First Home - Renovation Project

[Brozart]

Just bought my first house, a semidetached property built in 1910.

I've decided to gut the building back to bare bones, removing old lath and plaster ceilings and walls and dealing with any damp & water penetration, giving us solid foundations to work with. From here I'll then make the structural changes, a full electrical rewire with additional lighting, renew the plumbing, new kitchen, home cinema and deal with any problems that might be expose a long the way. I'm going to open up the living room area by removing the load-bearing wall and replacing the back window with doors that lead onto the patio area, bringing a lot more light into the room. As this will make the room a lot harder to heat in the winter, we will also be insulating the walls, ceiling and installing a wood burning stove using one of the old chimney channels. Here are some pictures to start:

 

[Brozart]

Love these threads. Good luck and don't forget to enjoy all the hard work

Thanks mate,

I hope you all find this project appealing, I will be documenting all my progress and problems throughout.

 

[Brozart]

What happened to the occupant to leave all their crap behind?

From what the neighbors told me, the previous owners didn't have much luck, their daughter died of cancer, shortly after the wife fell down the outside steps and died in hospital, then shortly after that the husband had a major stroke which left him speechless and paralyzed down one side for the last 4 years of his life, he died this March.

As for leaving the crap behind, the estate agent asked if it was ok for the seller to leave all the furniture and take some sentimental items, I agreed thinking that they would take some family photos and I could cash in on some of the items... I went there two days later to find they took the TV, vintage sideboard and the stair lift! I did get a couple of decent items but it was still a pain, I must have wasted half a day getting rid of it all...

Pretty obvious what happened to previous owners. Mate I'm really jealous, have always wanted to have a project. That's going to be a fantastic home when its done. If you don't mind giving the details I'd love to know:

How much you planning on spending and do you have some contingency money somewhere.

What time scale you looking at?

No problem mate,

I currently have £9000 to spend and was hoping to add around £1000 a month from my wage, but this is where the thread will get interesting, I was made redundant last week... bad timing to say the least. So until I find another job, all extra cash for the project is put on hold. The only benefit to this situation is I have much more time to labour and do all the dirty work for free.

I've got £5000 for contingency and was planning to slowly double that figure with what was left after all the bills and the £1000 extra for the project.

I'm pretty laid back on the timescale, the goal is flexible depending on progress and any problems we need to address.

 

[Brozart]

Don't strip it back to the brickwork unless you really need to, you'd be amazed what a quick plaster skim can save you in terms of mess and hard labour you also risk loosing a lot of old detailing in skirting board, architaves and picture rails etc. Also if you want to avoid the horrible mess overboarding a lath and plaster ceiling is a great solution stopes the cieling from falling gives a nice smooth clean finish but doesn't involve filling your house with chocking black filth.

Enjoy the experience!

If this project was purely for profit that's exactly what I would do, but I'm planning on living here long term. By removing all the lath and plaster from the ceiling means I won't loss any height when adding new plasterboard, also will be easier to insulate between the joists of the 1st floor and loft, easier to run the electrical and network wiring and cleaner if I ever decide to do more work once I've moved in. I will be keeping most of the walls though as the majority haven't blown, will just coat in a PVA Primer and skim over.

Good luck in finding a new job fella.

Thanks mate, I added my profile to totaljobs and had some good feedback so far, so I'm feeling optimistic. Worse comes to worse, I don't mind getting my hands dirty and doing some trade work to tide me over..

 

[Brozart]

Its been a hard few days but coming on nicely...

Removing the lath and plaster wasn't as difficult as people make out, I just opened all doors and windows, pointed three fans towards the bay window and hoped for the best

I did the work in two sections, front room then back room.

Some Tips:
Make sure to wear Dust and Liquid Safety Goggles, safety spectacles do not work with dust, I found this out the hard way.
Also don't skimp on the dust masks as the plaster can be seriously harmful depending on the age of your house and what compounds were added - until 1895 horsehair was added to plaster as a binding agent, this could potentially breakdown into anthrax spores (very rare) and also between 1920 - 1980s asbestos may have been added to plaster and artex. Luckily my house was built between these dates (1910) but I still need to be weary, especially if repairs or upgrades were done between 1920-90), I personally went for a 3M Valved Dust Respirator P1 (FFP3 type, European Standard EN 149 - provides protection I need against infectious agents).

I then dealt with the fire, at first glace I thought the gas was connect via a lead pipe I had friend who is gas safe registered to cap the pipe for me.

Not a bad start with only a claw hammer, stone hammer and shovel...

Did I mention I'm too tight to pay for a skip,

 

[Brozart]

you got all that in the back of a Corsa? Fair play to you Sir!!

nice job subd!

The trick is to remember speed bumps and breaking distances

Like wise, I never pay for skips. My car is my mobile skip.

It's just a pain at the waste recovery centre aka tip as you got to sort it out into sections. They won't allow you to just chuck it all in together.

The one I go to is like a mans club, all load of guys and tradesmen talking about the work they are doing haha. The biggest problem I had was that they made me empty the bags of plaster and I didn't have my mask or goggles with me.

