Smart Home Renovations That You Should Save for before Summer

Some home renovations are best enjoyed in the summer months — think sunlit mornings spent on a balcony terrace and family barbecues that spill from the garden to the conservatory.

Not only that, but the dry weather conditions that the summer season brings are optimal for contractors to carry out renovation work. Any home renovation is a large undertaking, both practically and financially, but scheduling your home improvement work in the warmer months gives you ample time to save in the quiet months following the New Year. That’s not to say that putting funds aside has to become a New Year’s resolution — it’s simpler than that. Without the constant obligation to split with your cash, which is inevitably most felt at Christmas time, you will likely have some funds leftover. What you do with this spare change is up to you, but depositing it into a savings account straight away will give you the opportunity to make those desired changes to your home.

If you’ve managed to start saving for a home renovation, you might be concerned where exactly your money will be best spent. In this blog post, we outline three wise home renovation choices. They all carry the label “smart” because of their long-term financial and lifestyle benefits.

Feeling impatient? If you want to skip to the good stuff, check out this infographic, created by the roofing company Ploughcroft. This quick visual aid highlights the cost and duration of each improvement, along with the average percentage markup on the sale price of your home in relation to the investment.

Conservatory Roof Replacement

This first smart renovation requires you to already have a conservatory as part of your home. If you do have a conversatory, the chance that you’ll benefit from a conservatory roof replacement is pretty high. At least one in five readers should seriously consider a roof replacement, with around 18% of British homeowners having a conservatory.

If you are fortunate enough to own a conservatory, it’s a good idea to spend your money on sprucing up this classic British feature.

It’s a given that conservatories are chosen with summer in mind. Its glass exterior is the perfect way to enjoy the sunny weather without having to be outside, giving us Brits the chance to experience our own version of the indoor-outdoor living that is so popular in warmer climates. Opening your conservatory doors creates a seamless living environment between the interior and exterior of your home.

A conservatory roof replacement presents two options to enhance this:

Firstly, you can switch from single glazed panels to double glazed, which retain heat better than the former material and act as a more durable shield against repair work. Homeowners often take this step for their regular windows — in fact, only 7% of British households have no double glazing — but forget that this renovation could make a huge difference when it comes to their glass conservatory.

An alternative option that is fast becoming the most popular alternative is opting for a tiled conservatory roof, which lets you make the most out of this space throughout both the hot and the cold seasons. Many conservatory owners face the same problem: their conservatory is just too cold to use all year round. This type of conservatory roof replacement is all about maximising your existing space — a space you can enjoy regardless of the temperature outside. Tiles are superior to glass in that they retain heat within the space while acting as a durable shield against harsh weather conditions.

The £6,000 investment may be smarter than you think, as you’ll enjoy multiple benefits. A tiled conservatory roof converts your summer house into a winter wonderland and keeps unforeseen repair costs at bay.

Driveway Resurfacing or Sealing

When homeowners think about renovating their home, their thoughts are often confined to the four walls of their home’s interior. As such, the exterior of the home and its main feature — the driveway — is often forgotten.

This narrow view when it comes to renovations can cause you to miss vital flaws in your home. Like the cover of a book, the exterior of your home is telling in terms of the condition of the rest of your home. As such, you should want to keep this part of your home as pristine as possible, even if it’s not the first area that comes to mind.

Reviewing your home as a whole can stop you from making irrational decisions. Imagine forking out over £10,000 for a home extension — which is a modest estimation at that, as extensions can often surpass the £50,000 mark — only to have a beautiful extension marred by an overgrown garden in desperate need of weeding. From this perspective, we can all agree that it’s better to take care of what we already have before rushing to buy new additions. Your new home extension will only be spoilt by the unkempt garden that accompanies it. In short, you need to take care of general maintenance before you can dream about expansion.

Your driveway is an area that requires a lot of care. The winter weather will likely damage the condition of its surface, especially in Britain, where rainfall is heavy and frequent. Summer is the prime time to fix this. A professional driveway maintenance guide will tell you that both June and July are key months to carry out repair work.

Flat Roof Balcony System

If you’re lucky enough to have money left over after the general upkeep of your home is accounted for, a flat roof balcony system is a luxury must-have.

A balcony system is just that — a luxury — but even so, it’s a smart addition, as balcony systems can seal the deal for a prospective buyer and boost your sale price by 12% on average.  

As balconies act as outdoor spaces attached to the most dominant space in your home — either the main living space or the master bedroom — they are a summer staple. It’s not rocket science, then, that you’ll want to get your balcony installed in time for the sunny season to ensure that you can get the most out of it.

A flat roof balcony system is a little bit different from the traditional balconies you might be picturing. Balconies that seem to hover on the side of buildings are not classified as flat roof balconies. We aren’t talking about the Romeo-and-Juliet-style terrace. Instead, flat roof balconies rely on a flat roof as a solid support system for their foundation.

As usual, Pinterest is your friend when it comes to researching flat roof balconies, and there’s an extensive visual list. If you’ve got an exposed garage, a home extension with a flat roof or even a conservatory, for that matter, you’ve got the scope to build a flat roof balcony that is much more spacious and ambitious than the traditional alternative.

Author Bio:

Chris Hopkins is an accredited roofer and experienced entrepreneur who formed the professional roofing and renovations company, Ploughcroft. A customer-focused business dedicated to delivering high-quality sustainable roofing with a personal touch. Ploughcroft’s extensive portfolio of residential and commercial customers includes a conservatory and building roof replacements for schools, churches, stately homes, hotels and heritage sites.