Are you sick of looking at your house and thinking ‘blah’? Would you want to give your house a more upscale appearance? Are you prepared to impress your neighbors with how gorgeous your home seems from the street view?
If yes, you’ve come to the right place. Elevating the exterior of your property is a difficult task. You must be wondering about the costs involved, the time frame required, and the amount of work you’ll be required to put in.
But not every home improvement project must cost tens of thousands of dollars and consume weeks of your time and effort. In this article, we’ll show you how to beautify your home’s exterior on a budget with the help of expert services.
Step Up Your Front Porch Steps
Knowledge is available for kitchens, baths, and living rooms when planning, staging, or making your property seem like a home. However, the information desk misses the front stairs as an essential aspect when you want to beautify your home’s exterior. The stairs could go unnoticed during the design process, but how they look can establish the tone of a house and affect whether it sells.
The front stairs are an essential component of curb appeal. You can do numerous little things to make your steps look nicer, whether constructed of concrete slabs, cracked wood, or something that simply blends into the background. Adding railings could make your house look better. In addition, a stair lift install can be of great help if you or a family member have mobility challenges. This service can completely change the outside of your property by offering a quick and secure way to reach elevated locations.
According to Bob Vila, the national average price to build a stair lift is $6,000, with expenses ranging from $2,000 to $20,000.
It need not be expensive to revitalize your front porch steps. You can achieve a stunning transformation within your price range with careful planning and the right professional advice.
Overhaul your Landscaping
Even the best landscape design won’t endure forever, and when you need a redo, it’s an investment. Landscaping is another great way to beautify your home’s exterior and may raise the value of your property and improve curb appeal. But after investing in landscaping, you might wonder, ”How much is my house worth?” According to the National Association of Realtors, homes with high curb appeal typically sell for an average of 7% more than comparable homes without the same landscaping. If you renovate frequently, this adds up, but fortunately, the bigger projects are infrequent.
Overhauling your landscape involves adding trees, bushes, and flowers or addressing hardscape by redoing walkways. You can update your backyard landscape with a few little makeovers almost as effectively as a substantial landscape restoration. Angi states the typical homeowner spends between $1,300 and $5,600 to landscape their yard. Before you begin, decide if your landscaping needs a complete overhaul or a fresh coat of paint. It will be far easier on your finances to replace a few bushes than the entire landscape.
The truth is that landscaping components can last for years if you maintain your outdoor area regularly. A local landscape supplier can repair cracked and aged hardscaping rather than replace it entirely. You do not need to spend a fortune to update your landscaping. You can achieve a significant upgrade without breaking the bank by carefully selecting plants, considering DIY options, and seeking a reliable landscaping company.
Improve Your Home’s Security
Although your house should be your haven, burglary can happen anytime. You can, however, take precautions to improve your home’s security and deter burglaries. According to Forbes, every 25.7 seconds, a home burglary occurs in the United States. Given this startling frequency, it is crucial to give your home security priority. How can you achieve this? Increasing the security of your home does not have to be expensive. Thankfully, there are a few simple and affordable measures to increase the security of your house.
One of the best methods to defend your home is by installing a CCTV system. The mere presence of security cameras on a property can deter would-be intruders. If there is a break-in at your home, the authorities can utilize the video from your cameras to apprehend the burglars and return your stolen property to you.
Another way of beefing up the security of your home is topping up gravel driveways and pathways. Gravel is noisy when you walk on it, but it might help you hear intruders before they reach your front door. If your front drive, garden, or paths are graveled, keep them topped off so that walking on them produces the loudest crunch possible.
Fencing around your property can also provide privacy and security. Home Advisor reports that the average cost for a new fence installation for homeowners is $3,059, ranging from $1,743 to $4,431 nationwide. A fence can deter burglars from coming after your house, decreasing the likelihood that they will try to break in. Additionally, fencing can be a great way to beautify your home’s exterior. Adding lights outside your home can also be a good way to increase security. What’s more, installing motion-activated lights can help deter crime since they will turn on whenever they detect movement.
Boost Your Curb Appeal with Tree Removal
Proper tree maintenance includes tree trimming. While some of the work is simple, some crucial services require expertise. Residential tree services offer the homeowner more than just tree pruning; they also provide landscaping services. According to Angi, tree pruning costs $460, ranging from $75 for minor trees to $1,800 for large, old trees.
Nothing destroys a home’s landscaping like a large, decaying tree stump or a dead tree outside. It is an eyesore, worse if on the way. But the good news is that professional tree trimming and services can improve the outside of your home without breaking the bank. You don’t have to try to get around it; consider removing it.
You’ll most likely end up with unkempt branches protruding everywhere if you let your trees grow on their own. Even though untrue, this may give the impression that your home is messy and poorly maintained. Maintaining and keeping your trees in good shape is a great way to beautify your home’s exterior. It also helps you demonstrate to guests and possible purchasers that you care about your home.
