Come renovate a 70's terrace with me
Discussion
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Yea, thought about that. The clothes rails will offer some under support too. I'm not overly fussed, they won't carry much weight, maybe some socks etc. Took me ages to figure out what happened to my thumb! It's my ring finger. Healed nicely once I started liquid plastering it, otherwise it was getting full of crud
Tyrell Corp said:
What is the IP rating of your bathroom lamp fitting -might want to check that.
IP44 - It's fit for bathrooms, the photos just show it without it's cover. Should really put it back up...Hope the bathroom goes easier than mine… also 70s. Double skinned with tiles in places but not others. Got the tiles off left a load of plaster. Started chipping the plaster off and the render fell off in great chunks. Decided to remove all the render as well, been a messy job. Ready to tile now hopefully. Hope the tiler can work some magic as not a straight line in sight.
This is going to be a big one, so strap in! It may get a bit messy as I remember details, but will try to be chronological.
We left Bed1 heading toward completion with the walls fairly smooth and a wardrobe fairly finished. Picking up there, I had ordered the sliding warbrobe doors from the same manufacturer, as the aperture was perfect for them. Not ideal, I wanted wooden hinged doors, but that would be a lot more work. I'd also decided to rehang the door into the bedroom, it was the wrong way and annoyed me EVERY time I went in. It meant I had to also move the light switch annoyingly.
Painting the door
Rehung, the CORRECT way
filling old hinge gaps
Doors waiting in the lounge
So many left overs from previous renovations
Deciding on paint, I wanted grey (I know!), but real subtle, these were too much grey.
Fitting the wardrobe
Skirting was all removed and replaced. Some pieces were missing and I couldn't find the same profile, I cut my loses (and had carpet fitting booked in, and get new stuff). Expanding foam is all the rage to fit this now, but you need to hold it in place for 20 mins to set (and not expand too much), but my tins of paint were no good. So I took a well earned rest.
Jumping forward a few steps, I think I was so eager to get living in it, I didn't stop for photos.
And in. All bits from old houses, in the process of replacing it, but I had a finished(ish) bedroom!
Moving forward, I was super keen to get the garage operational for 2 reasons, to get my 2002 off my mates drive, and more importantly, so I could use it!
I must have measured for the garage roller door 20 times. There is a several lintels across the top, so it was making sure it'd sit with enough space to hold it up. I'd decided the best method was to fit the door with the blocked up entry, THEN knock the wall out. This was in case there any snags and I didn't want all my tools nicked from an open garage. In the end I ordered a self fit electric roller jobby from one of the cheap online outfits and I'm very pleased with it. Only took us an hour or so to fit. But it needed some more work.
The roller has a locking system at the top, when it's fully deployed. They give you more length than you need (ohhh errr!), sometimes it works out, sometimes a slat needs removing. I emailed them a photo and they said a slat needed removing. I had planned on removing the wall the next day, so wanted to do the slat removal that evening, on my own. To remove a simple slat, you must basically take it apart again, remove the 'door' from the runners, wrap it up as it's deployed, remove the brackets holding it in to the mechanism, then simply slide a slat out.
I done that, on my own. It almost killed me. Anyho, fitting was worse, as I had to hold it in place, whilst reattaching said brackets with a screwdriver. you then wind the door onto the mechanism, whilst ensuring all the slats are linked and aligned. Feed it back into the guides, then roll it down to test. Simple really...
At this point, it worked, albeit winding manually, so I was happy to knock the wall out. Add this to the list of "stuff that almost killed Illmonkey". Whoever their bricky was, was bloody good. In the end I would drill circa 50 8mm SDS holes around a brick on the 2nd from top course, to then smash it to bits with a sledge. Repeat on the next one. Then the top course would come out with a few hits. The lower stuff just got pushed over.
And it's in!
At this point, I thought I was too far into the project to get skips, I'd done many dump runs in the trusty clio. So these incredibly heavy breeze blocks should be dealt with in the same method. 4 runs dispatched them in the end. But I was happy to just take a little drive out to get rid of them at the end of a few days. A fair bit of tinkering with electrics to get the motor working, with the alarm and fob etc. But it's all good now, and lovely to drive up and press the buzzer to see it open.
I do need to 'finish' the opening surround, it's just edge of the remaining bricks. But anything like this has been left to one side whilst I take on bigger stuff, to get rooms progressed.
