Unexpected costs, construction companies that no longer show up and choose between fifty shades of grey: renovation puts a person to the test. How do you stay afloat amidst all that renovation stress? Journalist Stijn De Wandeleer, an expert by experience for several months, dusts off his suit and examines it.
Stijn De WandeleerJanuary 13, 2024, 3:00
“Maybe we should just sell our house.” By the time the rather absurd proposal comes to mind, my love and I are six months into our renovation. The walls have been stripped of all plaster, the bathroom and kitchen have been demolished by themselves, and old electrical cables hang like vines throughout the house. There is no clear plan on how exactly to proceed. My inbox is a graveyard of expired quotes that all turned out to be much more expensive than we had calculated. It’s dark in the house: both in the literal sense – only the light in the corridor still works – and in the figurative sense.
Of course we knew that our recently purchased home would become a project. In the first few months we cheerfully announced it to friends and relatives, who had probably never seen us – both notoriously clumsy – as candidates for a renovation. They, in turn, continued to talk about the potential. Never. When it’s finished. And effective: if you could see through the damaged decorative ceilings, through the flat roof on which water has sat year-round and past the sagging floors, past the gray walls on which a chimney has been spewing smoke for decades, and beyond the front door where the air current blew, then you saw a house that, with a little good will, you could define as a diamond in the rough.
In those first months our image of the impending renovation was still quite idyllic. We will continue to live in the attic of our house during the works. In three months the worst would be over. This obviously turned out to be a very optimistic assessment of the facts. At that time we could not yet imagine the extent of our renovation. With all the hassles that would result from it. With the unexpected costs that would result. With dust that would creep into every crack.
Vincent Van Den Broecke of Blanco Architecten: ‘You actually never know what you’re getting into. You should first completely gut a house. Only in this way will you have a realistic vision of the state of a house.” Image Hannes Vandenbroucke
I know: the previous paragraphs read quite naively. But it is actually difficult not to start a partly unconscious renewal. Like many others, my love and I spent twenty minutes wandering around the house we would ultimately make an offer on. Then other potential buyers would be on their doorstep – an overheated real estate market, you say? Twenty minutes: obviously not enough to identify all the initial problems of a building, much less to subsequently develop a detailed cost analysis.
“But you never really know what you’re getting into,” says architect Vincent Van Den Broecke of Blanco Architecten. “To do this, you should first be able to completely strip a house. Only then will you have a realistic view of the condition of a home.” When starting a renovation, surprises always arise. A wet spot you didn’t initially notice, a leaky skylight: discoveries like this are not at all uncommon. But you can try to protect yourself as best you can from unpleasant surprises. Van Den Broecke recommends always bringing someone experienced with you when doing a home visit, ideally an architect. “You pay for it, but that amount pales in comparison to the rapidly increasing costs when you encounter big surprises during the renovation.”
Of course, this still does not guarantee a carefree renovation. Some construction stress is simply unavoidable, says Van Den Broecke. “For many people, renovation is something they undertake only once in their lifetime and so expectations are actually very high. Add to this the fact that a home is perhaps the most important investment we will make in our lives, and we quickly understand why renovating is a very emotional and challenging process for so many people.”
Much of what Van Den Broecke does in the run-up to a renovation is therefore to test expectations with reality. «It happens that people with a budget of 100,000 euros want interventions carried out for which in reality at least double the sum is needed. Of course it is not nice to have to say that such expectations are unrealistic. But wouldn’t you rather know something like that before you start the job than when you’re in the middle of it?
He’s right. The financial picture of our renovation was perhaps the main cause of the construction crisis last year. Almost every day I made grim calculations about how much money was already flowing into our renovation and how much more would likely be added. Calculus always made my head spin. Every euro that came in went out immediately.
Sofie Vertongen is renovating a house on the outskirts of Brussels: ‘Even a simple brick costs much more today than it did five years ago. This caused stress, yes.” Image Hannes Vandenbroucke
In recent years, renovations have become significantly more expensive. According to Embuild, the most important lobby group of the Belgian construction sector, in 2023 prices of building materials will be on average 35% higher than before the start of the corona pandemic in March 2020. Prices of bricks, concrete and cement have increased in the meantime they have stabilized, but they are in real decline, but this is not yet the case. “In other words, construction and renovation will not immediately become cheaper,” says Niko Demeester, CEO of Embuild. “The rise in wage costs has largely to do with this, but also with the increased focus on an energy-efficient lifestyle.”
Dividing the entire renovation project into multiple parts can be a way to reduce costs. But this is not always possible. “This has been difficult, especially since the renovation obligation was introduced,” says Cerina Marchetta, contractor at Marchetta Family Builders and member of the Huis Gemaak jury. “Due to the harsher conditions, you often have to do a lot of work around the house in a matter of a few years.”
Sofie Vertongen (36) also believes in her portfolio that renovation has become much more expensive. Five years ago she had already renovated in Antwerp, today she and her husband are renovating her grandparents’ former house on the outskirts of Brussels. Their renovation has already cost double the previous total renovation. “While now we are working on a smaller house. And it’s not like we’re covering all the walls in marble, right? Our renovation itself is pretty simple. When we look at the invoices from our previous renovation, we are sad. Even a simple brick costs much more today than it did five years ago. This caused stress, yes.
