House renovation and garage build
Discussion
Harry Flashman said:
Having renovated bathrooms in my house, a couple of tips:
- source suites and fittings yourself, have them installed. You can then mix and match and get the style you want
- if doing electrics, fit heated mirror pads behind the mirror that come on with the lights. Excellent for having a shave after your shower
- do not skimp on the extraction. Get a decently rated fan with a humidity detector, so that it will only come on when needed, and clear the room properly. Mine are Manrose - very effective and pretty quiet for the power, keeps mould/mildew and damp at bay
- each bathroom should have its own stopcock. Cheap to do when doing plumbing anyway, means that any problems, you can just turn the bathroom off and not have to cut water to the whole house
- have underfloor heating. If you do not, make sure you have flooring that is not too cold to the touch in winter. Avoid laminate or carpet, as water ruins them (and carpet is unhygienic in a bathroom)
- build some storage in somewhere: a vanity unit under the sink is a great idea. Keeps clutter to a minimum
- have some sort of alcove/shelf in the bath area for bath stuff. Again, avoids cluttering up the sides of the bath
Thanks, it's actually started. We are OK the first 2 points (thanks PH). When we rewired we got a fan, but it comes on with the light, then stays on for a preset time after. I think I prefer the set up in my old flat where the extractor was on a separate circuit, so you could decide how long it was on for etc. - source suites and fittings yourself, have them installed. You can then mix and match and get the style you want
- if doing electrics, fit heated mirror pads behind the mirror that come on with the lights. Excellent for having a shave after your shower
- do not skimp on the extraction. Get a decently rated fan with a humidity detector, so that it will only come on when needed, and clear the room properly. Mine are Manrose - very effective and pretty quiet for the power, keeps mould/mildew and damp at bay
- each bathroom should have its own stopcock. Cheap to do when doing plumbing anyway, means that any problems, you can just turn the bathroom off and not have to cut water to the whole house
- have underfloor heating. If you do not, make sure you have flooring that is not too cold to the touch in winter. Avoid laminate or carpet, as water ruins them (and carpet is unhygienic in a bathroom)
- build some storage in somewhere: a vanity unit under the sink is a great idea. Keeps clutter to a minimum
- have some sort of alcove/shelf in the bath area for bath stuff. Again, avoids cluttering up the sides of the bath
A separate stopcock sounds like a brilliant idea, but I fear we may be too late, the pipe work was done on Monday and is under the floor, which has since been boarded over. Each of the pipes has its own shut off, but I can see how if water is pissing out everywhere a central stop for the whole room would be good.
Flooring wise we have gone for tiles, we didn't really think about UFH - we'll just have to man up in winter if it is too cold - or hope that the heat from the central heating pipes still comes through the floor.
I did suggest a vanity unit, but it was veto'd, the plan is to fit a tall think cupboard between the bath and door.
I was too late to ask about an alcove area, the wall behind the bath was plasterboarded and tanked when I got back. The wall behind me when I took the picture has been plastered (will only be tiled halfway), hopefully it will be dry over the weekend so we can start to get it painted.
Fake Wall by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Fake Wall by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Edit: It helps if I add the photo I'm talking about.
Most of the tiles are in:
Bathroom tiled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
This should give you an idea of the colour scheme too.
The last few tiles are going on today, the ones that need cut - so progress will seem slower. Then they should be grouted too.
Chocolate hobnobs still unopened - but some mystery chocolate bars have appeared in the fridge
The most important question (it is PH after all) has been answered:
Bathroom tiled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
This should give you an idea of the colour scheme too.
The last few tiles are going on today, the ones that need cut - so progress will seem slower. Then they should be grouted too.
Chocolate hobnobs still unopened - but some mystery chocolate bars have appeared in the fridge
The most important question (it is PH after all) has been answered:
furtive said:
Which of those cars are you going to fill the garage with? 944, MR2 or Exige? 
An MR2 has been purchased to live in the garage, although at the moment the garage only exists in Sketchup.On friday the guys finished the tiling:
Bathroom tiling finished
Then over the weekend we did a mist coat and the first coat on the half wall we will be painting.
