Living in the house during a renovation: what actually works
About half our clients stay in the house. It is almost always cheaper than renting, and it is almost always harder than they expected. These are the four things that make the difference.
1. Containment that is built, not improvised
Plastic sheeting taped to a door frame is not containment. Zip walls with self-closing zippers, sealed HVAC returns inside the work zone, and a HEPA negative air machine running continuously so the work zone sits at lower pressure than the rest of the house. Dust then moves toward the machine instead of into your bedroom.
Floor protection runs from the crew entrance to the work zone, taped at the seams, and it stays down until the punch walk. Rolling it up early to see the new floor is how the new floor gets scratched.
2. One bathroom stays live, always
On a multi-bathroom renovation we finish one room completely before opening the next. That sometimes costs schedule efficiency. It is worth it. A household with no working shower at 6:00 am does not care about schedule efficiency.
3. A temporary kitchen worth the name
A real one has a sink with running water, the existing refrigerator relocated to it, a microwave, a two-burner induction plate, a folding table with power and somewhere to put dishes. It goes in before demolition starts, not during.
Ten to sixteen weeks is the normal window without a main kitchen on a whole-home job. Plan for the whole of it.
4. A schedule the household can read
Not a Gantt chart. A one-page summary that says, this week we are doing rough plumbing, the water will be off Tuesday between 9 and 11, and the inspector comes Thursday. Families can plan around known disruption. Unknown disruption is what wears people down.
The two weeks to leave for
If you can only be out of the house twice, be out for demolition and for drywall sanding. Those are the two dust peaks and the two weeks where staying gains you nothing.
And book the pets out for demolition. It carries through the whole structure, and a back bedroom is not far enough away.
