Renovating With Least Disruption
Any renovation is going to be messy – you can expect all kinds of chaos and dirt including mud, sawdust, brick and concrete dust, ripped up floors, ripped out walls, insulation dust, snips off the ends of new electrical wiring, paint and plaster debris, earth tracked in on tradies’ boots, the lawn and garden dug up or trampled over – but it is worth it in the end, and there are ways to minimise the upheavals.
Some practical methods to reduce the disruption include:
Tackling your renovation one room at a time
Doing the renovation in stages over time – so you can plan ahead for the changes
Installing external insulation or “outsulation” over the exterior cladding to avoid disturbing the interior spaces
Tackling renovations in the same area all at once – such as doing a new roof, new roofing underlay, new ceiling insulation and a heat recovery ventilation system all at the same time while you’re in the roof space
“A pitched roof board, high performing foam insulation – often we can increase the thermal performance of the roof without interrupting tenancy below, where the roofing iron comes off and potentially the old underlay. We go in, lay new insulation, put counter battens on, re-lay the underlay and the roofing iron – a fantastic way to quickly and effectively increase thermal performance of the existing stock without interrupting tenants.”
Candice Smith: Kingspan Thermacraft
“Depending on their budget, you can do some really cool stuff with a fairly small budget, there’s lots of ways you can improve a building – whether it’s removing the internal linings and insulating from the inside, or leaving all the inside and removing the exterior cladding, insulating from the outside.”
Dave Gunter: Coastal Designs
“Solar installation process – very straightforward on any existing home – can tailor the system to the lines of the home. Old villas that get renovated to modern living standards, all the way through to homes that were designed a couple of years ago – can work with any of the major roofing materials.”
Chris Dearsley: Harrisons Solar
“We don’t have to remove the existing roof so you’re not exposing your property to the elements – raining, during the renovation process, a much safer system – just go straight over your existing roof structure and create a new roof – insulated, water tight and cost effective.”
Jeff Fitness: SealCo
“If you’re doing a deep retrofit where you’re stripping off the linings from the inside plus the claddings then you can attack it from both sides, which is really good – but if you can’t afford or don’t want to strip out the internal linings, you can do the outside – so you can then insulate from the outside.”
Dan Saunders: Dan Saunders Construction
“Refurbishments put flexible coating over a sound existing system – a brick house, at the time it’s a fancy brick, now it’s – mmm cringe worthy. We can put our system over it. As soon as we put our system on top of it it’s a dry cavity so it makes your house a wee bit more comfortable.”
Harry Puttock: Sto NZ (2024)
“Renovations can be intrusive on the home owner with builders in the house. The first question I ask the couple is ‘how strong is your marriage, because this is going to be a testing experience for you’.”
Gary Peters: SelectSIP (2024)
