Can you renovate your home on a budget? The answer, if you’re patient and prudent – is yes!
A customer recently told us her story about her budget home renovation project which has seen her home virtually reconstructed from top to bottom and furnished to the highest standards. The 3 storey central glass and oak staircase was installed by Abbott-Wade as part of her policy of using smaller, local businesses; an ideology which had always served her well in the past.
The exquisite tiled floor covering the entrance hall had all been bought at auction for a fraction of the market price. Similarly showers, toilets, doors, towel heaters – all high end fixtures, were all purchased at auction at super-discounted prices.
The key, she tells us, is to plan ahead. Make a list of what you’re going to need well in advance and keep your eye on auction websites like i-bidder.com which will tell you what items are coming up for auction and where. You’ll need to be patient and play the waiting game. You may need to travel a little but the savings can be extensive. A friend admiring her modern heated towel rails mounted in the 4 newly refurbished bathrooms confessed that she’d looked at the same model but it had been over her budget. In fact, the cumulative cost for all four at auction had only been around a fifth of the list price for a single towel rail.
How are such savings made? Because sometimes companies buy up too much stock and simply need to cut their losses to get rid of surplus goods. Some items such as baths may get returned simply because they don’t fit in the original customers bathroom or have a small cosmetic scratch or blemish. Other items may be incomplete, but if you are prepared to do the research you can grab some real bargains. A set of modern, hung toilets were snapped up for around £10 each simply because they were without a seat which was easily procured with a call to the manufacturer & distributors. Similarly, a luxurious free standing bath purchased at auction for a snip without it’s feet was restored to grandeur thanks to a couple of phone calls which concluded that replacements could be found at the local B&Q!
You may not get it right every time though. A shower tray proved why it was so cheap when her plumber installed it and found the base to be warped but on the grand scale of the savings made, this minor failure paled into insignificance.
If you’ve got a big refurbishment project coming up, plan ahead, do your research and your budget home renovation may not have to compromise quality for cost.
