5 tips to keep your kids safe and yourself sane during home renovations

Home remodeling experts at SRK Construction

As you plan a renovation, you spend countless hours thinking about the end result. You picture cooking family dinner in a more kid-friendly kitchen, watching your children play from a sturdy backyard deck, and reading your kids’ books from your childhood in a brighter living room.

But if you’re like many homeowners, you may not have yet considered the renovation process itself. While you lay kid-friendly flooring, construct a reliable deck, or knock down a wall to expand your living room, you must know what to do with your kids.

While it’s easy to set rules about roughhousing near power tools, your children still should do homework, go to music practice, and fulfill daily routines during the renovation. To ensure that your remodel goes smoothly, use these five tips.

1. Block Off Work Areas

As an adult, you remember to take a detour around a specific room during construction. But when your kids deeply entrench themselves in a game of cops and robbers, they may forget which rooms fall out of bounds.

Use furniture, rope, or toddler gates to block off the work area. With older kids, these barriers simply serve as gentle reminders. But with your younger kids, these blockades make the construction zone completely inaccessible.

2. Control In-Home Air Quality

You may notice more dust in the air during a renovation. If you or any of your kids suffer from allergies, respiratory conditions, or soft tissue sensitivities, a remodel aggravates those issues.

To keep your home’s air clean and clear, seal any vents that take air out of the work area. Then, use drop cloths and plastic sheeting to contain the other contaminants.

3. Renovate When It’s Warm Out

As a parent, you know kids seem more cooperative when they stay distracted. One way to make sure your kids don’t become bored enough to bother the builders is to renovate during warm months.

Use swimming, backyard games (like tag), and outdoor activities (such as sidewalk chalk) to keep your kids happy, entertained, and out of the way of large equipment and busy workers.

4. Set Up a Temporary Replacement Room

When you renovate your kitchen or another high-traffic room, you automatically change your family’s daily routine. To ease into and out of this transition, prepare a makeshift replacement room.

For example, set up a dishes cabinet, perishable food shelf, and alternative cooking surface in the garage or laundry room to replace your full kitchen.

Just double check that your temporary setup has as much child proofing as possible. Place dangerous items out of reach of little hands, put in outlet covers, and check that no cords pose tripping hazards.

5. Work with Your Contractor

Whether you’ve already hired a contractor or still need to interview one, make your contractor your ally in the effort to protect your little ones. Ask your contractor about his or her experience working in homes with children and any ground rules you should establish.

Also ask about the company’s injury history–a low injury rate indicates the presence of solid onsite rules.

While it’s up to you to supervise your kids, your contractor helps you determine which rules to set, which areas to block off, and which conditions pose the most risk to your family so you all act accordingly.

 

Whether you’re about to redo a single room or most of your home, you don’t need an injury or pervasive irritation to overshadow the finished product. Talk to your older kids before the renovations begin. Set rules and make sure each child understands why those rules are in place.

Then, during your renovation, use the tips listed above to protect your family, maximize your investment, and decrease your stress and frustration.