Grotty house advise

How old is the house ?

Don't forget that houses built up to mid 1980's could well have Artex on the ceilings, and that could well contain asbestos fibres.

You should really get the ceilings checked for asbestos within the artex and get it professionally removed if it does contain asbestos fibres.
 
@Russinating Wow that looks fantastic - Good job!

We'll be doing most of it ourselves since the house was already top of our budget. My sister's partner owns a construction company and has offered his services so at least we'll have some help there.

Thanks for the advise!

@Entai we've not got the survey done yet but we're fairly sure it's around 1950's.
 
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If you are getting plastering done, I would strongly consider sacrificing one of the bathrooms to redo the wiring. That is going to be one of the most invasive jobs and probably in serious need of an overhaul.

Doing wiring piecemeal is a real pain in the backside.
 
Funky-Melon said:
@Russinating Wow that looks fantastic - Good job!

We'll be doing most of it ourselves since the house was already top of our budget. My sister's partner owns a construction company and has offered his services so at least we'll have some help there.

Thanks for the advise!

@Entai we've not got the survey done yet but we're fairly sure it's around 1950's.
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Thanks! Ours is like 1860 so I'm sure you'll have less work than us. No lath and plaster at least!

And like I said, no regrets. The equity has meant we've pretty much slipped a rung in the ladder to move to a place we'll be in for 10+ years.
 
I'm two years into a project of this exact type. Guy used to sit in front room smoking continuously and ceilings and walls were yellow. Even taking photos off the walls upstairs, behind were white.

Removing carpets and any furniture will make a big difference, on top of this you want to leave the windows open for a few weeks night/day.

In the end, I basically removed the ceilings due to popcorn covering. The rest of the house we've cleaned down with sugar soap and reskimmed the lot.

You now can't smell anything, so definitely possible to get rid of it!

For sugar soap, Screwfix non nonsense is what you want in powder form. Get yourself a 5l pump spray bottle and go to town.

Good luck
 
Would an ozone generator not work for the smells? I know they are widely used in automotive detailing and other industries for this exact purpose. I've also heard good things about sugar soap, which has been recommended several times already.
 
Funky-Melon said:
Nope, Netley.
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Aaah ok sounds exactly what my new neighbours are going though, knew the old chap before he died, heavy smoker went into hospital and didn't come back...... looks like they are totally gutting the place, carpets have all gone and looks like they are replastering all the walls.
 
Fireskull said:
Aaah ok sounds exactly what my new neighbours are going though, knew the old chap before he died, heavy smoker went into hospital and didn't come back...... looks like they are totally gutting the place, carpets have all gone and looks like they are replastering all the walls.
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Ahh fair enough. Yep, that'll be me when we're in :D

Where abouts in Southampton you from?
 
Funky-Melon said:
Ahh fair enough. Yep, that'll be me when we're in :D

Where abouts in Southampton you from?
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Need to update my sig not in Southampton anymore, used to rent a flat in Portswood, now in Eastleigh, but renovating this place at the moment with the view to sell in next 18 months and move to the New Forest :D

Good luck with this project!
 
Fireskull said:
Need to update my sig not in Southampton anymore, used to rent a flat in Portswood, now in Eastleigh, but renovating this place at the moment with the view to sell in next 18 months and move to the New Forest :D

Good luck with this project!
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Thanks!

I work not far from Portswood....You're far better off in Eastleigh :D
 
We finally got grant of probate, exchanged 2 weeks ago and complete/move in next Thursday.

Buying all our sugar soap/scrubbing brushes, paint etc now to start gradually making it more homely.

First thing after cleaning it is to rip out and replace one of the bathrooms, both were listed as 'unsanitary' in the survey :D
 
Russinating said:
Be realistic about what you're getting yourself into.

The house we're currenlt in/in the process of selling was a dooer upper, we thought it'd largely be cosmetic but turns out cosmetic basically is everything. In the end it was easier/quicker to just remove everything and go back to brick/studs and plaster/paint fresh than fannying about trying to patch over artex, strip wallpaper etc. Plus all the internal stud walls were lath and black plaster.

We didn't do any wiring, minor plumbing, and we spent about £40-50k, not including the side return extension, on a 2 bed. We expected to spend about £20k.

It's also incredibly difficult and inefficient to live effectively in a building site and do work around you.

It was totally worth it but we were fortunate that we could do it (with the unexpected spend).[/QUOTE

Yes. I have done the same thing. It was a nightmare living in it but we got it done. I think it took about 6 months till we were satisfied and like you we thought 20-30K....ended up around 60K:eek:
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I know an estate agent friend who flipped a property similar to this. Brought for 90k a few years back, he only actually officially owned it for something like 3 weeks. They picked up the keys and arranged for a contractor to completely rip out everything in the building. Plastered where it was required but nothing massively extensive. I think he said he spent a total of around 3k on it and then sold it for £130k. If you can see past the initial grottiness of places like this and they are structurally sound then can be a real goldmine.
 
Our new property was exactly like this when we moved in at the end of May. Now there is only a slight smell of smoke as you walk through 1 doorway.

I found removing the wallpaper (woodchip....) made a big difference to the smell. We were going to wash all the walls with soap but removing the woodchip and then getting them skimmed has sorted it.

As everyone else says - windows open, candles during the evening etc.... I didn't use the extractor fan for about the first 3 months to get the smell of cooking round the house rather than smoke.

So far we haven't replaced any of the carpet and a wet-vac got the smell out of that. I think our spend so far is about £10k now - £2k on a woodburner, £2.5k on replacing some windows and then the rest spread across electrics (new CU and lots of lighting needed earths), plumbing (new rads going everywhere) and plastering (makes the biggest difference, roughly £300-£400 for a 'normal' 4m*4m room).

We expect to spend roughly £60k by the time we've finished the whole house in it's original form, with roughly another £50k-£70k on a rear extension coming after that.
 
As stated a few times, get it all out. Our first house was the same, 'yellow' glosswork, horrendous smell.

All carpet and underlay - gone.
Kitchen and bathroom suite - gone.
All light fittings and switches, sockets - replaced, they were in a horrible state.

Carpets and kitchen made the most difference as this harboured most of the odour.

We spent around £12k back in 2015 on a 2 bed semi, complete refurb but this was all DIY and took 3-4 months before we moved in.

Cant stress enough how much you need to remove to get rid of the smell!
 
Doer up houses are only a good idea if you have the time and skill to do most of the work yourself if you ask me. Costs soon rise to horrendous levels of you're getting professionals in to do everything.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. Yeah we'll gut most of the house after the initial cleaning of walls etc. We're also going to remove a few walls downstairs too, it's currently got a shower and toilet room partitioned off from the kitchen :confused:

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Plan is to gut that out, put it in the side extension and make a large kitchen in the space.
 
My first house was very much the same, whole family that chain-smoked and seemed to cook everything in a deep-fat-fryer along with owning but never tidying up after two cats that left fur everywhere.

Totally gutted the place, floors/carpet/living room ceiling/kitchen replaced along with Skirting boards. Sugar soap on all other surfaces. Ended up using an oil based paint on the ceiling of the kitchen as normal paint just peeled off. The smell went and other than the odd whiff when cutting into plasterboard once I never smelt it again.
 
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