I say this is in chronological order, each bit is, but I was doing the bathroom and garage at the same time, that also overlapped the bedroom.
The bathroom was always going to be the biggest job, removal, suite, tiling, plumbing, floor etc. I got it all down to a point of a toilet, tiles off, shower gone etc. During this phase, I would pop to a sport centre 10 mins down the road for a post building shower, or use the shower at work on week days. The sport centre was not a nice place to shower
Just a disgusting mess of pipes and stale piss basically. it stank. Pipe work was replaced. Wood was sealed.
It really was unpleasant in here.
so long sucker!
Under the built up shower, good strong frame and just exposed brick, not an issue as I was to fit a bath.
The big day, losing the s
tter
I realised I could just put the new one in place, removing it when I needed to get behind it. Add a special flush pipe and we're golden.
Chasing in pipes for shower on wall
Sparky removed the electric shower. (this crops up in bed3 later)
Plumbing the bath in, you find yourself in some strange positions. Had to chuckle and take a shot whilst plumbing the bath in.
Ahhh, so relaxing, the environment really is done so well. 10 points if you spot my mistake
No, it's not the overflow.... overflowing.
Test run of my plumbing.
Lets get tiling!
The toilet waste is in old money, so had to find a special bit to convert it. It leaked the tiniest bit for a week and stopped.
Painting the frame
Fitting the rad. Pipes were slightly to close to the wall, so needed convincing.
Cistern rubber was neigh on impossible to compress, I had very little space to move about. I tried to get an other but nothing fit/worked. So just had to go to town on this one
There is a gap, but thats normal-ish
Previous butchers leaving a pretty shocking hinge gap. I found identical hinges online, albeit in stainless steel, so it would be easy. But look at this mess.
Filled, plained and rehung (it did get painted)
Half the suite back off to get some floor down. 6mm ply (sealed) subfloor.
Fin. Minus a few bits (bath panel for 1)
I must explain something. Here is the floor plan with a very well drawn out diagram of the water feed.The light blue is under floor boards. The dark blue is at ceiling level. The pipe ran vertically from the floor into the loft (which was capped), then a T at the ceiling to run across to the old shower in the far corner. (in this photo you see the pipe with the T to the shower. The old header tank was obviously in the loft, so this was the feed. But with the combi fitted, header tank removed and the flow reverse from the kitchen (below bed2).
The photo below shows you my mistake. On the right you can see the cut pipe, which is the red mark on the floor plan. Some idiot had decided not to take a pipe in the bathroom direct to the sink, but to run it into the bedroom first. Basically that cut disconnect the water from the bathroom.
This takes us up to about a month ago. I will post more later (after lunch!)
We left Bed1 heading toward completion with the walls fairly smooth and a wardrobe fairly finished. Picking up there, I had ordered the sliding warbrobe doors from the same manufacturer, as the aperture was perfect for them. Not ideal, I wanted wooden hinged doors, but that would be a lot more work. I'd also decided to rehang the door into the bedroom, it was the wrong way and annoyed me EVERY time I went in. It meant I had to also move the light switch annoyingly.
Painting the door
Rehung, the CORRECT way
filling old hinge gaps
Doors waiting in the lounge
So many left overs from previous renovations
Deciding on paint, I wanted grey (I know!), but real subtle, these were too much grey.
Fitting the wardrobe
Skirting was all removed and replaced. Some pieces were missing and I couldn't find the same profile, I cut my loses (and had carpet fitting booked in, and get new stuff). Expanding foam is all the rage to fit this now, but you need to hold it in place for 20 mins to set (and not expand too much), but my tins of paint were no good. So I took a well earned rest.
Jumping forward a few steps, I think I was so eager to get living in it, I didn't stop for photos.
And in. All bits from old houses, in the process of replacing it, but I had a finished(ish) bedroom!
Moving forward, I was super keen to get the garage operational for 2 reasons, to get my 2002 off my mates drive, and more importantly, so I could use it!
I must have measured for the garage roller door 20 times. There is a several lintels across the top, so it was making sure it'd sit with enough space to hold it up. I'd decided the best method was to fit the door with the blocked up entry, THEN knock the wall out. This was in case there any snags and I didn't want all my tools nicked from an open garage. In the end I ordered a self fit electric roller jobby from one of the cheap online outfits and I'm very pleased with it. Only took us an hour or so to fit. But it needed some more work.
