First Home - Renovation Project

[Brozart]

Amazing that this project has been going for 3 years. Very ambitious work, really impressive.

Can I ask a few things. How has this affected your living situation? Where do you live currently? How are you financing this? Are you still working the day job and doing this on weekends and evenings?

I live about 10 minutes away with family at the moment, apart from missing my own space it's been fine. This thread would have been completely different if I had to live in the house whilst trying to renovate it and probably would have skimped on jobs to get it finished. Yes I work full time in IT (Project/Infrastructure Engineer) then I work on the house after work, weekends or during holidays - I recently took a few days off to paint the house whilst the weather was nice.

I finance this from my monthly salary, I don't like credit cards or loans as its far too easy to become reliant on them. I don't have a strict budget but I follow some basic rules:

• Be aware of house values in the area.
• Be aware of pitfalls of negative equity.
• Don't become complacent with spending.
• Have a contingency fund for emergencies.

I can't stress enough about the importance of a contingency fund as you don't know what's around the corner, I'm a good example of this I've had two new jobs since buying the house, dealing with vandalism and something I was reluctant to mention on here but I've actually been through a remortgage too! That's why I went quiet between Nov 2013 to Sept 2015...

I hope this helps and gives others reassurance if they are in a similar situation, everything works itself out eventually

 

[Brozart]

Roof Repairs

We had some damp in the main bedroom around the chimney/fireplace area, I suspected it was from the old chimney vent.

I think we found the problem I'm surprised how we haven't had worse issues from this!

We replaced the perished felt with breathable membrane, repaired the dry verge the best we could (Marley don't make this verge anymore) and replaced some of the old tiles that were damaged or not cut into the verge properly. The damp spots have already started drying out

 

[Brozart]

The builder who rendered and pointed the house offered to replace the lead at the same time, but he decided to take shortcuts and cement over the small hip tiles with large ridge tiles! They looked out of place and wedged into the angled guttering... It bothered me every time I saw it!

New Guttering!

We recently dug up an old drain pipe that links to the sewer which will be ideal for the front gutter rain water (right now it pours down the steps instead). We've decided to replace the existing guttering and do it properly, I've gone for Floplast Half-round in white with 600mm centers and a fall of 10mm every 6 meters (as recommended).

 

[Brozart]

Superb work!

Excellent work as always!

This thread, and the work you've done is fantastic!

Looking good there. Love the join between the stone and render, very crisp.

Thanks all,

We went with a well known renderer in the area and was very fussy on how we wanted it. We insisted on stainless steal drip beading so it will never go rusty, we had one drip at the roof line and one to follow the sloped path - The renderer weren't happy because he was pushing for a middle drip so that he had a half way mark to float (smooth) to and had to get another guy on the job.

He originally set the drip level but it looked so high to us and we want to run the gas pipe directly under, so changed it to go inline with the path.

Pictures of progress during the scratch coat and drip installs:

You can see how dirty the stone used to be in this picture!

 

[Brozart]

New guttering install

The old guttering had seen better days, it had started discolouring and filled with debris quickly because there was zero fall. As mentioned above I went with 600mm centers for the brackets to prevent any warping or sagging from heat, snow or dirt and made sure there was a bracket close to any couplers or downpipe connectors (Most suppliers suggest a bracket should be within 150-300mm of a join). You'll be surprised how many fitters treat couplers as a bracket because there's a screw hole for it, overtime you will see both joins sag inwards to it slightly and fill with dirt.

How to:
I fitted one bracket inline with the square to half-round connector and the other the other end bracket 7mm lower (4 meter length) to get the fall right. Then simply tied builders string (nylon) both ends to get my level and drilled the brackets every 600mm off that.

Square to Half-round converter - This was hard work to fit with the scaffolding.

Perfect fall

I can't express enough how much I hate this ridge tile... It had to come off.

 

[Brozart]

Awesome standard of work. Nice spotting with that issue on the roof!!

There was further issues with the bay roof, the felt had perished and exposed the wall plate which started to rot. I started off changing the guttering, then ended up rebuilding the roof I'm just glad it fell on a bank holiday weekend...

The wall plate had rotten so bad on that corner it had come away from the beam and was relying on the rafter that was barely holding.

Please don't judge my makeshift repairs too harshly It was soild by the time I finished and we treated all the old timber with rot and insect treatment before re-felting.

 

[Brozart]

Roofing continued,

We fitted new felt, batten and felt support trays - The felt support trays were used to prevent sagging and protect the slightly exposed wall plate (Thanks to the poorly fitted fascia board). We replaced all the tiles too as some broke when taking off the old ridge tile and didn't want all different colours showing from the repair work.

I got to the hip rafter (angled part) and realised I'm not a roofer and didn't have the tools to cut in new tiles...

I bought a 9" angle grinder with a diamond core disc to cut through the tiles, big fan of Ryobi after using this - Bargain at £68.

