Two steps to take before renovating your house exterior

If you've decided to renovate your house exterior, here are two steps you should take to ensure that this project goes off without a hitch.

Prepare for adverse weather conditions

If you're performing exterior home renovations such as painting the exterior walls, repairing the roof, repaving the driveway or sprucing up the porch, you will need to prepare for adverse weather conditions. If you fail to do this, the consequences could be disastrous.

An ill-prepared construction crew will struggle to perform any of the above-mentioned tasks during bouts of heavy rain and strong winds. Even if they attempt to carry out with their work, they may end up endangering both themselves and those around them, as working in stormy weather conditions can increase the risk of slips, trips and falls.

Furthermore, any construction materials left outside could be damaged to such an extent that they become unusable (concrete, oil-based paints and timber are particularly susceptible to moisture-induced damage).

As such, it's crucial to be prepared for this type of weather. Invest in multiple rolls of plastic sheeting, which you can use to protect your construction materials from the rain.

Additionally, consider investing in a bag of road grit, so that the ground surface that your renovation team will be walking on will not become dangerously slippery. This grit can also be sprinkled onto ladders so that your workers do not slip when they are performing roof repairs or painting at a height.

Last but not least, if scaffolding will be used during the course of your project, it would be wise to purchase some waterproof scaffold covers for it, to reduce the amount of wind and rain that your renovation team are exposed to when standing on this structure.

Consult your neighbours

Whilst indoor home renovations are usually just as noisy as outdoor projects, the noise they create tends to be contained by the property's walls. Unfortunately, when typical building activities, such as drilling, sawing and hammering are performed outside, the noise can travel and lead to nearby neighbours becoming distressed.

If your neighbours become upset by the amount of noise generated by your renovation project, they could make life very difficult for you; they may complain directly to you or even file an official complaint with the relevant authorities.

If you want to stay on good terms with them and avoid this kind of unnecessary stress, it's a good idea to discuss your renovation plans with them in advance and try to arrange for most of the work to be done when they are not at home.

It can also be helpful to provide them with an exact time frame so that they know when they can expect the noise and upheaval to end; most people are better able to cope with loud, disruptive noises when they know that they will stop at a specific point in time.