Come renovate a 70's terrace with me
Discussion
I'm about a month into living in a 70's terrace that needs plenty of work, including every surface at least painted, multiple wardrobes ripped out, new bathroom, new kitchen (or at least spruced up), new garage door, new carpets throughout and many many more things.
My timing isn't great, rates peaked, instability in the housing market and it's only looking worse. The idea was to flip it and move on, but I may be here longer than I wanted. But I'd lived in an airbnb before this, after being given notice on a rental, so owning again feels so fresh.
Anyway, some shots from one of the viewings.
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/wB6CbxjL[/url]
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/qrV2B74C[/url
]
Initially I'd built up a big list of what needed doing ASAP etc, but after moving from the airbnb and my storage (3 days of hard work), then making some sense of what rooms to keep tidy for initial renovation, I was exhausted, so cancelled my leave and just lived in it for a bit. I had however contacted some trades to get an idea of work that needed to be done and timings. I also had an asbestos survey done, as it was a concern. Strangely they only found it in 1 wardrobe, the original artex still being present with all other ceilings having a different finish. Luckily I wanted to keep the built in wardrobe and just refine it, as it's in the master bedroom.
Firstly was a plasterer, as probably the messiest job, I was fortunate to find someone local who could do 4 days the following week (that being last week). So he decided he could get the whole top floor ceilings done in that time. It seemed a no brainier, so it was booked and I set about tidying the rooms. My initial plan to do the bathroom and bed1 first went out the window, I was attacking the whole 1st floor at once!
On the run up to the plasterer, I came down one morning and smelt gas, I'd whiffed it before, but dismissed it as I'd been living there for 2 weeks without noticing. But 2nd time I decided to call the emergency number and get it capped of before I blew up to death. The boys were over within the hour, pressure tested and found a leak of 16 somethings, so it was condemned. Great, that's hot water and hob out of action, luckily it has a horrible electric shower. I called several gas engineers who all said they'd not be out for weeks, even for an a no gas situ, so I ended up calling a bigger local firm who got someone out the next day to inspect. After some testing it was confirmed to be the steel pipes in the floor, the leak was below the threshold for shutting gas off (there is a gas leak threshold?!), but as I'd called the emergency people it had to stay off until fixed. I also had to find a sparky to come isolate the shower, lights and smoke detector thursday, as I'd forgotten they needed to come off to plaster the ceilings! Luckily a local recommendation paid off and someone turned up the thursday morning (I've been lucky with trades so far!). The gas engineer suggested the old back burner might be in place and badly capped, causing the leak (the smell was from the fire places general direction), so that meant trying to find a gas pipe at 6pm Wednesday evening by ripping the fire out, so I can let them know Thursday about booking Friday as a full day or just a quick capping job. Sadly, after a photo to the engineer, he confirmed it was a coal back burner.
So, a quote was produced to run a new copper pipe out the porch, along the bottom of the house, up the wall into the loft, across to the back of the house, down the back of the house and into the rear where the boiler was. £750... they could do it in 2 days time, if they moved some of the lads about, so that was agreed. Friday came around, my plasterers last day, upon his arrival I announced they were fitting the gas pipe and he wasn't best pleased, as he'd not plaster with them working above. I grovelled, he decided to leave site but said he'll have to come finish it off Sunday, I said of course my mistake and I'd pay both days, but said he'd got other stuff to do and not to worry. I paid him there and then and gave him a bit more to keep the peace. I then had to cancel the sparky who was reconnecting the shower and light that day.
The gas engineers arrived and came up with a banging suggestion to just run it through the floor in the lounge, then behind the cupboards in the kitchen. This saved having any pipe on display, was probably quicker too. I agreed and they set to work making the most noise they possibly could. I helped them clear the lounge to crack on. At one point there were 3 of them either drilling or channelling out the floor with vacuums. But come 3 o'clock and a very neat job had been complete. pipe installed, lagged and covered back (after testing), hot water and hob was back!
I've been showering at the office last weekend and today, sparky was back today wiring the shower back up (it will come back out, but I'm not ready to fit a whole bathroom just yet), and fitting new light and smoke detector after all the plastering. Also, throughout all this time I've been slowly removing the tiles from the bathroom (already tiled on tiles so needed to come out), as well as removing 50 years of paint and wall paper from the main bedroom, luckily the only room with paper! I'm 3 dump runs in and determined to not need a skip, the dump is on route to work and I can unload it in 5 mins as the biggest car I have is a clio...