 

[Brozart]

The front guttering finished off, we only had a couple of days left before the scaffolding comes down.

 

[Brozart]

Satellite dish fitted - I didn't want the satellite dish installed in the front of the house because of the trees + I find they can ruin the look sometimes.

I went with a Triax 64 dish and Smart Titanium lnb because they were both white (to blend in with cloud better) and highly rated online for quality. The dish is corrosion resistant and the mount/anchors are galvanised or stainless steel as I really don't fancy rust staining the wall over time!

CCTV reinstalled (1 at the rear, 1 at the side enterance, 1 at front steps and 1 at front door)

I've ordered a Rain Shade for this one (DS-1250ZJ)

An extra camera on the way...

 

[Brozart]

Satellite dish fitted - I didn't want the satellite dish installed in the front of the house because of the trees + I find they can ruin the look sometimes.

I went with a Triax 64 dish and Smart Titanium lnb because they were both white (to blend in with cloud better) and highly rated online for quality. The dish is corrosion resistant and the mount/anchors are galvanised or stainless steel as I really don't fancy rust staining the wall over time!

CCTV reinstalled (1 at the rear, 1 at the side enterance, 1 at front steps and 1 at front door)

I've ordered a Rain Shade for this one (DS-1250ZJ)

An extra camera on the way...

 

[Brozart]

How come you added render to the external brickwork? It looked pretty good before the render was applied?

We had problems with water ingress and existing render was starting to fail on the gable end. More detail below:

You've done a great job on the house so far. Just a little disappointed you rendered over that beautiful stone. I'm sure you had your reasons, but living in an area where you get brick or render, I would love to have a house made of stone like yours.

I completely agree with you but it needed to be done unfortunately, the gable end had already been rendered so it could never have been restored to its former glory and there had been a lot of patch work around the kitchen window which was letting water in. The rear wall next to the garden gate had been poorly strap pointed and covered some of the stonework, so there was a high risk of damaging the stone during the restoration. The only part which we could have pointed was the adjoining wall but the builders used a lot of rubble stone and there was large gaps to fill - This is fine for traditional lime render which could rely on aggregates to support the right joint widths but concrete isn't so flexible and will eventually fail with heat, frost, weathering, movement etc. So in the end; we concluded it would be a lot of cost for what it was worth - we had to meet in the middle with costs, function & form by rendering the back and restoring the dress stone at the front.

 

[Brozart]

Last few days on the roof, going to miss the views

Installed a couple of Ubbink air vents to prevent condensation in the attic. It wasn't something I had a problem with but I'll be building a fire wall between us and the neighbours soon which could have an impact on heat/ventilation. Knowing me I'll end up installing some Velex windows and converting the loft at the same time haha!

I couldn't separate the vents any further a part because of the roof rafter spacing.

A Hikvision rain shade to shield the front camera from the elements:

 

[Brozart]

What DVR do you use with the cameras?

I recommend a NVR (Network Video Recorder), two suitable Hikvision models:

• DS-7604NI-E1/4P - (Up to 4 cameras)
• DS-7608NI-E2/8P - (Up to 8 cameras)

There are known compatibility issues with mixing regional products, don't risk the cheaper chinese hardware with a EU/UK NVR - make sure you stick to a matching set. I personally went with UK based sellers for the after sales support.

 

[Brozart]

Great thread! Thoroughly enjoyed the read. I'd hate to be your neighbour though haha.

Just a quick question, is this going to be your "forever home"? Is there not a ceiling price on the road you're on? Will the amount of work you've done actually add enough value to the house for it all to be worthwhile?

Haha I'm not that bad, will be nice and quiet once it's finished

Sometimes its not about 'profit'.

+1 this.

Sometimes you just want to buy and do up a property how you like. Then live in and not worry about doing this and not doing that incase you don't recoup the costs back.

It doesn't really matter if you plan to live there for the foreseeable future.

It's not about profit but I'm still very aware about the equity - I bought the proper in 2013 before prices started catching up again, so I started off with a good price and competitive mortgage rate (over 20 years). Last year my bank informed me that the house value had gone up £10,000 when they checked the local/regional averages in their system, bare in mind they don't even know about all the work I've done to it yet. There's a house one street over which is nearly an identical semi-detached with a dated decor on the market for 135K, it doesn't include a front garden and is on a busy road.

Throughout this work I've been very aware of my spending, house values in the area and I'm confident there's equity in my property if I was to sell up.

Like others have said though, its not been about profit - I could have skimped on a lot of things if that was the case but I want to enjoy living in it too

If you don't mind me asking are you able to give a bit of a basic breakdown on the costs of the work so far? I don't think you have mentioned much about the financials (no problem is you don't want to).Thanks!

