Answers to commonly asked questions from the experts on Thumbtack.
How much will it cost to remodel my house?
The cost to remodel a home is highly variable — size and scope of the project, quality of materials, and the number of subcontractors required to complete the job all affect the total cost. The average national cost of a home renovation project is $13,500. The national average per-square-foot cost of a remodel ranges from $25 to $100. Nationally, kitchen and bathroom remodels are the most popular types of projects, in part because they typically have the highest return on investment when the home is sold. The national average cost of a major kitchen remodel ranges from $25,000 to $62,000, while the average bathroom remodel tends to cost $6,000 to $18,000. In addition to materials and labor costs, many remodeling project costs include permit fees, which, average $900 or more, depending on your location.
Do I need a contractor for a kitchen remodel?
A kitchen remodel is one of the most important investments you can make in your home, and it’s critical to get the details right; that’s where a home renovation contractor comes in. A minor remodel usually includes new cabinet faces and hardware, replacement appliances, and paint, while an extensive job may enlarge the kitchen’s square footage, install new cabinets or an island, change the layout, and lay new tile or hardwood floors. Any renovation that includes filing permits, construction, or electrical or plumbing work is best completed by an experienced contractor who knows local codes.
Why should you hire a contractor?
Hiring a general contractor is a good idea for many remodeling projects. Home renovation contractors have a broad range of skills to manage, coordinate and complete a project. They should help make sure your project comes in on time and within your budget as they hire and supervise all the necessary subcontractors, including electricians and plumbers. They also handle procuring all the materials required for your job. Some homeowners look to save money by acting as their own contractor, but an experienced home renovation contractor is worth the cost. They should know local building codes, be able to pull all necessary permits, and work with inspectors to make sure the construction meets local codes. Also, because they get professional discounts, they can typically buy materials at a better price than you can; better prices on materials and labor save you money, and make up for at least a percentage of the cost of the contractor.
When should you hire a contractor?
A few home remodeling projects can be done by an ambitious DIY-minded homeowner or local handyman, but many are best completed by a professional home renovation contractor. You should hire a contractor when you’re planning a large project that takes time, machinery or large tools, and several workers; a kitchen remodel, new bathroom or home addition will be most successful with a licensed, expert contractor at the helm. It’s particularly important to have a professional contractor on board for construction, electrical, plumbing and HVAC projects that require inspections to meet local building codes. Of course, you can hire a contractor for smaller projects, too, if you prefer to let an expert handle things like addition or removal of a wall, small framing projects, or anything that requires a permit.
You should hire a contractor when you’re ready to start a remodeling project and you have plans, a budget and a timeline for the work in hand, but before any remodeling work begins.
Reviews for Round Rock garage remodeling contractors
Marteshia l.
Fina was one of several general contractors to reach out to us shortly after we submitted our project here on Thumbtack. Our project was a full home remodel- ceiling to floor, inside and out and we chose her because of her customer reviews and pristine reputation. Fina came by for a complete walk through and evaluation of our home shortly after messaging me about our project. When she arrived, she was dressed very professional and she had a large notepad and pen, ready to take notes.
She listened to everything we were wanting done which ranged from removal of popcorn and painting of all ceilings and walls. Removal of old cabinets, and installation and painting of new cabinets. We needed a couple of walls torn down in the kitchen so that our home could be more open. We needed our dining room wall cut out, to place two new windows, and we needed all other windows replaced. All doors in our home needed to be replaced, and we wanted a sliding glass door to replace a small regular door that leads to our backyard. We also needed flooring.
Our home is a 1984 build (EXTREMELY OUTDATED), and has two small, full baths that we needed completely renovated. We wanted the master bathrooms tub removed and replaced with a walk-in shower, the guest bathroom needed a new tub and both bathrooms desperately needed new cabinets (painted), sinks, toilets, faucets, vanities, lights, mirrors, door knobs, cabinets handles, etc. We wanted those awful soffits to be torn out so that we could raise cabinets in the bathrooms and kitchen. Our guest bathroom now has marble tile in the tub area and niches above the sink, with gold trimming and gold accents. Our master bathroom now has a glass sliding door, river rock bottom, showerhead coming from the ceiling and a niche above the sink as well with beautiful tile. There are niches all through the tub area and walk in shower, so no more need for those bulky storage bins that hang from shower heads. Fina's master carpenter Juan, made us custom towel holders to go under the ceiling hung cabinets.
All trimming inside our home needed replacing, we needed 37 year old carpet ripped up and replaced with new vinyl flooring. Our home needed extra plug outlets, counter space, counter tops, ceiling fans, new door knobs/stops and more room for storage.
Fina listened attentively while taking notes and measurements, repeating back what was said to her, to ensure she had complete understanding of what we needed. She is also an artist, so she offered us creative solutions that we would have never thought of on our own and mentioned many cost-effective ideas so that we could save money. My husband and I were pleasantly surprised by how knowledgeable she is in a field that is predominantly owned and operated by men. She blew our minds with her ideas!
Fina left us that day to come up with a plan and in two weeks presented us with the most detailed spreadsheet that I've ever seen in my life. As an accountant, I appreciate details and knowing where every penny of my money is being allocated. Fina's spreadsheet listed our project step-by-step, with dollar amounts for every single task to be done. We literally had the chance to see in detail where every penny would be spent and who would be performing each task.
