There’s a lot of confusion regarding whether you should renovate your existing home or build it afresh. Let’s simplify the benefits of the two so that it’d be easier for plot owners to decide.
Firstly, extensive repairs in a home, like redoing the plaster, shifting some walls, changing the plumbing/ electrical/ flooring, etc is expensive. Largely, except for the concrete structure, most of the things are redone. Then there is the additional cost of dismantling. We believe these kinds of extensive repairs can cost up to 80% of the fresh construction.
Secondly, once you go for a specific repair work, a new repair task also comes out, and so on and on. “The doors need repair” leads to “Oh, since we are getting the doors repaired, let’s get the windows done as well”. Managing these renovations is not easy as it is difficult to calculate the fixed price and fixed timeline for such works.
So, budgeting while renovating gets tricky. Once the renovation starts, you don’t know when it's going to finish. Unlike, in fresh construction, you know in advance, what the final cost and timeline are going to be.
Thirdly, if you want to build an extra floor as well, then it would cost you even more than a fresh construction as it adds a cost of additional repair to the existing structure. Hence, financially, we think it makes sense to demolish and do fresh construction.
Timewise also these kinds of extensive repairs actually take anywhere between 8-12 months, though initially you might feel it can be done in 3-4 months. Quality-wise also, any type of repair will have a life less than fresh construction.
However, for some plot owners, renovation can be more relevant. For instance, if they don’t want stilt, as stilt is mandatory for new home construction (in Delhi) or for emotional reasons. In such cases, it would be fair to go for renovation.
Plot owners need to wisely see their needs and expectations and, accordingly, go ahead.
Down below are the links to some of the home construction blogs that we think may help you. Do give them a read to understand more about home construction in non-technical language.