More than half of home renovators found renovation stressful and a third found renovation to be a source of tension between themselves and the people they live with, a 2005 national survey found. I don’t believe things have changed much.
This week I caught up with a friend I hadn’t seen for a few years. When last I spoke with her, she was about to have the upper storey of her home renovated. She described the experience as ‘a disaster”. Her builder went bankrupt, and on the advice of a lawyer who didn’t specialise in construction or building law, she decided to wait until her builder had more funds and could finish the job.
She and her family consequently lived in a half-renovated house for over a year. In the end, the builder did return to finish the job. But the stress and tension had a big impact, particularly on family relationships.
The survey referred to earlier also found that “as well as the extra expenses and stress, six in ten renovators find the renovations take longer than they expected, which undoubtedly adds to the tension.” This is also the case when people choose to live in the home while renovating it. A surprising 85% of the people surveyed chose to do this.
The survey was conducted by Nielson Research on behalf of AAMI, and involved 265 renovators.
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