Renovating means renewing or rebuilding so that something is in good condition. When you move into an older home, you'll probably want to renovate the kitchen and bathrooms. Most uses of the word renovate revolve around buildings and architecture. As you can see, in the broadest sense, “renew” means doing again for revive.
When this definition is applied to the world of homebuilding, “reviving” can mean anything from repainting and paneling cabinets to installing new light fixtures and adding other finishes and accessories. Regardless of the task at hand, the original design is never drastically modified. Rather, it is simply updated or modified to meet a new or revised standard. Remodeling is the process of changing the functionality and design of an area.
It may involve breaking a wall to expand a bathroom and reconfiguring the kitchen layout so that the cabinets, refrigerator, sink, and stove are in different places. Building an addition to your home would also be considered a remodel. However, remodeling doesn't always involve major structural changes; it can be as simple as turning a guest room into a home office. If the purpose of the area has been altered, it has been remodeled.
Renovation and remodeling are the two most common words in construction, real estate, interior design and contracting. However, there is a significant difference between them. Renovating means “reviving” or restoring something to a previous state through improvements: repainting, repaving and restoring. Remodeling, on the other hand, is restructuring the form of something, basically, “redoing”.
Because renovation usually costs less and because it involves repairing and updating the basic features of a home, homeowners often get a better ROI on renovation projects than on remodeling projects when they sell their home. Remodeling Magazine publishes an annual cost-to-value analysis of common home improvement projects and notes that renovation projects, such as replacing a front door or garage door, or changing a house's siding, will bring the homeowner approximately 75 percent, 98 percent, and 76 percent of their ROI, respectively, when the house is sold.
