Our build thread, renovation and extension
Discussion
I thought you guys might be interested to follow a little project I've taken on.
It's our first house and it needs a little work, to say the least.
It was purchased by the previous owner in 1964 and virtually no maintenance or building work was carried out during her ownership up until January.
So far we have been busy with demolition and clearing all manner of things, including an entire van full of scrap metal, with probably at least another van left to go. It had no heating other than one gas fire and the electrics were absolutely lethal and disconnected on day 1. Other than that, the structure is very solid, by all accounts it was built in 1928 by excellent tradesmen.
Despite appearing quite large it is actually fairly shallow and is by far the smallest house on the road, pretty much all of the other houses are large 5+ bed detached.
Our plan is to extend it rearwards, across the full with by 6 meters, two storeys. We will also have a double or possibly triple garage with a lift at the bottom of the garden. We have already met with our architect and sketched out what we want, we should be getting the first draft of plans back from him tomorrow hopefully. There will be 5 double bedrooms two as ensuites. The master bedroom looks pretty large on the plans and comprises a self contained suite with its own bathroom and walk in wardrobe. The spec will be relatively high but not silly,
In terms of the work, we will be doing most of it ourselves, apart from some of the groundworks, the bricklaying, the roof and the plaster skim coat. At the moment I think we are reasonably comfortable with everything else. Hopefully planning permission will come through before Easter to allow us to get it watertight this year, although over overall target is to be finished in 2 years. I may take a break from work once it starts until September to spend more time on it, as from September my work life will get a lot more busy, with some big hours.
We do however have quite a few useful people within the family and my Dad will be spending a lot of time on this once he retires.
It doesn't really seem too daunting at the moment. We have a budget in mind, which I'm going to keep to myself for the moment, as no doubt many will say it can't be done or it's not enough, but our architect seems to think it's feasible. I suppose the sky is the limit really, our neighbours house is being refurbed at the moment and the same builders did the house next to that last year. The amount spent on that one could have bought our house a few times over!
So here it is at the moment:
A full gallery of 63 images can be found here (you do not need to be a Facebook member)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101512275...
It's our first house and it needs a little work, to say the least.
It was purchased by the previous owner in 1964 and virtually no maintenance or building work was carried out during her ownership up until January.
So far we have been busy with demolition and clearing all manner of things, including an entire van full of scrap metal, with probably at least another van left to go. It had no heating other than one gas fire and the electrics were absolutely lethal and disconnected on day 1. Other than that, the structure is very solid, by all accounts it was built in 1928 by excellent tradesmen.
Despite appearing quite large it is actually fairly shallow and is by far the smallest house on the road, pretty much all of the other houses are large 5+ bed detached.
Our plan is to extend it rearwards, across the full with by 6 meters, two storeys. We will also have a double or possibly triple garage with a lift at the bottom of the garden. We have already met with our architect and sketched out what we want, we should be getting the first draft of plans back from him tomorrow hopefully. There will be 5 double bedrooms two as ensuites. The master bedroom looks pretty large on the plans and comprises a self contained suite with its own bathroom and walk in wardrobe. The spec will be relatively high but not silly,
In terms of the work, we will be doing most of it ourselves, apart from some of the groundworks, the bricklaying, the roof and the plaster skim coat. At the moment I think we are reasonably comfortable with everything else. Hopefully planning permission will come through before Easter to allow us to get it watertight this year, although over overall target is to be finished in 2 years. I may take a break from work once it starts until September to spend more time on it, as from September my work life will get a lot more busy, with some big hours.
We do however have quite a few useful people within the family and my Dad will be spending a lot of time on this once he retires.
It doesn't really seem too daunting at the moment. We have a budget in mind, which I'm going to keep to myself for the moment, as no doubt many will say it can't be done or it's not enough, but our architect seems to think it's feasible. I suppose the sky is the limit really, our neighbours house is being refurbed at the moment and the same builders did the house next to that last year. The amount spent on that one could have bought our house a few times over!
So here it is at the moment:
A full gallery of 63 images can be found here (you do not need to be a Facebook member)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101512275...
I assume it is to resist twisting of the joists over a long span, but I'll do some research. There is minimal bounce in the floors but I think I will beef that up slightly anyway.
Edit: it's just an alternative to solid cross bracing.
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/floor-joist-cross...
Edit: it's just an alternative to solid cross bracing.
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/floor-joist-cross...
Edited by Muncher on Monday 30th January 09:20
More work on it today, all of the ceilings are now down. It's a satisfying job ripping down all the lathe and plaster but you get absolutely caked in 84 years worth of black dust and debris, most of it seemed to go up my nose and in my eyes today!
Also took out some leftover electrics which had been chased into the wall. My new Makita SDS drill is fantastic for that! The plan for tomorrow is to take out the pantry in the kitchen and try to clear some rubble and one or two carpets.
It's getting to that awkward stage where there probably isn't too much demolition left to do, or at least you have to think about what needs to come out.
I'm debating whether to rip the door liners out now, any thoughts on this? A couple are odd sizes and once the walls are plastered they will no longer sit flush with the existing ones. Plus we will almost certainly be going with bare wood architraves, skirting and doors. Safe to take them out now?
It's also starting to dawn on me just how much stuff I have to choose and buy, I mean there are probably going to be over 70 lights alone in the house, that is a lot to choose and buy! I suppose it will get easier once we have a plan to work from...
