Carpenter/Plasterer/Carpet Layer - New Home Owner & Clueless!

SavvySaver24

Hi All,

I have posted a couple of times on this forum but we have just purchased our first house and as such expect to be posting alot more!!
Overall the house is in good condition and doesn't need any substaintial work doing. However there are some odd bits and bobs I have listed out and ANY help/advice/sharing of quoted would be helpful!

The three bedrooms and lounge have a feature wall of wallpaper which we want to get rid off. And the ceilings in the three bedrooms, lounge, hall and landing have architrave wallpaper which we also want to get rid of. I figure we can do this ourselves with a wallpaper steamer? How tricky is it? Or is it just messy!?

I then want the walls and ceilings where we remove the wallpaper re-plastered before we paint. As mentioned before, the wallpaper is only on one wall of each room but would we need to have all walls re-plastered to ensure an even finish? What is the average daily rate for a plasterer? How long would it take to do 4 walls and 5 ceilings? Or if we would need all walls doing, hoe long for 4 whole rooms?

What is the average daily rate for a carpenter? We want a built in cuoboard door and door frame knocked out, the door direction changed in one room, a built in bed knocked out and a cuoboard built in over the stair bulkhead? How long does that sound like it would take?

And finally, we want new carpet laid in 3 bedrooms and the landing and stairs. Do most places wrap up carpet/underlay cost and fitting in one? I guess carpet is tricky to get an idea of cost on as carpet varies so much.

I'm trying to be realistic with budget here, and what order to do things in. So ANY advice is so appreciated :-)

Rambosmum

Wallpaper removal you should be able to do yourself, but a decent steamer though, not the £14 from argos. It's time consuming and messy and really depends on what wallpaper it is as to how easy it comes off.


You may or may not need the walls skimming afterwards, will depend on the state of them, wait and see. We've had one large room and ceiling skimmed (high ceilings and 4m x 5m room, 4 walls). Took 3 days but the finish is excellent.


Carpenter will depend on what want done, the more skill involved, the more it'll cost. Get some local carpenters round to quote. You should be able to remove the built in bed yourself though, which will save some cost.


Shop around for carpets. The cost will depend on the quality you go for. You need better quality in high traffic areas such as hallways and stairs, but can go cheaper in bedrooms. Decent underlay is £8 - 12 per sqm. We had a small stairs, landing and 3 bedrooms done and the fitting was £136, took about 5 hours.

naf123

you can skim only one wall if the other walls are in decent condition....

Le_Kirk

Be very careful if you down the steamer route. Over application by inexperienced users (as I know to my cost) can cause the plaster to blow! If it is "normal" wallpaper, just try stripping it off dry. If it is vinyl, you will pull the top layer off and can then soak the rest with warm water and maybe some wallpaper removal liquid, which will allow the backing to be scraped off. If it is not vinyl, remove what you can dry, then soak the rest as above.

naf123

MSE tip - peel off the first layer of wallpaper to reveal the lining paper. Bucket of boiling hot water and fairy liquid soap - use a brush or roller and wash the walls.

Then with a scrapper take off the lining paper...

good luck

Jakg

Rambosmum wrote: »

Decent underlay is £8 - 12 per sqm. We had a small stairs, landing and 3 bedrooms done and the fitting was £136, took about 5 hours.

You can get Cloud 9 online for less than £4 per m². You can get a decent carpet for about £10 per m² - but bear in mind there will be some waste.

Rambosmum

Jakg wrote: »

You can get Cloud 9 online for less than £4 per m². You can get a decent carpet for about £10 per m² - but bear in mind there will be some waste.

Depends on your definition of decent I guess.

FreeBear

naf123 wrote: »

MSE tip - peel off the first layer of wallpaper to reveal the lining paper. Bucket of boiling hot water and fairy liquid soap - use a brush or roller and wash the walls.

Then with a scrapper take off the lining paper...

Just finished stripping some wallpaper this morning. Used a spray bottle (repurpose one from the kitchen cleaning cupboard) rather than a bucket of water. Peel off the top layer dry if it will come off, then soak the stuff underneath. It will change colour as it soaks up the water and should slide off with the minimum of effort. If you have to dig in with a scraper, the paper isn't wet enough, so another few squirts and leave it for a few minutes.

Get some heavy gauge lining paper to put back up on the walls. That will cover any minor hairline cracks and give a good surface to paint on to. Very rarely does a wall need to be skimmed after removing wallpaper.

phill99

Why would you employ someone on a day rate?


There is no incentive for them to undertake the job in a timely manner.
Get them to price on a project with a fixed price. That way if they over run, they can't ask for more money and it gives you a fixed budget to work to.

SavvySaver24

phill99 wrote: »

Why would you employ someone on a day rate?/QUOTE]

Because there are lots of little jobs that add up to about a days work. Getting each priced up individually would likely end up more costly than a day rate. But I would obviously see which worked out cheaper if thry priced up both.

SavvySaver24

Thanks so muvh everyone, wallpaper we will certainly be doing oursrlves so thanks for the tips there. With smashing out the bed ourselves I was worried about damaging the wall but is it easy to do?