# Renovating without blowing the budget — why it almost never works

> Renovations go over budget regularly and predictably. The reasons are always the same, and all of them can be worked out in advance. How to do that, and how to keep track while the work is running.

A renovation that came in on budget is rarer than one that finished on time.
The reasons are similar every time — which is exactly why they can be
anticipated.

## Four reasons it comes out higher

**The scope grows as you go.** Since the floor is coming up anyway, we may as
well do the doors. Since the wall is open, we may as well move the sockets.
Each of those decisions is sensible and cheap on its own. Together they can add
a third.

**The quote covers labour, not materials.** The contract with the builders and
the actual cost of the work are two different numbers, and the gap is often
bigger than the quote itself. Tiles, paint, fittings, adhesives, trim — you
buy all of that separately.

**Whatever is underneath.** Wiring nobody has seen, damp behind a cupboard, an
uneven screed. Until it is opened up, nobody knows what is there, so a quote
cannot cover it.

**Things that do not look like renovation.** A week of eating out with no
kitchen, transport, skip hire, storing furniture. Those are renovation costs
even though none of them appears on the builder's invoice.

## A contingency that actually works

For a flat in decent condition **twenty percent** contingency is usually
enough. For an older building, rewiring, or a bathroom — **thirty to forty**,
because there "whatever is underneath" is the rule rather than the exception.

A contingency has one condition for working: **it has to be a separate amount,
not a mental note.** A contingency you have not written down gets spent in week
two on something that "was needed anyway", and then there is nothing left for
the thing you set it aside for.

## Keeping track while it runs

This is the real difficulty. A renovation runs for months and gets paid in a
dozen transfers, across different categories. A deposit for the builders,
materials in three batches, equipment, transport, fixes. A monthly category
limit will not cover it, because a renovation is not one month's spending — it
is spending spread across several.

That is what [projects](/help/projects) are for. A project gathers everything
around one occasion, regardless of month or category, and shows the total
against the plan. The progress bar answers the question people ask most often
during a renovation: **how much of the planned amount has gone.**

It is worth recording materials and labour separately — that is the one split
that actually tells you something next time. The category breakdown inside a
project does that with no extra work.

## Refunds and resale

Something usually comes back from a renovation: spare tiles, returned
equipment, old furniture sold. These are not trivia — on a bigger job they can
add up to several percent of the whole. A project takes income as well and
subtracts it from spending, so the final number answers what the renovation
actually cost rather than what passed through your account.

## When to stop counting

There is a point at which a renovation stops being a financial project and
becomes a to-do list. Usually when what is left is a trail of small jobs
dragging on for weeks — a strip of trim here, a touch-up there.

That is the moment to **close the project**, even if one more invoice is still
coming. A project left open six months after the work finished stops measuring
anything, and gets in the way when you are assigning day-to-day spending.
Closing can be undone if a last bill turns up.

## What the number is good for later

An honest renovation total is useful in two places. First, when valuing the
property — a renovation does not return a hundred percent, but it does feed
into a value worth keeping current in the [net worth module](/help/net-worth).
Second, at the next renovation: it is the only credible basis for an estimate
you will ever have.

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Źródło: https://ordiarion.com/blog/renovation-without-blowing-the-budget