 

[Brozart]

The kitchen has been cleared out, the cabinets came off the wall easily, a firm shake and they came off whole, this will be readdressed when reinstalling the new kitchen

Removing the lath and plaster has been a pain because of the polystyrene titles and we couldn't use much force because of the copper pipes above.The damp in the corner is mainly from rotten window frames and roof plate, there is also some shoddy rending that's blown which isn't helping neither, a very damp house!

I'll be replacing all the back windows with new double glazing, fitting new guttering and removing the blown render which will stop the penetrating damp (I hope).

 

[Brozart]

Hows it going? Looking good so far mate!

Made good progress so far, started sorting upstairs out this week, already cleared out the attic and spare bedroom. Hoping to have all the ceilings down and out by this weekend

Making some good progress.

Ripping down plaster lath ceilings, that is one job I hate doing.

One suggestion, now you removed the ceilings insulate between the joists, a 200mm joist, stick in 170mm insulation & leave a 25mm air gap, to run the wiring.
Will cut down a lot of the noise from above & insulate.

I'll be glad when all the lath and plaster is gone, only three more rooms to go!

Totally agree, I am planning on insulating between the joists to lock in the heat from the log burner and dampen noise, haven't decided on what type of insulation to use yet, any recommendations?

 

[Brozart]

Any insulation will do you're just topping up not having to meet a specific U value. Solid insulation will be quicker to install as you can cut in sheets if your joist centres are all the same but then rolls of loft insulation can be had for pennies with the grant schemes.

I'd just have a think about fire and the 'what if', what if you get a leak from your heating or hw cw? Roll installation will act like a sponge until it either comes all crashing down or never dries where as solid won't.

If it were me I'd invest now in a hw cylinder with another coil and a log burner with a heat exchanger and pump then you can heat your hw and heating from the log burner or at least provide a decent amount of base heat and let the boiler top it up.

Yeah some good points there,

The only problem with the hot water tank is space and installation costs, I might consider this if we decide to swap the bathroom and spare bedroom around, that way the log burner would be directly above the boiler...Tempting

This would be perfect at the right price.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171094106...l?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=171094106989&_rdc=1

Great find, could pick that up tomorrow! What would a decent price be for all 17 sheets?

 

[Brozart]

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of price difference is there between a house that is in good order and one that requires work in your area?. Not too specific and nosey, a percentage will be just fine

Here in Oxford there is little scope for renovating a place at a decent price, they sell for silly money and are often in a pretty terrible condition considering the cost.

I managed to get the property for £80,000, which I think is a bargain for its potential, I'm not bothered on profit margins as I'm planning on living here long term which is why my main focus is on energy efficiency and adding a log burner as a cheap source of heating. I will revalue the property as soon as I've finished renovating, my guess is between 120-140K.

The majority of homes around here are terraced houses which go for 60-100K depending on size, land, location. Run down properties fluctuate a lot, between 35-60K. I've seen larger semi and detached house go up to 250K.

 

[Brozart]

Earlier in the month I noticed two walls had sunk upstairs, the problem was that they were built between two joists, these joists have dipped due to the weight of these brick on edge walls. I called in a favour with a structural engineer who advised me that I should either reinforce the joists with an extra two beams or replace the walls with stud framing which would take away the weight problem. Here are some pictures to help visualise the issue:

I decided to take down the walls because it will be easier to rewire & add sunk power and network sockets, we'll be able to fit British standard door sizes without the hassle of shaving sides down and we'll be able to level out the floors that have dropped (this wouldn't be possible if we went down the route of adding the extra beams because the walls had settled, the beams would only prevent further dropping). A pretty daunting task but will be worth it in the long run...

As for framing it will be 4x2 timber and 400mm centers, filled with acoustic insulation.

Updates,

 

[Brozart]

The Beam!

The 6 meter girder arrived from Cardiff, I went with a 203x133x30 UB spec which exceeds regulation and limits any deflection. We've managed to get 8 inches in the wall either end so its nice and secure

 

[Brozart]

Seen several houses where the upstairs walls as settled, had it happen at my previous place, almighty great split up the wall.

Pretty daunting & challenging sorting out the problem though, many people wouldn't even think of tackling it.

That's some rsj you have put in, will solve the problem though.

It was pretty daunting but I couldn't relax if I left it in that condition, everything is now safe, sturdy and level, well worth it

Yes it has solved the problem By removing the brick walls upstairs, the rsj has managed to level out the joists and floorboards nicely, this will be reinforced further when we add noggins in between the joists for plasterboard support.

 

[Brozart]

I decided to lose one of the rooms to maximise space and light in the master bedroom. I will re-add a room sometime next year when I can afford a loft conversion.

 

[Brozart]

Great work so far. Can't believe I missed this thread.

Looks like getting them plasterboards upstairs will be a fun job .

Funny you mentioned that because I've actually lost one of my labourers because of the plasterboard, he said all the work wasn't worth the money! The lazy ******* . Will upload more progress shortly, just downloading the pictures from my phone...

 

[Brozart]

I decided to plasterboard all the walls (Dot & Dab) instead of just doing the new stud work and skimming over the old, less risk of cracking and better insulation.

 

[Brozart]

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]

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]

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]

More fun downstairs,