Popping my renovation cherry

cyclonebri1

Leif wrote: »

Could you point out examples of crap here so that others can learn from you?

Stick around a bit longer Leif and view some other areas of MSE, you will realise what I mean. Some stuff here is not only wrong, it's darn right dangerous.

Remember it's an open forum and anyone can post expert or otherwise.

It's also why any poster should remember that the info presented should only be accepted as a view of the poster and not actual advice.

Leif

john.h wrote: »

Leif wrote: »

My advice would be to learn to do as much as possible yourself. If you are reasonably good with your hands, you will do a much better job than most professionals.

What a load of !!!!!!!!.... Id say i was very good with my hands (joiner) could i lay bricks better than bricklayers? No. Can i plaster walls better than a plasterer? No. Etc,etc

John...

I am talking from first hand experience, and seeing others work. I do agree that I could not lay bricks better than a bricklayer, or plaster better than a plasterer. Those are two jobs that need experience. Structural work is best left, unless you really do know what you are doing, and regulations are followed. But there is a lot the homeowner can do themselves.

I can put up light switches properly, unlike the expensive electrician who screwed mine to a ceiling, and it fell off because plasterboard is not strong enough to support a switch. I had to go into the loft and screw some wood to a joist, to support the switch. When in the loft I discovered that one or more trades had pulled back the loft insulation in large areas, and left it piled up, explaining why two areas of the house were rather cold this winter. Lazy *****ers. :mad: I hung 7 doors in my house, and they were as well done as the originals and others I have seen (but not as good as one hung by a friend). I got so fed up with a builder promising a quote for putting up coving that I did it myself, and found that it was fun to do, and I did a much better job than the professional who put up the old coving in the house. My painting is better than many professional examples I've seen, and one builder told me I'd done a better job than a couple of professional he uses. (I painted the entire house.) Also, unlike the original decorators, I knotted the architraves after sanding them down, and before painting. Originally you could see where the knots were. I reboarded a small ceiling in my porch, and it looks better than the professional one in my bathroom which has some trowel marks, and it cracked after a month. The wooden frame (professionally done) at the top of the porch was awful. It looks like they used waste wood, and it was painted badly. I replaced it, and it looks excellent, much neater. The windows were replaced 20 years ago by Everest, a big name company. When I removed the wallpaper I discovered that the window fitting had caused huge cracks in the plaster, and the fitters had not repaired them properly. I had to dig out some very nasty filler in places, and repair the cracks using Easi-fill. I had skirting board replaced by a builder, and they filled the screw holes with caulk, and chewed up the surface with a power sander. It was a bodge, which is odd as the skirting was otherwise well done. I had to dig out all of the caulk, and refill with 2 part filler. It took more than a days work on my part. I did not expect that given the price charged. You cannot see the holes now. They did a nasty job of caulking between the skirting and the walls. I had to redo some of it. They also put power cables for kitchen cupboards in the wrong place despite being supplied with detailed surveyors plans. The fitter had to pull the cables out of the walls himself. I was left to fill the holes, and paint over (I had already painted the kitchen ready for the fitter, so I was not pleased). And the builder who rewired and plastered my kitchen promised to have it done in time for the fit date. It wasn't. Fortunately I was able to put back the fitting two weeks, thanks to Optiplan who were fantastic. And before you say, I paid a lot of money to these trades.

The problem with trades is finding a good one. The first fitters who did my bathroom were cowboys despite being on a Trading Standards Buy With Confidence scheme. The work was atrocious, too bad to go into detail here, but I've posted about it here before, and had trades tell me how bad it was, pointing out faults I missed. Trading Standards have agreed I am due compensation, originally £2,000, but thus far they have only offered £1,500, and that still does not account for over £1,000 I paid to rent for 2 months longer while the bathroom was sorted out. It had to be completely redone, including removal of all tiles, and throwing away the bath. The law does not allow me to claim for the extra rent. The total refit quote was £5,000 including not expensive furniture, so these people were not cheap. The second fitters who redid the bathroom were okay, but there are rough edges, such as the ceiling light switch that fell off.

The chap who fitted my kitchen was first rate, and the tiler was good. The people who installed a stove in the sitting room were good. I have no issue with paying good money to these people. But so many of the trades I have used have been so so, or even bad, that I prefer to do work myself when I can. I know it will be done properly. Lots of colleagues do the same, for the same reason. And I've seen their work. One friend has done the skirting board and staircase in the top floor of his house, and it is immaculate. He has made two large beds from Ash, and some coffee table, and they are beautifully made. But they had problem with a plumber who placed a boiler in the wrong place, and did not chase pipes into the wall as requested. A colleague built her own house. She has had massive problems with trades. The plasterer who did a bad job told her that if she complained about his work, he would come round and beat her up. She lives in a secluded area, distant from neighbours, which is why she did not report the threat to the police (it is a criminal offense to threaten physical assault). Her husband had to sort out the plastering himself, because it was so bad. They have done as much work as they could due to the problems they have had with professionals. So they have done the skirting and architraves, and the floor tiling etc.

