First-time house renovation

andrew-b · 1 October 2008 at 12:39AM

sloth wrote: »

I may be wrong but I think they mean 3 weeks to have the plumbing and ekectrics sorted for moving in, not 3 weeks for the whole project. if i have got that wrong though, best of luck to you!!

Lol..maybe i misinterpreted

...but then again having watched a fair few episodes of "Homes under the hammer" one could be quite easily misled into thinking it's simple to renovate a whole house in such a short space of time.

paddy's_mum · 1 October 2008 at 5:56AM

Mark Brinkley's House Builders Bible is a worthwhile read since it goes into the why's and wherefore's of things being done this way, not that way - invaluable if like me, you are not too technically minded.

Loads of old sheets from charity shops are a worthwhile investment to keep dust (to a certain extent) contained within a room you are working in or to keep dust out of a room that you are (trying!) to live in.

You might find it of value to ask your plumber or electrician friend if they know of a decent, one-man-band builder so that you can employ him for such small jobs as installing lintels etc but also be able to pick his brains for guidance during the project.

I would also suggest that you make your new best friend the building regs inspector of your local authority. Ours will make what they call an "assessment/advisory visit" and has been a mine of information, common sense and technical know how. I have recently bought a bungalow to renovate for my eventual retirement and our building regs man showed us the only place in the whole property that he would allow a staircase to be installed. Until he said that, we had never even thought about a loft conversion but once the seed had been planted, it altered all our plans for the better.

I'm with Doozergirl on avoiding paying out for skips. In our case, we bought a small trailer and it has already saved us loadsa money in dump runs and not paying out for delivery charges.

Have you enough family to be able to organise work weekends? We do this sometimes and it works well. They come en masse, it's all hands to the deck, the chat and company are great and at the end of it, we have a few beers and a bbq.

Finally, keep a diary of the work as it progresses, with lots of photographs. Then, when the work seems never ending and your enthusiasm flags, you can just look back and remind yourselves how far you've come - can give you a real boost! Good luck and hope your dreams for the property come true.

Igol · 1 October 2008 at 7:09AM

I found Collins DIY Manual a great help 10 years ago when I started my first home renovation, but it was a 5 year project and a mate with a trailer was invaluble

hewhoisnotintheknow · 1 October 2008 at 9:06AM

get a trailer off ebay, you can always sell it on for what you paid for it or more

BB1984 · 1 October 2008 at 9:09AM

Wow - a sudden flurry of replies! Thanks for all the advice and interest.

I will just confirm at this point that I did indeed mean 3 weeks just for the plumbing and electrics....! Electrician starting today and plumber starting next week. Both will do a first fix then we've got a bit of structural stuff (moving a bathroom wall) to do before they can finish off.

To be fair 3 weeks prob is slightly ambitious, as people are doing us favours to a certain extent, so they'll be fitting us in inbetween other jobs. But I've drawn up a project plan and I THINK that we should just about be able to do it by the beginning of November.

Whilst we've got the workmen and builders in, my fiance and I will be immersing ourselves in the less technical stuff - deciding on paint colours, ordering materials, tiling, sanding/painting woodwork etc etc.

I don't know if this is considered bad form, but if you want to see photos, we'll be updating this blog as we go along: http://thehouseofdoom.wordpress.com/

My fiance had yesterday and today off work, and so far he's ripped out the kitchen, carpets, built in cupboards, storage heaters etc, and stripped most of the wallpaper. He's also had a go at the jungle that is the garden. Tomorrow I'm off work too so our priority will be to dig down the path at the side of the house that has been built up above the DPC and air bricks (duh), causing damp all along that wall. Then at the weekend my dad will give us a hand in repairing/replacing any joists which have been affected by the damp.

Actually - does anyone have any hints on best ways to do this? I don't particularly want to replace whole joists if they're only rotten at one end. Can they be spliced, or repaired somehow? I was thinking of using joist hangers along with a waterproof cover to stop the joist end touching the masonry.

Thanks again for all your help, I will indeed keep you informed of progress...(or lack of!)

And no doubt I'll have lots of questions along the way which I'm sure you clever people will be able to help me with

bb

helping_hubby · 1 October 2008 at 10:00AM

Thanks for the link BB1984, I'll be following your blog. I never thought make a blog. It'd be good to look back on it in years to come. I have been taking lots of photos.

Looking at your photos...your house actually looks better than ours in terms of decor and livability!

Can't wait to see more pictures as it progresses.

adaze · 1 October 2008 at 11:37AM

andrew-b wrote: »

Sounds extremely optimistic to me! I remember moving in August 2006 and saying i'd finish the whole house by christmas....in my defence i never said which Christmas - 2010 maybe?!

Good luck! I look forward to seeing the before and after pictures before the end of October!! Now you've got no excuse as we will all be demanding them!!

Andy

ROFL - How very true! Been there...and ermmm... well... still am! :rotfl:

adaze · 1 October 2008 at 11:40AM

BB1984 wrote: »

Actually - does anyone have any hints on best ways to do this? I don't particularly want to replace whole joists if they're only rotten at one end. Can they be spliced, or repaired somehow? I was thinking of using joist hangers along with a waterproof cover to stop the joist end touching the masonry.

I repaired a couple in our house by supporting the joist, removing the rotten end and some more and replaced the end, just screwed it and glued it all together to make a sound joint.

Hangers sound like a good idea, don't you need to cut them into the wall though?

john175bramley · 1 October 2008 at 12:02PM

We're just coming to the end of a renovation of a 4 bedroom cottage and we lived in the house from day one. One thing I would recommend is having as little furniture as possible, I've lost count the number of times we've had to move stuff from one room to another and then back again.

We had to replace all of the ceilings and go back to the brickwork on most of the walls, from the photos I've seen on your blog your walls don't seem to bad. One thing we learned was just get used to the dirt and dust. It is a good idea to have a 'nice room' to escape all of the dust and chaos but don't be surprised if at the end of the day you find the dust has managed to find it's way into the room and you have to spend the next half hour cleaning when all you want to do is sit down and eat your microwaved meal (no kitchen) and watch eastenders.

Lastly you and your fiance need to learn to laugh when things go wrong (and they will). I would have gladly strangled my girlfriend on a number of occasions and I always hide the knives from her before we go to bed.:eek:

Doozergirl · 1 October 2008 at 12:30PM

andrew-b wrote: »

Out of curiosity, Paddy's Mum, Latecomer and Sloth, what made you buy a bungalow and then want to convert the loft? Wouldn't you have got more for your money with a house and alot less upheaval? I thought normally people put in loft conversion as they needed more space and didn't want to move? Sure you have your valid reasons i'm just curious about learning what makes people want to buy a bungalow (learning my target market!) - good luck with it though! My reasoning for buying a bungalow is that i'm unable to climb stairs, but i often actually wish we'd bought a house and just stuck a stairlift/lift in as i'd have had more money left over to do it up the way we wanted.

If the loft hasn't been converted, you can get a lot of added value out of it. Round here people buy bungalows simply to convert them. Yes it turns it away from the original target market of those with poor mobility but the extra cost of buying a bungalow, plus the cost of the conversion still makes it a good financial move.

Our project is a barn (we're doing our own house as well, fun that it is) that had only been half converted downstairs, no upstairs. Original plan was just to make use of what was there and build a new garage. Once up in the loft, it's just crying out to be converted as well, so that's what's happening. The living room is going to be open right up to the eaves though.

We're having an ensuite bedroom downstairs as well as upstairs to keep the appeal for the older market, albeit a slighter richer older market.

First-time house renovation

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