Home Additions – Turn Your Home Improvement Into a Money Maker
Can you actually earn money from a home addition? Over the years of working with owner builders, I’ve often been asked about adding a rental unit. I get this question more often during economic downturns. I guess that is understandable.
Does this make sense? Is it doable? Let’s explore the idea here to see whether or not this is a good strategy for you.
What’s Your Real Goal?
Is it for a little temporary income? If so, is there a way you could rent out a room instead of building an addition? If it’s an ongoing need and a permanent solution, will you want separate entrances, separate kitchens and private parking areas? Will the addition have any access to the rest of the house?
Once you’ve answered a few preliminary questions like these, it’s time to get some facts about what is legal to do in your area. There will no doubt be some restrictions.
Why Restrictions are Imposed
Most every city, county, state/province, etc. has restrictions or limitations as to what you can do with your property. The reasons for this are varied but they center around safety and money.
Home Improvement – Best Ways to Make a Home Handicap Accessible
Homes will change in the coming years. And I’m not just talking about green building. As the population ages, more and more products and designs are being influenced by the needs of the elderly.
What can you do to get a jump on this?
Whether you need to renovate your own home or your parent’s, these tips and ideas will help you with your planning. They will not only help make the home more livable for those in need, they will likely increase the home’s value in the long term. People will always treasure their independence and it starts with their homes.
Most of the ideas presented are inexpensive and cost effective to incorporate, as well as easy for most handy people to do themselves.
Making the Mobility Challenged More Independent
Here are several ideas, in no particular order, that have proven to be advantageous for those whose mobility has made living more challenging. When simple things become difficult, it often requires only simple changes to remedy them.
For Your Home Improvement Project, Architects Are Worth the Additional Cost
Most homeowners at one time or another will find the need to undertake a major face-lift to their homes. These remodeling projects do not just involve a simple repainting job or retiling the tub. The project involves a whole lot more with the objective of adding value to their property. Such remodeling projects may require the conversion of your home into a 2-story home with the construction of a master bedroom upstairs and a family bedroom on the ground floor. You may even consider an addition with an expanded kitchen that also entails the construction of a wraparound deck giving your home a whole new ‘chic’ look. Such major home remodeling projects would require the expertise of Seattle architects.
The initial reaction of most homeowners about the prospect of hiring a Seattle residential architect would be to find the justifications for such additional cost for the said major project. An expert residential architect would be needed for the formulation of comprehensive plans and designs that will reflect your family’s needs, wants and desires.
Getting Free Home Improvement Grants
You may be able to save a small fortune on home repairs and remodeling if you are eligible to qualify for free home improvement grants. More than half of the national population is eligible to advantage this generous funding, which is distributed by the United States government, but provided by we the American taxpayers.
So if you have ever paid taxes on any dollar you have earned or spent, as we all have, and are in need of financial support to repair your home or property, there could be a great deal of free government money waiting for you.
Construction Equipment Basics
Cranes, excavators, loaders and any other large equipment you might find on a construction site are considered construction equipment. While some of you might see construction equipment as hammers, saws, and other smaller items they are in fact construction tools. Are you looking for some construction equipment to help you with your next job? If so you need to know a little bit about the equipment available.
Cranes: You can have many types of canes from the all terrain hydraulic crane, to the boom truck. A boom truck is a piece of construction equipment that has a flat bed with a crane on it rather than a smaller cab for the crane with tracks. This crane system can be used to haul the material as well as move the crane about while hydraulic cranes tend to need a trailer and then roll off to be placed on the ground. These types of cranes tend to rotate 360 degrees.
Construction Safety – your Responsibilities as a Client
To begin with it’s perhaps worth looking at what the CDM regulations are and put simply they have been introduced to ensure construction projects are safe to build, use and be maintained whilst delivery good value to the client. As well as this they have also been put into place to ensure through good health and safety planning projects are well managed and problems and unexpected costs are kept to minimum levels.
For some this may seem like yet more regulation and unnecessary paperwork and processes but in reality the CMD 2007 regulations have been introduced to ensure construction and building work is done by competent people who work safely and efficiently.
When it comes to requirements of clients (or the person having the work carried out) the regulations don’t apply to domestic clients. A domestic client is defined as being someone who will or does live in the premises where the work is being carried out. The premises at which at work is being done must not also relate to any trade, business or other undertaking for the client to be deemed as domestic.
The Construction Industry is Looking for New Recruits
Bridging the Gap in the Construction Industry
by Tal Potishman
With green blankets covering the buildings and cranes slicing through skylines serving as a constant reminder of Britain’s building boom, it can be difficult to imagine that the commercial building industry is affected by the economic crisis. The fact that the industry is not cutting back – while other industries are – seems to indicate the explosion of new construction works have not come to an end. The problem, it seems, is a lack of workers to fill the demands of construction companies.
The dearth of skilled construction workers becomes most apparent when looking at last year’s figures. 13,000 building projects were initiated in 2007 alone, and in order to support these projects, some 18,600 labourers were needed. The deficiency in skills is therefore widespread, expanding from the trade to the non-trade. Within trades, the highest annual requirements come from the wood and the electrical trades, but demands are also high for brick-layers and construction specialists. In the non-trades, construction managers, business processing managers, architects, office-based IT recruits, and technical and professional staff are among those on high demand.
This worrying dearth is primarily due to three reasons: 1) As a result of the building boom; 2) the dwindling numbers of East Europeans in the trade; 3) the misperceptions of recruiters about what construction work involves.
Stats