My husband and I agreed to the contract and the project started soon after.
Fina is like an engineer of living spaces and it was very refreshing to watch her and her team work together to give us exactly we were asking for and more. She is a woman that doesn't mind managing a large group of men with all different kinds of skills and trades. She does this with such grace and every man that worked under her learned something new from her each week. She didn't just sit back and bark orders, she non-hesitantly rolled her sleeves up and moved furniture, applied grout, painted, stained, cut backsplash, climbed ladders to help guide the installation of two large LVL beams, etc, etc, etc. This woman is a mastermind!
Since we discussed needing more space, Fina had her master carpenter (Juan) transform our entryway hall coat closet into a larger closet with shelving and a new larger (custom) door. We now have storage for towels and sheets. She also had Juan to enlarge one of our tiny guest bedroom closets from approximately 4 feet wide to almost the full length of that bedrooms wall. He also added a double hanging system to that as well, so that we could have a row for tops and a row underneath for bottoms. Each hanging system was custom made with real wood, and had shelving above each rod so that shoes can be stored. Fina also had the electrician (Max) to add a light with a wall switch to this closet, which wasn't there before, and we now have bi-folding closet doors.
Our second guest bedroom, Fina turned into my home office and thought it would be a good idea to transform the closet there into a nook to place my filing cabinet, bookshelf and printer. She also had Max to install a plug and light with switch in there which wasn't there before. Fina drew a new plan for a closet system in my office. There is now a closet that extends from a wall in the new office, that is much wider than the closet that was in there. It is tall enough to hang all of my evening gowns, my wedding dress and regular dresses, and she also created a shoe rack made of wood along the right wall inside of this closet. I am able to hang FIFTEEN pairs of heels there! Previously with all the shoes that I own and the very limited space to house them, my shoes were all hanging on the doors of every room in my house, in one of those over the door hanging shoe holders. This newly built closet also has a shelf at the top that can hold more shoes! Now all of my shoes have a home inside of my closets and not hanging outside of the doors.
In our master bedroom where there was just a huge wall, Fina had her team cut out an opening and place French doors there, adding an exterior light as well. She had Juan remake the hanging system in our tiny walk-in closet so that we could have 6 wooden rods to hang clothes on. Of course each rod has shelves to store more shoes! There is another small closet in our master bedroom that did not have a light, and Fina suggested that we add a light there to actually be able to see what was in the closet. She also suggested that we add a double hanging system to store more clothes and shelves on top of the hanging system...for more shoes! Boy was that a great idea!
Fina and her team installed all new ceiling fans in our entire home, added canned lighting with dimmers to the living room. She and her team tore down a wall that separated our kitchen from the living room and we now have a kitchen peninsula and can see our living room tv screen while cooking. She tore down a small wall that separated our kitchen from the washer and dryer, adding more counterspace and cabinets up top. The washer and dryer are on the same wall, but now on the other side in our garage. Our new countertops are granite and are absolutely stunning! Fina had Juan build us a custom liquor cabinet with a light (that she stained herself) that has wine holders up top and a mirror backed bottom to hold all of our liquors. She also had Juan build us a custom cabinet (that she stained) that hangs our wine/margarita/martini glasses upside down. The top part of the cabinets store more glasses on the shelves. Juan built us several new cabinet doors for some cabinets that we had, that Fina suggested were still in good condition. She used what she could salvage to extend our counterspace. Juan also built new sliding drawers on several of the cabinets as well. Fina made several suggestions during the entire project and one of my favorite ones was her idea of changing one of our cabinets into a cabinet with glass shelving and glass in the doors, she also added lights to this particular cabinet which looks so fancy and elegant.
The flooring was laid perfectly and very fast! It looks so good! Fina also had her concrete guy tear out our old cracked concrete patio floor and replace it with a new slab that has rebar now, and is attached to our home (it previously was detached from the house with no rebar).
Phase I of our home (the interior) is now complete, and we are currently working on phase II which is repairing and painting the exterior of our home. I could not wait until that is done to leave a review, because you all needed to know asap of how wonderful it has been to have Fina as our General Contractor.
Once Phase II is complete, I will upload all pictures of our entire home from inside out, ceiling to floor to show you Fina's amazing work and how her mind works. It's really mind-blowing.
A few rewarding things about Fina: She is extremely frugal with materials and will not waste what she has. If it can be restored, she will restore it for you to save you money by not having to buy replacements for things that can be fixed. She provides quality materials and her work comes with a warranty. She has an eye that can see the end results and she helps piece together your vision, adding ideas and concepts to enhance your results. She values your time! Fina gives you a projected end date and does her best to stick to that. Some nights she worked until 11pm by herself to make certain deadlines were met. She is a very honest person and does not try to cut corners. She takes pride in her work and what she produces and she expects her workers to do the same. If something is not done to her liking or standards, she kindly requests that the work be revised. From our experience with Fina, there is not one thing that cannot be accomplished. If you want it, she can deliver. If she cannot deliver, she can thoroughly explain why, and offers a similar and BETTER solution.
I have not one negative thing to say about Fina, as she worked tirelessly to turn our dark but cozy, old but welcoming, outdated but good boned home into our luxurious and vibrant dream home!
ROSS Painting Contracting
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