Saving Money on

 Home Improvements

1.      Try doing simple home improvement projects yourself. You can find tutorials online for tasks like painting, minor repairs, and gardening.

2.      Visit salvage yards or reuse centers for building materials and fixtures. You can often find good quality items for a fraction of the price.

3.      Buy materials and tools during sales events like Black Friday or end-of-season clearances.

4.      Attend free community workshops to learn new skills and techniques for home improvements.

5.      Invest in energy-efficient windows, doors, and insulation. These can reduce your energy bills in the long run. Observe the golden rule of insulation. If you can see the top of the floor joists in your attic, you’ll likely save energy dollars by ­adding insulation. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that homeowners can save an average of 15 percent by sealing their homes and adding insulation in attics, floors over crawl spaces, and basements.

6.      And batten down the hatch. Insulating your attic entry —­ often called the hatch —could save $150 a year in energy costs. The goal is to keep heat out of the attic. Since heat rises, an uninsulated hatch drains heat from your home. Home centers carry hatch insulation to fit most situations.

7.      Know when to prime. Painting over low-gloss and using a similar ­color? Skip the primer. But in ­other situations, primer will save you money. Use primer when painting porous surfaces, such as bare drywall or wood or surfaces with high-gloss paint.

8.      Wait for winter. Many people don’t want to start indoor projects during the winter due to the cold and holidays. But this means contractors are looking for work during those months and are more likely to give you a better deal as well as their full attention.

9.      Know how to improve home value. If you plan to sell your home down the road, check out Remodeling Magazine’s helpful annual Cost vs. Value survey at remodeling.hw.net. Most financially helpful in 2023 was converting a fossil-fuel furnace to an electric heat pump, averaging an $18,366 return on $17,747 in cost. By comparison, a $23,430 deck would return just $9,325.

10. Rehab your tub. Replacing a stained and worn bathtub can run you $10,000 or more because you’ll likely have to replace everything that surrounds it too. But for $150 or less, you can refinish it with an epoxy-based finish, such as Ekopel 2k or the Rust-Oleum Tub & Tile Refinishing Kit.