\nIn today’s show\u00a0our reno expert, Cherie Barber<\/b>,\u00a0from RenovatingForProfit.com.au, tells us why not all renovations are the same especially when it comes to renovating an apartment. Cherie tells us about the experience she has had with doing up units and the some of the problems she has encountered.
\n <\/p>\nTranscript:<\/h4>\n
Kevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Not all renovations are the same, as you\u2019re going to learn in my chat now with Cherie Barber from RenovatingForProfit.com.au.
\nGood day, Cherie. How are you doing?
\nCherie:<\/b>\u00a0 I\u2019m really good. Thank you, Kevin.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Good to be talking to you again. You\u2019ve just come back from the States, again, too?
\nCherie:<\/b>\u00a0 I have, yes. I have my own show over there now, so it\u2019s very exciting. I went over there for the launch show.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 We\u2019re used to seeing you, of course, on The Living Room <\/i>on Channel 10. I look forward to catching up with you there.
\nI wanted to talk to you specifically about the renovation you\u2019re doing right now, which is on a unit. It\u2019s interesting that there are some complexities in renovating units, and I wonder whether you\u2019d like to take us through a few of those.
\nCherie:<\/b>\u00a0 Sure. First of all, I guess living in an apartment and renovating an apartment, the first thing is the neighbors. Unfortunately, a lot of people don\u2019t like change, and normally when you come in and do an apartment renovation, one of the first things people typically do is change the floors, so you have saws going on and all sorts of stuff. In my experience in the apartments that I\u2019ve renovated, you always without fail get one or two or three neighbors offside depending on how big the block is.
\nI think the first thing is to be very courteous to neighbors and actually give a proper letter under their door just saying, \u201cLook, we\u2019re going to be starting a renovation in approximately two weeks\u2019 time,\u201d and give them the dates that you\u2019ll start and dates that you\u2019ll finish. In my experience, when you do that, you actually have less chance of neighbors actually getting offside.
\nI know in my one of my earlier renovations where I didn\u2019t give the neighbors any notice, it became this messy war. They got really offside because you were disturbing their peace and quiet. That\u2019s definitely one issue with apartment renovations, because everybody is so condensely packed on top of each other, so they hear the slightest ounce of noise.
\nKevin:\u00a0 <\/b>I think, too, the other thing to bear in mind is that other owners could quite easily be on the body corporate, and body corporate do actually wield a lot of power and can actually hinder the renovation process, Cherie.
\nCherie:<\/b>\u00a0 Definitely. Another issue is the strata <\/b>body. Look, I think when you buy an apartment, one of the things that people need to research is how proactive the strata body are. In some units that you go into, the strata body are all over you like a bad rash \u2013 they won\u2019t let you scratch yourself unless you get approval \u2013 and then in other blocks, they don\u2019t care what you do.
\nA lot of renovators go buy an apartment, particularly a lot of younger renovators, who don\u2019t have the money to actually go buy a freestanding house. They say, \u201cOkay, we\u2019ll do our first renovation.\u201d It might be on an apartment, maybe something $300,000, $400,000, $500,000, and they go into these blocks and they either don\u2019t get strata body approval because they don\u2019t know to, or if do approach them, the strata body are notoriously slow.
\nI\u2019m doing a renovation at the moment to the living room, actually, for an apartment that\u2019s about $560,000. I said to the couple that I\u2019m renovating to me, \u201cLook, send an e-mail to the strata body manager. Say to them you\u2019re doing these works, these cosmetic works \u2013 you\u2019re changing the floor, you\u2019re painting \u2013 and put a deadline on a response from them.\u201d
\nWhat advise them to do is to say, \u201cWe\u2019re doing these works, and if we don\u2019t hear from you by Friday such-and-such a date, we\u2019ll assume all is okay if we don\u2019t hear from you.\u201d As it turned out, they never heard from that person but at least they have it documented on e-mail that they approached it and it wasn\u2019t their problem that the strata body was slow to get back to them.
\nStrata bodies, as I said, are notorious for being slow, and in the meantime, for renovators, you\u2019re waiting, waiting, and waiting, and you\u2019re racking up holding costs.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 The unit that you\u2019re renovating now, is this any structural renovation or is it purely cosmetic?
\nCherie:<\/b>\u00a0 No. Purely cosmetic, and that\u2019s the thing. I guess that\u2019s another limitation of apartment renovations. You are limited with the works that you can do. Certainly in apartment renovations, you can\u2019t do any external works, even doing things like painting the inside of your balcony that other people can\u2019t see, you could have limitations on what you do in that regard, as well.
\nTypically, with apartment renovations, they tend to be 95% or 98% cosmetic works because you have to imagine, if you have two or three apartments living on top of you, it\u2019s not as easy just knocking out walls because that can affect the structural integrity of all the apartments above you. The most you can do is really change the flooring, and even then, a lot of strata bodies won\u2019t let you do that because of acoustic issues in apartments.
\nKevin:<\/b>\u00a0 Yes, you have to be careful of things like floating floors and so on. Some really good words of advice there, making sure that you get everyone onside and do your homework before you do one of those renovations. Cherie Barber, of course. RenovatingForProfit.com.au is the website to go to, and there is a free DVD there, as well, and also the upcoming seminars for Cherie.
\nCherie, thanks for your time. Look forward to catching up again soon.
\nCherie:<\/b>\u00a0 You\u2019re welcome. Thank you, Kevin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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