Five Unexpected Consequences of Renovating Your Home That Could Backfire
Home renovation projects always start with excitement —you’ll finally solve all those pesky problems, update outdated aspects of your home, and live the life you deserve! And sometimes it does work, but there are many reasons why a renovation can go wrong. That’s why nearly three-quarters of homeowners regret their renovations to some degree.
Most reasons for remodeling regret are fairly simple: cost overruns, dissatisfaction with the end result, or shoddy workmanship (either from contractors or DIY) are the issues that most people worry about when embarking on a renovation project. But there are other, less obvious ways that your renovation plans can backfire on you—problems that only seem obvious in retrospect.
Utility red marks
One day I innocently called the local utility company to come and repair my water heater, and ended the day with the dreaded “red tag” on my mechanical room—a paper notice that I needed to bring something up to code. The worst part? The problem had nothing to do with my water heater , furnace, or anything else – it was the door to my mechanical room . When we renovated our house, they gave us a new door and it didn’t have built-in ventilation. After the renovation, we passed the city inspection, but now the utility company insisted that I install shutters in the door.
In another case, a utility worker came and noticed that our electrical panel was right in the wall. They informed me that there was a new requirement to cover the panels, so we had to build a rather ridiculous box around the panel.
These are mild cases, it can be much worse. The neighbor next door is renovating his home and the utility company discovered that he shares a gas supply with his neighbor and now it needs to be separated and rerouted, even though neither of them has ever had a problem. The project adds weeks to the renovation schedule and is annoying for everyone involved. Often our homes have less-than-ideal furnishings or infrastructure that was substandard decades ago, and when the utility company comes in, you’re suddenly the proud owner of a shiny red tag and your renovation has just backfired on you.
Hidden problems
Your utility company doesn’t have to be involved in the repair to ruin your day. Simply opening walls and floors can lead to all sorts of scenarios where something that is working fine suddenly needs to be replaced at great cost and frustration:
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Wiring. You have exactly zero electrical problems – no flickering, no shorting, no broken outlets. But when you open up the walls, you find that your wiring is outdated (most modern wiring will last about 50 years, but your panel usually has a shorter lifespan) and you suddenly have to replace it. While this may be a good idea from a safety perspective, it’s hard not to think that you could be living a happy life without even knowing it.
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Plumbing. Like your strength, you have never had a problem with your plumbing. Everything drains water, nothing leaks, water pressure is fine. Then your contractor digs into your walls and floors and suddenly the drainage slopes are wrong, the pipe connections are outdated and no longer up to code, and your supply lines are insufficient for today’s appliances.
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Permissions. More precisely, lack of permissions. Obtaining permits for new renovations can reveal that the previous owners did a lot of DIY work without getting a permit , and now you’re faced with an old job you had nothing to do with that has been retroactively permitted and may have been brought up to code before you can even begin the intended project.
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Creative work with your own hands. DIYers can work wonders: their work may look pretty good at a quick glance, but upon closer inspection it can seem like a shoddy, lazy mess. Whether it’s a living room floor that’s hanging on to wishes and dreams because the previous owner enthusiastically cut out every joist in the basement, or finding a bunch of buried electrical boxes that they didn’t bother to clean up properly, the ghosts of incompetent DIYers will haunt you the moment you start your own project.
Reduced home value
It’s true: sometimes a remodeling project can actually lower the value of your home . Sometimes changing personal taste takes effort, like wallpaper. Sometimes these are features that cost huge bills to maintain, such as swimming pools. Sometimes the practical solution is to remove something from the house—for example, removing one bedroom to expand another, or demolishing a garage to add a bedroom.
You shouldn’t assume that your renovations will pay for themselves by increasing the value of your home. If you want to change something because you like it a certain way, hey, it’s your home. But don’t be surprised if your decision to carpet your entire home causes its value to drop.
Pay for nothing
Hiring contractors can be stressful . You’re dealing with people who have specialized knowledge and connections that you lack, so it’s easy to feel intimidated. We rely on recommendations from friends and neighbors, online reviews, and the general atmosphere when they give you a price, but things can still go wrong. Some of these worst-case scenarios have obvious solutions: If a contractor takes you by surprise in the middle of a project, you hire someone else. But fixing a bad experience with a contractor can be surprisingly difficult, especially if you’re relying on a simple contract provided by the contractor itself when you hired them.
There are surprisingly few legal recourses against what’s known as a mechanic’s lien, a claim against your property aimed at forcing you to pay for work done there. If you refuse to pay a contractor for poor work, or for some reason try to fire him in the middle of a job, he can—and often does—put a lien on your home, and you’ll have to go to court to fight it. And there’s no guarantee that things will go your way, especially if the contract you signed is unclear on terms or other requirements.
For example, a woman refused to pay her contractors for renovation work that escalated to $500,000 and ended with an unfinished home with many defects. But the courts rejected most of her complaints, and she ended up paying her crappy contractor an additional $32,000 on top of a hefty legal bill. And she still had to hire someone to renovate and finish her house.
Stress in relationships
If you want to test the strength of your relationship with your partner, renovate a house with him. Renovating is so stressful that it can ruin even the strongest relationships: a 2018 survey found that 7% of people who worked on home projects together had seriously considered breaking up or getting divorced. Even if you don’t get to this point, there’s no doubt that living in a construction zone (or cramped rental apartment) for months, watching your savings dwindle, and daily disagreements over design choices and scope of work can have a negative impact on your partnership.
Renovations can also negatively impact your relationships with your neighbors. Months of dust, noise and contractors scurrying around will stress anyone out, and if your work damages your neighbor’s house in any way, things can heat up. You may end up with a beautifully renovated home but lose the friendly atmosphere you enjoyed on the block, so it’s worth nurturing those relationships while the work is underway.