’t have anymore! This will cause you to add hours, or possibly days, to your project. There is always someone nearby who will also be working on their home, so you would be able to sell off the leftover material easily. It’s also more cost efficient when you purchase the larger sizes from stores instead of a couple of smaller ones. Just as an example lets look at a brand of generic paint; a single gallon of paint costs about whereas the 5-gallon would cost 0 giving you a savings. Even if you only use 4 of those gallons and have one left over, you are still saving on the material. In addition, you can sell that leftover paint to someone who just needs to paint their front porch railings and doesn’t need that much paint. There area many ways to be efficient while still being cost effective.
There’s no secret here: keeping spaces tidy will benefit you at the end of the project. One way is to not cut anything indoors, not even in the garage. If you cut materials indoors you will have your entire space filled with dust by the end. From wood to sheetrock, it all lets off small dust particles that are guaranteed to get everywhere within the four walls it’s in. Then when you walk outside of that area you will bring that with you throughout the rest of the house or apartment as well. Cutting in your front or back yard will avoid these messes from happening in the first place making clean up way easier. You don’t want to add additional time to your DIY project (if you decide to clean it up yourself) nor do you want to add an additional expense (if you hire a housekeeper), so best to keep the messes to a minimum from the start. Another tip to keep spaces tidy while you are working is to always want to keep a towel and a bucket near you. Preferably one bucket will just have water and the other will have water with soap (which is great for getting vinyl glue off of your hands, by the way!). When a mess happens, you do not want to have to jump out into the kitchen or bathroom to wet a rag and save your floor, walls, or cabinets from what can be a permanent stain. You want to keep cleaning tools nearby as you are guaranteed to need them at some point. Another great way to keep your project running smoothly and ending just as smooth on the cleanliness front, is to get a trash bin or dumpster from the city. This of course depends on where you live, but there are cities that rent out these dumpsters for a low price and dump it for you a certain number of times as well. If you don’t go the dumpster route, remember that every city and town has its own laws as to how you can dispose of construction material. You do not want to be left with a huge pile of plywood, old kitchen cabinets, and other demo material because you didn’t plan for the disposing of the material beforehand.
Nothing more asinine but detrimental to your budget’s bottom line than buying a tool or material that you already have, simply because you don’t remember where it is or can’t find it. Once you get the hang of doing your own projects and see how much you can do by yourself simply by doing proper research and preparation beforehand, you will want to keep doing DIY projects. You may even offer your family and friends help with their home projects! Ok, maybe let’s not push it. But once you see the end result and become a DIY enthusiast for your home or rental property projects, you will see that some of the same tools get used over and over again. Make sure to keep the tools you buy organized in your garage, basement, or storage space so that when you need them again you can easily find them. Creating labels and bins for each tool type wouldn’t be a bad idea and would really come in handy for many times in the length of your home project. If you prefer the renting route, make sure you know good places where you can find quality tools conveniently and for a good price.
Now that you have all your tools organized or know where to find them, and have the know how in regards to finding good step by step tutorials, put a list together of all the of the other things you want to do in your home. When you have down time, you can start to work on these small projects that can easily give a face lift to your home space or prepare for when a tenant moves out to renovate the space beautifully for the next tenant and quickly get it rented out. This is perfect for when you are preparing for a new project but aren’t quite at the point where you can undertake the entire project just yet. Instead of sitting on the couch and watching another Netflix show, set up a list of the tools you will need to give the fireplace in your living room a makeover. It’s also best to get into the habit of making a list of everything you will need with ample amount of time before starting your project. Being prepared really reduces the set-backs that can come about once you actually start. Everything from tools needed, to materials needed, to how much of each material your home project will require, to how long you are estimating the project will take can really help you in swift completion of your home or rental project.
Drying times of course depend on what part of the project you are working on in any given time, but some things can take 1 - 2 hours (for example paint), while others can be overnight (like new tile). When planning your DIY project, make sure to take these timelines into consideration so as to not extend the time that it takes to finish the full renovation project. For example, if you start painting your bedroom early morning and are estimating it will take around 4 hours to finish that room, you planned well so that by the time lunch time comes around you are not only eating to keep going for the rest of the day, but giving that first coat of paint enough time to dry before moving on to the next coat. On the other hand, if you start painting at 4PM and estimate that it’ll take the same 4 hours, then by the time you are done it’s way past dinner time – now you’re hungry and you have to sleep on the couch since you don’t want to inhale paint all night long. There will be things that need to be done during the home renovation project as well which you should be accounting for. If you are not in a drying time but need to run errands, have the less skilled person do your bidding on this part of the project. For all parties involved, keep in mind that your phone should remain near you and charged so that any last minute change in the errand can be communicated effectively. This may seem rudimentary, but it happens quite often. Lets say you’re working on your project for a few hours, listening to Spotify on your phone. Your partner asks you to go to the hardware store and you take off without realizing your battery is at 5%. Now there’s an emergency back at the house and your phone is dead; while you could have hurried back and/or brought back supplies that weren’t needed before but are crucial now, you will get back to find a big mess which could have been avoided (or at least reduced) by simply having your phone charged. If you are taking on your project on your own, just make sure you factor downtimes of getting anything that you may have forgotten during your project into your timelines as well.
It doesn’t matter whether you are taking on your DIY home project by yourself, with your partner, or maybe helping the contractor to pick up some tools of the trade; the primary focus at all times is being safe. This includes everything from wearing protective gear such as ear protection, goggles, and masks when necessary to drinking enough water throughout the day to simply knowing what your limit is in aspects such as your physical strength. I know these things sound silly, but they can really come in handy as a reminder when you are in the middle of it all. Let’s say you are refinishing your tub with a new porcelain airbrush, it’s possible that you don’t think you need to wear the mask because you have good ventilation in your bathroom. It doesn’t matter! Wearing a mask will protect you from inhaling those chemicals which in the long-run can be harmful to some people. You should also take breaks and drink plenty of water which we forget to do in today’s day and age. We sit in front of our computers so long that when we do any sort of physical labor we have forgotten how dehydrated the manual work can make us. You don’t want to exchange a new wall color for yourself or a future tenant at the expense of having a headache for the rest of the day caused by dehydration or inhalation of a chemical which isn’t good for you. Taking all of the 8 flooring boxes you bought in one go isn’t necessary. Though bringing one or two in at a time may take a bit more time, you’ll save yourself a back ache in the short term and possibly a hernia in the long term if you have the habit of doing this often enough. Don’t forsake a couple of minutes for what can become a lifetime consequence of overexerting yourself!
All in all, renovating your home or a rental home for your future tenants is a cost effective way to make spaces look beautiful. Be patient, learn what you can when you can, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Other homeowners and investors have more than likely been through the same issues you have been through and can help you out. Completing these home renovation projects takes time to get comfortable with, but once you get the hang of it it’s super exciting to see the before and after results. Happy DIYing! Like it? Share it! More by this author |