First-time house renovation

andrew-b

JT, i put Wickes MDF skirtings and architrave in our bathroom which is pretty reasonably priced - especially if you buy in their multipack - and comes in several different styles (ogee, torus, chamfered etc) Obviously no good if you want a real woodstained finish though. Sure we've discussed skirtings a few times in this thread though it might take a while to find those posts by now!

littlerose12345

jamtart6 wrote: »

Could anyone advise me where to get cheap but good quality skirting board from please? I seem to have calculated we will need about 80m for the whole house (may be wrong!)

We got ours from our local builders merchant (BPS timber) and they were fab, negotiated a bit of a discount too when we ordered for our whole house.

latecomer

Thanks for the advice about the skips - I arranged for a 6yd skip to be delivered 8am this morning for £125+VAT - mention of cash and VAT disappeared. Guy turned up at 7:20am though! just went with the first one I phoned.

We made a trip to the tip last night to get rid of some of the wood and bags of general rubbish left by the builders. Filled the estate car with wood and my car with bags - made it with 5 mins to spare before the tip closed. Then spent another hour or so clearing the drive so the skip could get in (the builders had just dumped stuff all round the last skip which of course went everywhere when the skip was taken away). Also found out that the builders have taken their old wheel barrrow too - I was planning on using it to move all the bricks from the back into the skip so we'll need to buy one tonight. I'm going to try and get all the bricks and most of the soil and rubble into it by the end of the weekend. Out on saturday its going to be a busy day on sunday. Mind you its about time I did some hard labour

We've got all our skirting boards from timber merchants so far - not cheap as such but as its oak and douglas fir we cant complain. I'd definitely ask around if you are buying a reasonable quantity. If you are fititing it yourself I'd add a little extra for wastage.

littlerose12345

latecomer wrote: »

If you are fititing it yourself I'd add a little extra for wastage.

I second that

jimbugalee

jamtart6 wrote: »

Could anyone advise me where to get cheap but good quality skirting board from please? I seem to have calculated we will need about 80m for the whole house (may be wrong!)

We got ours from 'Builder Depot'. Not sure if you have one nr you? It was a lot cheaper than Wickes etc.

I just dug the receipt out for ours and looks like we got 4.8 metres for £6.21. That seems far too cheap but is what we paid!? It's the taller skirting that is reversible.

andrew-b

Well i finished the concrete breaking yesterday so today spent the whole day redistributing contents of current big shed into small toolshed and house. Bags of compost, top soil etc all in an old bin.

Actually a few years ago when we'd just sowed our lawn and i cut it to the shape we wanted i had loads of sods of grass with soil on...chucked in the old bin and left it there to rot until today when i turned out to find the best top soil i've ever seen which is now scattered all over the location of my veggie plot.

Spent quite a while removing the shelving that the previous owner had put in the shed. No idea what possessed them to use such massive long nails and multiple ones too as it was a devil to remove even with my demolition tools. In the back corner they'd actually nailed the side of an old drawer unit between timbers of the framework...behind was really yuk...huge green/yellow slug, snails, spiders and woodlice and a large patch of rot. In another place i literally put my finger straight through the cladding. So it's definitely time for replacement.

Anyway shed is now an empty shell ready for demolition..though might wait till later in the week when OH can do some tip runs.

kmmr

Hello all!
I post here from time to time, and just thought I would let you know that the blog, if not the actual building, is progressing.
If anyone is interested... upates here..
http://clearlybuilt.wordpress.com/

andrew-b

Well i couldn't wait could i...the shed is gone! After lunch yesterday i went out to remove "just the shed window" but it didn't stop there and i single-handedly razed it to the ground!
The most eventful part was removal of the roof..unbolted, slid it half off and away from the fence and shoved it crashing to the ground which made a really huge bang. It just scuffed the gravel board at the bottom of the fence so was pretty much on target! The other panels i cut in half in situ with jigsaw. Cut the whole lot into smaller sized panels to fit in the car. The garden looked like a bomb site for most of the afternoon!
Today OH took the whole shed in 2 car loads to the tip so it's now all gone. I desperately need to recover from all the aches and pains so having a day or two off from anything shed related.

latecomer

We spent the weekend attempting to tidy up our building site so it looked less like a tip and more like a work in progress. I was up at 7am on saturday to get to homebase at opening time to buy a wheel barrow. Got home and then managed to shift all the bricks and rubble at the front into the skip before we had to leave to visit friends. yesterday was some more serious clearing up. Cleared the scaffolding we were going to be walking under of all the debris (of which there was rather a lot) and then set about raising the cross bars on them so I could fit under. Also put another support or two at the sides just to be safe. Then spent the next 7-8 hours moving all the bricks and rubble from the back into the skip. Also did 2 runs (each with 2 cars) to the tip which got rid of all the cardboard, the old tanks from the loft and the majority of the old loft flooring along with various bits of mdf and ply that was left behind.

Also moved all the loose scaffolding round to the front of the house for collection (and to get it off the grass!). Main job now it to remove the compacted earth from the drive and at the rear of the extension - good excuse to buy a pick axe from Screwfix (actually got a set of pick and mattock) to break it up. Was great to be doing something positive and active for a change. Also got all the bits of slate to remove but thats a job for later this week.

Also had some unexpected contact from the builders - all nicey nicey "we would like to resolve project differences and finish commissioning the boiler for you" with no mention of money. I think he's worried about the fact the boiler has been installed for 4 mnoths without being commissioned. Bit late for that......

andrew-b

Sounds like alot of rubble for that amount of time ..bet your aching today! Hope you got a "proper" builder's barrow with proper tyre as the others don't tend to be heavy duty enough. We were lucky with wheelbarrow that the previous owner left a builder's one...though it's about twice as heavy as it needs to be because they used it to mix concrete up in and didnt clean up (probably to lay the patio i just dug up !). Can't use the barrow myself anymore as its too low for me and i can't bend knees and lift so i'd totally do my back in (feels like i have already TBH!) I feel a bit guilty for making all the rubble as OH has to shift it all cos i'm too thrifty to hire a skip!

The green and unpainted fence panels that were hidden by the shed are now calling out to me to paint them so trying to resist the urge to open the can of cuprinol ducksback to paint! Trying to find someone who will supply me a concrete repair spur for the back fence with free delivery..a local one with a website saying " free delivery" was actually "free delivery if you spend over £100 else £8 " when the product i want is only £7! Guess i'll have to go with OH on her day off if i can't find anywhere else.
Going to order my recycled plastic shed base today or tomorrow ..each tile is only about 1.8kg but i need 36 so i hope they deliver in multiple boxes rather than one.

Btw, i was watching "cowboy builders" with Dom littlewood and Melinda Messenger on Fiver last night (still got an episode i recorded to watch). Melinda blagged a free kitchen for someone who employed a builder recommended by FMB and walked off the job to never return (Series 1 episode 5..recorded episode 6 but not seen the others though they are available online to watch. Maybe you should get them round Latecomer.
See http://www.five.tv/programmes/lifestyle/cowboy-builders ..in particular http://www.five.tv/programmes/lifestyle/cowboy-builders/28709 as they are likely looking for stories for their next series.