House Renovation with ethernet

[ThomP]

This thread is the on-goings of my first house renovation project to bring it up to a livable acceptable standard.

Couple details about the house:
A semi-detached cottage built in the 1880s.
2 bedrooms
2 reception rooms
kitchen
bathroom
Rear garden with double garage.

The only parameters I have set for this project are:

- Full house rewire
- CAT5/6 in every room with central patch panel.
- TV Points in every room.
- Extend garage

I opted for the "home buyer" type survey due the disrepair of the house. The surveyor report pointed too:-
- Possible damp in the living room / kitchen
- Possible Wood worm in front bedroom.
- Possible asbestos in the garage roof.
- Electrics need replacement / upgrading.

I was informed by my broker that due the content of my surveyors report I will be required to produce specialist timber/damp report and an Electrical Condition Report.

£250 later and reports in hand.

Timber/Damp `specialist` said they'll need to remove all plaster upto 1.2m high within the living room/kitchen. Chemical DPC to all walls. A sealant on the chimney breast to counteract the sulphur coming through the mortar.

Electrical Condition Report, As expected the report said the electrical wiring wasn't safe and majority of the installation would need to be replaced to bring it up to an acceptable standard.

Reports Fax'd to Natwest. I called natwest to confirm receipt of reports. I was told, they're not a requirement & natwest will not be reading the reports. I called back 20 minutes later and the next day, three times it was confirmed they're not required.

Wasted £250. Lesson to be learnt, don't trust your/my broker..

I received the keys late 2012.

These pictures are several days after I had started to remove fixture / fittings and wallpaper.

In the 70s the owner removed the wall separating the two rooms & fitted an RSJ.

Front bedroom. What this picture doesn't show is when I removed the plasterboard covering the old fireplace, a lot of soot, straw and a couple of bricks fell out of the hole. I must have filled 2-3 rubble sacks full of soot from this old fireplace.

Front bedroom, wallpaper & polystyrene ceiling tiles fill a lot of rubble bags.

The previous owner had converted the loft to a small room for his train set.

 

[ThomP]

After filling up 40 rubble bags quite quickly & running out of space to store it.

I needed to get a skip, so not wanting to block my driveway I set about clearing a space for the skip.

I'm keeping the rubble to be used as part of the base for extending the garage.

The remaining bedroom was stripped of wallpaper, polystyrene ceiling tiles & carpets. You can see in this photo the plaster is coming away from the lath & is water damaged around the chimney breast.

I then started on the rooms downstairs, removing the wallpaper & the carpets. I also saw skirting on offer so I picked up all my skirting.

 

[ThomP]

Things take a turn for the worse.

I find its very damp in the "train room" in the attic.

I removed a little bit of the plasterboard to take a peak to find the purlins are damp and the chimney is dripping wet (even tho it hadn't rained for 2days).

I took the decision to dismantle the entire "train room". Which was basically plasterboard nailed to a wooden frame without any extra joist support.

While I was removing the plasterboard, I found many dead birds & old nests on top of the loft insulation. It wasn't unusual to have birds flying above your head / watching you while you removed the plasterboard.

I found the chimney breast had plastic sheeting covering it completely wasn't allowing it to dry out. This caused problems for the mortar which had eroded quite severely in places. This will need to be re-pointed.



We had quite a bit of snow on Jan 18th as you probably remember, this is what it looked like inside of the attic.

 

[ThomP]

I have now decided to have all my roof tiles removed, breathable felt installed, new battens , lead flashing for the chimney & reusing the staffordshire blue tiles.

While that was on going, i started work removing cupboard and wooden frames in the living room.

 

[ThomP]

Its important to note, I had fibre broadband installed. All 4.5mbps of it!

Here is a quick picture of my shed, I couldn't find anywhere else to store the wood I was removing.

I fancied working outside today tackled the bambo bush. It took three bin fulls to get of it completely.

I was working while they did the roof so didn't get many pictures. My neighbor also decided to have her roof done so hopefully its water tight after all this.

