Home improvement or home renovation is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home.
Welcome to CWAnswers
CWAnswers is your guide to the sprawling world wide web. The directory aims to provide a useful guide made by users. You can share your knowledge as well - simply sign up and edit your first entry. For questions just contact the team at support - at - cwanswers.com.
Weblinks for Home Improvement
Top 10 for Home Improvement
Things about Home Improvement you find nowhere else.
Select content modules
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.

























