New restoration project - what have I done!
Discussion
Cheers guys! All welcome at any time!
On a slightly more frustrating note, despite having British Gas insulation been going on since February this year, and planned for months as to be fitted yesterday, they didn't turn up.... Got a message the night before saying one guy was ill, so they couldn't make it. Then added, oh by the way, next available date is 5th Jan 2015! I was not a happy bunny! Especially after having kicked the sparkys into making sure all loft work was done last week, having to increase the hatch size in the lounge to meet their min requirements (not as easy as it sounds with lath and plaster ceilings and 91/2" joists, especially as we had to bridle the opening to increase it!)
Anyway, more work there today, starting to fit out the master walk in wardrobe, got 7 wardrobes to build and fit and some smart LEDs to install above them. Hopefully get it done today. Master bedroom got a dado rail added last week after a last minute change of design ideas, top section is now wallpapered ready for painting, just got to agree and choose the paint and the feature paper going below it..... So March then!
Also, had another late night on the staircase again.. Best time to work on it as the whole house is empty and quiet, and I can leave it wet overnight with no fear of handprints in it! Had another rub down with 320grit and another coat of poly varnish. Really starting to get that glossy look now, just one or two more coats to go now, then the spindles.. On the plus side, will be ready for carpet soon! Already ply sheeted both the kids rooms, just got to do the guest bedroom, guest hallway, main hallway, master bedroom, master ensuite and master hallway.. Oh and de-nail the floors first. Stupid, boring, time consuming and sore knee making job! As the original floors were covered in plywood, hardboard and vinyl floors, with each layer stapled and tacked down, there are thousands of staples sticking out and nails needing pulled, each room takes about 4-5hours to do, all spent on your knees running your hands over the floor to find the little beggers! Not much fun, but has to be done before ply sheets can go down, and carpets fitted...
On a slightly more frustrating note, despite having British Gas insulation been going on since February this year, and planned for months as to be fitted yesterday, they didn't turn up.... Got a message the night before saying one guy was ill, so they couldn't make it. Then added, oh by the way, next available date is 5th Jan 2015! I was not a happy bunny! Especially after having kicked the sparkys into making sure all loft work was done last week, having to increase the hatch size in the lounge to meet their min requirements (not as easy as it sounds with lath and plaster ceilings and 91/2" joists, especially as we had to bridle the opening to increase it!)
Anyway, more work there today, starting to fit out the master walk in wardrobe, got 7 wardrobes to build and fit and some smart LEDs to install above them. Hopefully get it done today. Master bedroom got a dado rail added last week after a last minute change of design ideas, top section is now wallpapered ready for painting, just got to agree and choose the paint and the feature paper going below it..... So March then!
Also, had another late night on the staircase again.. Best time to work on it as the whole house is empty and quiet, and I can leave it wet overnight with no fear of handprints in it! Had another rub down with 320grit and another coat of poly varnish. Really starting to get that glossy look now, just one or two more coats to go now, then the spindles.. On the plus side, will be ready for carpet soon! Already ply sheeted both the kids rooms, just got to do the guest bedroom, guest hallway, main hallway, master bedroom, master ensuite and master hallway.. Oh and de-nail the floors first. Stupid, boring, time consuming and sore knee making job! As the original floors were covered in plywood, hardboard and vinyl floors, with each layer stapled and tacked down, there are thousands of staples sticking out and nails needing pulled, each room takes about 4-5hours to do, all spent on your knees running your hands over the floor to find the little beggers! Not much fun, but has to be done before ply sheets can go down, and carpets fitted...
I'm normally one who bites off more than he can chew. I showed this thread to the Mrs. she said Er NO!!! I said damn right even I'm not that mad.
Much respect to you mate. It looks fantastic. If you were nearer I'd offer to labour for a day just to see it in the flesh.
I've just put an offer in for a 4000sqft property which needs renovating but is in solid condition.
I doff my cap to you Sir
Much respect to you mate. It looks fantastic. If you were nearer I'd offer to labour for a day just to see it in the flesh.
I've just put an offer in for a 4000sqft property which needs renovating but is in solid condition.
I doff my cap to you Sir
matty g said:
I'm normally one who bites off more than he can chew. I showed this thread to the Mrs. she said Er NO!!! I said damn right even I'm not that mad.
Much respect to you mate. It looks fantastic. If you were nearer I'd offer to labour for a day just to see it in the flesh.
I've just put an offer in for a 4000sqft property which needs renovating but is in solid condition.
I doff my cap to you Sir
Mad? Totally, clinically insane would be closer! Much respect to you mate. It looks fantastic. If you were nearer I'd offer to labour for a day just to see it in the flesh.
I've just put an offer in for a 4000sqft property which needs renovating but is in solid condition.
