1970 House Renovation - 3 floor townhouse build log

Time to get the room ready.

A bit of plumbing

The joists were so bad, that I had to plane a joist down with pipes running along it. Solution... cut the pipes, plane joist, redo pipes. I also added in a new flow/return to add a radiator in the kitchen at a later date (capped with push fit end stops - these things are great)






@CrispyWombat I hope you're prouder of this plumbing attempt! :)

Preparing the ceiling

Next onto preparing the ceiling for plasterboard, and my favourite method I've invented (I think - Probably not) for levelling the ceiling!




Some final wiring tidying up



Boarding







Kitchen first fix wiring
We've got a single oven / combi and combination gas/induction hob so needed to get that done and wired in




Next day, plasterers are coming in to plaster the entire house pretty much
 
Decorating

We let the plaster dry for 2 weeks, very happy with the end result. Unfortunately before they came didn't get a chance to box in the pipework, so did the plastering myself (in 25c heat which was a mistake!)









Unfortunately messed this up, plaster went off like lightning in the heat. Luckily however this is sitting behind the kitchen units so won't be at all visible





First fix plumbing for the new sink, including new waste run. Due to joists, had to go through one, and then drop into room below. This is being boxed anyway as it contains a new mains water feed so worked out well.



While finishing the floor, I did an "Oops" and went straight through the gas line



Called emergency gas engineer, and he fixed it free of charge which was brilliant.
 
So our tiles arrived, went for 60x60 Italian porcelain



On top of this some of our our kitchen appliances arrived - Feel like a kid in a sweet shop.



Tile Preparations

Because we're laying on a ply sub floor, decided to do it properly and invest a bit of money.

Opted for ditra-25, after looking it was actually on par with the cheap dualit stuff almost no cost difference and a much superior product



Also got a little... self leveller



First, needed to seal the gaps in the floor so we didn't get any pesky leveller running downstairs. Just used keraquick s1 for this.




Next, sealed the floor with Mapei Primer G, and let it dry for a few hours.

Before we started levelling, forgot we need the kitchen ring to come up inside the island - so came up with this as a solution (20.5mm waste pipe, and a straight coupling). Solvent welded together, and glued into the hole with poly gorilla glue.



Now, the levelling could begin

Initially filled some gaps from the window work, which had left about an 18mm drop in the floor. Filled this with a mortar screed to minimise the self leveller needed.




Levelling the corner (big drop here)



Then onto the first half of the room



Day 2 - Second half of room

Battle station setup, floors re-primed with Primer G to let the self leveller bond to the recent pour.




Some scaffolding to help us escape the impending leveller doom!



Next steps, the big job - Tiling!
 
Next step - Laying the Ditra

Setting the Ditra with Keraquick S1, using the same for tiles. Downside is open time of 30 minutes, and in 28c heat that goes down.

Started by laying out the ditra mat, whilst enjoying a Friday evening brew!








Once that was done, set about sticking it down! Used a large wooden float to push the ditra into the adhesive bed using a 4mm notched trowel




 
Kitchen has arrived today onto newly tiled floor! Extremely excited as we haven't had a kitchen for over 6 months, and realistically haven't cooked properly in over a year.

We may have a delay on the worktop as issue with quartz supplier, but being told we may be provided with a temporary worktop in the meantime (not ideal).

Installation starts Monday (decided to pay for install to speed things up).

I'll start rolling out pictures from Monday so you can track the progress and critique my tiling efforts...
 
The Craig said:
Looks great! I'll be interested to see the tiles and kitchen.

Are you learning it all first time? (electrics/plumbing/tiling etc) Looks like a good job!
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Never done anything on here. Just try to do my reading and research I guess before I try it!

My electrics were finalised today by sparky, all my readings were spot on and said they were better than even he has had on some rewires.

For that is the rewire officially complete to the tune of 14 circuits.
 
rexehuk said:
Driveway Redone

Went for Marshall's Tegula, few unexpected things along the way...

- Drain rebuilt
- Rerouted storm drain into soakaway
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Did you redo your own driveway? rereading this log (what a load of graft!) and drive looks good.

Main thing that puts me off is not knowing how deep the service pipes (gas/electric) go? How much it cost you if DIY?
 
The Craig said:
Did you redo your own driveway? rereading this log (what a load of graft!) and drive looks good.

Main thing that puts me off is not knowing how deep the service pipes (gas/electric) go? How much it cost you if DIY?
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No, so far the driveway, kitchen doors/big window and new cylinder has been done by trades.

Kitchen window alone took 5 people to lift, so no way I could have done that myself! :)

Drive was about £2.7k, it was one job I just wanted done in parallel to reduce number of jobs outstanding.
 
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The tiling job
This is my first time tiling, any feedback welcome! Started off using a 12mm floor trowel, and worked my way down to a 10mm after getting tons of adhesive through the grout joints which was extremely time consuming.

Due to the size of tile (600x600), I decided to dampen and back butter every tile which meant I could do around one tile every 8-10 minutes including cleaning.

Finding center of room
Started out with finding the room center, just too rule out that we could use this method and make the entire thing symmetrical (bearing in mind we have kitchen units consuming the other side of room) even though no one would notice




Working outwards and up


Finalised starting point


Starting the tiling
Started from the stairs, which would form our first row of tiles. It made sense to limit cuts in the main area of the room and have full tiles where possible - Hiding any cuts under the kitchen units.

Just protecting the tile so that I can cut the stairs out and slide the tile under



First few rows done




Then another set of rows




Still to do, main floor and then beginning on any cut ins around windows and so forth
 
fastwunz said:
Lovely tiles - they weigh a lot!!
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They are pretty weighty, although very easy to damage when not laid!

Will post some pictures up in next few days of finished job, all grouted. Kitchen worktop has been delayed a week, so won't show the finished kitchen until after July, but it's looking great so far ;).
 
rexehuk said:
They are pretty weighty, although very easy to damage when not laid!

Will post some pictures up in next few days of finished job, all grouted. Kitchen worktop has been delayed a week, so won't show the finished kitchen until after July, but it's looking great so far ;).
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What sort of work top did you go for?
 
Kitchen is now installed (only took 3 days) however there was a few issues like the island end unit was too short.

That means a 4 week wait, and unfortunately the worktop is now due on 10th August! So we have a month with the tease of a new kitchen, but unable to use it which is incredibly sad with summer close to ending.

It does give us time to consider tiles for splashback and so forth and to tile the feature wall.
 
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