 

[ThomP]

I assume that you're keeping the train room?

Unfortunately I had to remove the train room to fix the damp problems.

 

[ThomP]

I am doing the same with my new Gaff...will keep an eye on this for tips....you may even have inspired me to do the same.

I have just finished running all my cat6 cable and electrics to each room, upstairs easy with floor boards for easy access...downstairs... diff story with solid/stone floors - had to carve each wall up which in turn has wrecked plaster that was "Ok'ish" before to having to be re plastered.

On my TV walls I have decided to strap and plaster board to hide the number of cables and give me more options for running new cables up and down behind the scenes.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the message. Prior to this, I had zero DIY knowledge! Have you put up a thread for your Cat6 install? I would be interested in how you went about the installation.

 

[ThomP]

The roof has been completed. We installed new battens, new felt, new lead flashing for chimney and reused existing tiles.

It has rained/snowed quite a bit and none of that has made its way into the roof space. So its safe to say the roof has been a success.

The Ceilings,
I have scrapped away all the polystyrene ceiling tiles to investigate the quality of the late/plaster ceiling.

All the ceilings are very similar in condition. Plaster cracked/missing with large sections of plaster disconnected from the lath with evident large sections been repaired (unsuccessfully) in the past.

My options are:
a) Leave existing ceiling in-place & build lowered ceiling.
b) Remove existing ceiling & plasterboard.

I choose option b)

I decided the way to remove the ceilings was to do it in stages. Firstly remove the loft insulation then remove the plaster, then the lath.

You will create a lot of dust which in turn comes with a health risk. So you need to wear a quality mask.

I purchased a Moldex half-mask with P3 filters. You can replace these filters for about £6 for a pair.

The old insulation was a mix of fibreglass & hay. I actually removed about 45 rubble bags from the loft area.

I found it easier to dispose of the lath & plaster separately.

So while kneeing in the loft, I would use the backside of my shovel & tapped the plaster from the lath. This process only took 15mins longer but overall made it easier to transport to my incinerator.

Just do what works for you.

I must stress to wear a mask for this type of work. During removal the dust/soot got so bad I could only see a few feet in front of me and when I knocked my mask off it was a struggle to breath.

 

[ThomP]

Are you planning on keeping the upstairs fireplaces?
Just that it would be a good moment to remove the chimney stack otherwise.

Yeah I plan on keeping the fireplaces. The project has been going on for so long I just want to move in!

 

[ThomP]

What state is the house in now, have you completed the project now or are you still ongoing with it?

The project is still on-going... its couple months further along than detailed in this thread.

 

[ThomP]

Most impressed with what you've taken on and I'll be watching this thread, like all the others.

I'm thinking I might start my own, even though I'm 6 weeks in.

Good luck with your renovation!

 

[ThomP]

Not being satisfied with the mess I made upstairs, I started with downstairs.

 

[ThomP]

Electrics (early April 2013)
Every electrician that provided a quote requested that a loft hatch be installed in my extension to the rear of my property. In the 1970s the previous owner built an extension on the rear of the house for the kitchen & bathroom.

I have chosen to install the loft hatch in the tiny hallway between my kitchen & bathroom.

I scraped away the polystyrene tiles, bought my myself a jabsaw & cut away the plasterboard ceiling.

I saw this moudy chipboard. Not quite the loft space I was expecting to see...

After I managed to smashed a hole through the OSB & felt! This is what the loft space looks like...

After speaking with my neighbour it appears when the extension was built in the 1970s with a flat roof it constantly leaked so they later converted to a pitched roof and left the old roof in place.

After discussing my options with the electrician. we could have installed trunking in the kitchen but the ideal scenario would be route the electrical cables within the roof space.

The biggest problem was removing the OSB/felt through a very tiny hole in the ceiling and the loft space was barely big enough to crawl.

 

[ThomP]

First time using my new jigsaw to cut the OSB...