Tips when refurbishing a house?

DavidA · 16 March 2011 at 12:27AM

I just bought a new house today and have been enjoying planning what we're going to do with it. When we bought our last house, we refurbished quite a few of the rooms. Thinking back, some things were a great use of money and others were a complete waste. I was wondering if people had tips for what had worked well for them and what they regretted.

For example...

I bought cheap taps that gunked up and had to be replaced. Higher quality ones were well worth the money.
Can't see any point in going for posh paint, e.g. Fired Earth. Is there a difference?
I put in new power points and network points when re-doing the walls. They proved really handy.
The builder put in an extractor fan that's so noisy that we never use it. Wish I'd bought a quiet one.
Underfloor heating in the bathroom was a great idea.
I paid the builder when they'd done 98% of the work. I could never get them to finish the other 2%.
I bought a cheap infra-red repeater that means that my DVD player etc can be hidden in a cupboard. Great.
The builder put in a boiler that means we don't get any hot water out the tap for 10 seconds. Wish we'd got a better one.
I got a Smeg dishwasher which proved to be style over substance. Probably should have gone for Bosch, right?
The mail order blinds we got from blinds.co.uk were great and fairly inexpensive.
I got the layout of one of the rooms wrong and as a result never use half of it.
I bought LED bulbs which seem to flicker and aren't all that bright. Should have stuck with classic ones.
I used dimmers instead of regular light switches. Nice to be able to control the lighting.

So, I'm not really looking for comments on those things (although feel free) but just interested to hear about things that have worked well for you. I actually have a pretty good budget to refurbish the house. About £100K. But even with a good budget it's easy to waste money. I've got three major jobs: installing central heating; new bathroom; new kitchen.

Help appreciated.

HelenDaveKids · 16 March 2011 at 10:39PM

We've extended extensively before and have recently moved (in December) to a big renovation project. We have just put in plans for a 2 storey extension and are waiting for it to be passed and then when start building to start the renovation. We too need rewire, new central heating, kitchen, bathroom. Hence similar position.

My advice would be live there a little while to get the "feel" of the place as I was adamant about a wall being reinstated but now realise it was removed because of an issue with natural light. I was equally adamant to make 2 rooms (downstairs) into 1 but again whilst waiting for plans ive had time to Live here.

Once we've extended (this yr) we intend to patio the garden etc, but want to have a summer first to get an idea about were it should go etc.

my other advice would be try and work out the order you are doing stuff, no point painting and decorating if doing major work as the dust gets everywhere.

I've got a car that I can turn into a van at a seconds notice and I expect already saved hundreds taking stuff to council tip rather than having a skip.

HTH

docmatt · 17 March 2011 at 9:00AM

I think one of the most important things is buy quality, like if you had bought the more expensive extractor it would have been quieter and a better boiler would have given you the hot water quicker.

When you go for the cheaper quote you get cheaper stuff. We're in the process of having a new CH system installed and we've paid the top price, 2k more than the middle figure but for that we get the top-of-the-range megaflow syastem, worcester bosch boiler and a pump that circulates the hot water all the time giving you instant hot water the second you turn the tap. :cool:

ormus · 17 March 2011 at 9:58AM

aye, expensive taps are the best. the more money the better.
check out the posh taps in tother thread.

kabayiri · 17 March 2011 at 10:19AM

If you like music, and want an integrated set up, I would plan out a zonal system, and run something like CAT5e to the celing locations where you may want to put these recessed speakers.

I'm just picking up on your bullet point :-
"I bought a cheap infra-red repeater that means that my DVD player etc can be hidden in a cupboard. Great."

You sound like me, in that I don't want to see my music or video playing equipment, just hear it.

Have a look at Sonos as a start point, and work from there.

dave82_2 · 17 March 2011 at 1:00PM

Do any major works first! e.g. wiring and plumbing

plan, plan, plan and plan again

My advice is 90k you still have 10k left

VfM4meplse · 17 March 2011 at 1:07PM

Good luck with the refurb. I love my mod cons but always dread weekends that involve hard graft and no R&R! Interior design is another matter altogether, that is pure joy...

foxymum1977_2 · 17 March 2011 at 1:26PM

one of our regrets is when we moved in nearly 7 years ago we started a lot of rooms together rather thatn one at a time and not one of them is 100% finished even if its finishing touches such as blinds!!
also i regret not having a built in microwave fitted above my double oven!
went for cheap appliances through MFI with our kitchen to cut costs, washing machine died after a month!!!!

one thing i;ll always be pleased with is that we (i lol) decided to spend the last bit of money on having granite worktops installed & it was worth every penny and makes the kitchen look very expensive when really its an MFI kitchen!!

good luck with your planning.

DavidA · 17 March 2011 at 2:45PM

Wow! Thanks for the great responses.

I have the luxury of being able to renovate the new house before moving out of our current house. I'm going to be able to leave most of the hard work to people that know what they're doing; I'm better with a keyboard than a hammer.

I think that more expensive usually means better quality, but I also think there's a point when you're paying over the odds. It's hard to know when that is! I assume that brands such as Bosch, Fired Earth etc. are usually worth the money? Any other brand recommendations? I think that German products are usually high quality, but I'm not sure what names to look for.

Regarding kabayiri's point about wiring, absolutely. I have a lot of cables and I like them buried. Hadn't even considered speaker sockets, but that makes perfect sense. I'm not sure if the house needs re-wiring. Secretly I'm hoping that it does so that I can go to town on it. Regardless, it will need re-decorating.

I am really looking forward to a kitchen upgrade. Our current cooker just seems to blow hot air over our food and the microwave eats a large portion of our work surface. Quality, integrated units will be great. Is there any disadvantage in getting them integrated and hidden, e.g. with a cupboard door on the washing machine?

More tips appreciated!

dave82_2 · 17 March 2011 at 3:02PM

We got integrated appliances and the dissadvantages are as follows :-

1. More expensive
2. Less choice
3. Extra planning when running pipes and electrics

People will also argue that when something goes wrong they are a nightmare.

Our washingmachine and dishwasher simply have a door screwed onto them and pull in and out the same as regular ones even though they are proper intgrated appliances. So I don't really agree with that argument. Perhaps it is valid for the fridge/frezer which is built into the cupboard.

For us though it looks much nicer but this is personal taste.

Get a subscription to which and check out their reviews.

ukmaggie45 · 17 March 2011 at 5:38PM

Come over and join us on the house renovation thread. Lots of good ideas and useful suggestions, join in the thrills and spills!

We're (touch wood!) just getting to the end of our house renovation, vinyl going in tomorrow, doors as soon as they arrive, carpets in around 2 weeks I think. Kitchen is almost finished and will be commissioned next Thursday. After around 6 months I'll be glad it's over!

So glad to hear you're not going to be there while renovation is going on. We've been in the same situation, and having seen the chaos I'm so relieved that we weren't trying to camp out in a bit of the house while part was demolished and then extended. Good luck!

Tips when refurbishing a house?

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