4 Easy Ways To Add Value To Your Home

When it comes to value, you can’t go past luxury vinyl planks (LVP) or luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) for wet and kitchen areas, and laminate for dry living areas. As the manufacturing process for these products continues to improve, you get an extremely resilient, zero maintenance result.

• Trade: Floorer, or Builder

• Budget: $ — $$
  Watch out for low quality laminates, which can be prone to water damage and marking. Cheaper in the short-term, more expensive long-term when you need to replace.

• Materials: Go into the shop (rather than order online), as the photographs will differ ever so slightly from the real colour. Take a sample home and assess how it works with the space including bench tops, cabinets, walls and other flooring.

• Schedule: Ask whether the stock is held in New Zealand. Stock could be held within New Zealand, coming from Australia (taking a few weeks), or could be sourced from as far away as Europe (requiring a 3-month lead time).

A fresh coat of paint is a sure-fire way to boost your property’s value. Whether you’re doing it bedroom by bedroom, or a whole house reno before move-in day, it’s a great way to achieve a consistent look and clean feel; especially for those with older housing stock that likely has slightly different coloured walls in each room.

• Trade: Painter, or Painter/Plasterer (if you’ve got any dents to fix up)

• Budget: $ — $$

• Materials: Off the back of thousands of painting jobs we’ve seen through Builderscrack one thing is clear: don’t attempt to cut costs by using a low quality paint, and don’t cut costs by compromising prep work. The right preparation along with choosing a high quality paint like Resene, appropriate for the application, will ensure a beautiful and durable result for years.

• Schedule: The good news is that we don’t have a shortage of paint in New Zealand with several manufacturing plants operating to meet demand. Check with your local to see what stock they’ve got, and reconfirm when you take samples home.

While kitchens are often thought of as fairly expensive to renovate, we see some creative jobs come through that add tonnes of value for little investment. One of the easiest improvements is a simple cabinetry refresh, involving repairing or replacing all drawer fronts, cupboard doors and handles.

• Trade: Handyman, Builder or Cabinet Maker (depending on degree of renovation)

• Budget: $$ — $$$

• Materials: Coupling a cabinet repair with a repaint is a really cost effective way to breathe some life into a tired kitchen space. If your cabinets lack good bones, it could be time for a full upgrade. If you’re considering using an off-the-shelf kitchen from a big chain store — a word of caution: it is often only marginally more expensive to have a kitchen maker manufacture and install a custom solution, often completed to a far higher standard.

• Schedule: If you’re going down the repair route, depending on whether you’ve got laminate, melamine or wooden cabinet exteriors, you should be in luck finding cleaners, primers, paints, clear coats and stains in stock. As for a full cabinet or kitchen renovation, it’s best to ask your tradesperson or manufacturer about current lead times for stock.

Here’s 3 ways to minimise risk right now with materials and schedule.

So while things may take a little bit more preparation or time, improvements to flooring, paintwork, kitchen cabinets and landscaping still remain some of the easiest ways to add value to your home this year.