Five tips for doing a remodel with kids in the home

Home remodeling is hard enough when it’s just you all by your lonesome. It’s exponentially harder when you have a significant other, some kids, and maybe a couple of pets around as well. For a large remodeling project, your home will be temporarily transformed into a construction zone. If you’re not worried about your kids running through an active construction site, you should be. There may be live machinery, open crevices, and sharp objects lying about so if you’re planning on staying put during the course of the remodel to save money, you need to make some considerations about how to keep everyone alive and in good health during the project.

Have a plan in place

Panic never helped anything. You need to be calm, prepared, and proactive about a remodel. Before any work starts you’ll want to lay down ground rules for everybody, and not just the kids. All adults in the household need to be on the same page and that includes workers. If you have a general contractor, discuss any safety concerns with him/her and make sure the home is as safe as possible during the project.

It may get loud

The loud noises that tend to accompany major remodeling projects aren’t conducive for nap times so a home remodel might mean that your daily routine will be altered. It may be that the particularly loud parts of the project can be limited to certain times of the day, you’ll have to discuss that with the contractor. If not, or if it’s easier, you can arrange with a family member or friend to have the children out of the house for certain parts of the project.

Don’t sleep in dust

Dust can aggravate health conditions like asthma and even perfectly healthy children can suffer if there’s too much dust in the air. It’s crucial that you protect inside air quality so seal off HVAC ducting and vents in the rooms where the work is going on and use plenty of plastic sheeting to limit flying particles. Keep workspaces clean by using disposable cloths. Use a HEPA filtered vacuum daily to minimize dust.

Watch out for waste

Debris piles can contain sharp glass, nails, or other hazards so discuss with your contractor ways to keep your kids safe. They should know which rooms are off limits but as a precaution there should be dedicated bins or containers for any hazardous materials to keep them out of reach.

Tools are not toys

Stress to your contractor how important it is for tools to be unplugged and put away when not in use. This really comes down to the workers following your rules but you should also stress to your children, if they’re old enough, that tools are not toys.

If you’re stressed out just reading this, you may want to reconsider just putting the whole family up in a hotel. The cost may be worth your sanity.

Source: Wisc News

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