The rest of the suite/shower etc will be going in today, so we're looking at either today or tomorrow to be able to use our bathroom!
Edited to fix picture
Bathroom tiling finished
Then over the weekend we did a mist coat and the first coat on the half wall we will be painting.
The rest of the suite/shower etc will be going in today, so we're looking at either today or tomorrow to be able to use our bathroom!
Edited to fix picture
Edited by Craikeybaby on Tuesday 13th August 12:25
The suite is in and the bathroom is finished! but we still need to wait 2 weeks before we can use the shower
There are a few finishing touches to do before I post pictures, we need to finish painting the wall, add some towels/accessories etc so that it isn't all grey and wire in the mirror. The bathroom guys couldn't do it because they would have needed to get it signed off - does that mean if I do it I would need to get it signed off too? Or can I just go ahead and connect the wire?
Outside of the bathroom we are making progress getting rid of the family of rats in the garden - I've not caught 2 in traps and euthanised 2 that seemed to be under the effect of the poison environmental health put down for the neighbours.
There are a few finishing touches to do before I post pictures, we need to finish painting the wall, add some towels/accessories etc so that it isn't all grey and wire in the mirror. The bathroom guys couldn't do it because they would have needed to get it signed off - does that mean if I do it I would need to get it signed off too? Or can I just go ahead and connect the wire?
Outside of the bathroom we are making progress getting rid of the family of rats in the garden - I've not caught 2 in traps and euthanised 2 that seemed to be under the effect of the poison environmental health put down for the neighbours.
Muncher said:
Looking good!
Thanks!The plan for this evening was to do the final coat of paint on the wall and connect up the mirror, which I was expecting to be a straightforward job...
I unravelled the tape that the electricians had put over the end of the cable to find 4 wires/cores, I was expecting 3. I've done a bit of research and it appears to be triple flat 6243Y cable. Using the multimeter I have confirmed that brown is live (240v), copper (no cover) is earth, black is neutral and grey is switched (from light switch).
On the mirror I have a block for 3 connections, live, earth and neutral. I assume I can choose between using live and switched live for this (leaving the other one loose, but in a safe state). I will probably use switched live, so that when the light/extractor are on the mirror pad is also on - or would it be best to leave it connected all the time and activate when required?
Also, I understand that it is good practice to green/yellow sleeve the bare earth lead and to blue sleeve the neutral - it seems that the green/yellow is readily available - £0.32 at Wickes, but £6.48 at B&Q, but I can't find the blue in small quantities, so will leave it as the cable is already sleeved.
There hasn't been any progress on the bathroom - I noticed that there was a rubber washer missing on the mirror which looked like it would have been to keep moisture out of the electrics. I spoke to the manufacturer and they're sending out new washers FOC even though they were probably there when the mirror was supplied - great service from Pebble Grey. It looks like the wall is going to need another coat of paint, as you can still see where we cut in - doh. So I'll hold off on the mirror until then.
The next thing on my todo list was to continue boarding out the loft, but I'd ran out of screws, so instead we got a lot of tidying up done in the garden, it doesn't look like we've made much progress, which is annoying as it was quite hard work in the sun this afternoon.
The next thing on my todo list was to continue boarding out the loft, but I'd ran out of screws, so instead we got a lot of tidying up done in the garden, it doesn't look like we've made much progress, which is annoying as it was quite hard work in the sun this afternoon.
A pretty important milestone has been reached - I've had the first shower in the house! (We moved in just before Easter.)
A few little things need sorting out, one of the shower heads was leaking from where it screws on, hopefully just a case of tightening it up and I need to put some sealant between the fixed part of the shower screen and the bath as some water got through there. The final cost of paint still needs doing on the wall, then the mirror needs fitting. The extra washers have arrived from Pebble Grey - great service from them!
Other than the bathroom I did a bit more tidying in the garden, I'm actually pretty pleased with how it's looking now. I also boarded some more of the loft, which was hot work in this weather! I treated myself to some trousers with padded knees which made crawling around the loft a lot more comfortable than last time - a good purchase!
