Doing work before/after moving in

ss2020jd

Thanks @Windofchange and @csgohan4
 
Hopefully that will be the case. Definitely need a handyman in general anyway so on the lookout. 

I will ask when doing quotes if that’s the case. We won’t have any choice if the work can’t be started until next year. 

I think we’ll have to go down the temporary bed route until everything is moved in. We do have an air bed but can only manage a few nights on it but camp bed good idea, thanks. 

TripleH

If you can't get the whole house done, target the largest rooms first before you move in perhaps?

Don't do the smaller rooms if time is limited as it will be easier to fill and empty larger rooms.

We managed to do most of the flooring in our old place before we moved in.

warby68

Maybe reconsider your flooring supplier. Places like Carpetright expect you to clear the room completely but we use a local firm and they just ask you to remove breakables and then work the furniture themselves. They also clear the old carpet and the remnants. It doesn't seem to cost much more.

Gers

ss2020jd said:

YBR said:

It's traditional to get friends/family to help with taking stuff apart and moving it round. "Pay" them in Beer & pizza (or similar).

Ha yes that happened in days gone by but unfortunately we’re all getting too old to be able to safely do that! The youngsters of the family wouldn’t know where to start haha. 

If you're over 60 then most local authorities have a care & repair service and (sometimes) a handyman/ handy person scheme too. I'm not sure if it'd cover moving stuff around but worth a phone call or two. 

ss2020jd

warby68 said:

Maybe reconsider your flooring supplier. Places like Carpetright expect you to clear the room completely but we use a local firm and they just ask you to remove breakables and then work the furniture themselves. They also clear the old carpet and the remnants. It doesn't seem to cost much more.

This sounds ideal which is probably why the local firms are all booked up. If we found somewhere that did this it wouldn’t mean we would have to rush to get things done. Thank you @warby68 for giving me hope it can be done. 

ss2020jd

Gers said:

ss2020jd said:

YBR said:

It's traditional to get friends/family to help with taking stuff apart and moving it round. "Pay" them in Beer & pizza (or similar).

Ha yes that happened in days gone by but unfortunately we’re all getting too old to be able to safely do that! The youngsters of the family wouldn’t know where to start haha. 

If you're over 60 then most local authorities have a care & repair service and (sometimes) a handyman/ handy person scheme too. I'm not sure if it'd cover moving stuff around but worth a phone call or two. 

Thanks great idea I hadn’t heard about that service or scheme so will definitely look into that. 

ss2020jd

Thank you @TripleH, worth bearing in mind and it would be the largest ones that would need doing first

KxMx

We had a local family firm do our carpet, still had to empty the room ourselves - they'd work around a sofa but nothing more- and get rid of our old carpet which they did cut and fasten into rolls to make it easier. 

Jude57

Gers said:

ss2020jd said:

YBR said:

It's traditional to get friends/family to help with taking stuff apart and moving it round. "Pay" them in Beer & pizza (or similar).

Ha yes that happened in days gone by but unfortunately we’re all getting too old to be able to safely do that! The youngsters of the family wouldn’t know where to start haha. 

If you're over 60 then most local authorities have a care & repair service and (sometimes) a handyman/ handy person scheme too. I'm not sure if it'd cover moving stuff around but worth a phone call or two. 

Do they? Mine (a large metropolitan borough) doesn't. Nor did the Councils I worked for in over 23 years. Given that local authorities have ditched as many discretionary services as possible and those still provided are cut to the bone, I'd be interested to know which local authorities provide a handyman service to private homeowners over 60?

In my locality there is a small charity which offers handyman services to elderly or disabled residents but the waiting list pre-pandemic was over 6 months.

Bendy_House

ss, it sounds as though it's worth having a sit down and working out exactly what work needs doing to each room, and when you'd want this done. ('Want' is one thing, and 'actual' could well be another.)

Then write out a plan for each room, and work around that.

For instance, rooms that need new flooring should ideally be kept as clear as possible - fully if you can - from the off. Just don't put any stuff in there at all, at least not unless it's easily moveable. Flooring is unlikely to take long to do - I can't see what there should be any delay on this. So, any room you need to keep fully clear for flooring, should only be a temporary measure.

So, be prepared, if it's possible, to stuff adjacent rooms with all that extra furniture for that short time.

Then comes the rooms which will need extra work - eg new partitions, en-suites, things like that. The 'good' news here is that - even though it'll take longer to arrange to have this work done (could easily be months) - these rooms shouldn't have to be kept clear - they can be used as normal. When the time comes, it should be quite possible for any contents to be simply shifted across away from the side where the new work will take place - it shouldn't interfere at all.

Beds. No need for air or camp - just lay the mattress on the floor! It'll be just as big and just as comfy - it'll just take a few minutes more to creak out of bed each morn...