Spare Bedroom Renovation

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Jakg

Original Poster:

3,451 posts

167 months

Monday 30th July 2018
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Sorry if this one is bit dull, but at least there's lots of pictures!

It's taken me about 9 months to get through this with the odd hour here and there. I'm obviously not a professional, and while I enjoy the odd bit of DIY it was mainly limited to putting a shelf up! With the exception of the plastering / carpet fitting everything was done by me.

The spare bedroom in my house was very dated - horrible border, tatty carpet with no underlay, just not nice. Only picture I have is from the advert when I bought the place.



Slowly been chewing through some jobs in the house, one of which was boarding out the loft. Up a ladder, doing up the last screw and then disaster - part of the lath and plaster ceiling collapses around me.



In hindsight, I've always noticed the ceiling was sagging in the middle. I had no idea that the plaster wasn't attached to the ceiling, and I'm very lucky that no-one was underneath at the time. The plaster weighs a lot!

Having no idea on the condition of the rest of the ceiling, my plan is to pull it down and reboard. Looked easy on YouTube? Could just of overboarded but was worried about losing ceiling height.

So first things first, empty the room and start pulling down the rest of the plaster. I also started stripping off wallpaper at the same time as the room would obviously need paint after.



Next down come the laths, which makes a big mess





Tried to make my own plasterboard lift using a trolley jack. Was lethal. Would not recommend...



Ended up buying a plasterboard hoist which made it a breeze.





With all the wallpaper stripped back, it's clear one of the lath and plaster walls is also in a bad state as the the only thing holding it together was the wallpaper. In one of the holes I notice that it seems to go back quite a lot further than the wall itself, so make a hole to have a look.



Turns out there's about 50cm of space behind the stud wall, so decide to extend the room out to the actual wall as well. I think at this point I realise I'm in for a lot of work.

The extra space is actually quite difficult to use due to the low ceiling height, but the plan is that the increased floor space will make it feel much larger.

Also any existing fittings (skirting, architrave, picture rail etc) get binned to be replaced later.





Opened up



Have to pull the rest of the ceiling down and board the pitched side, too





Laid some new flooring in the new area



Starting to look a little less like a demolition project



Get a plasterer round to quote and when I point out the remaining (knackered) lath and plaster stud wall, he convinces me to replace that, too.









Plastering makes a big difference





At this point I think I'm nearly done, but then comes the skirting/architrave... should've bought a mitre saw but did the whole thing by hand.





Finally comes paint - skirting, architrave, walls, ceiling, window cill, door, theshold, loft hatch. I hate painting.





After a long time it's starting to look like a room again!

Carpet underlay and grippers down for the carpet fitter



And where we are now



Just needs some tidying of furniture and some decorations to make it more homely.

Room feels huge by comparison, even taller now the ceiling pendant has been swapped for downlights. Total cost was probably in the region of £1-1.5k although not really kept tabs. Plus all the tools I had to buy...

thebraketester

14,192 posts

137 months

Monday 30th July 2018
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Lovely job there. We did the same to our spare room, total refurb, rewire and window. Best room in the house now :-)

So satisfying having done it all yourself.

Alucidnation

16,810 posts

169 months

Monday 30th July 2018
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So the structural engineers report gave you the all clear to remove the stud wall then?

uk66fastback

16,455 posts

270 months

Monday 30th July 2018
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Great job mate. Well done, it's hard work as we can all testify.

But you get a great deal of satisfaction doing the majority of the work yourself. I'm about to start a similar project in my third bedroom-cum-home office and have to remove an old chimney breast which'll be fun.

Lath and plaster does make a huge mess but it's finished now - pour yourself a drink and toast a job well done!

HairyMaclary

3,649 posts

194 months

Monday 30th July 2018
quotequote all
I wilk have to replace alot of old plaster soon.

I didnt know such a tool existed for plasterboard. Where did you get it from? Excellent idea!

Room looks great btw. Bonus 50cm makes a big difference.

B17NNS

18,506 posts

246 months

Monday 30th July 2018
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HairyMaclary said:
I didnt know such a tool existed for plasterboard. Where did you get it from? Excellent idea!
These work well too:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/extension-support-rod/1...

Jakg

Original Poster:

3,451 posts

167 months

Monday 30th July 2018
quotequote all
HairyMaclary said:
I didnt know such a tool existed for plasterboard. Where did you get it from? Excellent idea!
Bought it off eBay for £90, sold it on afterwards for £65. Hire was basically £90... a week. Bit overkill but made it very easy.

thebraketester

14,192 posts

137 months

Monday 30th July 2018
quotequote all
Jakg said:
HairyMaclary said:
I didnt know such a tool existed for plasterboard. Where did you get it from? Excellent idea!
Bought it off eBay for £90, sold it on afterwards for £65. Hire was basically £90... a week. Bit overkill but made it very easy.
They are brilliant. I used one for mine too and it makes re-boarding a ceiling a doddle.

Jakg

Original Poster:

3,451 posts

167 months

Sunday 30th August 2020
quotequote all
An incoming arrival means that I no longer have a "spare" bedroom - it's now our bedroom and had another project in the room next to it.

A rubbish picture from when we bought it:



But up close you can see the problems - several layers of wallpaper, painted badly, skirting coming off the wall etc - just tired:



Originally the room was much bigger, but the previous owner added an ensuite and put a stud wall it.
The light switch was moved with this rather horrible detail
They also built the wall on top of the carpet, which was a real pain



Started stipping the wallpaper - some of the plaster was blown, and there were decades of wall plugs that were proud of the wall, but had been papered over.





Even found a child's portrait of their family... on the wallpaper.



Stripped



Ready for plastering

Ceiling is overboarded lath and plaster - it wasn't adequately supported which had caused cracking. I put a million screws in to shore it up - didn't have the time to tear it down this time.
Similarly, the wall by the door is 9.5mm plasterboard so isn't that strong, but although the centres are alright, there just weren't enough screws in it.





Plastered





More skirting to cut meant an excuse for a new tool



Paint going on



I fitted my first carpet - 4 hours later and two ruined knees and while it's alright, I think I'd pay next time.





Now to fill it full of stuff





Around 3 months work, and £1,080 - plus tools.

Ace-T

7,688 posts

254 months

Sunday 30th August 2020
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Cracking renovations to make the rooms safe and sound! thumbup

What are you going to do with the decor now? The nursery is just waiting for an amazing theme smile