Lansing Whole House Remodeling

What starts as a small project can often lead down the whole-house remodeling road. First, it begins with deciding to paint an accent wall, then deciding the trim doesn’t look good and the ceiling needs some work. Before you know it, you’re replacing cabinets! You were going to do a little weekend DIY and the next thing you know, you’re in the middle of a 6-month second story addition project!

R. L. Rider Remodeling has heard countless tales similar to this one – and we know how to work with you to get your dream remodel completed by planning ahead. Read on for a definition of a whole-house remodel, what to consider for your project, and when it makes sense to go all-in and do a complete revitalization of your home.

What is a Whole-House Remodel?

A whole-house remodel has different meanings depending on who you talk to. There’s a fine line but we usually consider a project “whole-house” if there are three or more rooms with substantial work to be performed. The modifications must be pretty robust and/or involve an addition or total reworking of a space e.g. knocking out a wall or relocating a stairway.

Another useful line of distinction is that whole-house work will affect all other parts of the house, even if work is not directly performed there. For example, we would deem a project with two total bathroom remodels and a couple of bedroom updates “whole-house” because the project is over three rooms and the bathroom updates may require plumbing modifications that affect the rest of the home. A project with five minor bedroom updates (painting, carpet, etc.) is not considered “whole-house” since the work is contained to each room and will not have a great impact on the home at large.

Cohesive Designing, Planning, & Scheduling

Holistic, cohesive design is the single biggest factor if you want your whole-house remodel to be successful. There could be 10 different ways to achieve the goals you have for your house, but how do you choose the best option for you and your family? Because we are a full-service design/build firm, we have full control over the process and have the invaluable experience of working through hundreds of remodels. This gives us the ability and accuracy to tell you exactly what is going to happen, when it will occur, and how that impacts other pieces of the project.

When and Why You Should Remodel an Entire House

Every whole-house remodel will have a unique schedule and path to completion. That being said, there are some general rules that apply no matter what. When thinking about when to start the remodel, the rule that normally applies is “the sooner the better.” Big projects take time, and if there’s any outdoor component to the job then the time of year must be taken into consideration as well. There are a million variables that go into delivering a client an accurate schedule, and then a million more to make sure that schedule is adhered to. See our page Scheduling & Timelines to get a better feel for how long your project will take or give us a call and we can tell you over the phone with just a few details about your project.

Why you want to renovate your entire home is a different story. Change in lifestyle is one of the main reasons we see for starting a project. Empty nesters have large amounts of new space to use that probably wasn’t available for 20+ years. We also see kids inherit property from their parents or extended family that might need some intensive TLC. A desire for a more open layout has been popular in recent years, and it appears to be a strong trend moving forward. Sometimes, an interior is so dated that it’s time to call in the experts, tear it all down, and start from scratch!

While these are all great reasons to get going on a whole-house project, we cannot professionally recommend renovating with the sole purpose of selling. You will never get more return from selling than you put into the remodel itself, so unless it’s just a room or two that needs an update you might want to reconsider.

Why Whole House Renovations Make Sense

Let’s take a break here and think about why whole-house remodeling makes sense – after all it’s an expensive and time-consuming undertaking. This section’s logic assumes that you have already made the decision to perform extensive work on your home and want to know the most efficient and cost-effective path to completion. R. L. Rider Remodeling will provide you with estimates, price breakouts, and head-to-head comparisons of project timelines to help you make the choice on whether to do all your desired work at once or tackle it piece by piece as your budget and schedule allow. Here are the reasons why doing all the work at once makes sense.

Enjoy your improvements – a project completed sooner allows more time to enjoy the new space as well as the removal of all the annoyances you had with your old house.

Less overall working time – construction has a lot of little things that go into it from beginning to completion and add up over time. Items such as site protection, dumpster delivery, and final cleaning take time and effort like everything else. As the job gets split into multiple phases, these “set up times” will multiply by the number of total phases.

Minimal time living with construction – there’s no way around it, construction is noisy and messy, that’s why you have the pros do it. The faster and more efficiently we do our job, the faster you get back to normal day-to-day life.

Simpler overall job – doing a job all at once will make life easier on every trade. If you divide into phases, then there might be some awkward stopping points or having to redo work that was affected by a previous stage. A whole-house remodel avoids such issues.

Less overall cost – you may have been doing mental math looking at the above items, and you’d be correct if you felt that each item would add cost. Any time we can avoid setting up a job site or going over previous work, that’s a direct savings to the client.

Whole-House Remodeling Considerations

Some additional items to think about when remodeling your entire home involve updating and modernizing your infrastructure. One huge advantage as mentioned above is getting to remove the annoying things that drive you crazy about your living space. A common example is adding extra insulation to interior walls to better sound-proof rooms. You won’t have to be interrupted by whatever sounds the washer and dryer decide to make anymore.

Jumping back to infrastructure, we’ve found that a whole-house update is a perfect time to upgrade essential systems such as your HVAC, water heater, gas meter, and electrical panel. If there’s an addition or extra bathroom being added, then calculations must be made to account for the additional loads on your existing support systems. Is your water heater up to the challenge of a large bathtub, does the heat reach the new living space effectively, can your fireplace demand a better gas supply, etc. Whole-house remodels offer a good opportunity to revitalize the exterior of your house as well. Doors, windows, siding, roofs, and trim can start to feel dated or not match your new style.

Basement Finishing & Remodeling

If your home has an unfinished basement and you’re ready to finish it, you’ve come to the right place! R. L. Rider Remodeling can handle full basement finishing projects, including finishing or building new walls, painting, flooring, built-ins, bars, entertainment centers, and so much more. Anything you can dream up, we can create!

We also offer basement remodeling services. Similar to our other remodeling services, we follow the same process that ensures our customers get a final result they’ll love.

Why Trust R. L. Rider Remodeling with Your Remodel?

If you’re looking for a whole-house remodel, including basement finishing, then R. L. Rider Remodeling is the right choice as your remodeling contractor!