First Home - Renovation Project

Brozart · 24 Nov 2013 at 19:27

Dealt with some damp problems in the living room, coated the area in a latex polymer concrete slurry (tanking agent), followed by a concrete scratch coat which contains integral waterproofer - this will prevent any damp until I can deal with the external render and add proper drainage.

Living room:

Kitchen done:

Brozart · 24 Nov 2013 at 20:04

Finished running cables.

100M of 2.5mm speak cable (100% copper) for 5.1 surround sound system
3 X Cat6 for Living room TV (2 for HDMI over Cat Baluns + 1 for TV network)
3 X Cat6 for Bedroom TV (2 for HDMI of Cat Baluns + 1 for TV network)
2 X Cat6 for my computer area.

Also have 100M Double-screened PF100 Coax cable to run when I have time, will have two runs going under the stairs ready for Satellite TV - rather do it myself because I use better quality cable and hide it in the ceiling. Sky installers will just fit cheap shotgun coax and leave it on show, no thanks!

I went for factory shielded Cat6 cable by Duronic to prevent any noise from all the power cables that were sharing the joist space (including a beefy 6mm for the oven), better safe than sorry!

Brozart · 24 Nov 2013 at 20:09

Forgot to mention, used Knuaf Acoustic Roll Insulation (75mm) between the stud walls up stairs and using 100mm Earthwool in the downstairs ceiling area to prevent the heating rising up stairs and for sound dampening.

Brozart · 24 Nov 2013 at 20:20

More fun downstairs,

rotters · 24 Nov 2013 at 23:50

bloody good effort. i love this kind of project.

Brozart · 25 Nov 2013 at 20:33

Came home to find the cabling was messed up

The left and right speaker cable wasn't symmetrical and he boarded over the sub-woofer cable in the corner, good job he didn't plaster today! But apart from that, you are looking at a 5.1 Surround sound setup, power socket hidden behind tv, 3 X single sockets just in case the front speakers and sub are independently powered

and 3 X cat6 cable which will feed HD content from my centralised AV system under the stairs.

Coming on nicely

Brozart · 27 Nov 2013 at 21:10

The builder is ****ed off, I've decided to take down a wall just before he was going to skim it

The door lining is too small, I want a 30" opening to match the rest of my doors (as opposed to 26") + its not centered properly and will look out of place when I fit the kitchen. This will be rebuilt and plastered by Saturday, hopefully...

The rest of the room is taking shape now

This area will be rebuilt, I'm waiting for a bracket to arrive so that I can remove the supporting post of the stairs and open it up for my av system and server

Kimi · 29 Nov 2013 at 14:04

Excellent work mate, i cant believe you got rid of that carpet tho. It was beautiful

Brozart · 30 Nov 2013 at 21:02

Kimi said:
Excellent work mate, i cant believe you got rid of that carpet tho. It was beautiful

Don't worry, I will be refitting the carpet to keep the shagadelic character of the house

Brozart · 30 Nov 2013 at 21:06

The kitchen doorway is now center and larger (a couple of inches make all the difference

)

All the plastering will be finished by Tuesday, then onto to finishing the electrics, fitting the radiators and flooring

Brozart · 3 Dec 2013 at 22:02

Small update, was too dark to take pictures of the kitchen progress

Frustrating issue with cable, the Cat6 is too long and the speaker cable is really limited - with either have to place the AV receiver high up to reach them, or terminate the speaker cable into a audio wall plate first...

on a brighter note, the gap under the stairs will fit a server rack perfectly

Brozart · 4 Dec 2013 at 20:14

So much done today

The kitchen,

StevenG · 5 Dec 2013 at 16:26

Coming along niceley here, i love the look of a room with a fresh coat of plasgter! I'm hoping to get my kitchen to where yours in within the next few weeks, im running out of space though, all my tools and things are currently in my living room which is due to be carpeted soon and dont know where to put everything after that.

Do you have an idea of a completion date for the full project?

LeeUK · 28 Feb 2014 at 23:23

Any updates on this project?

ndaar · 28 Feb 2014 at 23:43

First time ive seen this thread. Amazing amount of work, real fixer upper. Looking forward to new pictures.

R.O.S.S.I · 1 Mar 2014 at 07:56

Bloody love threads like this. Currently saving like a mad man for a deposit for a house and have been toying with buying something that comes up that needs a lot of work for cheap as I like the challenge and freedom you get with something like this.

However the Mrs is fancying something that needs minimal work doing and just needs repapering/carpeting.

BurningHorizons · 1 Mar 2014 at 09:05

Great work. The sideboard in the 2nd pic is worth ~£200-£300 if you still have it. I think it's made by McIntosh.

lee1101 · 1 Mar 2014 at 09:34

Awesome so far. Need an update though!

nft_99 · 1 Mar 2014 at 10:38

nice job so far!

subbed :cool:

ndaar · 1 Mar 2014 at 10:49

R.O.S.S.I said:
Bloody love threads like this. Currently saving like a mad man for a deposit for a house and have been toying with buying something that comes up that needs a lot of work for cheap as I like the challenge and freedom you get with something like this.

However the Mrs is fancying something that needs minimal work doing and just needs repapering/carpeting.

Yeah that's the problem isn't it. My brother and his wife just moved into a new house, new area and was twice the price of the last area so had to get a fixer upper....which was fine until my sister in law is now pregnant and my brother is out the country a lot lol...now the fixer upper doesn't look so good