Branches or dead or dying trees can be a safety risk. You may be liable if they fall on the visitor’s car or harm them. Therefore, take care of your trees or get fresh ones from your nearby garden center.
Incorporate Hardscaping into Your Landscaping
Do you want to give your landscape design a unique touch? Your outdoor space is different, and you should treat it with the respect, tenderness, and creativity it requires. Incorporating hardscaping elements into your landscaping is a cost-effective way to give your outdoor space depth and personality. It can make your outdoor space more enticing and fashionable for you and your visitors.
Consider hiring a hardscape patio company to give your landscape design a distinctive aesthetic that will impress your friends and awe onlookers. Angi estimates hardscaping costs range from $5 to $25 per square foot. The average cost per square foot for a new deck is between $30 and $60, while some projects start at around $10, such as building patios.
Hardscaping has many possibilities, whether you want elegant features or something simpler but still useful. The options for adding hardscaping components to your landscape design are countless and within reach, from patios and walks to retaining walls. Use stone patios and paths to add depth and richness to your outdoor living space.
Planning the yard of your dreams requires considering several factors, including form versus function, the many hardscaping materials available, choosing an aesthetic to base your design decisions on, the cost, and the location of the yard. With so many ways to use hardscaping to improve your landscape design, let the experts construct a one-of-a-kind outdoor space that satisfies all your outdoor lifestyle requirements.
Strengthening Your Foundation
Everything else hinges on the structural engineering of the home’s foundation. The foundation must be strong to endure the forces of nature. However, the topography can affect the evolution of the soil beneath it. Soil movements can break weak foundations.
If you notice signs of a compromised foundation, such as cracks and bouncing floors, act immediately. However, fixing foundation problems need not be expensive. You can execute some techniques with budget-friendly options, ensuring the longevity and safety of your property.
One technique that may help you fix your foundation is jacketing. When there are columns that need reinforcing, this technique is the best. This is a typical requirement when adding more load to the wall, such as through extensions. It could be essential to widen or strengthen the existing foundation to ensure the wall is sturdy enough to support this.
Another technique is retaining walls. According to Forbes, retaining a wall costs between $19 and $23 per square foot. Retaining walls not only help beautify your home’s exterior by creating new seating and play areas, but they also contribute to the stability of your home’s foundation. By leveling, you have invested in soil; retaining walls assist in keeping it in place.
Soil can run wherever the water takes it when it rains heavily. Accurate lawn leveling provides proper contouring and stability while creating retaining walls to stop the soil from washing toward your home or other nearby structures. Erosion can occur when soil and moisture get close to your home’s foundation. A poor foundation runs the risk of destroying your house. Consider hiring retaining wall services to help you keep soil and water in place.
Improve Your Curb’s Appeal With Roofing
Your home’s exterior endures a lot of strain. Deterioration is unavoidable, whether from hard winters with subfreezing temperatures or scorching summers with intense UV rays. Your home’s roof is one of the main regions impacted by these elements.
Even if a roof can last for many years, no material is durable enough to withstand the passage of time. You’ll eventually want a new roof to replace the old or damaged one. Homeowners hesitate to start this renovation too soon because it often calls for a sizable investment. However, with a wide range of options for materials and designs, you can find roofing solutions that fit within your budget while improving the overall look of your property. Asphalt shingles, metal, wooden shingles, and clay tiles are among the most affordable roofing materials, with prices ranging from $70 to $500 per square installed, according to Angi.
One of its most evident advantages is the improved curb appeal you’ll enjoy from installing a new roof. New installations enable you to greatly increase curb appeal, regardless of whether your roof is 20 years old and clearly decaying or merely out of date with the decor of your property. The most noticeable aspect of your home is its roof, so replacing it with new materials allows you to alter how the other components of your house appear and feel.
When creating your new roof, you can choose from many combinations of various colors, materials, styles, and designs. According to Bob Vila, the typical price range for roof repairs is $379 to $1,758, with a $1,060 national average. It’s fantastic if you already know how you want your house to look. Alternatively, you can collaborate with a local roofer to select the ideal solution and make your dream a reality. Curb appeal not only improves the exterior of your property but also gives many homeowners a sense of pride. This alone might be enough to justify the investment.
You can beautify your home’s exterior without breaking the bank. Most of these tasks are simple enough for the typical homeowner to complete, yet combined, they can transform a passable exterior into one that draws attention. Try one for the ultimate curb appeal makeover on a budget, or commit to taking on all of them.
However, consider this before you decide how to beautify your home’s exterior. Explore the neighborhood to see what’s popular before settling on a particular style or landscaping plan. Your ultimate goal should never be to fit in, but if you’re thinking about selling soon, it would be worthwhile to consider what curb appeal means where you live.
