Home renovation - planning and finding good tradespeople

mi-key

p.s. you didn't mention if you were having laminate or carpet fitted, but both of these are very quick. Carpet fitters can do a room in a couple of hours, and laminate flooring is very quick to fit as well ( my friend recently had the whole downstairs of her 3 bed semi fitted with laminate floors, and a two man team did the whole thing in 2 days ) 

IvyFlood

Start with the rewire! We moved into our 3 bed semi in September 2018 which needed rewiring. Took us 6 months to find decent electricians as all advice and costs varied significantly. So I'd definitely say get as many quotes as you can for such a big job. I don't know about your circumstances but once we knew the work was starting, we ripped up all the carpets, took off all the skirting (we were getting new flooring too) and we moved every single item into our garage. Granted its our first home so we didn't have much at the time but we made it very easy for the electricians. We (myself and hubby) also stayed in a hotel for 2 nights as the disruption is A LOT of dust, floorboards up everywhere, wires dangling all over the place and plus they didn't need to leave anything connected for us. It was also February so an empty house with floorboards up = very cold! So I'd definitely suggest moving out if you can. It took ours only 2 days as a result.

After that we got the plasterers in and then I painted every single wall white while we lived with just floorboards for a while so it didn't matter about paint splashing. It was simple for me to do as I knew I wanted to keep the walls white in terms of decorating so it was the best time to do it.

Then we had our flooring laid in June of 2019 to give an indication of the timeframe.

trailingspouse

With 4 renovations under my belt, here's my pennyworth -

I'm not a fan of personal recommendations. Unless the person making the recommendation has had exactly the same sort of work done, has the same standards/expectations as you, and the same budget, it's not worth bothering. The guy that did a good job of changing your neighbour's tap might not be up to fitting a whole bathroom.

Google 'tradesperson in my area', and ring at least 6 of them/contact via their website. Ask them to come and give you a quote. Do they turn up when they said they would? Are they presentable? Do they drive a liveried van? Does the quote come on headed paper with clear details of how to proceed? Are they insured? Are they able to tell you when they could start and how long it should take? And - most importantly - do you feel comfortable with the idea of having them in your house, potentially unsupervised?

It's not essential to tick off all of the above - but the more the merrier, particularly the last one. And if they take their shoes off/put on overshoes before coming in, grab them with both hands and don't let go...

Finally, if you're happy with their work, pay them. Immediately. The next time you need them, they'll come.

Risteard

trailingspouse said:

And if they take their shoes (sic) off/put on overshoes before coming in, grab them with both hands and don't let go...

It's unprofessional to take boots off. It's a clear Health & Safety issue.

Risteard

mi-key said:

40 year old wiring is fine.

Except when very often it isn't.