Started ripping old crap out
Then done some more!
Bed 1 Before
Bed 1 After
Bed 1 stripping
Just some of the plugs I removed in bed1
Humm, what a lovely selection! I pick "skidmark" top right
Bed 2 current state (and living quarters)
Tile on tile in the bathroom
My handy work (wired by sparky)
New lighting
Current state
Discovering fire
Gas lads tidy work
1 slight issue with the gas work, the pipe catches the top draw, so it won't close
Couldn't find my opener, needs must!
To enjoy on the fancy outdoor furniture
My timing isn't great, rates peaked, instability in the housing market and it's only looking worse. The idea was to flip it and move on, but I may be here longer than I wanted. But I'd lived in an airbnb before this, after being given notice on a rental, so owning again feels so fresh.
Anyway, some shots from one of the viewings.
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/wB6CbxjL[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/qrV2B74C[/url]
Initially I'd built up a big list of what needed doing ASAP etc, but after moving from the airbnb and my storage (3 days of hard work), then making some sense of what rooms to keep tidy for initial renovation, I was exhausted, so cancelled my leave and just lived in it for a bit. I had however contacted some trades to get an idea of work that needed to be done and timings. I also had an asbestos survey done, as it was a concern. Strangely they only found it in 1 wardrobe, the original artex still being present with all other ceilings having a different finish. Luckily I wanted to keep the built in wardrobe and just refine it, as it's in the master bedroom.
Firstly was a plasterer, as probably the messiest job, I was fortunate to find someone local who could do 4 days the following week (that being last week). So he decided he could get the whole top floor ceilings done in that time. It seemed a no brainier, so it was booked and I set about tidying the rooms. My initial plan to do the bathroom and bed1 first went out the window, I was attacking the whole 1st floor at once!
On the run up to the plasterer, I came down one morning and smelt gas, I'd whiffed it before, but dismissed it as I'd been living there for 2 weeks without noticing. But 2nd time I decided to call the emergency number and get it capped of before I blew up to death. The boys were over within the hour, pressure tested and found a leak of 16 somethings, so it was condemned. Great, that's hot water and hob out of action, luckily it has a horrible electric shower. I called several gas engineers who all said they'd not be out for weeks, even for an a no gas situ, so I ended up calling a bigger local firm who got someone out the next day to inspect. After some testing it was confirmed to be the steel pipes in the floor, the leak was below the threshold for shutting gas off (there is a gas leak threshold?!), but as I'd called the emergency people it had to stay off until fixed. I also had to find a sparky to come isolate the shower, lights and smoke detector thursday, as I'd forgotten they needed to come off to plaster the ceilings! Luckily a local recommendation paid off and someone turned up the thursday morning (I've been lucky with trades so far!). The gas engineer suggested the old back burner might be in place and badly capped, causing the leak (the smell was from the fire places general direction), so that meant trying to find a gas pipe at 6pm Wednesday evening by ripping the fire out, so I can let them know Thursday about booking Friday as a full day or just a quick capping job. Sadly, after a photo to the engineer, he confirmed it was a coal back burner.
So, a quote was produced to run a new copper pipe out the porch, along the bottom of the house, up the wall into the loft, across to the back of the house, down the back of the house and into the rear where the boiler was. £750... they could do it in 2 days time, if they moved some of the lads about, so that was agreed. Friday came around, my plasterers last day, upon his arrival I announced they were fitting the gas pipe and he wasn't best pleased, as he'd not plaster with them working above. I grovelled, he decided to leave site but said he'll have to come finish it off Sunday, I said of course my mistake and I'd pay both days, but said he'd got other stuff to do and not to worry. I paid him there and then and gave him a bit more to keep the peace. I then had to cancel the sparky who was reconnecting the shower and light that day.
The gas engineers arrived and came up with a banging suggestion to just run it through the floor in the lounge, then behind the cupboards in the kitchen. This saved having any pipe on display, was probably quicker too. I agreed and they set to work making the most noise they possibly could. I helped them clear the lounge to crack on. At one point there were 3 of them either drilling or channelling out the floor with vacuums. But come 3 o'clock and a very neat job had been complete. pipe installed, lagged and covered back (after testing), hot water and hob was back!
