First-time house renovation

latecomer

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Survey on next house was done last Monday.

Is that the one with the big garden that needs gutted? Exciting stuff


@lisalou - thanks for the blog list - I can compare it to my favourites when I get home to se which ones I'm missing. When we were sticking on our skirting boards in the small bedroom we used large nails in the floor and then used lengths of 2"x2" to wedge the skirting boards against the wall. Could do that in the front room due to the sanded floors so used boxes of tiles and the exercise bike too. Basically anything heavy that we could use to push against the skirting boards.

@jimbugalee - the flue liner and backfilling was around £100 per metre.

@shimmyhill - I know that feeling - I dont feel like we've done anything constructive for weeks now, its all about the builders just now. I'm not a fan of replacing something that works but then if the boiler is old and may need replaced sometime soon then maybe its best to get it done now while the rest of the work is being done.

My lack of DIY is getting to me too. Mind you the 2 rooms where we could be doing stuff are filled with evertything we cleared out the garage. Mind you I'm planning on trying to get a couple of lengths of skirting board stuck on tonight and every other night this week too.

I'm about to order the patio doors from Screwfix but am a ltitle reluctant to as they were extremely unhelpful when we phoned to ask some questions. They basically dont give the product name and the picture doesn't match whats on the manufacturers site. Anyway I've spoken to the builder and he happy with it and is sure it will be fine. Also I've got a code for an extra 10% off for the next day or so which makes it even more attractive. In guess the worst case is we order it and its not as advertised and we sent it back. Of course the downside is that we would need to find something else. We also need to find a window to match as Screwfix dont seem to do the size or style we need to match but we can get that from any Jeld-Wen supplier.

We got our concrete floor laid on friday and the local cats had a party on it before it set. Thankfully there is another final layer of self levelling to go on top so it wont be seen. Cats will feel the sharp end of my toe if they come in range in the near future.....

No progress yesterday at all due to the rain but they are back on site today and despite the forecast being poor for the afternoon, its looking ok at the moment and I'm hoping it stays that way.

I'd asked the builder if he would be interested in changing the existing microbore for 15mm pipe and he initially said it would have to be at the end of the building work, he's now interested in it due to the weather. to be honest its a job I was looking forward to doing so I'll wait and see what he quotes. if its reasonable then maybe I should just let him get on with it as a little extra expense will disappear as noise into the building work costs...

jimbugalee

latecomer wrote: »

@jimbugalee - the flue liner and backfilling was around £100 per metre..

Ah we must be missing the 'backfilling' element as flu lining ranges from £30-£50 per metre.

I'll investigate Thanks!

Alexander786

Got some good bargains so I ordered our underfloor heating, insulation and mirror demister pad.

ukmaggie45

Hi Latecomer,

latecomer wrote: »

Is that the one with the big garden that needs gutted? Exciting stuff

Yes it's the one with the big garden. :j It's always the garden that sells the house to us. :rolleyes: We've only had a back yard for the last 36 years, OH really wants a garden, we've been trying to grow a few veggies (with some success) at the caravan, but it's real hard work in the back yard and it doesn't really get enough sun for stuff like tomatoes. Though I have to say we've done pretty well on the tomatoes from the yard this year (last year all of them on both sites got blight )

If we can get in by Christmas 2010 I think we'll be doing well! :eek: We are madly trying to think how we'd like to do the place, should we make a first floor extension over the current one (I'd prefer not, but would like to get a pitched roof over both that and the garage) and so on and so forth. :rotfl:

Then we'll have to decide whether to sell our current home as is, or to renovate it. To be honest I'd like to renovate it, or at least put it into better condition. I really love this house. But the stairs are a single run, very steep (it's a 1905-ish terraced house so has high ceilings - 12' roughly I think) and I'm starting to have probs using them, and to be frank am getting scared of them. :eek:

We'll see how it goes. There are problems with our current home that we would prefer to fix too. I don't want anyone coming in and feeling they've been diddled in any way.

latecomer wrote: »

We got our concrete floor laid on friday and the local cats had a party on it before it set. Thankfully there is another final layer of self levelling to go on top so it wont be seen. Cats will feel the sharp end of my toe if they come in range in the near future.....

