Upgrading a house

kim_winstanley

Any advice or tips would be much appreciated. I am thinking of buying a 3 bed semi house that requires extensive upgrade. It requires total re-wire, double-glazing, new gutters and facias, new boiler and rads, plumbing also needs looking at because water pressure is very low......if you flush the toilet you have to wait 10 mins to brush your teeth!!! I am wondering in what order to do these renovations which will eventually include a new kitchen and bathroom. Any cowboys I should stay away from!! Any tips for getting quotes from reputable firms?

Thanks

Kim

MaggieBaking

If you say the age of your house, and what area in the country you are it will help people advise you of quotes.

As for how to find someone reputable - my local council has an area on their website where they list tradesman that are good - complaints will get them removed so perhaps you can check.

There's nothing like a personal recommendation - get friendly with your neighbours and ask who they use. Ask the tradesmen into quote, see if they sound reasonable/reliable. If you're not a good judge of character, ask a friend to be with you for advice.

I would also recommend doing one job at a time through someone - ie, if you need the whole house replastering, ask someone to do one room. If they do a good job for a good price you can then get a quote in for the rest of the house. Similarly with the plumbing - if you get someone to fix the low water pressure (not sure how big a job it is though) then you can use them to plumb in the new kitchen and bathroom.

dmacdonald_2

I think getting the sequence right is critically important or the plumber is ripping up the plastering that got done last week and the electrician is cutting holes in your new floors.

I am on my second big house project and I create a spreadsheet with a description of all of the tasks which I then categorise by 'type', such as plumbing, then I sort them by room. Against each I make up a budget and get quotes which I then accept and pay and use that spreadsheet to keep track of costs and commitment (planned but not spent yet).

Most things you do are room specific but some are more total-house such as re-wiring or new heating system. Then consider what needs to happen first. For me, getting this task list takes quite a few weeks and I add and enhance and tweak it every day during the planning and then continue to do so as plans change.

Although it seems a lot at first, when you get all the detail worked out for each room it all falls into place and you can see what sequence things have to be done in. Good luck to you.

KateLiana27

Order the work as if you were building the house from scratch.

- structural work first (to the fabric of the building itself - dampproofing, wall repairs, etc)
- the "guts" of the building - electrical work, plumbing, gas/central heating
- replastering if needed
- kitchen and bathroom refitting
- decorative work (fitting carpets or flooring, painting walls) - most likely to get damaged by all of the above, so leave until last.

Leif

dmacdonald wrote: »

I think getting the sequence right is critically important or the plumber is ripping up the plastering that got done last week and the electrician is cutting holes in your new floors.

Most definitely.

My experience is to stick with smaller firms where the people you deal with are the ones who do the work. The price should be lower, and the communications are easier.

Don't forget things such as:

• Window boards: existing ones might be warped or just carp.
• Skirting
• Architraves
• Ceilings: you might have a lot of cracks, or artex, requiring overboarding.
• Walls: minor damage can be filled with a powder filler. Wall paper paste should be washed off first.
• Sockets: the ones in my house were installed by a drunk as not one is level. And several of them are bodged, so I had to replace the mounting box in one case, and repair plaster in two other cases.

You might find unexpected things such as wallpaper hiding poor plaster and tanking (repairs to plaster due to damp), vinyl floor tiles with asbestos, damp, and so on.

jc808

i would get one company to deal with it all/ or hire a project manager of some sort if you can

that way you pay what youre quoted. no trades moaning that somethings boxed in that shouldnt be/ somethings damaged and you pay for it etc... no slovenly hourly rates, no exposure to cost if one trade is a cowboy....