Yes, you can often stay in your home while it is being renovated, as long as the work is planned around you. Whether it is sensible depends on how much of the house is affected, whether you will lose your only kitchen or bathroom, and whether the work involves structural changes, a full strip-out or older materials such as asbestos.
This post covers which jobs work with you living in, when moving out is the better choice, how to set up your home, and the safety lines that matter. In short, you can live alongside the work, but the work area itself is off limits to everyone except the trades.
Refurbishments that usually work with you living in
Partial refurbishments, where one or two rooms are done at a time, are the easiest to live through. The work is sealed off and your routine carries on, with some noise.
Jobs that usually work well with you at home include:
- a kitchen or utility rework, if you can set up a temporary kitchen in another room
- a bathroom refit, if you have a second toilet or shower
- replastering, new doors, skirting and flooring, done room by room
- insulation upgrades in one part of the house
Some of our extension customers have stayed at home throughout the build too. Most of that work happens outside the existing walls until the final knock-through into the house.
When moving out is the better choice
Some projects are much harder to live through. Think seriously about moving out if the work includes:
- a whole-house strip-out, which means taking rooms back to bare walls and floors, often leaving you with no working kitchen or bathroom for a time
- structural changes through the middle of the house, such as removing a load-bearing wall (one that holds up the floors or roof above). The area has to be held up with temporary steel props until a new beam is in, and nobody can use it in the meantime. We explain how this works in our post on RSJs and why steel beams are used.
- rewiring or replumbing the whole house, when power or water will be off for long stretches
- asbestos that has to be removed by specialists
- someone at home with breathing problems, a young baby, or a job that needs quiet during the day
There is often a middle way. Many households move out for the noisiest, dustiest few weeks, then come back once the house is safe and the work has moved on to finishing.
Why the time of year matters
At this time of year, heating becomes the big question. If the work means draining the heating system, moving radiators or changing the boiler, you could be without heat for a few days. Opening up a wall also lets the cold in, even with temporary sheeting.
Ask your builder early which days the heating will be off, and plan those days around a cold snap if you can. If you are also thinking about adding space, we have written about whether you can build a house extension in winter.
Setting up your home so daily life carries on
A little preparation before the start date makes a big difference:
- Make a temporary kitchen. A kettle, microwave, toaster and fridge in another room will get you through most weeks. Plan where you will wash up, such as a utility sink.
- Clear the work rooms completely. Move furniture, valuables and anything fragile out of the rooms being worked on and the rooms next to them.
- Agree the practical details. Working hours, where the trades park, which entrance they use and which toilet is theirs.
Dust, noise and keeping the work area separate
Cutting plaster, brick and concrete makes very fine dust. It travels further than you expect, and the finest dust from these materials is not good to breathe in. A careful builder seals doorways with dust sheets or zip-up plastic screens, protects floors and stairs, and tidies up at the end of each day.
On your side, keep doors to the work area closed and change your vacuum cleaner's filter more often than usual. Noise is harder to avoid, so ask which days will be loudest, such as demolition days, and plan to be out.
The safety lines while the builders are in
Keep to a few simple rules:
- Keep children and pets out of the work area at all times, including evenings and weekends when it is quiet. Open floors, propped ceilings, tools and loose cables are all hazards.
- Never move, knock or lean on props. These temporary steel supports are holding up part of the house.
- Leave the electrics to the electrician. If a circuit has been switched off at the consumer unit (your fuse box) or labelled, don't switch it back on. Ask first.
- Don't disturb anything that might contain asbestos. The Health and Safety Executive advises that if a building was built or refurbished before 2000, you should assume it contains asbestos. Common places in homes include textured ceiling coatings, old floor tiles and boxing around pipes. If something suspicious is uncovered, work on it should stop until it has been tested.
- Check your smoke alarms. Dust can set them off, and alarms are sometimes covered during work. Make sure the rooms you are living and sleeping in still have working alarms each night.
How we plan a refurbishment you are living through
When JW Carpentry & Build visits to survey a refurbishment, we talk through what you need to keep working, such as the kitchen, a bathroom and the heating. After the survey we give you a schedule and talk through when key rooms will be out of use, so you can decide whether to stay, or move out for part of the job.
During the work, we protect the parts of the house we are not working on and control dust as we go. One team coordinates all the trades, so you have one point of contact.
If you are planning a refurbishment and want to know whether you could stay at home through it, JW Carpentry & Build can visit, look at the work and give you a realistic plan. Read more about our home refurbishment service and get in touch to book a survey visit.
