Know a little bit about buying a house every day, Feng Shui, Home Decoration, Life Creativity

Chapter 23 Home Improvement Budget: Accurate Planning, Knowing the Cost (2)
Shop Around: How to Stay on Your Home Improvement Budget

Generally speaking, it is unrealistic to let yourself become an expert in home improvement budget in a short period of time.Ordinary designers and decoration companies that operate on the so-called "material integration" are essentially selling materials.They often persuade owners to buy brand-name home improvement products in order to earn kickbacks.

People all want to be beautiful and save money when decorating their homes, but saving money does not mean reducing the quality and effect of home decoration.The quality of decoration materials is usually divided into three grades: upper, middle and lower. However, the price of materials of the same grade will also vary due to different sources. Project review.Only by making a good budget plan can the owner avoid the home improvement settlement amount greatly exceeding the budget.

The preliminary scheme design stage is the most effective link to control the cost of home improvement, and it is also the most important part of the home improvement budget.The size of the home improvement project, the number of decoration items, and the grade of materials used are all determined by the design. The owner must properly grasp the grade of the project and materials according to his own situation, so as to formulate a budget plan that saves money.The owner should carry out the style positioning of the decoration according to his own specific situation, and communicate more with the designer in the process of formulating the preliminary design plan.

At present, there are mainly three kinds of project contracting methods in the decoration market, among which the method of "the owner purchases the main materials by himself, and part of the project contract labor and auxiliary materials" is the most adopted in the decoration market.The owner orders and selects materials in person, and the material cost can be spent more transparently. However, the owner needs to pay attention to that the home improvement budget made by the home improvement company only includes the project budget made by the home improvement company, and does not include the materials ordered by the owner himself. project budget.The budget list of home improvement companies mainly includes water, electricity, line pipes, etc., and some projects often only list items and unit prices without specific quantities, thus leaving a "live" for the settlement, which may make the settlement much higher than the budget.

If the owner wants to save money, he must consider reducing the amount of work as much as possible during the design stage.When ordering materials, you should consult several shopping malls. When ordering, you should calculate the amount of materials more accurately to avoid too much or too little, because some materials, such as floor tiles and skirtings that have been cut, cannot be returned.It is recommended that the owner is best to buy discounted brand materials, which can save money and ensure quality.

There are tricks to save: what can be saved and what can't be saved

For everyone, home decoration can only be done a few times in a person's life, and the proportion of decoration costs in household consumption is relatively large. Many people will consider how to do it to save money and achieve good effect.In fact, as long as some details are cleverly arranged to distinguish which items can be saved and which items should not be saved, you can get a decoration effect that is worth the money.

When decorating, the budget in the following aspects can be saved:

1. The frequency of use of switches is high, and the requirements for quality are relatively high, while the frequency of use of sockets is relatively low. TVs, refrigerators and other electrical appliances will not be plugged in and out for a long time after they are plugged in. The quality requirements relatively low.In addition, the switch is usually installed in a conspicuous position and needs to have a certain decorative effect, while the socket is usually installed in a relatively hidden position and has relatively low requirements for decoration.

2. For decorations, curtains, lamps, etc. hanging on the wall, you can choose relatively cheap ones. If they are broken, they will be more convenient to repair, and you can save some money when decorating.

3. In family life, people spend the longest time in contact with the ground, and the time in direct contact with the wall is relatively short. Therefore, you can choose general brand products for wall paint and kitchen and bathroom wall tiles, which can save a lot of money. funds.

When decorating, some materials cannot be saved.Saving everywhere when decorating can save some money, but things bought at a low price often need to be replaced in a short time.Under normal circumstances, the following items cannot be saved during decoration:
1. Electrical wiring is the place where safety hazards are most likely to occur, and because it is relatively hidden, it often brings inconvenience to maintenance. Therefore, it is very important to ensure the quality of electrical materials.Under normal circumstances, it is best to use famous brand products recommended by the state for these materials, and you must ask for a product certificate when purchasing.

