What is the Home Remodeling Bang-for-Buck-and-Effort Scale?

Question: What is the Home Remodeling Bang-for-Buck-and-Effort Scale?

I refer to this idea so often in this site, that I figured it was high time to codify it and call it something. So, let's call it the Home Remodeling Bang-for-Buck-and-Effort Scale. But I think that, once I explain it, readers may say "Yeah, I've noticed that, too." And who knows, maybe there is a real name for it, but I haven't found it yet.

Answer: The Home Remodeling Bang-for-Buck-and-Effort Scale is a sliding scale with high emotional return on one end, low on the other end.

On one end is the idea that some remodeling efforts, no matter how expensive and worthy, return very little homeowner satisfaction. On the other end are remodeling projects that are inexpensive and often very surface-level, but they have a high emotional return rate.

The key is emotional and aesthetic return, rather than functional return.

What it all comes down to is this. You finish the project, you move your family back in, you write out the check for $8,500, and you say, "Huh, is that it?" That is a prime example of low return rate.

Low End Return Rate - Examples

• Electrical work.
• Plumbing work.
• New windows.
• Skylights.
• Foundation repair.

High End Return Rate - Examples

• Window and door trim.
• Baseboards.
• Interior paint.
• Crown molding.

Of course, these are endlessly debatable. "What? New windows do not have a high return rate? No way!"

Replacement windows are, in fact, a perfect example of low return rate. The main thing that knocks new windows into the "low" category is their high cost. You are going to spend $15,000 or more on new replacement windows, yet from the "interior perspective" there is not much change. You still get the same amount of light. Your energy savings, while real, is minimal and is amortized over many years. Unless you had outrageously horrible windows to begin with, you will feel less of an emotional release after spending that $15K than you might expect.