According to a recent Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy report, more than 60% of American homes have garages these days. If you’re lucky enough to have one, you should make the most of it.
You should also make it a point to tackle a garage remodel when the time comes. There are all kinds of great garage remodel ideas that you can put to good use to maximize the space that you have.
Before you hire a garage remodel company and get down to business, you should learn about the most common garage remodel mistakes. It’ll help you to avoid the missteps that so many people make when designing home garages.
Here are seven garage remodel mistakes that should be on your radar.
1. Taking the DIY Approach to Garage Remodeling
If you’re going to go through with remodeling a garage, you might kick around the idea of trying to tackle the job yourself. It can, after all, cost thousands of dollars to renovate a garage.
But this is one of the worst garage remodel mistakes you can possibly make! If you don’t know what you’re doing while remodeling a garage, it could turn into a nightmare in no time at all.
You’ll be so much better off hiring a garage remodel company to assist you. They’ll make sure that your garage remodeling project gets done right from the start.
2. Hiring the Wrong Garage Remodeling Company to Help You
Hiring a garage remodeling company to lend a hand is going to be well worth it. But you will, of course, want to be sure that you bring the right company on board to avoid making another one of the most prevalent garage remodel mistakes.
If you need help with, say, adding an attached garage to your home, you should look high and low for a company that has experience in this area. Otherwise, you might end up with a new garage that you don’t absolutely love when it’s finished.
3. Jumping Into the Garage Remodeling Process Without a Plan
If you’ve been thinking about remodeling a garage for quite some time now, you likely have a million and one garage remodel ideas in your head. You might be tempted to dive headfirst into trying to pull all of them off.
But you’ll be making a big garage remodel mistake if you do this. You should instead take some time to map out your project from beginning to end. It’ll keep your project organized and make sure you don’t overlook any important details.
4. Using Low-Quality Materials Throughout Garage Remodeling
Why go through the trouble of remodeling a garage only to use substandard materials during it? This is, hands down, one of the dumbest garage remodel mistakes you can make.
If you utilize low-quality materials while remodeling a garage, you’ll pay the price for doing it later. Your garage won’t last for as long as it should, and it also won’t always function in the way that you need it to.
5. Failing to Take Advantage of Available Space During Garage Remodeling
Unless you currently have a three- or four-car garage attached to your home, your garage probably doesn’t provide you with that much space. Even two-car garages can start to feel a little tight once you start putting things inside of them.
But just because a garage might not offer a ton of square footage doesn’t mean you can’t make good use of every single square inch of it. You should be able to find a garage storage system that will allow you to utilize everything from your garage walls to the space that exists at the top of your garage.
You should look at your garage as a blank slate and come up with ideas for filling it from top to bottom. Every item that you put in your garage should have a clear purpose and should be a great usage of your space.
6. Forgetting to Establish a Garage Remodel Budget
As we alluded to earlier, it’s not uncommon at all for a garage remodel to come in at over $10,000. The total price that you’ll be asked to pay will depend on what exactly you want to do to your garage. But it might cost you a pretty penny to get your garage the way you like it.
That being said, you shouldn’t just assume that garage remodeling is going to cost a lot of money and operate without a budget. It’ll be imperative that you establish a garage remodel budget from the beginning. It’ll keep your garage remodel moving in the right direction and prevent you from going into debt during it.
7. Making a Garage Unsafe During Garage Remodeling
Your home’s garage shouldn’t be expected to be the safest place in your home. It’s going to be filled with things that could potentially cause safety risks.
But even still, you should make it your mission to keep safety at the forefront of your mind while designing a new garage. The last thing that you want to do is put your family in harm’s way in your new garage.
From installing a fire extinguisher in your garage to putting down non-slip flooring, you should do whatever it takes to keep your new space safe. You shouldn’t make the mistake of just assuming your garage is going to be safe.
Avoid Making Any of These Crucial Garage Remodel Mistakes
Remodeling your home’s garage should be an exciting endeavor. It shouldn’t be something that stresses you out.
But you’re going to begin to feel stressed if you make any of the garage remodel mistakes that we’ve listed here. You might also feel like you wasted a bunch of money on your garage if you realize that you made any of these mistakes later. Avoid them at all costs by taking the tips found here to heart.
Would you like to learn about some of the mistakes people make while remodeling other parts of their homes so that you can avoid them? Find out all about them in our other blog articles.
