You don’t always need to renovate: 3 reasons why a knockdown rebuild can be a better decision for your home

1. You can get the home of your dreams

Although the architecture of older homes can be beautiful, they’re typically not suited to family life today. Open-plan living areas, spacious kitchens, and modern bathrooms can make a world of difference to a family’s lifestyle.

When renovating, you can knock down internal walls and add an extension out the back, but the original structure can also provide limitations to room sizes and orientations. Rebuilding, however, provides a blank slate, giving you complete control and flexibility over your floor plan.

No compromises sound perfect, right?
Not only do you have a brand new home that is perfect for your family but it’s also in a location you love and are familiar with. That’s something you can’t get from the newer estates across Sydney – which are located so far from the CBD that you don’t even consider them as Sydney.

2. You can make your home more sustainable

Although this typically isn’t the reason people decide to knock down and rebuild, implementing sustainable living practices is much easier to do in a new home than a renovation, and can help your family save energy, water, and money for years to come.

Below are some sustainable factors and their benefits to take into consideration:

Orientation

Rebuilding provides the opportunity to position your main living areas to be north-facing. This helps to increase the amount of light and warmth these spaces receive during winter, meaning you’ll be using less electricity during this period which is good for the environment and your pocket!

Lighting

The goal is to use the least amount of artificial light as possible; as natural lighting is free and better for your health (who doesn’t want the chance to feel less stressed and tired?)
By considering the position and size of windows and skylights within your living areas, kitchen and bedrooms you can eliminate the need for any artificial lighting during the day.

Creating Zones

Even though you can reduce the amount of heat you feel inside your home, summers in Sydney can get hot to a point where air conditioning is still needed.
You can prepare for these scorching days while designing your home. By incorporating ‘zones’ into your floor plans, where doors can be closed off to different rooms, you can increase the flexibility of only cooling the rooms being occupied.

3. It can be more cost-effective

Depending on the scale of renovations you’re looking to complete, the cost to do this can actually be higher than designing and building a brand new home from scratch. Working with older properties means there are unknowns and some costs associated with renovations can be difficult for builders to determine during the planning phase. Whether it’s an issue with your drainage system or the need for a new subfloor, there can be a lot of ‘surprises’ which pop up during a renovation that may leave you out of pocket.

It’s also important to note that the existing structure of your home may still require further maintenance in the shorter term. And with newer homes generally being easier and cheaper to maintain, you’ll have financial peace of mind for years to come.

If you’re considering rebuilding with sustainability in mind, reach out to JCD Building.

Our director, Jake, believes that looking after the environment should go hand in hand with the design and construction of homes. Building across the Greater Sydney region, JCD Building produces beautiful high-end homes you can’t help but fall in love with.