The roller has a locking system at the top, when it's fully deployed. They give you more length than you need (ohhh errr!), sometimes it works out, sometimes a slat needs removing. I emailed them a photo and they said a slat needed removing. I had planned on removing the wall the next day, so wanted to do the slat removal that evening, on my own. To remove a simple slat, you must basically take it apart again, remove the 'door' from the runners, wrap it up as it's deployed, remove the brackets holding it in to the mechanism, then simply slide a slat out.
I done that, on my own. It almost killed me. Anyho, fitting was worse, as I had to hold it in place, whilst reattaching said brackets with a screwdriver. you then wind the door onto the mechanism, whilst ensuring all the slats are linked and aligned. Feed it back into the guides, then roll it down to test. Simple really...
At this point, it worked, albeit winding manually, so I was happy to knock the wall out. Add this to the list of "stuff that almost killed Illmonkey". Whoever their bricky was, was bloody good. In the end I would drill circa 50 8mm SDS holes around a brick on the 2nd from top course, to then smash it to bits with a sledge. Repeat on the next one. Then the top course would come out with a few hits. The lower stuff just got pushed over.
And it's in!
At this point, I thought I was too far into the project to get skips, I'd done many dump runs in the trusty clio. So these incredibly heavy breeze blocks should be dealt with in the same method. 4 runs dispatched them in the end. But I was happy to just take a little drive out to get rid of them at the end of a few days. A fair bit of tinkering with electrics to get the motor working, with the alarm and fob etc. But it's all good now, and lovely to drive up and press the buzzer to see it open.
I do need to 'finish' the opening surround, it's just edge of the remaining bricks. But anything like this has been left to one side whilst I take on bigger stuff, to get rooms progressed.
I say this is in chronological order, each bit is, but I was doing the bathroom and garage at the same time, that also overlapped the bedroom.
The bathroom was always going to be the biggest job, removal, suite, tiling, plumbing, floor etc. I got it all down to a point of a toilet, tiles off, shower gone etc. During this phase, I would pop to a sport centre 10 mins down the road for a post building shower, or use the shower at work on week days. The sport centre was not a nice place to shower
Just a disgusting mess of pipes and stale piss basically. it stank. Pipe work was replaced. Wood was sealed.
It really was unpleasant in here.
so long sucker!
Under the built up shower, good strong frame and just exposed brick, not an issue as I was to fit a bath.
The big day, losing the s
tterI realised I could just put the new one in place, removing it when I needed to get behind it. Add a special flush pipe and we're golden.
Chasing in pipes for shower on wall
Sparky removed the electric shower. (this crops up in bed3 later)
Plumbing the bath in, you find yourself in some strange positions. Had to chuckle and take a shot whilst plumbing the bath in.
Ahhh, so relaxing, the environment really is done so well. 10 points if you spot my mistake
No, it's not the overflow.... overflowing.
Test run of my plumbing.
Lets get tiling!
The toilet waste is in old money, so had to find a special bit to convert it. It leaked the tiniest bit for a week and stopped.
Painting the frame
Fitting the rad. Pipes were slightly to close to the wall, so needed convincing.
Cistern rubber was neigh on impossible to compress, I had very little space to move about. I tried to get an other but nothing fit/worked. So just had to go to town on this one
There is a gap, but thats normal-ish
Previous butchers leaving a pretty shocking hinge gap. I found identical hinges online, albeit in stainless steel, so it would be easy. But look at this mess.
Filled, plained and rehung (it did get painted)
Half the suite back off to get some floor down. 6mm ply (sealed) subfloor.
Fin. Minus a few bits (bath panel for 1)
I must explain something. Here is the floor plan with a very well drawn out diagram of the water feed.The light blue is under floor boards. The dark blue is at ceiling level. The pipe ran vertically from the floor into the loft (which was capped), then a T at the ceiling to run across to the old shower in the far corner. (in this photo you see the pipe with the T to the shower. The old header tank was obviously in the loft, so this was the feed. But with the combi fitted, header tank removed and the flow reverse from the kitchen (below bed2).
The photo below shows you my mistake. On the right you can see the cut pipe, which is the red mark on the floor plan. Some idiot had decided not to take a pipe in the bathroom direct to the sink, but to run it into the bedroom first. Basically that cut disconnect the water from the bathroom.