The trouble with many trades is that they want to earn a living, and so they are in and out as quickly as possible, and sometimes that means less than neat work, or even bodging. And some are downright incompetent. A home owner does not need to earn a living from their work, so they can take their time, and do a better job than many trades would do.

So please do not tell me that what I said was !!!!!!! when it was simply based on first hand experience, and experience of friends and colleagues. Most people I know are engineers, so they have the ability to think through problems and work in a methodical manner, which helps. A good trade who does neat work is hard to find. I'd rather do the work myself as and when I can.

Leif

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Stick around a bit longer Leif and view some other areas of MSE, you will realise what I mean. Some stuff here is not only wrong, it's darn right dangerous.

Remember it's an open forum and anyone can post expert or otherwise.

It's also why any poster should remember that the info presented should only be accepted as a view of the poster and not actual advice.

Okay, that is fair enough, but in this forum at least nonsense is usually picked up e.g. applying PVA to bare plaster, which of course is bad.

I do agree with that last paragraph.

cyclonebri1

I'll add my 2pennorth to the fray.

I am am an ex engineer, almost 40 years exp.

That's only relevant in so much as to explain I can use my hands, read a drawing, work out circuits and installations. It's about hands on ability.

I know of no one outside of the building trade that has the range of experience I have had.

I have built cars from scratch, never taken a car for a service or repair in my life.
Renovated every house I've owned,

Full central heating from design to completion several times

Built single and double garages, single and 2 storey extensions

Dry stone and engineered stone walls.

I plastered every single wall and ceiling in my present house

Conservatories from digging out to glazing

Full electrical rewires, I happened to run a team of industrial sparkies so they could do the connection and cert.

I've also completed loft conversions in my last 2 homes, all to BC standards.

To put it in a nut shell I have yet to find a property related task that I can't handle. The only thing I haven't done is build a complete house but that came close, only time and personal circumstances ruled it out



My plastering is slow, I have my own way and it gets done, but my bricklaying is as good as any bricklayers I seen and much better than some.

All I'm saying and it wasn't intended to be a brag, is that if you have a certain mechanical ability or is it aptitude?, you can apply yourself to almost any manual task and produce results often as good as a professional.

The caveat to that is that you need an almighty amount of tooling to do all those things well.;)

Barneysmom

Hi I haven't really got much to offer but hope you enjoy it and it's not too stressful!

there's an old saying 'A bad workman always blames his tools'.
But I add to that and say A good workman always has the best tools, so don't scrimp on the little things like drill bits, blades etc, a snapped bit at 8.00pm is no good to you

One thing (you know this already I guess) is find the best insulation plasterboard you can possibly get, or else when the house is finished it'll be like a barn and cost you loads to heat (I know this from experience!)


Make sure you leave a decent sized - big big - storage place (under the stairs?) for hoovers and stuff, my daughter's house has such a small one that once the hoover's on there, there's not much space for anything else.
These days most of us homerunners have stores of food and loo roll!

Magnolia is light and airy but oh so boring, use ivory, cream, pale green, anything but magnolia unless it's on the outside of the house!

cyclonebri1

Barneysmom wrote: »

Magnolia is light and airy but oh so boring, use ivory, cream, pale green, anything but magnolia unless it's on the outside of the house!

:eek:The kids call me Mr Magnolia, it's not that I'm that boring, just buy Magnolia emulsion in 20ltr tubs:rotfl::rotfl:

Pale green, what used to call duck egg green, or even peppermint, yuck:p

Barneysmom

Duck egg/peppermint green does sound yuk it's a kind of blue hint green like sweets.

I mean more of an earth shade, sort of a light sage.

There's a Dulux paint, Natural Wicker, which is a lovely warm looking cream colour.

rustyboy21

One more thing I would say is take no notice of any recommendations for builders etc which come from find a trade websites.

Most of the posts IMO are done by builders themselves or their friends/families, you can easily make a bad builder sound like a saint with posting fake good reviews after a bad post, similar to tripadvisor and other review websites.

Get out into your area and TALK to the other residents. Ask them if they have had work done and if so who did it and what was the quality like. If you go for a little wander around your area in the daytime, you will see someone having work done. Have a chat with the owner if they are there, otherwise chat to the builder, see how you feel about them and if good vibes ask for a quote. Go into local DIY shops/ plumbers merchants and ask if anyone can recommend a good builder/plasterer/plumber. The locals know people who have done work for them, or friends and family.

Too much time is taken now, in front of the computer thinking you will find perfection from a review website,90 % of reviews are of a negative position, very few are positive. We all like to moan, mostly over minor issues making them bigger than they are. Not as many post positive things.

Go out and speak to people ! You might meet some new friends !