Home Renovation Vs. Remodel
Having moved into a 1877 Victorian terraced house that’s in need of some TLC, I’ve read and watched many tutorials that use ‘home renovation’ and ‘home remodel’ interchangeably but from speaking to builders there is a difference between the two terms.
You are considered to be doing a home renovation when you are restoring a building to a good state of repair. Essentially, a renovation is the act of restoring or repairing an existing building back to its original good condition, due to it being in a state of disrepair because of it being dilapidated or poorly maintained.
A home remodel refers to changing the building’s structure and form, an example of this is changing the layout of a house by removing walls or adding an extension to the house.
To help provide more clarification, here are four common scenarios where the term home renovation applies.
Examples Of A Home Renovation
1. Dealing With Subsidence Issues
Especially with older properties, it’s extremely important to identify any structural issues with the building as early as possible. It goes without saying that the quality of a building’s foundation is paramount as its purpose is to support the structure of the house. Any work to help prevent or resolve issues with subsidence or underpinning with the existing house structure will all be referred to as a home renovation.
2. Restoring Original Features
For many people, including myself, one of the reasons why you fall for a house can be the charm of its original features, such as original plaster coving in rooms, and the opportunity to restore and reinstate features that may have not been maintained well over the years.
It’s completely down to personal preference but it’s always worth considering the cost benefits of restoring original features, such as floorboards, in comparison to the cost of covering or replacing them with modern options.
Restoring original features can also help towards retaining and increasing the value of the property. Such original features include; thatched roofs, timber beams, sash windows, original floors and tiles, original doors, cast-iron fireplaces and radiators and original mouldings.
3. Resolving Any Damp Issues
It’s not uncommon for old houses that have solid walls as opposed to modern cavity walls to show signs of damp – whether it’s current damp or signs of damp from the past. There are numerous reasons why damp can occur and it’s always necessary to investigate the cause from the start and identify whether it’s impacting the structural integrity of the building.
There are numerous reasons why damp may occur, from more substantial causes such as drainage issues around the foundations of the house, to more straight-forward causes such as lack of poor air ventilation.
4. Making The House Watertight
Ensuring that your house is watertight is an extremely important home renovation step. When it comes to older properties in particular, it’s worth paying the additional money for a comprehensive building survey and a damp and timber survey prior to purchase. Both surveys will provide insight on the roof structure and what repairs are needed on guttering, external walls, doors and windows to help ensure the house is watertight.
An Example Of A Home Remodel
In my Victorian terraced house the original design is typical of the time period, where rooms were purposely made smaller to help retain heat.
At the time of writing this, our dining room is separate to our small kitchen and doesn’t enable how my boyfriend and I like to socialise whilst cooking and eating. Therefore, the plan is to remove internal and externals walls to join both rooms and extend into the garden to maximise the space and allow as much light in as possible.
The removal of walls and the addition of an extension is typical of a home remodel.
If you’d like to see my home renovation (and home remodel) take a look at my YouTube channel and Instagram account to follow along with the progress.