Everybody loves the idea of renovating a house until they see the price tag.

Renovating your house is expensive. Some might say it’s too expensive. Besides the physical cost of materials, you have to look at often overlooked expenses, such as trash pickup, heavy machinery rental, personnel and new fixtures, just to name a few.

This doesn’t mean that your dream renovation needs to cost you an arm and a leg. The majority of renovations are more costly than they need to be for the sheer fact that people often fail to consider cheaper alternatives.

Here are five ways to save money on any renovation, from residential to commercial.

Look to Recycled Material

Salvaged materials often get a bad wrap for no other reason than that they have been previously used; that doesn’t mean they’re less effective. It just means someone did a renovation or demolition and failed to recycle. What people don’t realize is that these materials are often better quality than anything you would find at Home Depot or Lowes. It’s like material coming from an antique dresser instead of an IKEA one. Habitat for Humanity runs over 400 ReStores nationwide, which sell materials at half the price of normal renovation stores.

Donate Your Trash

If you’re going to throw it away, you might as well donate it. According to Habitat For Humanity, nearly 85 percent of renovation trash is reusable. Not only do you save room in a landfill, you also get a charitable tax credit and the peace of mind knowing you helped the environment and other people.

Be a Team Player

If you’ve got some time on your hands, the best way to save money is to get in the game and help the construction crew. Do your own demolition (to a certain point), clean up at the end of the day and help with the plasterwork. You would be amazed at how much money you could save. Overall, you could cut out at least five percent of your budget just by doing the dirty work yourself.

Consider Less Expensive Alternatives

Everyone wants pine floors, but it’s not always feasible. Expensive looking materials are expensive looking for a reason—they’re expensive. Look at alternatives for materials like wood. Some wood mimics more expensive types perfectly, to the point where the naked eye would never tell the difference.

Don’t Move the Plumbing

If you can avoid moving any sort of plumbing, like toilets or sinks, do so at all cost. One of the biggest bills that renovators have to foot is the cost to add plumbing. If you do have to change things around, make sure to upgrade the pipes in the process. It will save you thousands in the future.

Renovating your house doesn’t need to be too expensive. The biggest things to look at are return on investment and depreciation value. It might be more expensive in the short term, but if it saves money over the course of several years, the initial cost is well worth it.

Image License: Creative Commons Image Source

Author Bio : Patrick Rafferty is the marketing assistant for Brahman Systems, a Louisiana based construction company with a patented all-steel enclosed hose and cable protection.