You have outgrown your current home and know it's time for a change, but should you demolish your home and start over from scratch? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just renovate? What about selling? These are all good questions and there is no one right answer for everybody. Before you do something drastic, sit down and consider the cost/benefits of each of these options.

When to Renovate

If your home is relatively new and is on solid foundations, then renovating may be the best solution. However, there are other questions you need to answer, too:

• Will a home addition of a bedroom, for instance, serve your purposes or is it really just a stop-gap measure?
  
  
• Has your family outgrown your kitchen and living room?
  
  
• Are your growing children going to be stuck in bedrooms that were designed for toddlers when they become teenagers?
  
  
• Is renovating the most cost-effective solution? If you just want to add on a room and if it can be be seamlessly attached to your home, it may be a cost-effective solution. On the other hand, if you are thinking of doing extensive renovations, the costs associated with making the renovations fit in with the rest of the home may end up costing you more than they are worth. Properly done, a home extension should look like an organic part of the existing home. This may mean that you also have to re-clad your existing home, add on a matching roof and/or do extensive landscaping.
  
  
• Will council allow you to renovate?  It will cost you money to find out if your plan will be approved, so before you decide to add on, you should be reasonably certain that council will approve the renovation. Also don't forget to factor the costs of insurances and ongoing approvals into your overall budget.
  
  
• When you renovate, you may not have to live elsewhere while the renovations are going on. This may be one reason to choose to renovate rather than demolish. However, bear in mind the many inconveniences that will occur if you choose to stay in your home while renovations are taking place.
  

When to Sell

In many cases, the best reasons for selling a family home and building another on another block of land are if your current land is not big enough for you or if you wish to move to a new location. The costs of selling and buying usually more than offset the cost of demolishing and building on your current property.

When to Demolish

There are two occasions when demolishing your home and starting over from scratch is almost certainly your best option:

• When the home is old and requires extensive repairs.
  
• When you love everything about your location except for the home.
  

In all other cases, you need to make a more careful decision. Almost all home renovations include some alterations to the existing structure. How extensive will they be? How much will they cost? In the long run, will they be worth it?

If you love your current location, it is likely you will want to stay there for many years. Will you be happy with your renovation ten years from now or will you spend the next ten years wishing you had demolished and built your dream home from scratch?

When you decide to sell your home, will a new home fetch a better price than one that has an addition? Usually, a newer home is worth quite a bit more than one that has just been renovated.

In a nutshell, before you decide whether or not to demolish, renovate or re-locate, add up the costs involved in each of these options and weigh the costs versus their benefits, both now and into the future. Why demolish? If the short term cost and inconvenience of demolition are outweighed by its long-term lifestyle and cost benefits, then it may be the best decision you can make.

Find a demolition company in your local area.