Decant on any renovation that will remove the kitchen, the main bathroom, or the hot-water cylinder for more than three weeks. Stay in place on cosmetic renovations, single-room overhauls with the kitchen retained, or additions where the existing house remains functionally separated from the work. Anything between those two conditions is a judgement call that has to be made honestly with the household in mind.
What living through actually looks like on site
A renovation programme run with the household in residence is typically fifteen to twenty percent longer than the same project decanted. The reasons are specific. The site is handed back at the end of every day with the existing house tidied and secured. Dust screens take time to install and reinstate when an area is opened up. Inspections and subcontractor visits are scheduled around the household's morning and evening routines.
On a bungalow in Epsom or a villa in Ponsonby with a single hallway dividing the retained rooms from the construction, every one of those interactions has to be managed carefully. The people working on the house notice. A careful tradesperson protects the floor in a way that adds small minutes across a day, and those minutes add up.
When living through makes sense
A scope that keeps the kitchen and at least one bathroom operational the whole way through. A property large enough that a self-contained wing or a separate studio can serve as the living quarters during the works. A client who travels for work four days a week and will genuinely not be there during the worst of the noise.
When decanting pays for itself
A full gut of the kitchen and scullery, which on a mid-size Auckland renovation is an eight to twelve week outage. A re-roof or re-pile programme that raises or opens the whole floor plate. A family with children under school age where the dust and noise would affect sleep, study, and the basic functioning of the household.
The decant options and what they cost
A short-term serviced apartment in the same school zone is the easiest option. On a twenty-week programme that is roughly four months of rent at market rates. In the Herne Bay, Ponsonby, and Grey Lynn belt that is serious money.
Renting a house nearby from a private landlord is usually cheaper. Longer notice period at both ends. Furnished rentals are scarce, so expect to move some of the core household inventory.
A family member's place or a beach house used as a school-week commute base can work for shorter programmes. Commute fatigue catches up at week eight and onward.
A temporary cabin or tiny home on the site itself is feasible on rural-residential blocks in Whitford, Clevedon, and Ness Valley because the land and site services can accommodate it. Council permission rules apply. It is almost never practical on an urban lot.
The cost of staying on site
A realistic line on the tender for a project run with the client in residence adds three to six percent. The reasons are the time buffer on trade visits, additional cleaning and protection, and the programme extension. It is rarely listed as a separate line. It sits inside the hours the trades quote and the programme the builder sets.
The household question nobody asks in the first meeting
What does a bad Tuesday look like. If the answer involves no running water for eight hours after a plumber reroutes the waste, a client who needs a working oven because they cook every night, or elderly parents living with you, decanting stops being a financial decision and starts being a liveability one.
What we actually recommend
On most full renovations above three hundred thousand dollars in scope, decanting pays back through a faster programme and a lower-stress build. On additions where the existing house is not being gutted, staying in place is usually fine. On a character villa where piles, floors, roof, and services are all in scope, decant without a second thought. We have walked clients through every version of this. The ones who decant on a large scope never regret it.
Practical tips for clients who do stay
Pack up the things you will not need for six months before site start. The kitchen will be disassembled, so establish a temporary kitchen in a laundry or a garage with a kettle, microwave, fridge, and an induction hob. Arrange weekly cleaning that accounts for site dust. Agree with the site foreman a daily cut-off time when the house returns to your use. Those four decisions, made on day one, remove most of the tension from the programme.