If, midway through your renovation project, you begin to experience financial problems that are likely to affect your ability to cover the cost of the renovation work, here are some steps that you should take.

Ask your builder to brainstorm with you

Rather than trying to come up with a solution to this problem by yourself and then presenting this solution to your builder at a later stage, you should inform them as soon as you become aware of your financial problems and ask them to help you come up with a way to resolve this issue.

The reason for this is as follows; most experienced builders will have dealt with this type of situation before. As such, it is quite possible that your builder may be able to use their past experience and knowledge to help you complete the renovation work, in spite of your financial difficulties. For example, if you don't have enough money left to purchase the flooring or countertop materials you originally planned to buy, your builder may be able to help you source similar, more affordable materials from a wholesale supplier that they know personally, or help you find very low cost second-hand materials from a salvage yard.

Be prepared to spread out the work over a longer period

Whilst your money problems won't necessarily bring your home renovations to a grinding halt, they may force you to postpone some of the work. Having some of the renovations carried out a few months from now will allow you to spread out the cost of the project and save up for the more expensive tasks. For example, you could repaint the bathroom now (as this is quite an inexpensive activity, provided you use cheap paint and do the work yourself), but have your builder install the new bathroom suite a couple of months from now. This will give you time to save up for the suite itself and the installation fee.

Similarly, if you're having the kitchen redone, you may need to install the new worktops now and repaint the existing cabinets, but wait a few months to have the tiled backsplashes and tiled flooring put in (as tiles can be costly and tend to look best when they are fitted by an experienced tradesperson, who is likely to charge quite a high fee for this job).

Whilst this approach won't provide the instant gratification that you would get by having all of the renovations done at once and may require you to live in an unfinished home for a while, it will allow you to make all of the changes that you originally wanted.

Speak to professional builders for more information.