I doff my cap to you Sir
Cheers for the "fantastic" comments, hopefully it will do when it's done. Definitely starting to get there. Spent the day fitting light fittings today and yesterday building wardrobes for the dressing room. Best bit was being able to dismantle the temporary workshop (commonly known as the master bedroom, created because it takes too long to get to and from my main workshop on the ground floor as it's through a hallway, down two flights of stairs, through another hallway and into the work area, it's a 15 min round trip! ) as the last piece of facing went on, and the last major cutting job was completed! So, de-tooled the room and cleaned out ready for painting, wall paper and ply sheeting.
This was my upstairs workshop..
Now, anyone guess what tomorrow's job is?
league67 said:
You did all that, by yourself, in a day?
My wife helped as well, so not strictly all by myself. It's about 40m2, but I did all the prep work last night, so I could get a clean start first thing this morning. First row took the longest, three doorways with angled plinth blocks to cut round and set up the room. Finished by 17.30, although did have 15mins for lunch! Just thresholds to go in now. Once I got past the first world problem or my pillars not being square to the walls ! It was pretty clean sailing..
Griff Boy said:
league67 said:
You did all that, by yourself, in a day?
My wife helped as well, so not strictly all by myself. It's about 40m2, but I did all the prep work last night, so I could get a clean start first thing this morning. First row took the longest, three doorways with angled plinth blocks to cut round and set up the room. Finished by 17.30, although did have 15mins for lunch! Just thresholds to go in now. Once I got past the first world problem or my pillars not being square to the walls ! It was pretty clean sailing..
Do you have target 'move-in' date in mind?
Re painting white woodwork as you have tons to do you may want to look into what paint you use, especially gloss in dark areas.
Since 2o1o*. Pretty much all oil based white glosses are crap and will yellow in no time at all. After much heartache and research the best i could get and still be shiny was Johnston Aqua white it's still as good as the day i painted it which must be getting on for 2+ years.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=117...
Since 2o1o*. Pretty much all oil based white glosses are crap and will yellow in no time at all. After much heartache and research the best i could get and still be shiny was Johnston Aqua white it's still as good as the day i painted it which must be getting on for 2+ years.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=117...
- My Zero key doesn't work anymore...
Edited by 69 coupe on Monday 1st December 02:17
69 coupe said:
Re painting white woodwork as you have tons to do you may want to look into what paint you use, especially gloss in dark areas.
Since 2o1o*. Pretty much all oil based white glosses are crap and will yellow in no time at all. After much heartache and research the best i could get and still be shiny was Johnston Aqua white it's still as good as the day i painted it which must be getting on for 2+ years.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=117...
Cheers for the heads up, I'm using satin for everything at the moment but I'll have a look into it. Since 2o1o*. Pretty much all oil based white glosses are crap and will yellow in no time at all. After much heartache and research the best i could get and still be shiny was Johnston Aqua white it's still as good as the day i painted it which must be getting on for 2+ years.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=117...
- My Zero key doesn't work anymore...
Edited by 69 coupe on Monday 1st December 02:17
Fantastic project, and great running commentary Griff Boy. I'm surprised you've got any time to post the progress, but grateful you do. Taken on a similar project, but much smaller scale (5000sqft) and can fully appreciate what you're going through. Will be fantastic when it's all done though (I keep telling myself the same thing).
2 recommendations and a question if I may?
- You definitely need to check out biomass as a heating option. I've just installed it and while cost was 24k, payback through the RHI scheme is over 8k per year, for 7 years (45KW domestic). An it's cheaper than my previous oil boiler to run as a bonus! Commercial RHI is 20 years, which you may qualify for the size of the place
- Have you considered individual room zoning? Would definitely be worth while I'd have thought, so you get individual control. I've gone for a 'Heat Genius' system but also worth looking at the Honeywell ecohome system. You can control heat levels and timings on each individual rooms, which makes for big savings when you've got so many rooms (kids rooms warm at 7-8pm, master bedroom at 1am etc!!)
- What are you doing about insulating the walls? I saw your original thread before you bought the house asking the questions about lath/plaster and insulation, but what did you end up doing? I'm considering open cell foam injection, behind the lath/plaster (to retain breathability), but wondered what you decided?
Keep up the great work and updates, and I'll continue to watch with interest.
Cheers,
Dave
2 recommendations and a question if I may?
- You definitely need to check out biomass as a heating option. I've just installed it and while cost was 24k, payback through the RHI scheme is over 8k per year, for 7 years (45KW domestic). An it's cheaper than my previous oil boiler to run as a bonus! Commercial RHI is 20 years, which you may qualify for the size of the place
- Have you considered individual room zoning? Would definitely be worth while I'd have thought, so you get individual control. I've gone for a 'Heat Genius' system but also worth looking at the Honeywell ecohome system. You can control heat levels and timings on each individual rooms, which makes for big savings when you've got so many rooms (kids rooms warm at 7-8pm, master bedroom at 1am etc!!)
