Nine Demo-free Ways to Remodel Your Home

No sooner do some folks close on a home than they get started renovating or remodeling it, scheming to eliminate all evidence of the previous owners' taste and reshape reality to their liking. Other folks know that major renovations (and even modest remodeling projects) can take a long time, make an enormous mess, cause a ton of stress, and cost a lot more than you expect.

Much of that stress, mess, and cost comes from the demolition work—removing all the old stuff so you can put in the new stuff. While swinging that sledgehammer might look fun, you don’t always have to demo everything in sight and start with a blank canvas for your renovation or remodel to make an impact. You can leave most everything in place and still completely change the look and feel of your home by covering up the parts of your house that need a refresh. You'll skip the dust and live more comfortably in the house while you work.

Here are nine ways to do a no-demo remodel or renovation in your home.

Fresh paint everywhere

Everybody knows that paint is the cheapest renovation there is, but it’s always worth repeating: It's surprising how much a new coat of paint can transform a space. Plus, you can paint just about anything if you prep the surface correctly and use the right kind of paint—so consider painting tile, your bathtub, your countertops, cabinetry, faucets and taps, your fridge, and anything else that could use a jolt of color or a clean, neutral canvas. There’s no demo involved—and if you hate the results you can simply paint again.

Install bath liners

If your bathroom has seen better days, you don’t necessarily have to tear it down to the studs and start over, a process that can be very stressful, especially if you only have one bathroom. Aside from painting a tub or shower tile as noted above, you have another option that doesn’t involve demolition: Installing a liner. Sometimes called a tub or shower insert, a tub/shower liner is custom-measured and fitted, made from plastic or acrylic, and slides directly over your existing tub and shower. It’s glued-down and caulked, forming a waterproof layer on top of the old stuff. You can hire companies to do this for you (often in just one day), but it’s also a DIYable project if you’re relatively handy.

Add wall panels

Another alternative for a bathroom that needs a no-demo new look is waterproof wall panels. These can be adhered directly to existing walls, including tile (as long as the existing tile is in good shape). Once properly caulked, they will be waterproof, so you can give your shower area (or even an entire bathroom) a new look in just a few hours, without tearing out a single tile.

Replace the fixtures

You might technically consider removing the fixtures in your bathroom or kitchen (the handles, faucets, drains, racks, etc) to be demolition of a sort, but it’s generally not a messy process, nor will it disrupt your use of the space (at least not for longer than the swap takes to complete). Replacing those fixtures with gleaming new ones (with a fresh new finish) will make the whole space feel newer and more luxe.

Cover damaged walls with quarter-inch drywall

If you have walls that are structurally sound but in bad shape—dented, scratched, or with a lot of holes—you can spend a lot of time and energy trying to fix them (creating a mess in the process), you can remove them and replace with fresh drywall (making an even bigger mess)—or you can cover them with quarter-inch drywall. The thinnest drywall you can buy, these sheets are commonly used as “skimming” material to cover up defective walls without removing them. While there’ll be some mess from sanding the drywall mud, you won’t have to deal with an entire room’s worth of walls being carted out to the curb.

(Alternatively, you can go old-school and cover up bad walls with some nice wallpaper, just like our ancestors did. Just be sure to choose the right kind of wallpaper for the job.)

Install countertop overlays

If you hate your kitchen or bathroom countertops, you can tear them out (causing stress and mess), you can paint them or cover them in contact paper (which doesn’t always hold up to wear and tear), or you can install overlays. These are thin slabs of countertop material that are fitted directly over your existing counters. Just about any countertop material you can think of can come as an overlay, and once installed, they look and work just like regular countertops.

Wrap your cabinetry

Painting your kitchen or bathroom cabinets is an easy way to spruce them up, but it’s also rather permanent, and a messy and time-consuming project in its own right. Another option is to vinyl-wrap your cabinets. It’s cheap, relatively easy, and removable, so you don’t have to commit to anything. Vinyl wrap comes in a wide range of colors and finishes, so you can remodel to your heart’s delight—all without removing a single cabinet door.

Add floating floors

If you hate your floors but dread tearing them out, you absolutely can install a new floor directly over the existing one, as long as it’s in decent shape. Floating a floor over the existing floor is a pretty easy job, and the results can be dramatic without the need to rip out tile or planks, hunt for carpet tacks or staples, or scrape up adhesive that feels more like cement. You can also tile over existing tile—even in your shower.

While you’ll need to consider the extra height of your flooring after the work is done (especially where doors are concerned), this is an easy way to get a new floor without removing the old floor.

Regrout your kitchen and bath

If your bathroom or kitchen backsplash is fine but the grout has not aged well in terms of color or cleanliness, consider regrouting instead of tearing everything out and replacing it. You can’t grout over grout, so you will have to remove the grout using a multitool or a hand tool, so it’s more demolition-light than no-demo. But once you’ve removed the old grout you can re-grout with a fresh new color that will dramatically change your tile’s look.