When it comes to home upgrades, there are many questions that people have. Like, which room they should prioritize, do I need to go with the latest trends and a whole range of others. Following through this guide will give you some essential tips to where you should be looking to make your first upgrades in your home.
Replace your homes central heating system
Your central heating system is one of the most important parts of your home as it provides both your warmth and hot water throughout the year. However, not all homes will need to replace their boiler as they may already have a modern boiler installed.
How to know if your boiler needs replacing
There are two main factors that decide if you need a new boiler, age, and breakdown. If you find that your boiler is consistently breaking down and is costing you a small fortune in labour and parts, then it is time to get it replaced.
If your current boiler is older than 15 years then it may also be time to change, due to how inefficient it will be. Boilers that are older than 15 years can be rated as low as 60% energy efficiency, which means that 40% of all energy generated is either lost or used to power your boiler. When you compare this to modern boilers, which are around 90% efficiency or more. Which can be an increase of as much as 30% energy efficiency.
Boiler replacement
When it comes to replacing your boiler. You are going to want to select a boiler that is going to be able to supply your home’s water demand and will fit the space you have available. Your best option will be to go with your current boiler type and buy an upgraded model. You are going to want to use either a boiler replacement service from an established company or a local heating engineer. However, make sure that they are gas safe registered before allowing them to carry out work.
Update your kitchen
Unless you are living in a period property, people will often be experts to see kitchens having the latest gadgets and cooking tech in them. There is also the question of storage space, which can often run out quicker than imagined in a busy family kitchen.
Gadgets
While having the latest gadgets is not the be-all and end-all of a kitchen, having a modern stove and microwave can be a vital part of any kitchen. As well as a stove and microwave, upgrading other gadgets such as your kettle and toaster and even adding a coffee maker can make a big difference too.
If you have a relatively large kitchen and plan on doing a lot of cooking, adding another stove can also be an added bonus. Plus, an added stove can add some real value to your kitchen when it comes time to sell your property.
Storage space
There are some great changes that can be made to your kitchen cabinets that will add a lot of storage space. The first is getting newer and taller cabinets installed. There is often a lot of space above your cabinets that is left unused, so getting high cabinets installed will help you make use of all this space. If you have space above your fridge area cabinets can also be added to this space. However, you are then limiting what size fridge can be placed here later down the line, so think about this choice before jumping straight in.
Upgrade your bathroom
A bathroom should be seen as a place where you go to relax in a home. It is where after a long day of work or some hard exercise we go to relax. So, making sure that your bathroom has the ability for this is key. Having some great bathroom storage is also an often-overlooked aspect of bathrooms.
Storage
Having storage in a bathroom allows it to look tidied and seamless. Storage units that you can fill with towels and any toiletries that you will keep in your bathroom will allow you to keep it looking tidy. This way when you get in there to relax you are not greeted by a mess of different towels and a whole range of toiletries scattered all over.
Shower
Upgrading your actual shower itself can be as easy or as complex as you like. In some cases, changing your shower head to a power shower can be enough. Or you may want to upgrade the whole shower column to a more modern model.
Tiles
Updating the tiles in your bathroom should also be on your list. When it comes to new bathroom tiles, you are going to want to make sure you are using neutral colours. This way when it comes time to sell there will not be bright colours or patterns that may put people off.
Increase your energy efficiency
Increasing your home’s energy efficiency is something that you should constantly be working at. But there are some upgrades that you can make straight away which will make a huge difference.
Change your lightbulbs
The first way that you can start to make changes to your home’s energy efficiency is your lightbulbs. Switching out your regular incandescent or CFL bulbs to LED bulbs really does make a huge change to how efficient your home is. This is due to LED bulbs using less electricity to produce the same number of lumens as these other bulbs. Meaning that less electricity is being used which makes your home more efficient and saves you money in the long run.
Replace your boiler
Just like we mentioned above replacing your old boiler can make a real difference. This way you will increase how efficient your central heating system is as well as reducing your energy bills.
Draught proof
Draught-proofing your home can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or so to do. But in the long run, is worth it. To draught-proof your home, you will need to spend time sealing the gaps between your window frame and the window itself and gaps underneath your front and back door. That is a brief description of what draught-proofing is. You will be able to find some great in-depth guides online with a quick search.
Paint your home
Painting your home should be the final upgrade on your list. When it comes to painting your home, you will want to stay away from trends and colours that are too bright and bold. Not only do trends not last forever but if you end up looking to sell your home a full repaint will be needed. Stick to neutral colours such as whites, light greys, light blues, and even light greens in some rooms. Just like painting anything, make sure to get a few tester pots and see which works best for you!
Those are 5 tips that you can follow if you are looking to upgrade your home! There are plenty more upgrades that can be made so once you have tackled these, get yourself out there and carry on making your house a home!
