Renovating a 3 Bed Semi

Furton

Furton

Furton

Soldato
Joined
9 Aug 2003
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2,716
Location
Liverpool
I'm currently in the middle of purchasing a 1930's 3 bed semi which literally hasn't been touched since it was built, i.e. it still has the original kitchen, no central heating etc!

I consider myself to be fairly competent at DIY however I've never done anything on this scale before. I'll be using professionals where necessary (mostly due to work commitments) but will try and do as much as possible myself.

I've been doing a cost plan tonight, which is coming out at roughly £33k. In terms of sequence of work, does the below sound reasonable

  • Strip Out
  • New windows & doors
  • Builders Work - Remove wall between kitchen and dinning room
  • Electrical re-wire and new DB (1st fix)
  • Install new central heating and cold/hot water supplies
  • Re-plaster throughout
  • Fit bathroom and tile
  • Fit kitchen, integrated appliances and tile
  • Electrical 2nd fix
  • Heating 2nd fix
  • Sand timber floors to ground floor
  • Decorate
  • Lay new underlay and carpet

Anything I've missed (apart from fixturs and fittings etc :p ).

Most of the walls (and some of the ceilings) are covered in wall paper which I'm going to strip. What would you recommend in terms of plastering? Hack if back to brick, or try and skim over the original?

Any words of wisdom from someone who's done this in the past? I'm looking at around 4 months to do most of the work, sound reasonable? Won't be living there until it's mostly complete.

Will be posting updates once I start :D
 
You've got no structural costs in there whatsoever. Just Homebase diy 'developers' costs

Have you had a proper structural survey carried out?
 
Get windows doors done after you've completed the heating 2nd fix. Only reason I say this is I've unfortunately learnt the hard way by banging a kitchen worktop through a window when I carried it through the door :D. It also can get scratched quite easily when you're running around with big boy toys. Accidents happen.

I've redone a 3 bed semi that was so neglected it made me sad admittedly it was a 80s build so probably not as bad. It took me 6 months fitting it around a 9-6 job. £33k sounds a lot if you'd be able to do a fair amount yourself. Mine was getting ready for rental so new kitchen/bathroom/repainted/new fixtures and carpet/underlay came to £12k (including dishwasher/washing machine/dryer)iirc.
 
Re plastering, I've nearly finished doing up a 3-bed semi myself. My only regret is that I didn't have the whole place plastered for ease. We stripped back all the wallpaper and then went further where necessary to strip/sand paint where I should have just bitten the bullet and re-plastered every wall and ceiling and been done with it. Took me ages sanding and filling to get the walls prepped.

We've stripped every single room and repainted everything except woodwork, had kitchen fitted and will have carpets down all within 2 and a half months.
 
Furton said:
  • Strip Out
  • New windows & doors
  • Builders Work - Remove wall between kitchen and dinning room
  • Electrical re-wire and new DB (1st fix)
  • Install new central heating and cold/hot water supplies
  • Re-plaster throughout
  • Fit bathroom and tile
  • Fit kitchen, integrated appliances and tile
  • Electrical 2nd fix
  • Heating 2nd fix
  • Sand timber floors to ground floor
  • Decorate
  • Lay new underlay and carpet

Anything I've missed (apart from fixturs and fittings etc :p ).
Click to expand...

Roof + Guttering
Dry rot treatment
Bricking up the attic (if not done) so fire can't spread from one attic to another (must be done for insurance).
New wooden floors / floor repair
Repairing stairs / handrails
Damp proof course.
When fitting windows, you may need new lintels as old houses sometimes only used wood (may have rotted by now)
New interior doors and handles + New front door.
Fix up the yard! Helps resale value.

There is always more than you think. I have been there and have the T-Shirt!
 
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He doesn't however insurance may be tricky at least if he tells them however it wouldn't take much to whack up some timber stud and two layers of fireboard. I think I would especially if I were up there insulating and boarding out.
 
Finally completed on the property on the 19th of December :D

Will soon be starting a blog on the rennovation, however has anyone had experience of removing an economy 7 meter before?