A few little things need sorting out, one of the shower heads was leaking from where it screws on, hopefully just a case of tightening it up and I need to put some sealant between the fixed part of the shower screen and the bath as some water got through there. The final cost of paint still needs doing on the wall, then the mirror needs fitting. The extra washers have arrived from Pebble Grey - great service from them!
Other than the bathroom I did a bit more tidying in the garden, I'm actually pretty pleased with how it's looking now. I also boarded some more of the loft, which was hot work in this weather! I treated myself to some trousers with padded knees which made crawling around the loft a lot more comfortable than last time - a good purchase!
The last few weeks have been pretty busy, so we blocked this weekend off for working on the house.
We've made good progress stripping wallpaper in the front room - a task I hate. This afternoon I'm going to scarify the lawn and choose our wood burning stove. Hopefully we'll get the front room finished before Xmas, but a lot depends on the HETAS fitter's schedule.
We've made good progress stripping wallpaper in the front room - a task I hate. This afternoon I'm going to scarify the lawn and choose our wood burning stove. Hopefully we'll get the front room finished before Xmas, but a lot depends on the HETAS fitter's schedule.
Wood burning stove ordered - we've gone for a Yeoman CL5, which is being fitted on the 4th October.
Wallpaper stripping is continuing, although we've hit a snag, we can't undo the outlet valve on the radiator, the but isn't budging, but the pipe work is flexing. I'm not confident enough to fix the pipe myself, so don't want to put too much force on it. It looks like we'll need to get a plumber out in the week.
Wallpaper stripping is continuing, although we've hit a snag, we can't undo the outlet valve on the radiator, the but isn't budging, but the pipe work is flexing. I'm not confident enough to fix the pipe myself, so don't want to put too much force on it. It looks like we'll need to get a plumber out in the week.
I've finally managed to get some pictures of the bathroom uploaded, the room is about 2m x 2m, so even with a really wide angle lens quite hard to photograph.
We've still got to work out what we are doing with the door, but other than that it is done.
I didn't have a good before picture, but looking in from the landing will give you an idea:
Landing before by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
After, excuse the mess, we've been using the bathroom for a few weeks:
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
I'm still waiting for Jen to finalise the costs, but it is going to be around the £4k mark. We're both really pleased with it and it is good to have a finished room at last!
We've still got to work out what we are doing with the door, but other than that it is done.
I didn't have a good before picture, but looking in from the landing will give you an idea:
Landing before by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
After, excuse the mess, we've been using the bathroom for a few weeks:
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
I'm still waiting for Jen to finalise the costs, but it is going to be around the £4k mark. We're both really pleased with it and it is good to have a finished room at last!
We've had a fairly productive week, although I'm at the Silverstone Sunday Service with my Dad tomorrow, so won't get anything done tomorrow.
Last weekend was mainly stripping wallpaper in the front room, we've got about 2/3rds of the way and had the plumber round to replace the seized valve on the radiator, so we've got that removed and can get the rest of the wallpaper off.
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
As with the back bedroom, Jen's granddad had written the dates of what we assume are when the room was last decorated, 1985, then 1993!
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
On Friday we had the HETAS engineer round to quote for tidying up the fireplace and fitting the wood burner, this is the before picture, we will be glad to have it tidied up:
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
The next steps for this room are tidying up the wiring for our cable connection, I think we're going to have to have another box sunk into the wall behind the TV
, which I'll get the electrician to do when he comes to wire in the CO detector on the 1st October. Then we are getting the stove fitted on the 4th and the plastering done ASAP after that! So between getting the wallpaper off and the plaster drying we can have a bit of a rest - other than having to pay for stuff.
While the weather is still nice I decided to skive off wallpaper stripping and scarify the lawn, it looks a right state now, but I've put some lawn feed down and overseeded it, so I'm hoping for a vast improvement over the next few weeks:
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Last weekend was mainly stripping wallpaper in the front room, we've got about 2/3rds of the way and had the plumber round to replace the seized valve on the radiator, so we've got that removed and can get the rest of the wallpaper off.
