Should You Stay Home During a Remodel or Move Out?
By Serjay Kravchuk, Client Relations Manager and Project Manager at New Day Construction
One of the questions homeowners ask before a remodel is whether they can stay in the house while the work is going on. I usually start with a much more practical question: what part of the house are you going to lose?
I’m Serjay Kravchuk, Client Relations Manager and Project Manager at New Day Construction. From my experience, the answer has less to do with whether someone calls the project a “major remodel” and more to do with what will still be usable once construction starts. Remodeling one bathroom is usually manageable if there is another one in the house. Losing the kitchen for several weeks is a different experience. A whole-home remodel can sound impossible to live through, but if the work is planned in stages, many homeowners still choose to stay.
I would rather have that conversation before demolition than halfway through the project. Once the kitchen is already gone or two bathrooms have been opened at the same time, it is much harder to reorganize the job around daily life.
When Staying Home Works
A lot of our clients stay in the house during remodeling. The key is keeping enough of the home usable while construction moves forward. If we are remodeling two bathrooms, we can often complete the first one while the homeowner continues using the second. Once the finished bathroom is back in service, we move on. The same approach can work in a larger renovation. We do not necessarily need to have every room under construction at the same time. That does affect how the project is planned. An empty house gives a crew more freedom to move between spaces, while an occupied house sometimes needs a different sequence. For many homeowners, though, that is a reasonable tradeoff compared with renting another place for the duration of the remodel.
Kitchens tend to be harder. Before construction starts, living without a kitchen can sound fairly simple. People imagine using a microwave, ordering food, and setting up a coffee maker somewhere else. After a few days, the inconvenience becomes much more real because the sink is gone and the normal place for storing or preparing food is no longer available. A temporary kitchen helps. It does not need to reproduce the kitchen you are remodeling. It simply needs to make daily life workable while the real kitchen is out of service. Bathrooms are usually more straightforward. If there is another functioning bathroom, most households can adjust. If the bathroom being remodeled is the only one in the house, temporary housing may make much more sense for part of the job.
A whole-home remodel does not automatically mean moving out either. We have projects where homeowners remain in the house while construction moves from one area to another. It becomes much harder when the homeowner wants most of the house opened at the same time. At that point, there may simply not be enough normal living space left to make staying comfortable.
Hazardous-material work is different and has to be considered according to the requirements of the specific work being performed. I would not make a general rule that any project involving lead or asbestos automatically requires leaving the whole house, but the occupancy plan cannot be treated the same way as ordinary remodeling.
What It Is Actually Like to Live Through a Remodel
Dust is one of the things people notice immediately. We use containment and separate the active work area as much as possible, but construction is still construction. Materials are being moved through the house, and demolition creates dust. Even when the work is confined to one part of the home, you are aware that it is happening.
Noise can become a bigger issue for someone who works from home. A normal construction day does not always fit nicely around a Zoom meeting. Families with young children have another routine to think about because daytime work may overlap with naps or quiet time.
There is also less privacy than usual. People are coming in and out during the day, and part of your house is effectively a workplace. That is perfectly manageable for some homeowners. Others find after a week that they would rather have rented somewhere else.
Pets need to be planned for as well. A dog may be completely relaxed around construction noise but still create a problem if the crew needs to carry materials through an exterior door all day. It helps to decide before the job starts where the pet will stay during working hours instead of trying to solve it every morning.
Staying in the house can change the construction sequence too. If one bathroom needs to remain available, we plan around that. If part of the home has to stay separated from construction every evening, that becomes part of how the work is organized. It does not automatically make the project more expensive. Sometimes the effect is minimal. On another project, working in stages may require more coordination or affect how quickly different phases can happen. Temporary housing also costs money, so I would never assume moving out is the cheaper or more expensive option without looking at the actual project.
When Moving Out Makes More Sense
I start seriously discussing temporary housing when too much of the house is going to be unavailable at once.
