3 great, cost-effective DIY renovations

Is there anything you would improve in your home if you could? Chances are, if you're living in an older property, there'll be a large number of things that spring to mind. Perhaps, you've got a few landscaping ideas you want to try out, or you want to redo the bathroom that looks like it's been around since the Jurassic age.

Of course, there's a good reason why you're not simply making every upgrade that shows up on the list - which is probably that it consumes both time and money. However, the latter is something that can be reduced significantly if you take things into your own hands.

Archicentre's cost guide shows that for major renovations, hiring professionals accounts for around one-third of the project's costs. If you want to take that expense down to a zero, there are a few upgrades that, with the right guidance and tools, can be applied with your own two hands.

That being said, we need to make it clear that there are several renovations you shouldn't attempt on your own unless you have the professional training or skills for it. These include any work that will alter the structure of your home or mess with plumbing, electrical or gas networks. Not only will the cost of amending any problems you may cause be potentially huge, but it can be dangerous as well.

With that out of the way, here are three renovations that you should consider doing yourself.

1) Painting

We've talked extensively about the benefits of giving your home a fresh coat of paint. These include lending a whole new atmosphere to a room, like making it more calming to be in with a touch of light blue, or adding excitement to a games room with a bold splash of red.

Furthermore, they're a great way to add instant value to your home, making spaces feel fresh and new. Cherie Barber from Renovating for Profit indicating that you can gain tens of thousands of dollars in return when painting is done well. Thankfully, paint jobs also aren't hard to do on your own.

Don't hesitate to scour through the internet to find ideas for stunning colour schemes. Speak with friends that have a good eye for design to get a few extra points of view before making the leap.

Also, to have your paint project finished as quickly as possible, employing tools like heat lamps to dry the surface can help.

2) Tiling

Bathroom renovations are among the most popular - and with good reason! This crucial room serves as a personal sanctuary at the end of a long working day, and having it looking and feeling like a million dollars can be considered by some to be priceless. According to Houzz and Home's latest report, a whopping 23 per cent of renovators made guest bathroom upgrades in 2014, while 20 per cent conducted changes to the master bathroom.

Retiling is a common bathroom improvement to make, and can modernise or add a touch of character to a worn-looking space. Perhaps you want to have some bold patterns running up the wall, or replace the old, tired floor with some sleek, modern tiling. There's an almost inexhaustible number of ways to utilise tiles, so flip through some magazines for some ideas.

The key to DIY tiling is to make use of simple and small tiles that are easy to work with. Ensure that you have the right equipment on hand like a demolition saw for cutting up tiles to get them fit in the corner. As seen in Service Seeking's stats, do this right, and you could save around $42 per square metre on labour costs.

3) Fencing

Having an excellent-looking fence around your property can help improve its kerb appeal. As Houzz's report indicates, 25 per cent of renovators who made outdoor changes in 2014 conducted fence building or upgrades.

The reason why building a fence is a good DIY project is that the tolerance for imprecision or potential mistakes is far greater. A slight bit of asymmetry here and there shouldn't drastically affect the state of the fence, if at all.

Furthermore, executing the actual renovation isn't a complicated process. Get together the required equipment, such as a concrete mixer, circular saw, drill and nail gun, do a good amount of planning, and you could have a slick-looking fence surrounding your home in the span of a few weekends.