Kitchen Renovation Preparation by CHART
No matter the size of your kitchen, no matter how big or small the renovation scale is, it’s important to prepare yourself as best as possible. By knowing what to prepare for before your renovation begins, the process becomes easier on our home renovations team and on you as a client. Here are the Canadian Home and Renovation Team's best tips to prepare!
Begin By Clearing Out Items
Everything that’s in your cupboards, drawers and shelving units need to be cleared out before a kitchen renovation begins—especially when we’re replacing cabinetry and shelving units.
The fewer items we need to shift around, the easier it is to renovate. During a kitchen renovation, you likely won’t need all the items from these storage areas, so it’s a great time to go through them and decide what you want to keep and what you no longer need. Items that you keep can be placed in boxes and stored in a different room while the renovation takes place. You’ll also want to remove anything that’s hanging on the wall, like pictures, mirrors or racks to ensure they stay safe.
Larger items that are left in the kitchen, such as the stove, refrigerator and dishwasher can be covered by our team using drop sheets to prevent dust from building.
And if you have any plants or animals that live in the kitchen quarters like birds, dogs, or fish, you’ll want to move them away from the renovation area. Dust and materials can be harmful to their environments and inhibit their functions.
Close Off Vents and Open Up Windows
Keeping the air quality in your home free from dust and hazardous materials is part of the Canadian Home and Renovation Team’s job. To do this, we close off any vents in the kitchen and tape down doorways that lead into the kitchen. We also recommend that you clean your air ducts after a renovation to ensure you’re getting the best air quality and replace your air filter regularly.
If the weather permits, we also like to keep windows open to provide the maximum flow of fresh air.
Treat Your Kitchen Renovation As A Worksite
Canadian Home and Renovation Team knows that a kitchen renovation can be disrupting your daily life, especially in how your family gets ready for the day and how you’ll be taking care of meals. But in order for the renovation to go smoothly, you and your family will need to treat your kitchen renovation like any other worksite.
This means that you need to give our renovation team the space they need to work efficiently and safely to provide a quality renovation. Keeping pets and children out of the renovation space is preferred because it lowers the risk of injury to them. It’s also important to keep pets safely away from the renovation because loud noises, tools and unfamiliar faces can be stressful for them. If clients choose to come into their kitchen during the renovation, we may request that they wear protective equipment, or remain in a certain area. This prevents any injuries and contains the renovation mess.
While your kitchen renovation takes place and the area of your home turns into a worksite, you'll need to prepare plans on where to eat and how to prepare food. Most clients choose to use the renovation timeline as a reasonable excuse to order take-out or to go and enjoy meals out of the home. Just be aware that during a kitchen renovation, you won't be able to use your kitchen as you normally would and will likely only be able to make easy-prep foods like cereal (given you have a mini-fridge on hand for milk). But if the opportunity strikes, you can even use barbeques and outdoor cooktops to prepare what’s possible. Keep in mind, you’ll need to wash dishes elsewhere, like in a laundry room tub or in a bathroom sink!
In Turn…We’ll Be Able To Respect Timelines and Your Home Too!
On our part, we treat your kitchen renovation as a worksite but also respect the space as a room in your home. Because we anticipate curiosity from clients, we provide a renovation schedule before the work begins so you know exactly when the CHART team will be in your home, and who will be in your home. This allows you to plan what you may need to, like pet care or child care, for the duration of the renovation.
By planning out timelines and scheduling our contractors, the Canadian Home and Renovation Team is able to complete renovations on time, with quality craftsmanship.
Let Us Know About Your Neighbourhood and Your Home’s Features
Another important way to prepare for your kitchen renovation is to let us know about your neighbourhood and any features in your home that can pose a problem. If your area has any parking restrictions or noise restrictions, please let your renovation Project Manager know so we can park our vehicles accordingly and refrain from working during noise restriction hours. If your home is part of a community-style of living such as a semi-detached home or a townhome, it’s also best to let your neighbours know that there will be a renovation team in your home for the next little while. This helps ease any of their anxieties about unfamiliar faces around the home but also lets them know that there will be a bit of extra noise during renovating hours.
Our team will also need to know about any important features in your home. For example, if you have a security system, we may ask that you disarm it during the renovation period or to provide our team with a temporary code to access your home. Other features like automatic sprinklers, gated community codes, or smart home technologies are important for our team to know about so we can complete our job without disrupting you.
Be sure to also show a Project Manager where your fuse box is located. In the event that CHART electrical workers need to rewire lighting or reconfigure outlets around your kitchen, we will need to safely access the fuse box to turn the circuits on and off.
Ask Questions and Be Available
The best way to prepare once you’ve checked off these points is to ask any questions you still need answers to. CHART Project Managers can help provide you with answers and can work with you to help in any way possible. Part of our job as a renovation team is to provide you with a renovation service you can trust and enjoy from start to finish. Be sure that you can stay in communication with CHART throughout the process, and we will do likewise to ensure that all lines of communication stay open and clear.
To learn more about kitchen renovations and how you can prepare for your specific one, please be sure to contact Canadian Home and Renovation Team. We can provide you with a free in-home renovation consultation or answer questions you have about our home renovation services.
