Home renovation - planning and finding good tradespeople

iwant2asave

Hello,

I am thinking about making a lot of home renovations in the next few months.  It is a medium sized 3 bed semi detached house in a large town.  I am not sure exactly what but it would likely include : Re-wiring the house and new fusebox, New flooring throughout, Painting throughout, replacing electric shower in shower room with a mixer shower, fitting a loft ladder and flooring in loft, landscape gardening and fencing.  I have never had to get anyone to do such major work all at once so am quite nervous and anxious about it so I want some help to understand what might be involved from people who may be able to offer advice please.

My questions are : 

What kind of things should I consider while planning for this
How can I decide what order to do things in - and is it generally best to get as much of it done in one go
How can I find good and honest tradespeople to do the work
Pros and cons of getting one builder to do all the work vs getting separate trades in
Is it advisable to move out while the work is going on or is it possible for the work to be done floor by floor so we stay downstairs while work is done upstairs and stay upstairs while the work is done upstairs.

Thanks in advance,

Sam

maurice28

I am by no means an expert on this kind of thing, so please forgive my ramblings in advance! I am, however, coming to the end of a 9 month project to have an extension built, new kitchen installed etc, so have been through the process of finding tradespeople for major work so have learnt a little from that.

In terms of finding the actual tradespeople, you obviously can't beat recommendations from people you know and trust. Also try your local social media groups, if you have them, as people in your area will no doubt have recommended builders, electricians, painters etc so it can be a good place to start.

For our extension project, we employed one builder who effectively project managed the build and brought in sub-contractors. In terms of benefits, this made things run more easily and smoothly, and he arranged for the relevant people to be in place when they were needed and could sort the majority of issues with them. In terms of cons, this was probably more expensive than lining up all the tradespeople individually (plumbers, plasterers, electricians, groundwork, bricklayers etc) and you don't have direct control over who does the elements - we were lucky that the majority of subcontractors were good, but the electrician for example was pretty unreliable and frustrating to work with so it can be swings and roundabouts.

Things like flooring we organised ourselves through local companies we had used before and were pleased with, so it really depends if you have any contacts/preferred suppliers from previous work you have had done.

In terms of moving out or not while the work is done - well, I've never had a re-wire done but it sounds like the work wouldn't be too intrusive that you'd need to move out? Be prepared though for disruption, mess, noise and dust - lots and lots of dust! Hopefully it won't go on for long but any kind of ongoing project can be a drag and stressful, but living in the house while it's going on if you can will obviously save you money, unless there is somewhere you can easily go for free in the meantime?

FreeBear

maurice28 said: In terms of moving out or not while the work is done - well, I've never had a re-wire done but it sounds like the work wouldn't be too intrusive that you'd need to move out? Be prepared though for disruption, mess, noise and dust - lots and lots of dust!

Trust me when I say a full rewire is very disruptive. Floorboards up,skirting off, and lots of dust. Once the air has cleared, chases for the back boxes and conduit need to be made good - Depending on the state of the walls, that could mean a full skim, and plasterers are not the cleanest of trades..

A rewire is something that needs to be high on the list of jobs to do first.

jonnydeppiwish!

It’s going to be a nightmare whatever you do (or at least it will feel like that at times!).

it’s really up to you - do you want it all done and dusted in a shorter period but to cost more, or are you happy for it to take a long time but be significantly cheaper?

Having completed 2 in the last 5 years and done both, for the sake of a marriage, the next place will be done in one go by one contractor. Yes it’ll cost more but 3 months it’ll be done.

As for works, I’d go with the following:

RIP everything out
Walls down/extensions up
electrics and plumbing.
floor boarding (if required)
windows
plastering 

bathrooms
kitchens
painting
second fix electrics
flooring

obviously this depends on what you’re doing but the order will be similar. Mess first, the the site can be cleaned up everyday and doesn’t feel so bad.

Local connections can help, we were lucky to have a builder, electrician and plasterer as neighbours, with a plumbers as a BiL.

maurice28

FreeBear said:

maurice28 said: In terms of moving out or not while the work is done - well, I've never had a re-wire done but it sounds like the work wouldn't be too intrusive that you'd need to move out? Be prepared though for disruption, mess, noise and dust - lots and lots of dust!

Trust me when I say a full rewire is very disruptive. Floorboards up,skirting off, and lots of dust. Once the air has cleared, chases for the back boxes and conduit need to be made good - Depending on the state of the walls, that could mean a full skim, and plasterers are not the cleanest of trades..