This takes us up to about a month ago. I will post more later (after lunch!)
Bed3 enters the room. This was always going to be fairly easy, small room just needed a bit of love.
When sorting the floorboards out, I noticed some cables in this boxing, so being the cunning chap I was, I identified a 2.5mm live cable, chopped in this backbox and left it for my sparky to sort. Upon doing the floor and tesing, it turns out it's a lighting circuit (even though it's 2.5mm). He's still not turned up, so I don't know if he can use it (I assume not), but I have found a socket ring cable that I can get in there if needed.
And the almost finished result. The blind is back up in the window, but no socket yet and need to just do a few bits, but it's as good as done!
Finally, Bed2. This was my 'workshop' once I moved my bed to bed1, so I had to tidy and remove everything (now in the conservatory).
Someone loved a good screw! So many holes in the walls all over this place.
The delightful boarder has some hidden past, it's not creepy at all.
High quality cardboard subfloor.
Ohh, what could this be? Cash, gold, diamonds?!
Damn. A present for sparky. It's not even live...
More creepy history
And as it is today.
Been testing colours for it. I want a light green
And finally, the other issue at the moment. The conservatory has always ponged a bit, but since not having the door open all the time it's noticeable. I knew it was the waste from the kitchen going into the now inside drain. Yep. That'll do it.
It's clean now, so can at least flow away. I have parts to temporary seal it to stop smells.
I'm not decided if I keep the conservatory yet, it's not very nice and, as all of them are, freezing cold now, roasting in summer.
We're upto date! Stay tuned for more green paint
When sorting the floorboards out, I noticed some cables in this boxing, so being the cunning chap I was, I identified a 2.5mm live cable, chopped in this backbox and left it for my sparky to sort. Upon doing the floor and tesing, it turns out it's a lighting circuit (even though it's 2.5mm). He's still not turned up, so I don't know if he can use it (I assume not), but I have found a socket ring cable that I can get in there if needed.
And the almost finished result. The blind is back up in the window, but no socket yet and need to just do a few bits, but it's as good as done!
Finally, Bed2. This was my 'workshop' once I moved my bed to bed1, so I had to tidy and remove everything (now in the conservatory).
Someone loved a good screw! So many holes in the walls all over this place.
The delightful boarder has some hidden past, it's not creepy at all.
High quality cardboard subfloor.
Ohh, what could this be? Cash, gold, diamonds?!
Damn. A present for sparky. It's not even live...
More creepy history
And as it is today.
Been testing colours for it. I want a light green
And finally, the other issue at the moment. The conservatory has always ponged a bit, but since not having the door open all the time it's noticeable. I knew it was the waste from the kitchen going into the now inside drain. Yep. That'll do it.
It's clean now, so can at least flow away. I have parts to temporary seal it to stop smells.
I'm not decided if I keep the conservatory yet, it's not very nice and, as all of them are, freezing cold now, roasting in summer.
We're upto date! Stay tuned for more green paint
I seem to like doing the big jobs, then moving on, rather than finish the snagging. The bathroom still has a long list, but it's functional, so why bother? 
I also do not have a designers eye, so happy doing burly man work but then when it comes to picking stuff like paint, beds, furniture I have no clue. Some of the ladies at work help, but not ideal! I need to find a good lady to help.
Anyway, I didn't want to leave updates that far apart as it's impossible to remember everything.
The drain has caused no end of issues. I done a separate thread about how best to sort my external drain inside my conservatory, and someone came up with a bung for a 110mm waste to 40mm waste pipe. This was ideal, so I set about it. Sadly it was not ideal as there was a slow drain now. I figured an air issue, given it was u-bend to u-bend. Bit of research and found I needed an "air admittance valve", it made total sense, somewhere for air to escape when it filled with water.
Sadly, this was also short lived, as my sink still drained very slowly and the washing machine would back up into the sink A bit of a natter with my dad and we figured there was a block at the drain in the floor. Long story short a few buckets of water seem to have dislodged something and it runs as it should. I'll also throw some cleaner down there when I buy some.
Original 'fix'
Air admittance valve fitted
By the way, all of this was part of a grander plan, to sort the waste for my NEW DISHWASHER. How people live without them...