Most of the labouring/guttering just cost our time and basic material, the priciest jobs were electrics, plumbing, rendering and plastering. Here's a rough idea on some of the costs

Paid:

• Plumber - £2200 labour
• Electrician - £1500 labour
• Renderer - £7000 labour and material (included scaffolding + repointing)

Budgeted:

• New kitchen - £4000 + appliances
• Flooring - £2000 labour and materials

 

[Brozart]

Scaffolding gone

Gas pipe reinstalled, went with 28mm up the side to get enough volume:

New Osram Noxlite LED lighting:

PIR sensor installed in the ceiling for the lantern and porch lighting:

 

[Brozart]

I need to catch up on progress, several rooms have been patched up and sanded to a near perfect finish - I'm honestly surprised that our mouse sander hasn't died

I rewired my 5.1.2 setup after I realised the speaker cable was junk, adding a couple of neat extras such as fitting two double sockets behind the wall to hide the cabling when I install the TV + the mounted IR receiver.

 

[Brozart]

Gypsum coving fitted in the living room, we may fit ceiling roses to finish it off.

It was hard work preparing the walls, I sanded back the paint as it was so dusty - a couple of pieces fell off when we installed it in the bedroom, so I didn't want to risk it again haha.

 

[Brozart]

Leveling the floors...

The kitchen delivery was booked for early December, so we decided to get a tiler to do the kitchen and utility to speed things up as I was working + I tend to take a little longer on jobs I've never done before

We've gone with Yurtbay Seramik 15x90cm tiles in mono chrome wood effect (9 patterns).

The floor was out of level up to 40mm in some places, the tiler said we needed around 20 bags of leveling compound for him. I cleaned up and mopped the rooms, and primed it so he had a nice clean surface to work with...

But despite my best efforts in prep work, he managed to completely mess it up and to make matters worse - he used a total of 30 bags!

It took ages to dry and when it did, it remained soft, dusty and cracked...

I reached out to Larson to find out what happened as I thought it must have been a bad batch, they were so supportive about it and actually tested it for me. The results came back, the mix was bad, too much water! They said he used so much water that the fibers (as it was fiber reinforced leveler) have separated from the cement and raised to the top...

When I spoke to the tiler, it turns out he used 1-2litres too many per bag, didn't prime between layers and told me that it had cracked in other layers too and that he patted it down and put more on top - fml

 

[Brozart]

Shame about the flooring! Have you managed to move in yet?

If the kitchen was fitted on time, we could have moved in for Christmas. It would have looked similar to the final scene on Lethal Weapon 1 haha but it would have been fine.

I thought the mix was probably the culprit. Is he going to sort it? Guess you tempted to rip it all up and start again?

You have worked so hard.

After wasting the best part of two weeks and 600kg of leveler, I just wanted him gone - no money was exchanged and I now worse off than when I started! I will not be getting another tradesman in except for electrics and gas work, I might take longer but I do a better job.

I had booked a week off to fit the kitchen but this **** up has completely messed up the schedule. I ended up using the week off to rip up the defective compound and start again from scratch.

The floor came up in muddy layers, no chance would I risk tiling and fitting a new kitchen on this...

and to add to the chaos, the kitchen started to arrive.

After days of chiseling, scraping and vacuuming I finally got it back to the concrete floor.

More updates shortly

 

[Brozart]

I would have invoiced the tiler for the cost of materials and the cost of the clean up.

Fortunately Larson were brilliant about the situation and refunded me the material costs, it was my time that was wasted the most - nothing more draining than ripping up muddy leveler a couple of weeks after it was poured. I couldn't be bothered with any confrontation regarding the house, especially when it's unoccupied. I'm just going to bite the bullet on this one and wash my hands of him - Lee summed it up perfectly, I'm not risking anymore 'have-a-go tradesmen' in this house!

Similar happened to my cousin's house, tiler was tiling the floors when my uncle turned up and saw the shoddy workmanship. He told the tiler to stop immediately and told him to leave. Tiler himself knew he was crap and was actually relieved to go.

Too many crap have-a-go tradesmen about these days.

years ago when I lived in a private let house the landlord had got his sparky round to do work in the place. I had been working in the back of beyond at the time and was away Monday to Friday so had organised my old man to be at the house..

My old man chased the sparky and reported him!! My dad did the work that was needing done and billed my landlord!! scary thing is he paid!!

I'm glad it's not just me having this problem, integrity and quality is hard to find these days - I've managed to find a really good plumber and sparky after a couple of duds; which I'm keeping within arm's reach

What kitchen units you gone for?

That job removing the floor looks horrible! I need to get a large area levelled also, is that a standard tiler job?

Does that mean you've not moved in for 3 years? :O

We've gone with a Rotpunkt kitchen (German Manufacturer), complete handleless in matte white and a thin matte grey worktop. I'll create a dedicate post on the kitchen soon.

Yes you tend to find mostly tilers and some wooden/laminate floor fitters do leveling as it affects their work on the flooring. If you don't get the subfloor flat they'd have to build up spots with adhesive (bad practice) and may get lippage or hollow sounding spots. I'll give you all the details needed to do it yourself, it's straight forward when done right

Maybe