I've been showering at the office last weekend and today, sparky was back today wiring the shower back up (it will come back out, but I'm not ready to fit a whole bathroom just yet), and fitting new light and smoke detector after all the plastering. Also, throughout all this time I've been slowly removing the tiles from the bathroom (already tiled on tiles so needed to come out), as well as removing 50 years of paint and wall paper from the main bedroom, luckily the only room with paper! I'm 3 dump runs in and determined to not need a skip, the dump is on route to work and I can unload it in 5 mins as the biggest car I have is a clio...
Started ripping old crap out
Then done some more!
Bed 1 Before
Bed 1 After
Bed 1 stripping
Just some of the plugs I removed in bed1
Humm, what a lovely selection! I pick "skidmark" top right
Bed 2 current state (and living quarters)
Tile on tile in the bathroom
My handy work (wired by sparky)
New lighting
Current state
Discovering fire
Gas lads tidy work
1 slight issue with the gas work, the pipe catches the top draw, so it won't close
Couldn't find my opener, needs must!
To enjoy on the fancy outdoor furniture
To add, some randoms. It really was grotty when I moved in.
I gave up in the end and bought a new one
On moving day I managed to get a 2nd hand washing machine, but it was also grubby. It took a few cycles at 90 with cleaning stuff, along with scrubbing the seals and this:
Manky shower seal
Loads more has happened, I've just rushed this, will keep posting updates as and when.
I gave up in the end and bought a new one
On moving day I managed to get a 2nd hand washing machine, but it was also grubby. It took a few cycles at 90 with cleaning stuff, along with scrubbing the seals and this:
Manky shower seal
Loads more has happened, I've just rushed this, will keep posting updates as and when.
Edited by illmonkey on Monday 3rd July 17:34
wolfracesonic said:
Knipex bottle opener?
If they don't, they should. And give me royalties!Jaska said:
I thought this was actually an open invitation to join you and help, like everyone wants to do for the bloke in the other thread 
but good work here!
You're welcome along but good work here! 
I have a long list of jobsalfabeat said:
That's a nice project! Any pics of the outside of the house?
It's quite sad looking at the photos of the two chairs side by side - two old dears, married forever, moving on "somewhere".
Keep us updated!
Won't post pics of outside, soz.It's quite sad looking at the photos of the two chairs side by side - two old dears, married forever, moving on "somewhere".
Keep us updated!
It was a probate house, but just the old dear was left, but I'm sure it was the 2 of them into old age. Some of the bodges make me a bit sad though, it's clearly been a 'patch until she croaks' attitude, for example, the tape to hold the shower head up, my much more robust screw in the post is cutting edge in comparison! On that, the shower leaked so badly barely any water came out the head, how she cleaned herself I don't know.
|https://thumbsnap.com/rzPtSyZf[/url]All trades are done for now, whilst I move it along, problem is, I sit down to think of order to do it and my mind covers so much stuff, I struggle to figure out what next. I know the ceilings all need a few coats, and that something I can do in the odd hour after work, so I may just crack on with that this week. Saving the bigger job of the bathroom rip out for the weekend. [url]
I'm a project manager by trade and have used Microsoft Project to help me plan out my home renovations.
Like you say, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to think of every aspect of the project and what order to do it in.
With Microsoft Project, you just have to jot down all of the tasks you can think of. Then spend a bit of time putting in them in some sort of logical order, assign some trades and durations to the tasks and hey presto, you have a programme of works. It doesn't have to be spot on, it's just to give you an idea of what lies ahead in an easy to read format.
Good luck with the build, bookmarked!
Like you say, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to think of every aspect of the project and what order to do it in.
With Microsoft Project, you just have to jot down all of the tasks you can think of. Then spend a bit of time putting in them in some sort of logical order, assign some trades and durations to the tasks and hey presto, you have a programme of works. It doesn't have to be spot on, it's just to give you an idea of what lies ahead in an easy to read format.
Good luck with the build, bookmarked!
Pea storage has significantly grown, I’m buying the biggest bags (known to man) you can get, exciting times.
Project is a good shout! I may do that, at least start with just listening everything. Problem I am facing is I seem to be doing the whole top floor at once, so having to dart about trying to get enough stuff to do all ceilings for example.
Anyway, not one to break tradition… let me enjoy this with an update.