- What are you doing about insulating the walls? I saw your original thread before you bought the house asking the questions about lath/plaster and insulation, but what did you end up doing? I'm considering open cell foam injection, behind the lath/plaster (to retain breathability), but wondered what you decided?
Keep up the great work and updates, and I'll continue to watch with interest.
Cheers,
Dave
Quick update spent the day doing light fittings, managed to fit 12, then got bored... Just another 20 odd to go!
Did some more work on the kitchen, finished off the low level LED lights, under all the units to give foot lighting and a bit of secondary feature lights. Fitted the dish drawers and plinth, and also fitted the new Panasonic 42" TV and soundbar / sub woofer combi. Starting to look like a finished kitchen, just the fish tank to go now! And some snagging.........:-(
Did some more work on the kitchen, finished off the low level LED lights, under all the units to give foot lighting and a bit of secondary feature lights. Fitted the dish drawers and plinth, and also fitted the new Panasonic 42" TV and soundbar / sub woofer combi. Starting to look like a finished kitchen, just the fish tank to go now! And some snagging.........:-(
kart_man said:
Fantastic project, and great running commentary Griff Boy. I'm surprised you've got any time to post the progress, but grateful you do. Taken on a similar project, but much smaller scale (5000sqft) and can fully appreciate what you're going through. Will be fantastic when it's all done though (I keep telling myself the same thing).
2 recommendations and a question if I may?
- You definitely need to check out biomass as a heating option. I've just installed it and while cost was 24k, payback through the RHI scheme is over 8k per year, for 7 years (45KW domestic). An it's cheaper than my previous oil boiler to run as a bonus! Commercial RHI is 20 years, which you may qualify for the size of the place
- Have you considered individual room zoning? Would definitely be worth while I'd have thought, so you get individual control. I've gone for a 'Heat Genius' system but also worth looking at the Honeywell ecohome system. You can control heat levels and timings on each individual rooms, which makes for big savings when you've got so many rooms (kids rooms warm at 7-8pm, master bedroom at 1am etc!!)
- What are you doing about insulating the walls? I saw your original thread before you bought the house asking the questions about lath/plaster and insulation, but what did you end up doing? I'm considering open cell foam injection, behind the lath/plaster (to retain breathability), but wondered what you decided?
Keep up the great work and updates, and I'll continue to watch with interest.
Cheers,
Dave
Sorry mate, just seen your post! 2 recommendations and a question if I may?
- You definitely need to check out biomass as a heating option. I've just installed it and while cost was 24k, payback through the RHI scheme is over 8k per year, for 7 years (45KW domestic). An it's cheaper than my previous oil boiler to run as a bonus! Commercial RHI is 20 years, which you may qualify for the size of the place
- Have you considered individual room zoning? Would definitely be worth while I'd have thought, so you get individual control. I've gone for a 'Heat Genius' system but also worth looking at the Honeywell ecohome system. You can control heat levels and timings on each individual rooms, which makes for big savings when you've got so many rooms (kids rooms warm at 7-8pm, master bedroom at 1am etc!!)
- What are you doing about insulating the walls? I saw your original thread before you bought the house asking the questions about lath/plaster and insulation, but what did you end up doing? I'm considering open cell foam injection, behind the lath/plaster (to retain breathability), but wondered what you decided?
Keep up the great work and updates, and I'll continue to watch with interest.
Cheers,
Dave
Firstly, thanks for the positive comments, and seriously good luck with your new project!
I've been doing some research into biomass heating, but sounds like I need to do more. Problem is scale, the two current boilers we use supply a total of 88kw, so not sure how viable that is for biomass. Some reading to do!
Ref the heating, all the floors are zoned and thermostatically controlled via a wifi active thermostat. Each rad has TRV's as well. I know the principle of individual room controls, but the heatings already in and finished now, so not much chance of changing it now! Besides with something like 35-40 rooms (not quite sure how many!) it'll have to stay at zoned per floor!
The walls stayed as they were, as almost every option I looked at involved wrecking the walls and losing the cornices, something I wasn't prepared to do. All new walls. And every rebuilt wall has been fully insulated and sheeted in duplex as well. Even today at 2deg and only the first floor heating the whole house was roasting! The new roof insulation goes down on Wednesday as well, which should make a big difference. Making sure the walls breathed properly was important and keeping as many original features was vital!
Try and speak to IIRC Red Leicester about Biomass, think he put something fairly large in!
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=0...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=0...
Megaflow said:
42" telly in the kitchen and it looks completely lost... Kind of puts the rest of the house into scale!
I know what your saying! I had to negotiate with SWMBO to get a 42".in the first place as she reckoned it would look huge! (Current kitchen tv is a 26") Then when I fitted it yesterday the first words out if her mouth were 'good God, it looks tiny! Perhaps we should have gone for a 50" tv!!!!' Arrrgghhhhh! And yes, I did go straight into the richer sounds website.......
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff