Here's my refurb thread
Discussion
Bought a 70s built house last year. Started drawing up plans for a replacement garage and the building control guy warned me at the time that after 40 years houses unfortunately need a lot of work, he wasn't kidding.
Luckily the interior was pretty much good to go. The outside had been neglected though.
It was a complete mess, every corner of it had something growing, hedges, bushes, trees, dead turf, you name it it was growing there.
I got quoted £5k to cut down to stumps, level out with new topsoil and turf. I decided to do it myself because of this and dug out all old turf and took out the stumps using a mattock to hammer through the roots. My total spend was £1k including 2 van hires, pretty good I thought considering almost £500 of that was the 'alledge' edging, weed control membrane and crushed marble border stones.
Here's when I started
Ready to go to the tip
Next I had 13 Tonne topsoil delivered and spread. The house is on a hill so the garden is sloping in both directions so it was levelled out to the best of my ability.
Here was how it looked while I was laying the turf.
And here it was just under two weeks after, approaching it's first cut.
Another small thing I did was replace the porch light, you can probably see why...
old one
New EcoLED replacement, which is very bright. The quality of this item is fantastic.
Next up was fitting Lindab guttering, 75 dia downpipe with 125 rad gutter. I only did one side of the house as the other will have the garage attached eventually.
Old brackets, some kind of weird home made hybrid bracket!
Rafter brackets up, you can see how much of a mess the facias were.
Broke out the concrete around the old downpipe and fitted the lindab one.
With the joiner now onboard things started moving a lot faster. All the old cladding was ripped out aswell as the facias/soffits. The cladding and soffits have been lined in Western Red cedar. Just plain old wood on the facias as they were always going to be painted.
Old stuff coming off
Here's how it stands now.
The facias were painted a RAL anthracite grey colour to match the new front door which is a Hormann TPS700 (waited 8 weeks for it!).
The 3 square pots at beside the front door are grade 304 stainless steel, one of my favourite features!! I deliberately ordered the door shorter so I could fit this grade 304 stainless steel tread below it. I got all 4 items made by a guy I found on ebay for about £300 which I thought was bloody cheap!
So that takes me to today....
I've done a few small jobs since that pic, re-pointed some spalling bricks in the front step, cut back the decking (it was covering a manhole cover, was built by previous owner) and re-clad it in leftover red cedar.
I had a 'roofing company' round today that attempted to fit dry verge. They made an absolute pigs ear of it, ruining 20 out of production tiles by cutting them far too short and then doing a runner after spilling paint all over the inside of my garage. Was absolutely gutted earlier today.
Since then I've had a proper roofer round who seems on the ball. Originally was looking for him to fix new tiles and do the dry verge, now I'm looking to strip everything back to the sarkin boards, new membrane, new tiles etc.
If you've read this far I applaud you!!
Luckily the interior was pretty much good to go. The outside had been neglected though.
It was a complete mess, every corner of it had something growing, hedges, bushes, trees, dead turf, you name it it was growing there.
I got quoted £5k to cut down to stumps, level out with new topsoil and turf. I decided to do it myself because of this and dug out all old turf and took out the stumps using a mattock to hammer through the roots. My total spend was £1k including 2 van hires, pretty good I thought considering almost £500 of that was the 'alledge' edging, weed control membrane and crushed marble border stones.
Here's when I started
Ready to go to the tip
Next I had 13 Tonne topsoil delivered and spread. The house is on a hill so the garden is sloping in both directions so it was levelled out to the best of my ability.
Here was how it looked while I was laying the turf.
And here it was just under two weeks after, approaching it's first cut.
Another small thing I did was replace the porch light, you can probably see why...
old one
New EcoLED replacement, which is very bright. The quality of this item is fantastic.
Next up was fitting Lindab guttering, 75 dia downpipe with 125 rad gutter. I only did one side of the house as the other will have the garage attached eventually.
Old brackets, some kind of weird home made hybrid bracket!
Rafter brackets up, you can see how much of a mess the facias were.
Broke out the concrete around the old downpipe and fitted the lindab one.
With the joiner now onboard things started moving a lot faster. All the old cladding was ripped out aswell as the facias/soffits. The cladding and soffits have been lined in Western Red cedar. Just plain old wood on the facias as they were always going to be painted.
Old stuff coming off
Here's how it stands now.
The facias were painted a RAL anthracite grey colour to match the new front door which is a Hormann TPS700 (waited 8 weeks for it!).
The 3 square pots at beside the front door are grade 304 stainless steel, one of my favourite features!! I deliberately ordered the door shorter so I could fit this grade 304 stainless steel tread below it. I got all 4 items made by a guy I found on ebay for about £300 which I thought was bloody cheap!
So that takes me to today....
I've done a few small jobs since that pic, re-pointed some spalling bricks in the front step, cut back the decking (it was covering a manhole cover, was built by previous owner) and re-clad it in leftover red cedar.
I had a 'roofing company' round today that attempted to fit dry verge. They made an absolute pigs ear of it, ruining 20 out of production tiles by cutting them far too short and then doing a runner after spilling paint all over the inside of my garage. Was absolutely gutted earlier today.
Since then I've had a proper roofer round who seems on the ball. Originally was looking for him to fix new tiles and do the dry verge, now I'm looking to strip everything back to the sarkin boards, new membrane, new tiles etc.
If you've read this far I applaud you!!
Edited by GP335i on Saturday 17th August 00:12
Doh, changed my username about 5 mins after posting incase there's any confusion. Not sure if the original post will update with it.
The guttering is made by a company called Lindab, it's thin wall galvanised steel. The joins have a clamp at the top of them, you feed both ends of the join into it and they're forced into an EPDM seal.
The guttering is made by a company called Lindab, it's thin wall galvanised steel. The joins have a clamp at the top of them, you feed both ends of the join into it and they're forced into an EPDM seal.
Craikeybaby said:
That looks really good! Does it stand out compared to the others on the street?
Yeah it definately stands out, there's not another like it in the street! It'll almost look out of place once the garage goes up and it's been re-rendered haha.That will change though as many of the older people who've lived here all their lives are starting to drop off.
Chr1sch said:
Really really nice, love the cladding, if you dont mind me asking, how much did the cladding on the front cost?
We've just bought a 60@s house covered in UPVC cladding and its awful, this would be a massive improvement!
Sure, the cedar for the cladding and soffits came to about £1200, budget another £50 for a 5kg box of stainless steel nails. The joiner took £2.5k to fit it all but this included new facias all round (supplied by him), tower scaffold hire and fitting the front door. Google silvatimber for the wood, if its got to come any far distance though call up first and tell them to beef up the packaging, I had 3 or 4 deliveries with a lot of damaged boards!We've just bought a 60@s house covered in UPVC cladding and its awful, this would be a massive improvement!
Have to agree on the PVC, although long lasting its not my favourite material.
For me it was the style/colour options to be honest, I couldn't find another door I liked the look of. They are incredibly secure though, there is no external door handle and the hinged side has additional pins preventing it being forced open. The door skin in steel, it's fully insulated and the glass is triple glazed. If you get the chance to see one in the flesh do it, they are in my opinion a bargain for the quality compared to their competitors. Also, they are a bit cheaper if you order the Garador equivalent. They are the exact same, i did this and mine turned up stamped hormann and all the packaging was Hormann.
74merc said:
That is a lovely job! I've been eyeing up 70's houses locally, just for the purpose of doing a conversion such as this. I would paint the render white, although that would probably work best with grey window frames, which would be hard to justify replacing if the frames were sound.
The Render isn't the best tbh, it's dry dash, blowing in places and they've took it down to ground level bridging the DPC. We don't have any problems because of this but it's on the list, looking at doing a wet dash with a fine grit instead of stones so it'll have a bit of texture. Then of course painted white.Next job is a new roof though before winter sets in.
E31Shrew, I'm guessing you meant this website? http://www.backtofrontexteriordesign.com/
It is superb, some great turnarounds on it!
It is superb, some great turnarounds on it!
No probs, glad to help!
Choose my roof tiles a few days ago, went with Marley modern interlocking tiles in smooth grey. The Dry verge I've already purchased is also Marley in grey.
Taking the opportunity to get a couple Marley tile vents put in to re-route my bathroom ventilation, at the moment they exit through a couple of grilles at the Eaves. This will be far neater and it's the last thing to clear from that wall before the garage will be built (I've already re-routed phone, tv cables etc)
Choose my roof tiles a few days ago, went with Marley modern interlocking tiles in smooth grey. The Dry verge I've already purchased is also Marley in grey.
Taking the opportunity to get a couple Marley tile vents put in to re-route my bathroom ventilation, at the moment they exit through a couple of grilles at the Eaves. This will be far neater and it's the last thing to clear from that wall before the garage will be built (I've already re-routed phone, tv cables etc)
So...
Was let down by a roofer after waiting 2 months for them to start the job, I should've took the hint as they were never getting back to me. You live and learn though I guess! Have another chap lined up now to do it and he'll be starting later this week so this little lot got delivered. Taking the whole lot back to the bare sarking boards, replacing any rotten ones, fitting new breathable membrane, re-battoning with counter battons also to allow drainage then fitting the Marley modern smooth tiles with dry verge and dry ridge.
This will be it for the year, my only other job that I want out of the way this year is tidying up the broken render around where the new entrance door was fitted.
I've bottomed out all my tanking details for the garage, now going with a bitumen membrane running through the internal brickwork leaf and up/out the outer leaf. The external leaf will be engineering brick tanked with RIW LAC and also fitted with double drain membrane. It'll drain into a 50mm land drain. Would've preferred a standard 110mm pipe but this is all I have room for. The walls a bit thicker than I'd hoped for (330 minimum, 545 where piered)
Just waiting for a bonus arriving from work then this work can get moving in Spring, happy days!
Was let down by a roofer after waiting 2 months for them to start the job, I should've took the hint as they were never getting back to me. You live and learn though I guess! Have another chap lined up now to do it and he'll be starting later this week so this little lot got delivered. Taking the whole lot back to the bare sarking boards, replacing any rotten ones, fitting new breathable membrane, re-battoning with counter battons also to allow drainage then fitting the Marley modern smooth tiles with dry verge and dry ridge.
This will be it for the year, my only other job that I want out of the way this year is tidying up the broken render around where the new entrance door was fitted.
I've bottomed out all my tanking details for the garage, now going with a bitumen membrane running through the internal brickwork leaf and up/out the outer leaf. The external leaf will be engineering brick tanked with RIW LAC and also fitted with double drain membrane. It'll drain into a 50mm land drain. Would've preferred a standard 110mm pipe but this is all I have room for. The walls a bit thicker than I'd hoped for (330 minimum, 545 where piered)
Just waiting for a bonus arriving from work then this work can get moving in Spring, happy days!
Not while this work's being done but it is on the cards for next year once building control catches up with me!
When my cladding, facias etc were re-done a lot of tiles, ridge caps etc got broken as well as the pointing which was way past its best. When I priced up fitting dry verge, sourcing new (old) tiles and fixing a lot of knackered felt it kind of made more sense to do this. I'm not sure how much truth there is in it but a few people have said the old tiles have a 20-25 year life span, these ones are about 40 years old.
When my garage goes up the plan is to swap out the ridge for a ventilated one, fit over eaves ventilators then insulate (below sarkins with a 50mm air gap) with PIR.
By the way, please let me know if you can see any potential issues with what's happening, a lot of this has been advice from local roofers rather than my own research.
At the moment the roof build up is rafters, sarkin boards, felt, horizontal battens, tiles. There are 4 air bricks feeding into the small lofts at either side of the house.
The new build up would be rafters, sarkin boards, breathable membrane, 12 thick vertical battens, 25 thick horizontal battens, tiles.
Any advice is much appreciated!
Edit: Actually I'm not sure if the 12 thick battens will go above or below the membrane as either way it'll create drainage troughs avoiding dams on the horizontal battens.
When my cladding, facias etc were re-done a lot of tiles, ridge caps etc got broken as well as the pointing which was way past its best. When I priced up fitting dry verge, sourcing new (old) tiles and fixing a lot of knackered felt it kind of made more sense to do this. I'm not sure how much truth there is in it but a few people have said the old tiles have a 20-25 year life span, these ones are about 40 years old.
When my garage goes up the plan is to swap out the ridge for a ventilated one, fit over eaves ventilators then insulate (below sarkins with a 50mm air gap) with PIR.
By the way, please let me know if you can see any potential issues with what's happening, a lot of this has been advice from local roofers rather than my own research.
At the moment the roof build up is rafters, sarkin boards, felt, horizontal battens, tiles. There are 4 air bricks feeding into the small lofts at either side of the house.
The new build up would be rafters, sarkin boards, breathable membrane, 12 thick vertical battens, 25 thick horizontal battens, tiles.
Any advice is much appreciated!
Edit: Actually I'm not sure if the 12 thick battens will go above or below the membrane as either way it'll create drainage troughs avoiding dams on the horizontal battens.
Edited by GP335i on Monday 11th November 22:47
Harry Flashman said:
Advice - get building control involved. If you replace more than 25% of roof covering, they WILL make you insulate properly to regs if you haven't. While this is Ok if you have a "cold roof" I.e are not using loft space as living area, you can get away with loft floor insulation - 270mm of glass mat, or functional equivalent in other material. But if you want to ever use the loft as living space, or do already, you will need a properly insulated roof, and will have to do it then. cheaper to do a proper job while doing the new tiling and battens etc., especially if you intend to convert the loft into living space at some future date. have mind to the correct air gaps needed under the tiles, depending on what kind of membrane you are using...
I did mine with Celotex board and insulated plasterboard, and it is really good. I also insulated the loft floor when I put the floor in, for good measure. Main house now keeps heat so much better than before, and loft itself is toasty as new radiators were plumbed in up there (minor job with floor joists exposed)
Hope that helps! I just went through all this, so have lots of detail if required!
Appreciate the input! The upstairs has always been a couple of bedrooms since it was built and there's 2 small lofts, one at either end of the house. This means it'll be easier and not too much work to do between rafter/under insulation, the shape of the house too means I will barely notice the extra thickness of board either, adding it above for a warm roof would totally mess up the roof appearance as it already has tall facias etc. Building control will be round my way when my garage is going up so I'll bite the bullet and sort out the remainder of work at this time.I did mine with Celotex board and insulated plasterboard, and it is really good. I also insulated the loft floor when I put the floor in, for good measure. Main house now keeps heat so much better than before, and loft itself is toasty as new radiators were plumbed in up there (minor job with floor joists exposed)
Hope that helps! I just went through all this, so have lots of detail if required!
Edited by Harry Flashman on Tuesday 12th November 09:48
Edited by GP335i on Tuesday 12th November 11:20
Sorry I should have mentioned as well that almost all roofs in Scotland are fully clad above the rafters in wooden sarkin woods which makes it a big job to strip and drop in insulation. I believe in England a lot of roofs just have the membrane draped between the trusses which make it far easier to do externally.
So, everything has been a bit quiet lately as I've been trying to decide what to do with the house, whether I extend, or move etc. With property prices here (high!) and solicitors fees etc I've decided against moving as I really like the area I'm in. Here's how it stands at the moment, roof re-tiling and lindab steel guttering were the last jobs.
Here's what I'm planning. I'm a structural cad monkey to trade (oil rigs rather than houses!) so knocked up a proposal to show the wife which she likes.
This will gain me a large garage, toy room/snug behind it, extra (very) large bedroom upstairs above garage, large bathroom to replace the tiny shower room and the landing will be made bigger to make the new room shapes less awkward. The new roof will have a 4m flat section in the middle which you'll never see due to the house position from the road.
A few other internal mods like steel beams to remove some walls and bi-folds at the rear of the house. Just about to start looking for a technician to take it on and hoping to build in spring, with a re-render and new driveway it should look fresh!
Here's what I'm planning. I'm a structural cad monkey to trade (oil rigs rather than houses!) so knocked up a proposal to show the wife which she likes.
This will gain me a large garage, toy room/snug behind it, extra (very) large bedroom upstairs above garage, large bathroom to replace the tiny shower room and the landing will be made bigger to make the new room shapes less awkward. The new roof will have a 4m flat section in the middle which you'll never see due to the house position from the road.
A few other internal mods like steel beams to remove some walls and bi-folds at the rear of the house. Just about to start looking for a technician to take it on and hoping to build in spring, with a re-render and new driveway it should look fresh!
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