Home repairs are often associated with a long and tedious process that can drag on for months. Choosing a suitable design, purchasing building materials, calculating their quantity and cost, and finding contractors – all these tasks require a lot of effort and time. However, enlisting the help of home renovations experts can significantly streamline the process, ensuring high-quality results without unnecessary stress. Additionally, an ordinary smartphone or tablet can become an ally in troublesome tasks and help competently organize the work. In this article, we suggest six helpful free phone apps that will help turn renovation into a pleasant and exciting process.
Smart Tools: All Tools in One Place
For your upcoming home renovation project, it’s essential you have access to high-quality tools that can make the job easier and more efficient. One option is to get tools direct from reputable suppliers, building a comprehensive tool kit for any task. However, the easiest way is to just install all those tools on your phone. “Smart Tools” offers a complete virtual toolbox with 38 useful tools, including a ruler, compass, magnifying glass, protractor, flashlight, thermometer, bubble level, and even a metal detector. All these tools are installed in one package and do not require additional settings. In addition, the app allows you to quickly and easily convert measurements.
“Smart Tools” can help you calculate the slope and angle of any object, measure the noise and vibration level, estimate the distance to the target, and check the surface level. However, the developer warns that the data may be inaccurate due to incorrect sensors’ operation in the mobile device or improper use of tools. For example, you won’t be able to use the mirror mode without a front camera.
Construction Calculator: repair budget planner
Due to erroneous calculations, meeting the allocated budget can be difficult. There may not be enough finishing materials, or conversely, they may be in abundance. “Construction Calculator” can make all the necessary calculations for you. All you need to do is to specify the initial parameters of the premises and construction materials. The app may help you quickly and accurately calculate brick quantities, concrete composition, foundation size and cost, putty consumption, and adhesive amounts.
It can even perform the calculation of ceramic tiles. You just need to enter their length, width and surface dimensions in a special form. And if you put additional details about the installation site, the system can take into account the inter-tile seams and add 10% to the result for fitting and trimming.
In addition, this tool has a built-in unit converter and can be used offline without an Internet connection.
Planner 5D: The Sims for Real Life
Planner 5D allows you to draw beautiful interiors, plan individual rooms and entire buildings, and visualise landscape design. You can get examples from luxury landscape designers at dabneycollins.com. To make it work, you need to create a complete virtual copy of your house or the room where the renovation is planned. All the details are easily moved, changing their size and position, forming the necessary geometry. There is a wide variety of furniture, appliances, decor items and structural elements available to you.
The app has a simple interface and allows you to change the size and materials of any object with a couple of touches, as well as combine different textures and colours. Planner 5D does not require special architectural or engineering knowledge. However, if you are a professional designer, it has an extended paid functionality. All users can also purchase additional furniture sets and photorealistic HD shots of their projects.
In addition, you can work there with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional models.
MagicPlan: Quick Room Plans
Using the camera and sensors built into your smartphone, this tool can calculate the dimensions and map out any space. One shot is enough to create a plan. Simply turn on scan mode and point your camera at every corner of the room, just like taking 360-degree panoramic photos. By measuring several rooms this way, you can combine them in a single scheme and get a diagram of the entire house. If necessary, any inaccuracies can be easily corrected manually. Objects in MagicPlan aren’t fixed: you can move or add elements like doors, windows, and stairs.
One drawback of the free version is the presence of watermarks and lower-quality graphics. Also, a fee is charged for exporting the plan. Taking a screenshot will not work – the application blocks all screenshots.
Homestyler Interior Design: Virtual Fitting Room
It would be great to see how a piece of furniture from the store looks in your room before buying it. A money-saving tool like this could certainly help avoid a lot of unnecessary purchases. Augmented reality makes it possible to try on new furniture to the interior. Upload a photo of your space and experiment with different finishes, colours, furniture and décor. Move objects, choose a good location for them, and create the interior of your dreams.
The arrangement of objects is carried out in a three-dimensional orientation. By the way, the entire furniture and decor range is from real manufacturers – you can actually purchase anything you like. In addition to creating your own projects, here you can see the work of other users and find valuable instructions from designers.
You can share the finished design via Facebook and email, but to save it, you need to register. It’s free.
Houzz: Inspiration Ideas
If you are looking for ideas on how to freshen up your interior, check out Houzz. You can use this app to find original renovation solutions and gain inspiration. About 16 million interiors are collected in the app’s photo base. Pictures are filtered by style, geographic location, room type and size. There is only one drawback: most of the collection is made up of premium-class interiors. But even if it’s not the exact match, users can still borrow beautiful design plans, colour combinations, or lighting arrangements. Within the app, photos can be saved in albums, tagged, commented on, and shared.
Like something and want to incorporate it into your interior design? The app allows you to contact the author of any project by phone, through a personal website or a feedback form. In addition, Houzz experts regularly write useful articles and share tips on the forum to provide you with professional advice. The app also aggregates a large selection of stylish furniture and home goods from online stores.
