Home improvement or home renovation is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home.

Types of home improvement

While it most often refers to building projects that alter the structure of an existing home, home renovation can include improvements to lawns and gardens and outbuildings like gazebos and garages.

Home improvement projects generally have one or more of the following goals:

Beautification and added features

• Wallpapering and painting walls or installing wood panelling.
• Adding new flooring such as carpets, tiling, linoleum, wood flooring, or solid hardwood flooring.
• Upgrading cabinets, fixtures, and sinks in the kitchen and bathroom.
• Replacing siding and windows
• Improving the backyard with sliding doors, wooden patio decks, patio gardens, jacuzzis, swimming pools, and fencing.

Comfort

• Upgrading heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC)
• Increasing the capacity of plumbing and electrical systems.
• Waterproofing basements.
• Soundproofing rooms, especially bedrooms and baths.

Maintenance and repair

Maintenance projects can include:

• Roof tear-off and replacement.
• Concrete and masonry repairs to the foundation and chimney.
• Repairing plumbing and electrical systems.

Additional space

Additional living space may be added by:

• Turning marginal areas into livable spaces such as turning basements into recrooms or attics into spare bedrooms.
• Extending one's house with rooms added to the side of one's home or, sometimes, extra levels to the original roof.

Saving energy

Homeowners may reduce utility costs with:

• Energy-efficient insulation, windows, and lighting.
• Renewable energy with biomass pellet stoves, wood-burning stoves, solar panels, wind turbines, and geothermal exchange heat pumps (see autonomous building)

Safety and preparedness

Emergency preparedness safety measures such as:

• Home fire and burglar alarm systems.
• Security doors, windows, and shutters.
• Storm cellars as protection from tornadoes and hurricanes.
• Bombshelters especially during the 1950s as protection from nuclear war.

Professional versus do-it-yourself

There are three main approaches to managing a home improvement project: hiring a general contractor, directly hiring specialized contractors, or doing the work oneself.

A general contractor oversees a home improvement project that involves multiple trades. A general contractor acts as project manager, providing access to the site, removing debris, coordinating work schedules, and performing some aspects of the work.