How Long Does a Home Remodel Take in San Francisco

Time for a fresh update! For some new ideas! And new construction! But how long does it take??

If you are brand new to a home renovation and you're thinking about a remodel. How long does it take? What do I do? What are the deadlines? Are there city requirements? Keep reading. You have questions? I'm going to answer them all now.

Home remodels, full remodels, bathrooms remodels, kitchens remodels, typically we tell our clients four to eight months. There's gray area to that obviously depending on the remodel? A full remodel is different from a simple powder room update. Every project has a different scope of timeline. That’s the short answer but really it comes down to the phases of construction. This will give you a better understanding of the process and you can fit that in with the project you have in mind.

The first phase: Planning

Construction planning of the project would be the first and most important step, this is where it all starts. What do we want out of this renovation? Who’s going to benefit from it? Do we want layout changes? How many bedrooms are getting rehabbed? Are we adding an additional dwelling unit? Do we need a garage conversion? Are we seismic retrofitting the house for earthquakes and reinforcement? Do we want to rent the house out? Sale etc. So, all that planning needs to come into play first, once we have that we can then marry our ideas with the proper general contractor.

Once the general contractor is into play, we then get explore with full creativity because the general contractor will have all the construction answers. This is also where we can start picking materials, designing and finalizing what your dream really is. The GC also starts the permit process as well. To address permits, some are over the counter and are really quick, some permits take a little bit longer. This is probably the most important step, I would say personally, is phase one, the planning phase, knowing why you’re doing the home renovation in the first place.

Phase two: Demolition

The demolition part is where we get nasty. This is what people don't like to see. Sometimes we strip the house to literally just a frame, like a shell of a house. This is when we're digging down, taking out dirt to add square footage, reenforcing foundations. Below we can see a video example of what I’m talking about. Sometimes it's ugly. We're taking out cabinets, we're ripping up floors, we're knocking down walls, getting rid of any rot or asbestos or mold and any other hazards as well. That's the demolition phase. Tearing it down so we can build back up again.

Phase three Build up

This is where we start to put everything back into play. Installing brand new electrical, plumbing, insulation, windows, Sheetrock, paint, flooring, cabinets, tile, appliances, you name it. We're covering with crown moulding and backlit mirrors, adding mud rooms, all the things that are fun and visual are in this phase. This is where you can start to see your dream come to fruition. We took everything down in the demolition phase, now we're building everything back up. If there is a project slow down, more often it will be in this phase because sometimes we're at the mercy of the city, and city inspectors to come check our work and let us know if we passed inspections that are up to code with our construction.

And finally phase four: Punchlist

This phase is all about the little details of home construction, the nuances, the electrical plate covers, taking up the floor coverings, maybe a little bit of caulking on the crown, just small little details that really, really kind of pull the home together. This is the phase is where most homeowners really get excited because they can actually see themselves living in the home now. It's the finish line. It's right there. Homeowners can really start to look towards interior designing or how their existing furniture will look in the home at this point. There is our version of the construction project broken down into four phases. This is just to give you a broad vision of the structure so you can follow along with any project. The more that you know, the better understanding you will have and can follow with the construction process. We know sometimes its hard to go through a home remodel and we want you to feel as comfortable as you can during this process, especially with Edri Construction.

If you're soon to be in the market for a general contractor or a full home remodel, take a look at our YouTube channel to get a behind the scenes look at other stuff we're doing. You can see projects we have that are in the demo phase, in the planning phase, in the buildup process, and you can also find some finished product on our channel too. So call us today and we'll give you a free 3D mockup, walk you through what your home will look like, what you're trying to get from it, your goals, your vision, and then we'll put it on a 3D mockup. Put it on paper for you so it's nice and tangible and you can see the project to make a proper decision. Call us today.