The ceiling were annoying me, so decided to get the mist coat on. As I said, I’ll be doing all 3 rooms, bathroom and landing in 1 hit, so I got my supplies together during the week and cracked on this morn.
Managed to get all ceilings done in good time, next up was more tiles off bathroom (I stopped before as it was getting late there are kids next door). The brilliant thing about everything needing to be replaced is you don’t need to put dust sheets down. Walked it on the carpet too!
Unless you manage to snag your new pine curtain pole
Managed to get all the tiles off apart from the ones that have to stay for a bit, shower and behind rad. Tidied up the walls, the old grout just flies off with my handy scraper, oh, that flies off too… luckily I have a long handled magnet that I just about managed to get it with. Yes, you can see where a tile has flown out and cracked the conservatory roof
Decided to see what I was faced with under the boxing and it all looks sound.
Trying my hand as plastering, this is ‘one coat’, but I imagine I’ll need to polyfilla it and smooth back. Still, cheaper and can be mixed en mass.
I had decided that the walls were hard to gauge where it needed filling, so gave it a quick coat all over. It won’t stay white, but I had a massive tub of it and a roller ready, so just went for it. This allowed me to see the areas that’ll need filling or sanding better.
Also tried to level off some of the missing plaster in the bathroom. Rough is better when tiling, at least that’s my excuse!
These where clean this morning, excuse the blood
One other injury, but graphic so spoilers
And that’s today. Good progress, but not touched the sides! At one point it felt like bed1 was getting there as I was painting the walls, but there is a tiny bit of old gloss on the walls to go, then to do up the wardrobe, pick a paint colour, paint, carpet etc
Project is a good shout! I may do that, at least start with just listening everything. Problem I am facing is I seem to be doing the whole top floor at once, so having to dart about trying to get enough stuff to do all ceilings for example.
Anyway, not one to break tradition… let me enjoy this with an update.
The ceiling were annoying me, so decided to get the mist coat on. As I said, I’ll be doing all 3 rooms, bathroom and landing in 1 hit, so I got my supplies together during the week and cracked on this morn.
Managed to get all ceilings done in good time, next up was more tiles off bathroom (I stopped before as it was getting late there are kids next door). The brilliant thing about everything needing to be replaced is you don’t need to put dust sheets down. Walked it on the carpet too!
Unless you manage to snag your new pine curtain pole
Managed to get all the tiles off apart from the ones that have to stay for a bit, shower and behind rad. Tidied up the walls, the old grout just flies off with my handy scraper, oh, that flies off too… luckily I have a long handled magnet that I just about managed to get it with. Yes, you can see where a tile has flown out and cracked the conservatory roof
Decided to see what I was faced with under the boxing and it all looks sound.
Trying my hand as plastering, this is ‘one coat’, but I imagine I’ll need to polyfilla it and smooth back. Still, cheaper and can be mixed en mass.
I had decided that the walls were hard to gauge where it needed filling, so gave it a quick coat all over. It won’t stay white, but I had a massive tub of it and a roller ready, so just went for it. This allowed me to see the areas that’ll need filling or sanding better.
Also tried to level off some of the missing plaster in the bathroom. Rough is better when tiling, at least that’s my excuse!
These where clean this morning, excuse the blood
One other injury, but graphic so spoilers
And that’s today. Good progress, but not touched the sides! At one point it felt like bed1 was getting there as I was painting the walls, but there is a tiny bit of old gloss on the walls to go, then to do up the wardrobe, pick a paint colour, paint, carpet etc
Edited by illmonkey on Saturday 8th July 18:57
illmonkey said:
mickk said:
I've got all this to look forward to soon, watching your progress with interest.
Go on…All double glazing needs replacing.
All internal doors and skirting.
Rewiring
Re plumbing heating and water
All new rads.
New kitchen
New bathroom
New guttering and soffits
It still has polystyrene tiles on the ceilings with wood chip underneath so all new ceilings.
All walls need plastering
I won't mention the gardens.
Anyway good luck with yours you can make all the mistakes which I'll learn from.
Problem with these threads is you lose track of everything you've done!
Bathroom is still the same, I need to commit to it, order the suite and tiles, be in for delivery then go without a shower and toilet for a few days. Finding time is an issue. I have used some anti-mould paint on the ceiling though.