You may technically be able to sleep upstairs while the main floor is under construction, but that does not mean the arrangement will work well for your family. If you no longer have a normal kitchen and most of the living space has become a work area, staying can become exhausting even if it is physically possible. Some homeowners would rather let us work in more areas at the same time instead of organizing the remodel around an occupied house. In that situation, an Airbnb or another short-term rental can be worth considering.
Not many of our clients move out for an entire renovation. More often, we find a way to keep enough of the house functional while the project progresses. Even when temporary housing is useful, it may only be necessary during one particular phase. That is why I would not decide how long to leave based on the total duration of the remodel. A project may last several months while the house is uncomfortable to occupy for only a small part of that time.
One kitchen remodel I managed in Everett is a good example of how much the construction schedule matters. The project took about five weeks and had a budget of roughly $110,000. We rotated the island to make better use of the existing space, and the homeowners received project updates each week. Those updates were useful because the homeowners knew what was coming next. When you are living around a remodel, knowing which area will be affected and when you will get it back matters almost as much as knowing the completion date.
Make the Decision Before Construction Starts
If you plan to stay home, figure out what daily life will look like before demolition begins. If the kitchen is being remodeled, decide where food will be stored and where you will clean up. If two bathrooms are part of the project, make sure the schedule always leaves one available. For someone who works from home, it is worth thinking about where calls can happen once construction begins. Families should also know which parts of the house will remain off-limits during the day. Those decisions give the project manager something concrete to work with. Instead of trying to preserve a vague idea of normal life, we can build the construction sequence around what the household actually needs.
There is no rule that says staying is better than leaving. I have seen homeowners live comfortably through substantial renovations, and I have seen smaller projects where moving out for a short period made life much easier. What matters is knowing what the house will be like during each phase and making the decision before the work starts.
Expert Conversation: The Stone Magazine and Serjay Kravchuk
The Stone Magazine (TSM): Serjay, when someone asks you whether they need to move out, what do you want to know first?
Serjay Kravchuk (SK): What they are going to lose access to. If we are working on one bathroom and there is another bathroom available, that is usually pretty easy. If the kitchen is going to be completely out and a big part of the house is under construction at the same time, then I want to talk about how they are actually going to live there.
TSM: Do homeowners underestimate what it is like to be without a kitchen?
SK: Very often. Before the remodel, it sounds manageable. You think you will make coffee somewhere else and eat simple food for a while. Then you realize how often you normally use the kitchen sink or how inconvenient it is to prepare food when everything has been moved. A temporary kitchen makes a big difference, but it is still not the same as having your normal kitchen.
TSM: What tends to bother people most when they stay?
SK: Dust is probably the most common thing. We contain the construction area, but you are still living next to a jobsite. For people who work from home, noise can become the bigger issue because construction does not always cooperate with a meeting schedule.
TSM: Does staying home slow the job down?
SK: Sometimes it changes how we do the job. If the homeowner needs one bathroom available, we keep one bathroom available. That may mean finishing one before starting the other instead of opening both. I would not say that living in the house automatically makes every remodel slower, but it becomes part of the scheduling.
TSM: What about a whole-home remodel? Do people usually have to leave?
SK: No. We have clients who stay because we work through the house in stages. It gets harder if most of the home needs to be open at once. Then even if you can technically stay there, you have to ask whether you really want to.
TSM: When do you personally start suggesting that the homeowner consider temporary housing?
SK: When keeping the house livable starts controlling too much of the project or when the homeowner is going to lose the spaces they rely on every day. Sometimes leaving for one phase is easier than trying to live around it.
TSM: Does an empty house mean the remodel will be finished faster?
SK: Not necessarily. It can give us more flexibility, but every project is different. I would want to know what actually changes in the schedule before telling a homeowner to spend money on temporary housing just because they assume the project will finish sooner.
TSM: What is the one thing you wish homeowners would decide before demolition?
SK: How they are going to live during the project. It sounds obvious, but people sometimes spend months choosing materials and do not think about where they are going to make breakfast once the kitchen is gone. If we work through that before construction starts, the remodel is much easier on everyone.