Onto bed2 and 2 more samples to find the right colour. (bottom left!)
Then this happened and I lost a weekend
Back to it though and on with the paint!
Arty one of the MINGING handrail of the stairs. This was thick with grime, it had lots of layers of paint too and chips. If I had just sanded and painted it'd have been a bit crap, so opted to strip it. Fairly painless, just put this globby stuff on and leave for 2 hours. Scrape off.
And I'm slowly moving on to downstairs. Patching all the holes from rawlplugs being removed, and dealing these horrible columns (again, another topic for assistance on this). Looking at neighbours places on RM and some drawings for planning permission, originally there was no door between lounge and kitchen. I took a brave pill and decided to mess about with the columns in the hope of finding they support nothing.
I knocked a small bit out of 1, the stone & cement went up to a plastered/artex'd ceiling, so pretty happy they bear no weight! The other one had expanding foam between the stones and ceiling, I'm sure that has no weight on it!
In other news, I have booked carpet for bed2. I have people scheduled to stay around christmas, so I needed to get it down. It's on the 12th dec, so enough time for me to get it looking a bit pretty (bed will arrive tomorrow). The hold up is the sparky as I want that dodgy cable looked at, as well as a new socket installed, but he's being evasive. I also won't do a 2nd coat of paint until he's done, as he's got to chase out and I need to make good.
I had booked a plaster in for end of this week for the lounge and kitchen ceiling, but figured it was too much pressure to get those columns out and sorted before he came. So I've sodded that off until next year. On holiday next week, then a few weeks in December to finish bed2 and the landing off. Then relax and over indulge!
I also do not have a designers eye, so happy doing burly man work but then when it comes to picking stuff like paint, beds, furniture I have no clue. Some of the ladies at work help, but not ideal! I need to find a good lady to help.Anyway, I didn't want to leave updates that far apart as it's impossible to remember everything.
The drain has caused no end of issues. I done a separate thread about how best to sort my external drain inside my conservatory, and someone came up with a bung for a 110mm waste to 40mm waste pipe. This was ideal, so I set about it. Sadly it was not ideal as there was a slow drain now. I figured an air issue, given it was u-bend to u-bend. Bit of research and found I needed an "air admittance valve", it made total sense, somewhere for air to escape when it filled with water.
Sadly, this was also short lived, as my sink still drained very slowly and the washing machine would back up into the sink
A bit of a natter with my dad and we figured there was a block at the drain in the floor. Long story short a few buckets of water seem to have dislodged something and it runs as it should. I'll also throw some cleaner down there when I buy some. Original 'fix'
Air admittance valve fitted
By the way, all of this was part of a grander plan, to sort the waste for my NEW DISHWASHER. How people live without them...
Onto bed2 and 2 more samples to find the right colour. (bottom left!)
Then this happened and I lost a weekend
Back to it though and on with the paint!
Arty one of the MINGING handrail of the stairs. This was thick with grime, it had lots of layers of paint too and chips. If I had just sanded and painted it'd have been a bit crap, so opted to strip it. Fairly painless, just put this globby stuff on and leave for 2 hours. Scrape off.
And I'm slowly moving on to downstairs. Patching all the holes from rawlplugs being removed, and dealing these horrible columns (again, another topic for assistance on this). Looking at neighbours places on RM and some drawings for planning permission, originally there was no door between lounge and kitchen. I took a brave pill and decided to mess about with the columns in the hope of finding they support nothing.
I knocked a small bit out of 1, the stone & cement went up to a plastered/artex'd ceiling, so pretty happy they bear no weight! The other one had expanding foam between the stones and ceiling, I'm sure that has no weight on it!
In other news, I have booked carpet for bed2. I have people scheduled to stay around christmas, so I needed to get it down. It's on the 12th dec, so enough time for me to get it looking a bit pretty (bed will arrive tomorrow). The hold up is the sparky as I want that dodgy cable looked at, as well as a new socket installed, but he's being evasive. I also won't do a 2nd coat of paint until he's done, as he's got to chase out and I need to make good.
I had booked a plaster in for end of this week for the lounge and kitchen ceiling, but figured it was too much pressure to get those columns out and sorted before he came. So I've sodded that off until next year. On holiday next week, then a few weeks in December to finish bed2 and the landing off. Then relax and over indulge!
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