2. Once there is a problem with the waterway, not only will it cause economic losses to the family, but it may also affect the residents downstairs. Therefore, money on waterway pipelines cannot be saved, especially for frequently used components such as valves and faucets. Spending money on high-quality products may seem wasteful on the surface, but it can bring convenience to life in the future.

3. The door lock should be able to open and close freely, and the spring elasticity should be good, so as not to cause problems such as the door lock cannot be opened or it is easy to be pried open.The quality of the drawer rails must be good to ensure that the drawers can be pulled flexibly; poor-quality waterproof materials not only cannot waterproof, but contain a lot of harmful substances.Therefore, these items must not be saved when purchasing.

Clever recognition: various pitfalls in the home improvement budget

The decoration quotation seems to be clearly written, but why is it still tricky?It is indeed not easy for ordinary owners to understand the decoration quotation, because there is a lot of professional knowledge hidden under the rules of the quotation, and many decoration companies make a big fuss by taking advantage of the professional knowledge that these owners cannot understand.

Many owners know that decoration companies may have many pitfalls in budget and construction, so most of them go to the market to understand the price of materials before decoration.However, the information they know is often the current unit price of flooring, ceramic tiles and other home improvement materials, but they do not necessarily understand the labor costs of floor installation and tiling.

Some decoration companies will take the initiative to provide the owner with a list of project budgets before starting construction, and these budget items are often unilateral by the decoration company.This seemingly detailed quotation is likely to increase the area intentionally when calculating the construction area, or calculate the area according to the maximum size at irregularities, so that the materials on the quotation do not match the actual ones used, especially at the grassroots level. False and inferior materials to reduce costs, or deliberately increase material loss, or increase the amount of work after loss, and so on.

Judging from the current quotations in the home improvement market, there are many decoration companies that adopt the price decomposition method to quote. They break down a single project into multiple sub-items at will, and then quote separately for each sub-item.When quoting, also increase the price accordingly or double count a small number of items.Because the owner doesn't know much about the decoration project or the decoration company breaks it down very secretly, many hidden costs are not easy to detect, which makes the total decoration price increase a lot unconsciously.

With the owners' continuous understanding of the home decoration market, some home improvement companies deliberately sign contracts at low prices when soliciting business, and contract business. , Reduce material grades and other methods to shoddy, in order to achieve the purpose of reducing decoration costs and obtaining more profits.

Important: Remember to sign the decoration contract
Nowadays, many owners often do not pay attention to the signing of the decoration contract when they are decorating. Once conflicts or problems occur, the owners will fall into a very passive situation, and it is difficult to protect their legitimate rights and interests.When the owner is satisfied with the design plan and decoration budget provided by the decoration company, he should enter the link of signing the decoration contract.Signing a renovation contract means that future renovations must be done in accordance with the provisions of the contract.

Sometimes, there will be various price traps in the decoration contract, such as separate calculation of large-volume projects such as coatings and floor tiles, and increase the unit price at the same time. At this time, even if the unit price increases by 1 to 2 yuan, the entire project cost will increase a lot; Some home improvement companies offer very low initial quotations, but deliberately omit items in the home improvement contract signed with the owner. Since the owner does not know much about the decoration matters, although the price agreed upon signing the contract is not high, when the home improvement settlement is settled, As a lot of content has been added, so has the cost.

In the decoration contract, the following parts should be stipulated: the main body of the project, including the name of the construction site, which is the subject of execution of the contract; the name of both parties, that is, the object of execution of the contract; Valuation, total, remarks (mainly used to indicate some special process methods), etc., most of these parts are written in the project budget or quotation form in the form of attachments; project calculations, including how many days the construction period is, liquidated damages, etc.; payment Method, the regulation on the method of payment; regulations on the various quality and safety responsibilities during the construction process; the signature and date of the representatives of both parties, as one of the company, also includes the company's seal.

(End of this chapter)