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
As with the back bedroom, Jen's granddad had written the dates of what we assume are when the room was last decorated, 1985, then 1993!
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
On Friday we had the HETAS engineer round to quote for tidying up the fireplace and fitting the wood burner, this is the before picture, we will be glad to have it tidied up:
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
The next steps for this room are tidying up the wiring for our cable connection, I think we're going to have to have another box sunk into the wall behind the TV
, which I'll get the electrician to do when he comes to wire in the CO detector on the 1st October. Then we are getting the stove fitted on the 4th and the plastering done ASAP after that! So between getting the wallpaper off and the plaster drying we can have a bit of a rest - other than having to pay for stuff.While the weather is still nice I decided to skive off wallpaper stripping and scarify the lawn, it looks a right state now, but I've put some lawn feed down and overseeded it, so I'm hoping for a vast improvement over the next few weeks:
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
fizz47 said:
Good job- been reading with interest as it seems quite similar to my renovation.
What sort of 'box' do you have planned to have put into the wall for your TV.
I want my TV mounted flush on the wall without any wires etc on show. Not entirely sure what I should be instructing the builders so they can do a decent job.
Thanks, it's good to see people are enjoying it. What sort of 'box' do you have planned to have put into the wall for your TV.
I want my TV mounted flush on the wall without any wires etc on show. Not entirely sure what I should be instructing the builders so they can do a decent job.
By box I mean the back box for an plug socket/light switch etc which is sunk into the wall. In this case it will be another coax connector for the cable tv. I'm just going to have the TV on a stand, it isn't as neat, but keeps things simple.
To sink a TV into the wall I'd suggest installing a false wall and cutting into that would be the best bet.
russ_a said:
When we stripped the wallpaper in our current house someone had drawn a mans face and dated it 1953!
Found some empty crisp packets for the 1970's under the floorboards too, even back then builders were allergic to using bins!
Wow! It's a shame we're plastering, then painting, so we'll be losing the marking and unable to add our own. Found some empty crisp packets for the 1970's under the floorboards too, even back then builders were allergic to using bins!
Had a really busy weekend, although didn't get quite as much work done on the house as we intended.
The main exciting news is that on Friday we got the wood burning stove installed, we went for a Yeoman CL5 and a slate hearth.
I got home as the steel liner was being threaded down the chimney:
Chimney liner being fitted by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
And here is the stove installed, obviously there is a bit of plastering etc needed (and please excuse the crappy iPhone photo and dusty stove):
Wood burning stove by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Jen is starting to look at colour schemes for the front room, so far she has identified some possible curtains (from John Lewis ). While we were in Leamington Spa on Saturday (watch shopping for my 30th) she discovered the Farrow & Ball store, we've got some ideas for wall colours, but I think I'll be getting Johnstones to match the colours, rather than paying for Farrow & Ball! We still have plenty of time to decide on this sort of thing, as the walls probably won't be ready to paint for another 3 or 4 weeks yet.
The weather has been really nice here, so we haven't had a chance to test it yet, I'm going to order a cubic metre of seasoned hardwood in the week, so hopefully we'll be able to test it out soon. I've made a start on the wood store I'm building, hopefully I'll get that finished in the next few days so I only need to stack the wood once.
Staying outside, it has been 2 weeks since I scarified, then reseeded, the lawn and it looked a bit of a mess:
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
However, it looks a lot better now, probably back to where it was before, but with a few bald patches, rather than moss, hopefully in 2 more weeks it will be even better:
Lawn Recovering by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
After being on the look out for a Briggs & Stratton engined lawnmower under £150 pretty much since we moved in I managed to order one from Screwfix which was half price at £99, but when I started assembling it there were a few washers missing, probably not important, but I'm getting Screwfix to swap it anyway. So I'll have to hope that this nice weather stays for a few days so I can try it out.
