Home Renovation

The Special Challenges of Restoring Old Homes After Home Renovation Technician School

March 27, 2018

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As time passes and a home falls into disrepair, renovation becomes less a nice option to have than an essential. The trouble is, however, that aged buildings often present additional obstacles to be surmounted en route to making improvements.

From structural issues to problems relating to the availability of parts, there are a number of special challenges that might need to be dealt with by a home renovation professional. Curious about what kinds of problems you might need to handle when renovating older homes? Here are a few examples to note.

Renovating Old Attics Can Be an Expensive Challenge for Home Renovation Technicians

A lot of attics are mostly ignored by their owners. They become storage space for Christmas trees and old tax documents, collect moisture (and sometimes animals), and may decay quicker than most parts of a home. As years go by, attics could well fall into a state of rather profound disrepair.

Come renovation time, this could make for a significant challenge for a home renovation technician. New moisture-proofing might be required, damaged materials might need to be replaced, and there’s always the potential that a new intended use for the space might create problems. Adding extra headspace to an attic that is being converted to a bedroom, for instance, is not exactly easy or cheap. All of these tasks are well within the capabilities of graduates of home renovation technician school, but they might take a fair bit of time and effort to complete.

Some Components From When a Building Was Constructed Might Not be Available

Standards change, and with those changes can come headaches for renovation professionals looking to make an old place look a little more modern. You might have difficulty finding bathtubs that fit a space correctly, or modern doors or flooring made from a formerly common, now rare material. When these components are essential to the completion of a project, this can be a bit of an obstacle to be overcome.

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 Needing to find outdated components or uncommon materials is an important renovation challenge

Largely, this is a problem resolved through diligent research, with appropriate materials and components often sourced from antiques shops or specialty stores. Since older components will generally be as simple to work with as those that are more common today, the hands-on skills developed in home renovation technician training will still apply.

Fixing Bad Renovations Isn’t Uncommon for Those Who Become a Home Renovation Technician

One of the great frustrations of home renovation professionals is encountering poor attempts at repairs or construction and needing to fix them up. There might be exposed wiring that needs to be covered up in a wall, horrible mismatches in exterior finishing, uneven floors, stuck doors, and any number of other problems indicative of sloppy prior work. Worse, older homes might have had several such renovations over time, leading to a bit of a mess for a home renovation technician to go in and fix.

This isn’t so much a test of skill as it is a test of patience, but it’s something that it is almost inevitable that a home renovation expert will encounter in their career. It’s not all bad, though. Finding especially bad examples of prior renovations could give you some fun stories to share with friends you make in the industry.

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You’ll likely have a few chuckles with friends over the weird “repairs” you encounter while renovating

Are you ready to become a home renovation technician?

Contact North American Trade Schools to learn why our program is right for you!

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