Before you give your house a facelift

Remodelling is about giving your house a new look. You may not like your house style as it may seem too old fashioned or that it no longer fits your needs as a family.

There may seem enough room in your house until the time children arrive. As they become teens, considering the shared accommodation, soon you will feel more like an invasion of privacy.

Although it would be a good idea to build afresh than trying to change the look of your house, according to Moses Kinobe, an architect at Kinobe and partners, you can always weigh to see if it is worth it. It could be that you want more space, the feel of a cozy house, to do away with dump walls, small windows, adding an extra bedroom or changing the style of your house.

What to consider
Steven Kayiwa, a structural engineer warns that you should have a clear reason why you are renovating, how soon you want it and an understanding of how it is going to affect the space you have.

You may have to rent out some other place where the rest of the family members will be during the process and have a budget for the plan.

“If it is about space, know what you need the space for and plan everything before you start the actual renovation. Get advise from people and probably your engineer on how best you can do it. Know who your contractor will be to ensure that they will do the structural test of the whole house and advise you accordingly,” says Kinobe.

He adds that, “The ceilings, pipes, wiring systems, load bearing walls greatly affect the structure of the house; any knocks may compromise their strength so you may need to fix them as well. You should therefore do as little demolition as possible.”

You need an engineer to test the strength and integrity of the walls and where weaknesses or cracks are found, then they can demolish and start building from that point.

The strength of the walls can be boosted by adding more concrete or steel columns but this may require complete demolition.

Kayiwa says, “If one wants to increase on the height of the house, they may need to demolish the ceiling, test the strength of the walls to see if they can hold the new ceiling then add a few more courses of bricks at the wall plate level.

The minimum height of the house from the floor to the ceiling should be 3metres for residential houses.”

Other options
Kinobe says, “If you feel your house is short, you may choose lower furniture to compensate for some more height towards the ceiling instead of adding more brick courses for the height as a renovation.”
If your problem is with the spacing, you will need to decongest the house by removing some of the things that you do not use. You may also incorporate more shelves into the house to provide more space.

Change your décor

According to Monica Tino, an interior designer at Divahz Interior Designers, “you may need to fake height with low furniture by creating strong verticals while avoiding the horizontals.

“Large mirrors can be of help because they create the impression of big space in a small room. Keep the furniture low to make rooms seem taller,” says Tino. She advises use of neutral colours to paint your interior but paint the ceiling slightly paler than the walls to make the rooms seem brighter.