Coronavirus (Part 2): what does this mean for renovators?
Written by Neil + Fi
In part 1 of these blogs we discussed managing the changes to home and work life throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Here we’ll cover our predictions on the impact it could have if you’re renovating and how to manage the changes.
Before we dive in our How to Renovate a House Online course is currently on sale – so if your renovation is getting you down and you feel like you need something to get you re-energised and working on the planning, budgeting and design while we’re in lockdown, enroll before Sunday. Enter FIFI50 for an extra discount ››
As we have seen from the reaction by some of our citizens it’s easy to panic in times of crisis.
It’s also easy to think that things will never be the same again.
For our own sanity we’ve got to keep things in perspective. Life will go on. Humans have an amazing ability to adapt and bounce back.
For many of you reading this, like us, the Covid-19 situation will have struck right in the middle of your renovation, or just before you’re about to start the next project.
At present we are in the middle of our bedroom renovation. Everything has been put on hold as we can’t have tradesmen in, but we’re still moving things forward by planning, designing, purchasing paint samples online, sanding/decorating and more.
Much of life, between your 4 walls, can continue as normal with government advice being closely practiced. Yes work is halted and will slow down, but you can still make progress and use the “down time” constructively.
We asked our Instagram community: “How has Covid 19 effected your renovation positively?”
Timelines may be screwed, but in times like these we must try to use everything we can to our advantage and continue to progress in every way we can to make our space a home.
Our advice navigating Covid-19 if you’re renovating
1. Pay for everything on a credit card
At such an uncertain time, businesses we know and love are likely to struggle and go bust. We’ve already seen Laura Ashley under jeopardy (although it looks like they are being bought out at time of writing). It’s inevitable that we’ll see more home decor brands buckle under these new pressures. You might be used to paying for everything with a debit card and our advice is to make yourself financially that bit safer and pay by credit card.
If a company goes bust, you will most probably not get your money back. If you pay for everything on credit card then goods or services you paid for that cost you between £100 and £30,000 will be covered by the credit card company – so it’s a good safety measure to start practicing from now.
2. Appliances like fridges and freezers may be tricky to source
As people are unnecessarily preparing for an end of the world situation, stocking up on frozen food, they’ll likely be buying new appliances for their garages and utility rooms for extra fridge/freezer space. A spare fridge/freezer is a luxury, and one of those items people’s to do list if they have extra space, but it never becomes a priority to get one until suddenly you feel you ‘need’ to stock pile. Our response is, don’t. There’s plenty of food in the supply chain if we all buy what we need when we absolutely need it. And if you’re having your kitchen done currently, don’t throw your old appliances out until you’ve got the new ones delivered.
3. Expect longer lead times
While demand may or may not increase for things like skirting board, radiators, furniture, home accessories, rugs, lighting, etc, delivery drivers and people in the supply chain being off sick because of self isolation is going to effect delivery times, that’s for sure. If you need anything urgently, then order it as soon as you know you need it because our prediction is that lead times could get a lot worse before it gets better. The curved radiator we’ve ordered for our bedroom is currently delayed. It’s being shipped from Italy. The communications from staff where we bought it have been superb.
4. Getting tradesmen to work on your exterior is a grey area – avoid it
It’s a sad fact that for self employed plumbers, carpenters, builders etc, they haven’t been getting the support they need from our government until now. Rishi Sunak thankfully announced an 80% wage support for self-employed, but that’s only on average monthly profits and could mean many of the newer tradesmen need to continue working or risk not putting food on the table for themselves and families. Until there is a non-grey area lock down, some trades may look for exterior jobs such as roof repairs, gutter cleaning, garage building and landscaping. Be careful about this as it’s not essential work and you don’t want to be caught out by police passing by.
5. Regardless of lock-downs and self-isolation, your renovation can still continue
Our renovation has arguably been supercharged now that we are both at home and have more time to DIY. Think about how you can use any spare time productively, for example:
Painting a couple of walls on your lunch break
Having more time to plan, design, budget and manage your project (take a look at our online course to help you get all of your renovation prep work done up front – it’s on sale currently)
Getting quotes for work – send photos and measurements to tradesmen to price up future work
Accept deliveries much more freely now that there’s always someone home – our skirting board arrived just today!
There are so many tasks that we have been able to get on with with whilst getting a bit more time back.
6. People may prefer to hold off their renovation completely
It’s difficult to know what the government might do next in terms of telling us what to do. Stricter isolation rules may be put in place. Some renovators may choose to pause their renovation completely, or indeed pause it because they are self-isolating. It’s worth keeping in contact with your contractors to understand how they are impacted and stay close on timings. You don’t want this all to go back to normal and have another project dangled in front of them, making them too busy to do yours. So the odd text to check in and see if all is well is a good way to stay in contact.
7. Furniture, home accessories, lighting, building supplies will all come down in price
With the crisis deepening, we expect many companies will discount their products in order to encourage traffic to their websites and purchases. Be on the look out for discounts on products and services that are based around the ability to do things around home, DIY products, online learning etc. We have discussed how we can encourage people to stay focused and productive by doing our own online course whilst everyone is ‘hunkering down’ so if you’re interested, check it out whilst it’s on sale.
In Summary
In a time of uncertainty, there’s only a few things that we can guarantee, and one of those is that we’ll be spending a lot more time at home over the next few months. There’s a clear increase in DIY happening as people spend more time at home – your renovation doesn’t have to be put completely on hold. Use this time wisely and make it flourish and progress over the coming months.
Stay safe, follow government guidelines and don’t put others at risk.
We hope this post has helped in some way,
Neil and Fi
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