Is It Possible To Stay In The House While The Reno Is Going On?

[iamyun 0]

Hi

We are thinking to renovate our 4-room flat after a stay of almost 20 years. However, my parents do not wish to rent a place to stay while the renovation is going on. The main concern is there is no rental of about 1 or 2 months in the current market. The minimum criteria is 6 months, if i did not see it wrongly.

As such, if we decide to proceed with the renovation, is it possible to have the process in a managable manner in which we can still stay in the house? Unless we abort the reno plan, we still have to think of a better way to go through the reno process.

Please share your experience, if you were in the same dilemma or situation like us.

Thank you.

[january 0]

It depends on the extent of the reno.

If you are doing any hacking, ceiling, plumbing and electrical works, I suggest that you move somewhere else during the reno as it will be very noisy, dusty and unbearable. If you're just doing carpentry it might be possible, but the smell of the glue can be an issue so I still wouldn't advise you to stay in the house.

Btw, there are short term rentals around, but don't expect spanking new apartments. When we reno-ed our place 5 years ago, we rented a place for 2 months in an old condo that was to be en-bloc-ed. So it's possible. Or perhaps your parents can stay with you for the time being, and you can rent a storage space for a few months for their stuff.

Hope this helps.

[blue_skies 3]

Possible, but very torturous and very dusty especially if hacking is going to be taking place. The dust is really bad even if you "seal" the bottom of the doors with cloth.

My parents renovated our old home when I was still schooling. All 4 of us camped in one room for almost 2 mths, mostly ate out and sometimes had to bathe with cold water when the water heaters were removed and make do with bulbs dangling from the ceiling. We hacked the flooring in the living room. toilets and kitchen, and also redo all plumbing and electrical wiring in the house. Only the bedroom floors were untouched.

It's not for the faint hearted and definitely not suitable if you have elderly or very young children in the house as it can be quite dangerous with all the debris lying around. Plus we slept on foldable mattresses coz we kept all the other furniture in the other bedrooms while the reno was on-going.

I wouldn't go through it again if I had a choice

[jawskie 0]

Heya, yes, there are short term rentals available. Just check out the normal rental ads and then negotiate.

[yeo99 0]

It is possible, see my T-blog. We have done it. But I would not recommend if you have young kids and elderly around.

T-blog

Hacking of the toilets and kitchen tiles should not be a problem, it only take two days the most. The most dusty part is the tiling work and plastering due to the cements and white plaster.

If possible, try to minimize the hacking and the plastering especially in the rooms. For the bedrooms, just overlay the floor with laminate flooring so that you can stay in the bedrooms during the renovation. It is impossible to hack the bedroom tiles with your furniture inside the room.

Be mentally prepared for all the inconvenience created. Only think that you can save a few thousand of the dollars and the renovations will come to the end soon, to keep you going.... .

It is the best to stay outside and store your furniture in the warehouse as it is more easy for the workers to work and the progress can be faster.

[gumbokins 5]

My parents did their toilets and kitchen about 10 yrs back, when I was in poly. I had a huge pile of cement right outside my bedroom door. It was noisy, dusty, all sorts of inconvenience. It was awful! So one night I decided to stay overnight at my friend's house, to get away from it all, and my mother FORBADE IT SHE SCOLDED ME until like what and I believe she accused me of abandoning the family and how if they had to put up with it I had to blah blah blah blah blah.

good. grief.

When i bought my current place, there were tenants staying there. I already had legal ownership of the flat and needed to start my renovations quickly but the tenants were not happy with the prev owner (their landlord). Long drama ensued, but I had to put my foot down and tell them that they're going to start the works regardless of whether they all moved or not. At first they said OK OK, no problem, can renovate while they stay there but after 1-2 days they decided enough was enough.