I'll post some new photos tomorrow
Also took out some leftover electrics which had been chased into the wall. My new Makita SDS drill is fantastic for that! The plan for tomorrow is to take out the pantry in the kitchen and try to clear some rubble and one or two carpets.
It's getting to that awkward stage where there probably isn't too much demolition left to do, or at least you have to think about what needs to come out.
I'm debating whether to rip the door liners out now, any thoughts on this? A couple are odd sizes and once the walls are plastered they will no longer sit flush with the existing ones. Plus we will almost certainly be going with bare wood architraves, skirting and doors. Safe to take them out now?
It's also starting to dawn on me just how much stuff I have to choose and buy, I mean there are probably going to be over 70 lights alone in the house, that is a lot to choose and buy! I suppose it will get easier once we have a plan to work from...
I'll post some new photos tomorrow
Hopefully not, the rear will be flush. The roof will be two hips with a valley in the middle of them. In theory the front half will remain but be stripped and retiled with the same tiles. We were actually wondering just how many of the existing roof timbers will remain, probably only a few. So effectively it will be 75% new I think.
Some from this week:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101512600...
All the ceilings are down now, all of the electrical cable is out including the bits chased into the walls and the pantry is half demolished.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101512600...
All the ceilings are down now, all of the electrical cable is out including the bits chased into the walls and the pantry is half demolished.
ad551 said:
Wow looks like a great project, good luck with it.
What a shame to see that kitchen wallpaper go.
I was left with a rotting suitcase of spare rolls of all the wallpaper in the house, just in case I wanted to refresh it What a shame to see that kitchen wallpaper go.
It's 0.22 acres according to the estate agent's blurb.
I only have these rough ideas at the moment, I should have something from the architect any time now.
Does anyone have an idea as to how I can increase headroom at the bottom of the stairs? At the moment there is a joist which runs right across where I need more headroom. The doorway to the right is going to go, the lintel is being taken out to make that a hall rather than a doorway. Obviously it's a question for the structural engineer but we haven't got that far yet.
A few pics from last weekend.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101512897...
I spent more time pulling pipes out, removing the bathroom (the bath is massively heavy, no idea how that is going down the stairs!) and a lot of time removing the rubble from the ceilings.
I think I will probably have to remove all the plaster from the walls that are remaining. It's solid in a lot of places but when it does come off in areas we have disturbed it seems to come off in great big chunks
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101512897...
I spent more time pulling pipes out, removing the bathroom (the bath is massively heavy, no idea how that is going down the stairs!) and a lot of time removing the rubble from the ceilings.
I think I will probably have to remove all the plaster from the walls that are remaining. It's solid in a lot of places but when it does come off in areas we have disturbed it seems to come off in great big chunks
We're thinking about the kitchen but at the moment favouring it at the front. When I cremate stuff I don't want the smell through the whole house if I can help it.
The front two bedrooms will have a jack and Jill ensuite with a door either side. At the moment we are planning on having a few sun pipes around the central landing area to introduce more light.
I've had a play around with sketch up but have been waiting until now to make a model. We are going to get the kitchen designed first and then place the windows and doors after to suit.
The front two bedrooms will have a jack and Jill ensuite with a door either side. At the moment we are planning on having a few sun pipes around the central landing area to introduce more light.
I've had a play around with sketch up but have been waiting until now to make a model. We are going to get the kitchen designed first and then place the windows and doors after to suit.
New pics: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101513158...
Did a lot of tidying up today, cleared 3 rooms of carpets and a lot of plaster from the ceilings. Also finished off removing the pantry.
There will be a little sink embedded there for the ensuite for the front two bedrooms.
Did a lot of tidying up today, cleared 3 rooms of carpets and a lot of plaster from the ceilings. Also finished off removing the pantry.
There will be a little sink embedded there for the ensuite for the front two bedrooms.
Yep, under the stairs labelled as cloaks.
I think we might alter the layout of the walk in wardrobe to have no door to the ensuite, with that having a door to the bedroom directly. I'm not sure it is big enough if each rail needs to be 650mm deep. That just gives a 700mm gap in between, is that enough?
I think we might alter the layout of the walk in wardrobe to have no door to the ensuite, with that having a door to the bedroom directly. I'm not sure it is big enough if each rail needs to be 650mm deep. That just gives a 700mm gap in between, is that enough?
Upstairs we are thinking that the main bathroom and the walk in wardrobe are too small. It seems standard wardrobes are 600-650mm deep which may not give us enough room in there.
So we have been toying with the idea of going with what we originally thought of, 5 bedrooms but one of the normal sized bedrooms adjacent to the master with an extra door and kitted out as a wardrobe. I think for the foreseeable future 3 "spare" bedrooms would be more than enough and we would probably benefit more from the larger bathrooms and possibly a slightly larger upstairs landing, which I guess would save the hassle of moving the stairs.
Like this:
Thoughts?
So we have been toying with the idea of going with what we originally thought of, 5 bedrooms but one of the normal sized bedrooms adjacent to the master with an extra door and kitted out as a wardrobe. I think for the foreseeable future 3 "spare" bedrooms would be more than enough and we would probably benefit more from the larger bathrooms and possibly a slightly larger upstairs landing, which I guess would save the hassle of moving the stairs.
Like this:
Thoughts?
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