Buying a home is no mean feat! While this is a huge investment for sure, the achievement of buying a home is emotionally fulfilling for everyone. After all, it’s your private and personal space that you can call your own!
So, have you bought a new home, or are you contemplating taking a step in this direction? In either case, before moving into your new home, you have to go through the process of designing and furnishing the space.
One of the most important considerations affecting the interior designing process is the price factor. It’s natural to look for cost-effective options, but you must also keep some crucial factors in mind. This step is vital if you want to eliminate the possibility of an interior design contractor taking you for a ride that you would end up regretting later.
Getting Started with the Interior Designing Process
Before you begin work on the interiors of your home, an important question to ask yourself is ‘who would be the right person to help you achieve your goal?’ Some may consider hiring a professional interior designer, while others may prefer to hire a contractor.
Interior designers could either be a design firm or an individual offering their services. They have the aesthetic sensibilities to come up with design ideas to meet the specific needs of your home. An interior designer is mainly responsible for ideating and designing the home’s interiors.
Contractors, on the other hand, usually only execute the work assigned by the homeowners, and most of them might not have any real design capabilities. Sometimes a contractor may even hire a subcontractor to carry out some of the assigned work. Some examples of contractors are electricians, plumbers, carpenters, masons, etc.
It's fairly common to learn about contractors promising full home interiors at unbelievable prices. What you need to be aware of as a customer is that many interior design firms have also begun to make such tall claims.
Many things get compromised in terms of product quality and finishing in the quest to fit everything into your budget. It's important to be vigilant that false promises of your 'dream home' should not turn out to be an expensive affair in the years to come.
Instead of going down any one of the above extreme routes, you could choose the middle path and hire the services of a design company like Hipcouch. With our end to end services, you are assured of a hassle-free and professional design experience.
How Interior Design Contractors Can Take You For A Ride
Hiring the services of a contractor may be easy but what’s more important is to know how reliable and professional the contractor is. Will the contractor do a neat job, will the result match your expectations, and most importantly, will your project expenditure stay within the budget? These are some critical factors to consider.
Here are some ways that contractors use to cut corners
1. Poor building methods to cut costs
Contractors may choose to use materials that are not of the recommended quality or standard. Selecting the wrong material affects the durability and the long term use of the finished product.
One such example is the use of ply when constructing shelves in your home.
The shelves are usually made of 18mm or 19mm ply. If a contractor uses a 12mm ply instead of an 18 mm or 19 mm ply for multiple furniture items of your home, the cost could be reduced by 2% to 4% of the total project value.
The result of this would be shelves that start sagging or bending over time.
One old trick that contractors may use is they could show you a product and claim it is an 18mm ply. The reality is it could be a 16mm ply with 1 mm laminate on both sides, thus adding up to 18mm.
Such tricks are hard to detect but will end up hurting you.
2. Using suspect materials
When choosing the materials for the interior designing process of your home, always remember to use superior quality materials. Do not be tempted by unbranded or cheaper options, because this choice can end up giving you more headaches in the long run.
Let’s say, you have decided to add a false ceiling in your home. Choose trusted brands like India Gypsum or Saint Gobain. Contractors may use cheaper or counterfeit brands and may end up reducing the total cost of the project by a whopping 7% to 8%.
Instead of falling for such temptations, insist on knowing the type and brand of material used to avoid chipping or cracking issues that may arise in the future.
3. When using glass
Types of glass:
The two common types of glass used are float glass and toughened glass. Each of them has its functions and is used specifically for different items.
Toughened glass is used for items that need to handle impact or amount of load like dining tables. In items where the load or the impact is not a major criterion, float glass is used.
The two crucial points to bear in mind are using the right type and thickness of glass and making sure it is fixed properly.
How a contractor may cut corners
Sometimes to reduce costs, contractors may use the float glass instead of toughened glass. They might also fix the glass directly on the wall instead of following the best practice of attaching a ply on the wall and then attaching the glass on the ply.
While the contractor may reduce the overall cost of the project by 1% to 1.5%, such decisions can prove disastrous. Using the wrong type or an inferior quality glass can impact the safety of the people living in your home.
In case the toughened glass breaks, it might only develop cracks or shatter internally. However, in case float glass breaks, it can crumble and break into pieces. Such a situation is rather scary and one best avoided.
4. Taking the right measurements
This one is probably the oldest trick in the book and the most often used one! Contractors may give you an overestimate by quoting inaccurate numbers for painting and the false ceiling. A contractor can inflate your cost estimate by a significant 3% to 5% of the total project value by using incorrect measurements.
A rule of thumb when estimating the quantity and costing for painting is to multiply the carpet area of your home by 3. If you have a rough evaluation, you can curtail overspending on the painting cost and remain within your budget.
It’s always a good idea to match the false ceiling quantity in your cost estimate with the carpet area of your space before you begin the project. Doing so ensures the correct quantity is estimated and verified. Skipping this step could have a significant impact on your budget, and you can end up overpaying.
Getting the interiors done is a process that’s unique to each home. An interior design contractor may have plenty of ways to lower the costs, and this is why you need to be aware of every step of the designing process. Choosing the right kind and quality of products helps to not only make your home look beautiful but keep you and your family safe.
At Hipcouch, we've set our standards of quality and perfection extremely high, and we're always working to maintain them. We understand and value the design and budget requirements of every customer. Our goal is to deliver a hassle-free and unforgettable design experience consistently.
You can reach out to us on +91 97698 91528 or email us at contact@hipcouch.com. You can also book a design consultation with us by clicking here.