First Home - Renovation Project

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What type of mortar/plaster are you using? I assume it's a solid stone wall?

The reason I ask is because I'm in the process of buying a 1890s ish terraced house and I've read it's better to use lime based mortars and plasters because it allows the house to breath. Have you discussed this with your builder? I'm not sure how important it is tbh.

Would be interested in the above question too ^^

You are correct, solid stone walls are designed to breathe but this isn't as simple as it used to be! You'll find most houses have been abused over the years with mortar repairs repointed with cement, living rooms renewed with gypsum plaster (sometimes mixed with asbestos) and painted... So normally the cheapest and easiest option is to make the outside walls watertight with render or cement pointing and allow the solid walls to slowly dry out. BUT this isn't always the case especially with weaker masonary such as sandstone, the golden rule in pointing is that the mortar mix should be weaker than the adjacent masonry. The second most important function is to extract the moisture from the surrounding stone or brick and act as a sacrificial element. It should be placed to encourage evaporation through the mortar mix which is why lime still has its place over cement mortar in some situations ;)

My advice:
Most general builders are ignorant to lime and haven't got a clue - seek a stonemason with experience or do it yourself.

If you are in a position to maintain it in lime, lime plaster and limewashed walls then do so; as its truly a beauty product to work with and appreciate.

If it's an old house and you want to repair some lime mortar, go for a premixed fat lime putty instead of powdered hydraulic lime as its the most flexible and permeable.

If your house has been gypsum plastered, cement pointed and the stone is stronger than the cement with no sign of blowing or cracking and you have pcv windows (limited ventilation) - then you'll probably be leaning towards maintaining that instead and focus on making the solid walls watertight (plus your Mrs won't be moaning because she only has limited limewash colours to choose from :D)

If you do go down the lime route and maybe natural insulation etc then I highly recommend Ty-Mawr in Brecon; they even offer training courses if you're into DIY (I did consider it).

Here's an update on the lime wall:

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Sigh.

Time to sit in the back garden with a disc cutter and a stack of paving slabs.

Sorry to hear you've encountered such behaviour before you've had a chance to even settle in. Some people are just *****.

I hope you have got somewhere with security.

Here's some progress on CCTV and secuirty:

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Excel ever time, I highly recommend this cable (will be used for CCTV, IR blasters, HDMI baluns, AV)

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I would normally recommend the hikvision turrets but in this case I wanted to focus on maximum anti-vandal protection - There is a little IR bleed as with most domes but still overall a very good quality camera.

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I've got another one going up in the back garden next week, and a couple in the front.

Back door fitted with new hinges and lock

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Soldato
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You are correct, solid stone walls are designed to breathe but this isn't as simple as it used to be! You'll find most houses have been abused over the years with mortar repairs repointed with cement, living rooms renewed with gypsum plaster (sometimes mixed with asbestos) and painted... So normally the cheapest and easiest option is to make the outside walls watertight with render or...

Very useful information thanks!

And good work in getting that CCTV up do fast. So you have already managed to get footage of them?
 
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My advice:
Most general builders are ignorant to lime and haven't got a clue - seek a stonemason with experience or do it yourself.

If you are in a position to maintain it in lime, lime plaster and limewashed walls then do so; as its truly a beauty product to work with and appreciate.

Thanks for the advice, that's very good to know.

I'm definitely going to consider using lime as it needs repointing externally and the house could do with re-plastering room by room.

On the Cat6 cabling, is that for an AV setup for the whole house? Sorry I'm totally clueless when it comes to this. I don't know what IR blasters and HDMI baluns are but my inner geek still wants them :D
 
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Thanks for the advice, that's very good to know.

I'm definitely going to consider using lime as it needs repointing externally and the house could do with re-plastering room by room.

On the Cat6 cabling, is that for an AV setup for the whole house? Sorry I'm totally clueless when it comes to this. I don't know what IR blasters and HDMI baluns are but my inner geek still wants them :D

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I've got three cat 6 cables going to each TV, one will be for internet TV and the other two will connect to a HDMI extender which will transfer all my content from the AV receiver under the stairs. I'll fit IR receivers (signal from remote controls) in the ceiling which will go back to a IR blaster to distribute the signal to all the AV hardware under the sitars - so all that will be on show is the TV but there'll be a host of AV equipment hidden in the background like AV receiver, Blu-ray player, digital tv, play station...

To keep things simple I'll buy a multi-zone AV receiver which has two dedicated HDMI outputs, one that will be linked to the TV and 5.1.2 atmos surround sound system in the living room and the other will be linked to the TV in the bedroom and pass through stereo sound (not many do this).

1 x AV receiver with multi zone
2 x HDMI extenders for living room & bedroom
2 x IR receivers for living room & bedroom
1 x IR blaster/distributor with outputs to player, sky, av receiver etc.

Hope this makes senses :)
 
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Soldato
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That makes sense, thanks for the explanation. It sounds quite advanced for my needs but I do like the idea of cabling cat6 in the various rooms as a minimum.
 
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Small update, both hikvision cams are working nicely - been testing them for about a week now.

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The wall has dried out well with no cracking, I'll be cleaning the stone work soon

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This had been a great read, and has brought back fond memories of my helping my Dad do a similar thing with our house (although that's still not finished...)

I'm actually thinking of doing a similar thing when I look to buy a place rather than rent, as it allows you to set up a house how you actually want it, rather than putting up with what's there.