A rewire is something that needs to be high on the list of jobs to do first.

Good point on the plastering. I feel we have seen the best and worst of them, the one who prepped our walls ahead of a new kitchen was spotless, you'd hardly know he'd been in. The one who plastered our new extension on the other hand didn't put down dust sheets even when working in the existing old kitchen, and made an absolute mess. 

iwant2asave

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the guidance of what things to consider and what to expect.  Especially useful the points on rewire and suggestion that it should be one of the first things.  Also the useful tips on finding local recommendations through socials.

Whilst we won't have any new extension or knocking of walls, I now know to expect a fair amount of disruption.
I'm leaning towards getting things done in phases, something like this :

Phase 1 :

Re-wiring the house and new fusebox,
replacing electric shower in shower room with a mixer shower,

Phase 2 :
landscape gardening and fencing

Phase 3 :
Painting throughout

fitting a loft ladder and floorboards in loft, 

New flooring throughout

FreeBear

iwant2asave said: fitting a loft ladder and floorboards in loft,

If the loft would benefit from extra insulation (I'd regard 270-300mm to be a minimum), I'd suggest combining it with loft ladder & boarding. Move it up to phase 1 (but after the rewire) so that you can take advantage of the energy savings.

Camboudica

Definitely get the rewire done first, we're having it done now and I've never seen so much mess!

We're having a major refurbishment of the house we just bought (ex rental, had nothing done in 25+ years) and we chose a company who will oversee it all, rather than trying to get separate trades people in, it costs more but so far they are steaming through it getting everything done to schedule.

Ask people for recommendations, ask on any local social media groups etc. 

Bigphil1474

Are you sure you need a rewire? We were told a while back that we needed a complete rewire from a guy who came to fix our cooker. It was a bit random but fortunately we have a family friend who is a trustworthy electrical contractor who came and had a look - he said the wiring is old but absolutely fine (it's over 30 years old), and he said we just needed to replace the consumer unit, which he did and charged at cost.

iwant2asave

Bigphil1474 said:

Are you sure you need a rewire? We were told a while back that we needed a complete rewire from a guy who came to fix our cooker. It was a bit random but fortunately we have a family friend who is a trustworthy electrical contractor who came and had a look - he said the wiring is old but absolutely fine (it's over 30 years old), and he said we just needed to replace the consumer unit, which he did and charged at cost.

Good question...I am not 100% sure.  The existing wiring and fusebox is at least 40 years old.  There was a separate fusebox already fitted just covering a single storey extension that was done about 15 years ago - no idea why they didn't replace the old fusebox at that time, but they just added the new fusebox and left the old one!  We did get occasional fuse blow outs about 2 years ago but that has not happened since about 1 year.

Perhaps step one would be to find someone to confirm whether a rewire is needed or whether a fusebox/consumer unit  covering the entire house would be sufficient.

mi-key

iwant2asave said:

Bigphil1474 said:

Are you sure you need a rewire? We were told a while back that we needed a complete rewire from a guy who came to fix our cooker. It was a bit random but fortunately we have a family friend who is a trustworthy electrical contractor who came and had a look - he said the wiring is old but absolutely fine (it's over 30 years old), and he said we just needed to replace the consumer unit, which he did and charged at cost.

Good question...I am not 100% sure.  The existing wiring and fusebox is at least 40 years old.  There was a separate fusebox already fitted just covering a single storey extension that was done about 15 years ago - no idea why they didn't replace the old fusebox at that time, but they just added the new fusebox and left the old one!  We did get occasional fuse blow outs about 2 years ago but that has not happened since about 1 year.

Perhaps step one would be to find someone to confirm whether a rewire is needed or whether a fusebox/consumer unit  covering the entire house would be sufficient.

If all the wiring is working fine, then there is no need to rewire the whole house. The vast majority of houses in the UK have never been rewired, and 40 year old wiring is fine.  You may want to get additional sockets added, but this doesn't require rewiring the house to do.

A new consumer unit can be fitted without having to replace the existing wiring, and the old wiring from the power shower can easily be removed

If you don't need it, it will make the whole project a lot cheaper, quicker and easier and means you can stay in the house while it is done.

Most of the jobs can be done at the same time, like the garden and fencing can be done at the same time the decorating and electrical work is done. The loft can also be done at the same time as the flooring and shower