Doing work before/after moving in

ss2020jd

Thanks so much @Bendy_House - laying it out like that is very helpful. My brain is slower these days and seemingly simple things can seem more complicated than they probably are! 

If it doesn’t take too long to do an average size room and I can find someone, it may be feasible. 

Haha true - back to my student days sleeping on the floor - if I can get back up again! 

More great advice and replies - thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to respond. 

pinkteapot

Not an MSE solution, but at one house, when we wanted to repaint and re-carpet the entire downstairs, we paid a removal company to take our furniture away, store it for a week, then return it. Meant we could get the downstairs done all at once without moving stuff about, and saved the usual furniture-moving arguments between MrTeapot and I! We were a bit cramped in that house and just didn't have anywhere to move it all out of the way to.

We have done the 'shift it all to another room' thing several times as well. It is possible if you've got some willing strong bods and a bit of space. Just a faff!

Carpet/flooring shops who are supplying fitting will expect the room to be empty when they arrive. If you're using a good local independent though, you can sometimes bribe the fitters to move some bits with a bit of cash. My mum's always managed to do this, but she's got the gift of the gab. 

Also, again if using a friendly independent carpet shop, we have previously said we want to use a particular carpet throughout our upstairs but could only do one room at a time. They put enough of that carpet aside for us and came out separately for each room over the course of several months. 

Slithery

If you need any electrical or plumbing work then get all of that done first, it creates the most mess and usually affects all of the rooms in the property.

ss2020jd

Slithery said:

If you need any electrical or plumbing work then get all of that done first, it creates the most mess and usually affects all of the rooms in the property.

Thanks @Slithery - will need to work it all out - it’s like a complicated jigsaw to me. 

Makes sense as there could be pipes under the flooring that may need to be accessed so thanks for pointing that out. 

Much admiration for those who are skilled and knowledgeable in these fields and can do the puzzles. 

Slithery

This is the order in which things are done when building a property, the order is pretty much the same when carrying out renovations...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_fix_and_second_fix

YBR

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. 

Time for them to be taught where to start - they should be paying you for the valuable learning opportunity  !

ss2020jd

pinkteapot said:

Not an MSE solution, but at one house, when we wanted to repaint and re-carpet the entire downstairs, we paid a removal company to take our furniture away, store it for a week, then return it. Meant we could get the downstairs done all at once without moving stuff about, and saved the usual furniture-moving arguments between MrTeapot and I! We were a bit cramped in that house and just didn't have anywhere to move it all out of the way to.

We have done the 'shift it all to another room' thing several times as well. It is possible if you've got some willing strong bods and a bit of space. Just a faff!

Carpet/flooring shops who are supplying fitting will expect the room to be empty when they arrive. If you're using a good local independent though, you can sometimes bribe the fitters to move some bits with a bit of cash. My mum's always managed to do this, but she's got the gift of the gab. 

Also, again if using a friendly independent carpet shop, we have previously said we want to use a particular carpet throughout our upstairs but could only do one room at a time. They put enough of that carpet aside for us and came out separately for each room over the course of several months. 

Thanks @pinkteapot plenty of great suggestions there, and actually, although not MSE, it sounds like that that is definitely an option and something I hadn’t even thought of but as we wouldn’t have that much space either that is a definite idea. If I have to wait til next year for work to be done that could be another possibility. And definitely avoid the ‘that won’t fit there’ from mr stressed seller! 

Haha your mum sounds very charming and persuasive, I’m not sure how good I’ll be at that but can always give it a go! I think the local independent will be the way to go. 

I like the idea of staggering jobs as well. Worth thinking about too. 

Lots of brilliant ideas, thanks again! 

ss2020jd

Slithery said:

This is the order in which things are done when building a property, the order is pretty much the same when carrying out renovations...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_fix_and_second_fix

Brilliant, thanks so much - great info. Really helpful de-mystifying stuff. 

ss2020jd

YBR 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. 

Time for them to be taught where to start - they should be paying you for the valuable learning opportunity  !

😂 indeed! I wouldn’t let them loose until they cut their teeth elsewhere. 

Greymug

I got the flooring done first, then the painting, then I started bringing in the furniture.

I like to assemble and move furniture around once; moving it around the rooms to make space for flooring to be done is a waste of time and effort which I avoid at all costs.