Stand by with a water pistol until that final layer is dry! We had to have a concrete floor laid in our kitchen here (it was just clay tiles on earth when we bought) and our cat managed to walk across the self levelling compound that the fitters put down before laying the vinyl floor.

Your plumbing question reminds me - OH noticed in the house we withdrew from that there were 2 different gauges of pipes for the CH. I forgot to look at that in this other house, but we'll be wanting a new boiler anyway. So if it's all or part 10mm it would make sense to get that replaced at the same time, and possibly the radiators too. So I guess we have to think about where the pipe work goes and stuff like that. Would be nice to have input on how to make it less intrusive - cables too.

I am too frightened to make proper plans at this stage. We were so keen on the last house, it really felt right initially. And first time we saw this house I was disappointed with it apart from the garden. :rolleyes: But OH really liked the house as well and is getting excited about how he'd plan it all out for alterations and so forth.:eek: Second view the house began to speak to me, and after third view I was seduced. Just hope it happens, don't they say "third time lucky"?

We've been sufficiently enthused to go out and start buying house magazines!

Maggie

Edit: There's a quince bush in the front garden, and an eating apple tree in the back.

latecomer

@jimbugalee - I'm fairly certain the price we were quoted of £100/m included fitting but I could be wrong.

@ukmaggie - fingers crossed everything goes to plan this time. When we were looking at houses we made quite a few offers and after the disappointment of missing the first one, we stopped making plans until we'd had our offer accepted on our house.

As to whether you renovate your current home, if you have time and the will then do it, if not or more importantl you dont need the difference in value then dont.

I'm hoping the final floor wont be put down in the garage until the walls are up and its protected from any intruders.....

suisidevw

jimbugalee wrote: »

Ah we must be missing the 'backfilling' element as flu lining ranges from £30-£50 per metre.

I'll investigate Thanks!

Backfilling the void behind the place or stove? If so that's easy and excessive but if it's insulating the liner...?

xs11ax

hi,

its my first post on this thread.

just want to say i have been renovating my house one room at a time. completely gutted out the bathroom. bathroom is more or less done now. the small bedroom has been completely gutted and dry lined. i have a plasterer coming in tomorrow.

plasterer works in and around west yorkshire. room is about 3 x 3 meters. plasterer is charging £150 including the ceiling.

what do you guys think of the plasterers charge? bargain or just ok?

latecomer

Insulating around the flue liner.

latecomer

Welcome to the thread xs11ax

Your quote for plastering is pretty cheap going by what we've experienced. We paid a lot more than that for patching of walls and around fireplace. To be honest I wish we'd just had the rooms skimmed as it would have been neater and probably not that much more expensive.

We are hopefully going to get any more plastering done by/through the builders who are currently buidling the extension, the deal is that we pay what he pays the trades plus £10 a day for him. that said I want to see the standard of the work before commiting to anything.

Anyway, take lots of pictures of your work and consider starting a blog (certain regular contributors have expectations:rotfl: )

ukmaggie45

Hi Latecomer and the rest of The Gang,

latecomer wrote: »

@ukmaggie - fingers crossed everything goes to plan this time. When we were looking at houses we made quite a few offers and after the disappointment of missing the first one, we stopped making plans until we'd had our offer accepted on our house.

Yeah, I know we shouldn't be making detailed plans. But if we don't at least begin to think about things we'll be sat here still thinking while our cheap Council Tax for the house being empty while being renovated (need to check out this stuff) runs out :eek:

Guess we should be at least begin looking for an architect as we won't be able to work this stuff out for ourselves, whether this house or another. Any handy hints for finding an architect for small extension maybe and putting pitched roof over flat roofed extension?

latecomer wrote: »

As to whether you renovate your current home, if you have time and the will then do it, if not or more importantl you dont need the difference in value then dont.

I don't know if we'll have the energy to do it. Time will tell. :rolleyes: But it'll be easy to plan as we know so much about its construction after 36 years of trying to look after the house.

latecomer wrote: »

'm hoping the final floor wont be put down in the garage until the walls are up and its protected from any intruders.....

Ah yes, intruders... cats will go where they want to... But I'm really missing having one around permanently. Maybe if we get the house with the big garden we'll visit local cat rescue place.

Maggie