A couple of questions though...
How much of the work do you do yourself & how much do you hire people in to do? (I don't mean this in any accusing way, I'm purely interested in where you draw the line in what you're willing/capable of doing) (obviously there's some stuff you'll have to get someone in to do e.g. gas work, but what about the rest?
Do you live in the house during the renovations? (If I do end up doing the same, I would probably have to live out of 1 room at a time or something, whilst the rest is being done, as I don't think it would be either possible, or practical for me to stay elsewhere) Do you seal off the room(s) you're living in whilst you do the work (to limit dust ingress etc?)
 
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A couple of questions though...
How much of the work do you do yourself & how much do you hire people in to do? (I don't mean this in any accusing way, I'm purely interested in where you draw the line in what you're willing/capable of doing) (obviously there's some stuff you'll have to get someone in to do e.g. gas work, but what about the rest?
You'll be surprised how much you can do yourself, the only areas I avoided was water, gas and electrical rewire because I wanted the utilities safe and to the latest regulations. The only other skilled trades I wasn't comfortable with is roofing and plastering because I wanted the walls perfect, any imperfections would play on me lol

Do you live in the house during the renovations? (If I do end up doing the same, I would probably have to live out of 1 room at a time or something, whilst the rest is being done, as I don't think it would be either possible, or practical for me to stay elsewhere)

No I've been living close by, I will probably move in once the plumbing has been done and the heating is on.

If you are planning on getting an old house, I doubt this will be feasible for health reasons - the dust created from the old lath and plaster is so bad and spreads throughout the house. I wouldn't recommend living in that, you'll be constantly spitting out black gunk from the back of your throat. Then you have the issue of heating, toilet, electrics... an electrical rewire normally takes a couple of days with a good sparky and a plumber will normally take 3-4 at a push to get everything back up and running depending on how much work is needed.

Personally focus on these three before moving in, quickly gut the property and get the main utilities reinstalled.

Do you seal off the room(s) you're living in whilst you do the work (to limit dust ingress etc?)

It sounds good to seal off rooms but in reality I found it safer to keep everything open, the dust from the plaster is so fine and horrible even the dust masks were failing... I used to open all the doors, windows and get fans on for circulation. Rip up the carpets FIRST, much easier to sweep up the dust and mess.

I only time I've sealed a room was the bathroom during the sandblasting, the pressure and grit is known to break windows and damage plaster walls so I bought a roll of black plastic sheeting (similar to a damp proof membrane but cheaper). A lot of dust and grit still managed to get through mind!
 
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You'll be surprised how much you can do yourself, the only areas I avoided was water, gas and electrical rewire because I wanted the utilities safe and to the latest regulations. The only other skilled trades I wasn't comfortable with is roofing and plastering because I wanted the walls perfect, any imperfections would play on me lol



No I've been living close by, I will probably move in once the plumbing has been done and the heating is on.

If you are planning on getting an old house, I doubt this will be feasible for health reasons - the dust created from the old lath and plaster is so bad and spreads throughout the house. I wouldn't recommend living in that, you'll be constantly spitting out black gunk from the back of your throat. Then you have the issue of heating, toilet, electrics... an electrical rewire normally takes a couple of days with a good sparky and a plumber will normally take 3-4 at a push to get everything back up and running depending on how much work is needed.

Personally focus on these three before moving in, quickly gut the property and get the main utilities reinstalled.



It sounds good to seal off rooms but in reality I found it safer to keep everything open, the dust from the plaster is so fine and horrible even the dust masks were failing... I used to open all the doors, windows and get fans on for circulation. Rip up the carpets FIRST, much easier to sweep up the dust and mess.

I only time I've sealed a room was the bathroom during the sandblasting, the pressure and grit is known to break windows and damage plaster walls so I bought a roll of black plastic sheeting (similar to a damp proof membrane but cheaper). A lot of dust and grit still managed to get through mind!

Just to add a different perspective I've had the oposite experience with sealing off rooms we pulled down a failed lath and plaster wall on our landing recently and sealed living room, dining room, master bedroom, bathroom and loft with wide masking tape all round the doors and there wasn't any mess/dust that managed to penetrate! I do agree though if possible do all the real messy stuff before you move in we had a re-wire and central heating install done before we moved in along with some minor building work and it was easily worth the stretch to pay mortgage and rent!

I also left the carpets down when we tore the wall down then rolles them up with 70% of the mess inside them which made for less trips to the skip with a bucket!
 
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Small update,

The aqua panels have been installed and sealed ready to finish off the shower area, we are leaning towards shower panels over tiles due to less maintenance long term and technically a good waterproof design.

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We bought high gloss white kitchen doors from Ikea that we'll be using for the airing cupboard, they were 600mm so we needed to reduce the opening by 60mm and add 10.5mm door lining to act as the carcuss (as they a front mounted doors).

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Some before shots before getting plastered

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Soldato
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Interesting thread I really like the work your doing that bathroom is going to look pretty special when it's done I think! Shame about your scummy neighbours, out of interest what model camera did you go for it is something I have been considering!
 
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A lot of hard work there - don't envy you as I have done it in past.

Shot blasting !!!!!!!! Came home one day to find my dining room covered in thick layer of dust - Next door had got someone in to shotblast the adjoining wall - it came through a few cracks in fire surround - Was not amused. I can understand your neighbours feelings.
 
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Interesting thread I really like the work your doing that bathroom is going to look pretty special when it's done I think! Shame about your scummy neighbours, out of interest what model camera did you go for it is something I have been considering!

I went with Hikvision DS-2CD3132-I and DS-1272ZJ-110 Wall Mount, there is also a version that provides two way sound and a microsd card slot (Hikvision DS-2CD3132F-IS). Make sure you buy the international or UK firmware unless you know mandarin ;)
 
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