The top 10 ways you can save on your home remodeling project

About.com offers these suggestions for saving money on your home remodeling project:

10. Avoid using second mortgages, personal loans and credit when you can.

If you’re building an addition, it’s likely you’ll need a home equity line of credit or second mortgage. But you don’t want to pay for years for those new doors, so you’ll want to avoid personal loans and credit cards when possible. Cash is your best and cheapest choice.

9. Use existing structural elements as finish surfaces

If it works into your decorating style, refurbish interior brick walls, ceiling beams, concrete floors or wood floors that may be “decoratively aged” rather than building up new finish surfaces.

8. Build the addition up or in

It costs less to build up than to build out, as foundation work for building outward is expensive. It costs even less to build inward than upward if you have any spare rooms you can repurpose for other uses. If function rather than space is what you need, seriously consider building inward.

7. Avoid moving the plumbing

Plumbing work is expensive on its own; moving the plumbing can double – or more – the cost. But avoiding moving the plumbing is easier said than done, since half the reason for remodeling is often to redesign the kitchen floor plan.

6. Do your own work

It’s almost always cost less to do your own work versus hiring a professional – if money is your only concern. If it isn’t, then consider that the learning curve could be so steep or the need for specialized tools so great – or you’re in so much misery – that you end up hiring a professional anyway.

5. Use existing electrical work as much as possible

Like plumbing, electrical work is expensive. Instead of completely abandoning and redoing your current wiring, explore the possibility of supplementing it.

4. Live at your worksite

If you can find a way to live in your home while you’re remodeling, you’ll certain save money than if you’re renting an apartment to live in. It does help to take certain measures, such as maintaining a “clean zone” and using dust barriers.

3. Avoid the big remodeling contractors

Seek out the one- or two-person operations, which don’t have the unemployment taxes, worker’s compensation, advertising and sales commission costs you’re paying for. The smaller operations will negotiate, and you'll probably get a better level of service. Make sure the remodeling contractor is licensed, and the smaller the operator, the more you should concentrate on finding many local references. You will gain even more knowledge about that contractor’s quality of work by visiting examples of the contractor’s remodeling work. It should go without saying that if the contractor is stingy about showing examples, cross that contractor off the list in a hurry.

2. Use the ‘free’ home remodeling consultants

Even if you don't plan on using them, use the kitchen planners at The Home Depot, Lowe’s and local home improvement stores, who will provide you with a nice printed kitchen design layout. You can get product samples of siding from siding companies, hardwood and laminate flooring chips from flooring companies, and, for a short time commitment, flooring installers will come to your house and give you a dead-on floor measurement. These services come with a cost: the sales pitch, but you're not shelling out any bucks (though make certain that they're not charging you for the estimate, as some companies have begun to do recently).

1. Reduce your need for contractors

Contractors add 18 percent and more – usually more – for their services, which can amount to a staggering amount of money on big projects. They provide immensely valuable services for complicated, multistage projects, but carefully examine what you’re using the contractor for and question whether it’s worth another 25 percent.

• Are you paying them to perform easy work? Consider what projects for which you can hire a small contract to do, such as laying a brick patio when the addition is done.

• What about materials? There are materials you can easily get yourself and not have to pay the 25 percent markup, such as the set of towel bars that cost $100 if you swung by the store.

• Is there simple, non-building work you can do yourself? You can probably clean up the site when they’re done, or get the permit yourself.

You can find many avenues to save money with contractors, but get their estimate first and then start knocking off items.