However, the construction industry is in troubled waters. In 2023, 1,387 construction companies went bankrupt. This is a quarter more than in 2022, according to data from business information bureau GraydonCreditsafe. The main culprits for this are higher interest rates and more expensive building materials. One would expect this to create opportunities for better negotiations, but so far Sofie and her partner have not noticed any of this. “On the contrary, we have the feeling that contractors are asking for what they want because demand is still very high. Since many construction sites have disappeared, overhead costs and increased prices of building materials are passed on to the remaining customers, says our architect. For example, wood prices have decreased slightly, but many entrepreneurs still charge premium prices. In any case, with us there is really no margin for a discount.”
A good contractor or architect should take some of the stress out of remodeling. But first you have to find it. There are many horror stories circulating about contractors who finish a project halfway, only to disappear into thin air. Our first contractor also sent us plumbers who charged a ridiculous amount to install a new toilet and roofers who badly damaged a Velux and initially shrugged off all responsibility. Changing contractors provided some mental and financial control over things.
It is therefore essential to work immediately with a good party. For Cerina Marchetta it is particularly important to ask for references. “By all means, take a look at your contractor’s previous work, but also talk to people he’s worked for before. Did they respect the agreements? Was the construction period respected? If they have no references to show, then you already know enough.” Van den Broecke insists on transparency. “Don’t work with a contractor who gives a total amount without further details to renovate your house. In case of deviations or surprises – and there they are always – you will not have any tools at your disposal to carry out a review. A quote must be as transparent as possible. This is the only way to protect yourself from surprises.”
Advance payments are also a good indicator of reliability. A potential contractor once asked us to pay half of the overhead work up front. “This is just too much,” says Van Den Broecke. “Depending on the nature of the work, common advances vary greatly. Exterior carpentry contractors always require upfront payments. 25-30% is therefore normal. But for everyone else it’s more normal for them to simply send an invoice after the work has been done.”
Rebecca Fertinel, renovating a house in Merksem: “Scheduling visits with the workers, comparing quotes, working alone in the house and even trying to live a little life: it’s a lot.”Image Hannes Vandenbroucke
But know what you’re getting yourself into and when it might be interesting to outsource the work again. “Sometimes people lose the money they save by doing a lot of jobs themselves at home because they can’t invest that time in their career,” says Van Den Broecke. Cerina Marchetta also agrees that it is better not to start doing chores around the house alone without thinking it through. “I think it’s a good idea to let yourself be guided anyway. For example, hire an electrician to work alone and assist him during the work. This way you can save a little money financially, but you have the experience at your fingertips.”
This is also a good idea for security reasons. Because at best working at home is physically demanding, at worst it is downright dangerous. “I should know,” says Rebecca Fertinel (32), who is renovating a house in Merksem on her own. Her leg was badly burned while she steamed the wallpaper. “I ended up in hospital for a week, just because I worked too fast.” She still can’t work at full capacity, says the freelance photographer. “Very stressful, because obviously you have to earn money to pay the incoming bills.”
Additionally, 30-year-olds find the constant multitasking they are forced to do after a renovation a major source of stress. “Coming home exhausted after a day of work and still having to get started on things to do for the renovation. Scheduling visits with workers, comparing quotes, personally working on your home, and even trying to live a little life – it’s a lot.
And then there’s the huge amount of choices you have to make in a short amount of time: from what floor the kitchen should be to the color of the gutter. But also decisions that have a greater impact on the budget: do you install a gas boiler or a heat pump? At first I tended to view every choice as vitally important. In the meantime I sometimes think, “Just tell me.”
There’s no way to completely remedy this choice fatigue, but it can relieve some of the pressure to make as many aesthetic and fundamental choices as possible before the work actually begins, Marchetta advises. The start-up phase of a remodel can take a little longer, but it can eliminate a lot of stress during the remodel. “This way you can fully concentrate on unforeseen circumstances during work and no longer have to think about the basics.”
Rebecca Fertinel: ‘While steaming the wallpaper, my leg was badly burned. I ended up in the hospital for a week. Very stressful, because as a freelance photographer I have to earn money to pay the bills.’Image Hannes Vandenbroucke
It stands to reason that all the renovation stress will eventually make its presence felt in your relationship. If only because all conversations sooner or later get back to business. To what still needs to be done and what is going wrong. Staying up until three in the morning together to sort out the bathroom fixtures may seem romantic, but after a while we no longer talk about where the shower drain should be. There is also a temptation to take the stress of the renovation off on each other, perhaps because this is not done for all the other parties involved in the renovation: the workers, the contractor or the architect.
It is therefore not illogical that some relationships succumb to all this renewal stress. Anaïs and Cedric, who emerged as Huis Gemaak winners last year, won their dream home but separated earlier this year. Marchetta sees it regularly: couples whose foundations crumble a little under the weight of a renovation. “My most important advice is to continue making time for each other during the renovations. Since this is such a large investment, in the long term it will only be about renovation. Doing something on time that has nothing to do with the renovation is incredibly important.
There is still wild speculation about the exact end date of our renovation. For now I’m vaguely referring to ‘by summer’. Of course it would have been beautiful. But the renovation isn’t all bad. When the work progresses it is pleasant to see a house transform before your eyes. To try to imagine the fact that you will live here. Never. When it’s finished.
