Step 14 - Revising the Floor Plan

Making a revision to your desired floor plan may not be necessary.  The need for Step 11 will be determined by how extensively you'd like to change the home, the issues you're addressing, and the complexity of what may have been discovered during the demolition phase.

As I mentioned before, I like to re-work the layout to make the shared living areas feel like one big open space by adding headers and columns.  Moving electrical and plumbing lines as well as the re-routing of HVAC duct-work has been a large part of each of my renovations.  

In some projects, a major gut job was required because the home was outdated and needed to be brought up to code.  In others, there was extensive fire damage, mold, or some other point of concern.  These are some of my own examples, but you may have other issues that you're better aware of after Step 10 (Demolition), challenges that might require some adjustments to the drawing you created in Step 6 - Sketch Out Your Floor Plan.

I mentioned in previous posts (and above) that plumbing, electrical, and gas lines may be discovered during the demolition phase (see Step 9 - Know Your Limitations).  All of these things can be relocated, but that does not mean you'll absolutely want to spend the time and money having them re-directed.  It might be a big change, a small modification, or something in between (like you need to rotate a closet 90 degrees or alter the size of a wall opening).  

The point is, that once you get finished demoing the walls, you have to be prepared to make adjustments to your plans.  At the beginning of The Bungalow renovation, I had a completely different plan than what I ended up with because the home was radically different structurally than what I had anticipated.  Although I was solid in my take on how one part of the house had been added, there were other additions that I understood more sufficiently after the demolition phase.  I had to install missing headers, totally change where the laundry room would be located, and move a bathroom to the other side of the house to accommodate structural members that had to remain unchanged.     

So, if you don't have to change your floor plan after the demolition phase, be glad and keep moving forward with your renovation plans.  However, if revisions are needed, don't be too surprised, and just remember the modified layout may leave you with a revised floor plan that you like better than what you ended up with after Step 6.

Jump to Step 12 - Line Up Your Temporary Services