So, I've spent the last 2 weekend working on smaller stuff, I'm also super eager to get my bedroom sorted. As there was asbestos in the wardrobe, I'd decided to leave the frame and just redo it. Also will replace those nasty doors and new clothes rails etc. I used some Zinsser BIN, which is a sealing paint, on the asbestos for my own piece of mind, then built it all up. Wickes only had 15mm melamine for the shelves, it's a bit bendy (the photo with the laser level shows how much, given it's perfectly level, there is about 8mm droop!).
I also had my first issue with my laser measure, I'd been using it but doing a sanity check for a few things and it was going well. Measuring the clothes rails, it only needs to be a rough measure so just measured and cut. Turns out it's 10cm too short. So I remeasured and it was the same (mine has a history so can check). Measured elsewhere and it tally's with the tape measure, went back, measured a different part and got the actual measurement. Clearly something throwing it, although the laser dot was clear of anything. So now I don't trust it...
I'd also been trying to fill all the holes/repair work/gouges from removing the lining paper in the room. I painted it quickly so it was easier to identify and concentrated on 1 area. I filled, sanded and painted it twice and it's still not perfect and took hours, and this was just on a 1m wide bit. So I thought I'd just ask my plasterer how much to do the whole room. I was pleasantly surprised, so need to book him in to do it. It'd take me days and it'd still be crap if I persevered. Some shots to show just how much filling.
As the bedroom was taking shape, I decided to tackle the windows. The silicone was black with mould, the glass and frames were in a similar state. I removed all the silicone and cleaned the windows, it wasn't pleasant! It's also allowed me to paint right up to the frame, then I will silicone them back and have a really nice finish.
Come up ok though
I've started on the banisters too, mainly they are also revolting too. Yes, this is DIRT, it's worse than this else where too.
Over time the paint has worn through the 4 layers of paint to some horrible black undercoat, so the banisters needed stripping. Luckily the spindles will just need a sand and a few coats.
Sure there are loads of other little bits, if I remember I'll post up.
OH, no royalty checks from Knipex, so I've dug out a real bottle opener too
Bathroom is still the same, I need to commit to it, order the suite and tiles, be in for delivery then go without a shower and toilet for a few days. Finding time is an issue. I have used some anti-mould paint on the ceiling though.
So, I've spent the last 2 weekend working on smaller stuff, I'm also super eager to get my bedroom sorted. As there was asbestos in the wardrobe, I'd decided to leave the frame and just redo it. Also will replace those nasty doors and new clothes rails etc. I used some Zinsser BIN, which is a sealing paint, on the asbestos for my own piece of mind, then built it all up. Wickes only had 15mm melamine for the shelves, it's a bit bendy (the photo with the laser level shows how much, given it's perfectly level, there is about 8mm droop!).
I also had my first issue with my laser measure, I'd been using it but doing a sanity check for a few things and it was going well. Measuring the clothes rails, it only needs to be a rough measure so just measured and cut. Turns out it's 10cm too short. So I remeasured and it was the same (mine has a history so can check). Measured elsewhere and it tally's with the tape measure, went back, measured a different part and got the actual measurement. Clearly something throwing it, although the laser dot was clear of anything. So now I don't trust it...
I'd also been trying to fill all the holes/repair work/gouges from removing the lining paper in the room. I painted it quickly so it was easier to identify and concentrated on 1 area. I filled, sanded and painted it twice and it's still not perfect and took hours, and this was just on a 1m wide bit. So I thought I'd just ask my plasterer how much to do the whole room. I was pleasantly surprised, so need to book him in to do it. It'd take me days and it'd still be crap if I persevered. Some shots to show just how much filling.
As the bedroom was taking shape, I decided to tackle the windows. The silicone was black with mould, the glass and frames were in a similar state. I removed all the silicone and cleaned the windows, it wasn't pleasant! It's also allowed me to paint right up to the frame, then I will silicone them back and have a really nice finish.
Come up ok though
I've started on the banisters too, mainly they are also revolting too. Yes, this is DIRT, it's worse than this else where too.
Over time the paint has worn through the 4 layers of paint to some horrible black undercoat, so the banisters needed stripping. Luckily the spindles will just need a sand and a few coats.
Sure there are loads of other little bits, if I remember I'll post up.
OH, no royalty checks from Knipex, so I've dug out a real bottle opener too
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