Phoned up Scottish Power who (currently) supply electricity to the property who advised I actually had an economy 7 meter (probably due to the storage heaters throughout).

I'll be fitting gas central heating hence won't benefit from an Economy 7 meter therefore want this removed.

Can anyone advise if it's better to have Scottish Power change the meter then change over to First Utility (who look like offering the cheapest deal), or move to First Utility then request a meter change?
 
I'd phone up your new provider and ask if you switch to them would they come and fit a new meter?

Look forward to your build log btw. I'm in the process of buying a 1930's 3 bed semi too so I might be having to pick your brain about some things in the future!
 
Why would you want to remove an E7 meter? It's great to run dryers, dishwashers and washing machines at the cheaper rate which you won't get with a standard meter.
 
maccapacca said:
Why would you want to remove an E7 meter? It's great to run dryers, dishwashers and washing machines at the cheaper rate which you won't get with a standard meter.
Click to expand...

Because the peak rate is more expensive usually, which is wjn I'll be using electricity the most.
 
When you have the electrics done, get the house wired for ethernet at the same time. And don't forget electrics and ethernet for the loft.
 
maccapacca said:
Why would you want to remove an E7 meter? It's great to run dryers, dishwashers and washing machines at the cheaper rate which you won't get with a standard meter.
Click to expand...

Absolutely.

Furton said:
Because the peak rate is more expensive usually, which is wjn I'll be using electricity the most.
Click to expand...

Which was why it was suggested to use the most power hungry appliances at the cheaper rate.

Doing so will far offset the difference in running lightbulbs and TV's etc during normal rates.
 
Depending on fixtures and fittings, I think you will likely be out by 100%. You will find lots of jobs when you start to peel back the years. You could easily drop £3-4k on the central heating alone.

To give an idea, we had the entire downstairs of the house refurbished (two walls taken down, new flooring, replastered, new kitchen, replacing a window with french doors, bricking up the old Kitchen door, solid oak flooring etc etc) and on kitchen appliances alone we spent £4k. However to be fair we did get all Neff Appliances as we don't want to have to replace them soon.

An idea on other prices:

The wall between the lounge and dining room cost us about £1200 to come down excluding 'making good' and SE costs. SE was about £250 on top.

The flooring can be an absolute nightmare. We pull up the carpets to find timbers in broadly OK state, but the spacing was suitably poor that by the time we'd ripped it all up, patched up the bad bits, fixed the dropped corners etc that actually, it was easier and cheaper to drop new solid oak flooring on the top. Depending on your exact plan, this can be over £1k in timber alone without doing and fixing. We added extra ventilation bricks around the house for under floor ventilation to ensure we didn't get damp.

Kitchens can cost a fortune. You can spend obscene amounts on them, and the little things always add to the price, things like clever corners, rounded units, soft close drawers and doors, etc etc... You could spend £4k or £14k just as easily.

New windows and doors can be a huge cost depending on what you chose. The cheapest quote we had for all new double glazing was £7k, the most expensive, £18k (The expensive one was for absolutely top of the range stuff, Residence 9 triple glazed units, beautiful. It is the Bay windows that screws you on cost). You don't really want to skimp on windows and doors, so be careful.

Electrics can spiral out of control depending on what you go for. We had the entire downstairs rewired and a load of new sockets put in as well as wiring in 5.1 for a home cinema and HDMI routing up to the chimney breast with centre speaker, power, and networking. I think it worked out at about £60 a socket for all the channeling, backplates, sockets, wiring, etc etc. It adds up very, very quickly.

All of our work was done through a builder who then had contacts for all the other work. Doing it this way kept all the risk in one place (I don't care that XYZ did ABC wrong, we're paying you and its then your problem) Going between people can save you a bit of cash, but if you want hassle free you will be out of luck.

You are in Manchester so your labour rates might be a bit cheaper than mine, but I think you need to be realistic.. its not been touched in nearly 80 years, there will be lots to sort.

Good luck, and I'll get our build log uploaded so you can have a peek
 
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