The Difference Between a Home Renovation and a Home Remodel

When PBS launched This Old House in 1979, it was one of the first home renovation shows available on TV. Over the next forty-five years, viewers have had more than a hundred different home improvement shows to choose from, including Dream Home Makeover, Kitchen Glow Up, Mountain Remodel, and Rescue My Renovation.

Perhaps you’ve watched some home renovation shows and thought of some changes you’d like to see around your own home. Do you try tackling it yourself? Probably not if you’ve been watching Help! I Wrecked My House.

So, who should you hire? A home remodeling contractor? A home renovation professional?  Does renovate mean the same thing as remodel? Is an expert in one automatically an expert in the other? 

Renovating and remodeling do have unique meanings. Here’s what you need to know about each one. 

Renovating

• Definition: Renovating is about updating, improving, or modifying a space without making major structural changes. 
• Scope: Renovation typically involves projects such as repainting walls, replacing cabinets, updating fixtures, refinishing floors, or upgrading appliances.
• Goal: The goal of a renovation is to improve the comfort, usability, or style of a home without altering the existing layout.
• Example: Below are before and after photos of a kitchen renovation Utah Home Remodel Experts completed in Sandy, UT. The layout of the room is unchanged, but we repainted the door and cabinetry, changed the look of the walls and kitchen island with a faux brick design, replaced the original countertops with ones imported from Europe, and added pendant light fixtures over the island.

Remodeling

• Definition: Remodeling involves changing the structure or layout of a space, often with a significant redesign.
• Scope: Remodeling projects are usually larger and more complex, as they can involve moving walls, adding windows, changing room configurations, or building entirely new spaces.
• Goal: The goal of a remodel is to transform a space to serve a new function or aesthetic.
• Example: Below are before and after photos of a kitchen remodel Utah Home Remodel Experts completed in Holladay, UT. The extensive changes included removing walls to open up the kitchen to the rest of the main level, reflooring the now unified space, major electrical upgrades and plumbing reroutes to move the location of the sink and add a kitchen island with pendant lights and built-in appliances and completing the new chic aesthetic with white quartz countertops and shaker-style cabinets with brushed gold finishes.

  

The Most Important Thing To Remember

Renovating is making something old feel new while remodeling is transforming something old into something new. But while there is technically a difference between the two terms, in reality, they are used interchangeably among the home improvement community. So it doesn’t matter whether you call us your glow-up gurus, makeover masters, renovation specialists, or remodeling experts–all that matters is that you call us. Because at Utah Home Remodel Experts, we don’t care what terms you use; we only care about bringing your vision for your living space to life.