Reasons Why You Should Hire Contractors for Home Improvements

The scale of your home improvement project will likely determine whether you need to hire contractors to carry out the work or not. You may have some basic bathroom tiling that needs to be done, but when you receive quotes from professional tilers, you instantly want to give it a go yourself to save some money. There is nothing wrong with doing that, but there are also those jobs around the house that need to be done by professionals. Here are a few of the reasons why you should hire a professional contractor to complete home improvement jobs.

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You Will Get a Professional Finish

Starting home improvement jobs around the house by yourself may be the most affordable solution, but hiring professionals to come in and complete them instead will give you the professional finish you want. You are living in the house, so you’ll want it to be as perfect as possible, and it’s always worth spending money on getting it done right the first time by someone that does it on a regular basis.

Jobs Will Be Completed By Trained Professionals

Not only will the finished project look like it was done professionally, but the job undertaken will be done the right way. Further down the line you may want to alter the project to suit your needs, and doing so will be easy because it was professionally completed in the first place. There’s nothing worse than going back to a finished project a few months down the line and the whole job needs to be started again just to make simple alterations. Getting jobs completed professionally will save you time and money in the future.

Projects Are Completed with Clean Working Practices in Mind

All projects that are undertaken by professionals will need to be completed in conjunction with their company policies. This means that not only will the job be completed safely, but it will also be completed in the cleanest way possible so you’ll not have to worry about any mess after.

You Could Save Time & Money

Contractors are expensive to hire, so it’s not always an option to hire one for small to medium sized home improvement jobs, but it could end up saving you money in the long run if you did hire a contractor. Think of it this way, if you spent $2000 on materials to do a job at home by yourself instead of paying $3000 in total to a contractor, you could potentially save yourself $1000. However, if you end up wasting materials trying to complete a job and it doesn’t work out, then not only will you have spent $2000, but you will also likely spend another $3000 on hiring a contractor to come in and do the job for you, so sometimes it’s worth spending the extra money on a contractor knowing you are going to get it done right.

The above reasons are just some of the many reasons why it will benefit you when hiring a contractor to come in and do the work at home, and you’ll also find it will offer the same benefits when hiring contractors for commercial property maintenance. Sometimes the quote a contractor presents to you is a tough pill to swallow, but it could save you a lot of time and money if you go ahead with it.

How to Handle a Boundary Dispute During Home Improvements

Gone are the days where new neighbours were welcomed with home baked pies and warm welcomes (in most places anyway) and in fact many people don’t even know their neighbour’s names never mind have an actual friendship with them.

However, having a good relationship with your neighbour can actually be hugely beneficial, and not just as a social aspect. Being able to talk to and communicate with them in a respectful and friendly manner could be essential in the case of any disputes arising between the two properties, which often happens.

One of the most common disputes that arises between neighbours is that of boundary and property disputes, where one property encroaches on the divide between the two. So how exactly can we define a property line or boundary?

Boundary or property lines are sections that have been demarcated to mark out the ground of a single property. This is easier when it comes to apartments and such but gets more complicated with houses or in rural areas, where it is often simply an invisible line that both neighbours are meant to respect.

What are the common causes of a boundary dispute?

Boundary disputes often arrive out of a breach of ethics of one neighbour when renovating or building onto their property. While they can often be sorted out through communication, when the offending neighbour does the following things, they tend to lead themselves up to a lawsuit:

  • Clearly crosses the boundary line with a new construction
  • Building permits have not been obtained
  • Violates state, county or homeowners’ association protocol
  • Constructs a structure that impedes a pathway, driveway or garage.

What should the first steps in a dispute be?

If you find that your neighbour is contravening the boundary line between your two properties, then there are a couple of things you can do about it. First things first, you should have a discussion with your neighbour to try resolve the issue, however, if you two have different understandings of where the demarcated boundary is located, then you should make an appointment to get together with all the correct documentation in order to properly establish the property lines.

If your title deeds and other documents aren’t clear enough and you can’t sort out the dispute then you will have to take the next step and contact a good boundary dispute solicitor to assist you.

Hiring a boundary dispute solicitor

You may find that a good boundary dispute solicitor will be able to help you sort out your dispute before going to court. They should be able to point out where lines begin and end – making it more clear for your neighbour. However, sometimes it may escalate and you will have to take it to court, although this should be the very last resort.

Your first point of call should be trying to get your neighbour to remove whatever structure it is that they have put up. However, if this is not possible or if you feel the structure has diminished the price of your property then you can sue your neighbour for monetary compensation.

Remember that “good fences make good neighbours” as Robert Frost points out, and should this fence get breached then you should always try resolve it the reasonable way first.