We also made a tiny bit of progress towards clearing the garage, the MIL came to collect a table which she didn't want us to throw out, which had been in the garage for the last year, there's plenty more to go, but it is a start.
Moving to the front of the house I managed to sort something that had been bugging me since we moved in - last spring the council moved the streetlights from next to the curb to the garden side of the pavement, also stretching them out further along the street, which meant we no longer had a streetlight outside out house. This is great for not shining through m office window, but less good for identifying keys when someone has forgotten to switch the porch light on. I managed to find a porch light with microwave sensor, which works like a security light, but doesn't look out of place. It took a bit of fiddling with the sensitivity and brightness settings, but it now only switches on when someone approaches the porch.
We had intended to finish scraping the remaining glue off the walls in the front room, but ended up giving the house a good clean, including re-oiling the oak worktops in the kitchen - one of the downsides of living in the house while you are working on it, you still need to to normal cleaning etc too. Then we had the MIL pop round for a cup of tea, then my folks dropped by too, this was the first time our parents had met, luckily it went OK. So this afternoon was mainly spent enjoying the lovely weather under the veranda, cooking a chicken on the BBQ. Times like that make all the work we are doing/meant to be doing worthwhile!
The main exciting news is that on Friday we got the wood burning stove installed, we went for a Yeoman CL5 and a slate hearth.
I got home as the steel liner was being threaded down the chimney:
Chimney liner being fitted by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
And here is the stove installed, obviously there is a bit of plastering etc needed (and please excuse the crappy iPhone photo and dusty stove):
Wood burning stove by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Jen is starting to look at colour schemes for the front room, so far she has identified some possible curtains (from John Lewis
). While we were in Leamington Spa on Saturday (watch shopping for my 30th) she discovered the Farrow & Ball store, we've got some ideas for wall colours, but I think I'll be getting Johnstones to match the colours, rather than paying for Farrow & Ball! We still have plenty of time to decide on this sort of thing, as the walls probably won't be ready to paint for another 3 or 4 weeks yet.The weather has been really nice here, so we haven't had a chance to test it yet, I'm going to order a cubic metre of seasoned hardwood in the week, so hopefully we'll be able to test it out soon. I've made a start on the wood store I'm building, hopefully I'll get that finished in the next few days so I only need to stack the wood once.
Staying outside, it has been 2 weeks since I scarified, then reseeded, the lawn and it looked a bit of a mess:
Untitled by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
However, it looks a lot better now, probably back to where it was before, but with a few bald patches, rather than moss, hopefully in 2 more weeks it will be even better:
Lawn Recovering by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
After being on the look out for a Briggs & Stratton engined lawnmower under £150 pretty much since we moved in I managed to order one from Screwfix which was half price at £99, but when I started assembling it there were a few washers missing, probably not important, but I'm getting Screwfix to swap it anyway. So I'll have to hope that this nice weather stays for a few days so I can try it out.
We also made a tiny bit of progress towards clearing the garage, the MIL came to collect a table which she didn't want us to throw out, which had been in the garage for the last year, there's plenty more to go, but it is a start.
Moving to the front of the house I managed to sort something that had been bugging me since we moved in - last spring the council moved the streetlights from next to the curb to the garden side of the pavement, also stretching them out further along the street, which meant we no longer had a streetlight outside out house. This is great for not shining through m office window, but less good for identifying keys when someone has forgotten to switch the porch light on. I managed to find a porch light with microwave sensor, which works like a security light, but doesn't look out of place. It took a bit of fiddling with the sensitivity and brightness settings, but it now only switches on when someone approaches the porch.
We had intended to finish scraping the remaining glue off the walls in the front room, but ended up giving the house a good clean, including re-oiling the oak worktops in the kitchen - one of the downsides of living in the house while you are working on it, you still need to to normal cleaning etc too. Then we had the MIL pop round for a cup of tea, then my folks dropped by too, this was the first time our parents had met, luckily it went OK. So this afternoon was mainly spent enjoying the lovely weather under the veranda, cooking a chicken on the BBQ. Times like that make all the work we are doing/meant to be doing worthwhile!
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