Victorian renovation build log

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Matt emulsion?

acrylic durable matt, and water based eggshell for the woodwork.

Varnish still drying on the top steps. And after I took this picture I swapped the bulbs for dimmer narrow beam ones.

The door will be getting dip stripped like the rest when when weather is warmer.

I think the stairs were well worth the effort, and quite pleased with my wine storage.

Also painted and stained the shelves/boot rack I made from an old bed.

Flooring just arrived on a pallet, so will be unpacking that to acclimatise for a week before I think about laying it

 

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Thanks

I’ve randomised and stacked the wood to acclimatise to the room. Quite pleased with it considering it grade B stuff.

Having a week off the DIY before having a go at laying it. I’ve laid a floating t&g engineered floor before, but this stuff has to be glued to the concrete a bit like tiling.

 

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Started to dry lay the flooring down, gone for a 90 deg. herringbone pattern for ease, and its the same pattern I've used elsewhere in the the house, will hopefully stop the room feeling long and narrow.

I've under cut with a multitool the door frames and the newel post. Just got to work out in my head how I begin to lay it all without finishing with a peice out that should be under something immoveable (if that makes sense).

I'm going to prime the self levelling compound with SBR and then use floor adhesive to stick the wood down

 

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I dry laid it with all the cut pieces.
The adhesive instructions say only to do 1 square metre at a time.

Primed the self levelling compound with SBR

And laid the first square metre.

And this is where I am up to before the fumes and sore knees got to me.
There’s a few small gaps here and there but I have to say I’m pretty please with myself.

Still haven’t decided what varnish to put in the floor, thought maybe Ronseal diamond hard satin.
Anyone have any recommendations??

 

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Very slow progress due to other commitments but slowly getting there, I’m just through the doorway now.

decided on Osmo Polyx oil in satin, same as the rest of the wooden floors.
reaosn I’ve stained it before finishing is that it was getting a fair amount of traffic into the garage and I had the remnants of an old tin lying around

 

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@Buffman it was off periodstyleuk on eBay, cheapest I could find 300x70x16mm tongue and groove £25/sqm

I’ve subsequently found slightly cheaper 280x70x20mm for £23/sqm

 

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Was much difficulty added with the adhesive?

Difficulty? Not really. Time? Yes

I’m doing it 1sqm at a time which is around an hour to dry lay, cut then stick down. This suits me fine and I can only spare the odd hour here and there.

You can’t float solid wood on concrete apparently due to the amount to expands and contracts.
You can with engineered board as it doesn’t expand as much, but then it’s double the price of solid parquet.

 

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Time for a long over due update.
Long finished the basement flooring…

… only for my 4 year old to flood it from the bathroom, slight setback (a lot of extra work) but fixed it back to almost as before. This is before revarnishing.

 

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The next project, we’ve been dreading, is the master bedroom.
Its a big room, 7.5m x 4.5m, which was basically decorated when we moved in but otherwise left untouched.

Plan is to take it back to brick on the external and party walls and insulate and sound proof.
New ceilings, and floor lifted for sound insulation.

We will also add a small narrow en-suite (4m x 0.8m) at the far end of the room by the bay window. Sounds too narrow but there will be large double door over the middle third of it, with one corner a walk-in shower and the other corner a toilet. So it’s more like a bathroom on a cupboard. That’s the idea anyway, we’ll see how it transpires!

 

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And so it begins….. the mess is awful!

Day 1

Day 2 (today)

 

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@sja360 it’s 2 rooms joined together, the beam is original, it was previously just a timber wall, the floor boards are the full length of the room and actually went under the wall

@a1ex2001 the walls will be battened out, the window frames modified and spaced out and filled with 50mm PIR insulation.
The party wall is going to be boarded with a product called mute board 4 - a 29mm layered board 1.2x1.2m weighs 37kg!

 

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Day 3 and 4 the rip out of the master bedroom was completed (thankfully)

And today they started putting up the sound board on the party wall.

 

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And today the rip out started on my sons room.
Hampered by a delayed plasterboard delivery and a wrong delivery of the acoustic roll (they gave me loft roll instead)

Part way through clear out, to this…

External wall being stripped, larger built wardrobe is going (there’s 2 and the other is staying), all skirting off and party wall getting soundboarded the same as the master bedroom.

Oh and the horrible rolled edge being removed, unfortunately to expose that the original cornice was just plastered over.

 

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2 weeks in….

Son’s room stripped, cornice removed, wardrobe removed, and sound board to party wall. Annoyingly despite my calculations I’m one board short. It was tight but these are expensive so didn’t want to over order, now left with the opposite problem of trying to get a single board without paying extortionate shipping.

Master bedroom…

Party wall fully sound boarded, seems to be pretty good stuff but hard to tell at this stage.

Ceilings took them ages to do give the weight of acoustic plaster board, the bowing of the ceiling joists and how thin and oddly spaced the joists are.

Studding for the en-suite in, hopefully makes it easier to understand what it will look like.

Next week all the external walls will be studded and insulated and the drains all cored out

 

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Materials have gone up but thankfully the joiners are the same price.
I had budgeted for the bedroom to first fix, but not including the bathroom fitting/furniture/tiling, and before we started on my sons room too.

No work yesterday but today the whole front has studded out

 

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I’ll be interested to see how you take care of the window surrounds, are you looking to do anything decorative or just square up with the plastering?

If you compare to previous photos you'll see the original architrave and sills have been taken off. They will be attached back with some wood spacers so will be deeper but retain originality

Nice project! Just read the lot in one go! Keep up the good work

This is now 100% being done by a couple of joiners that first work in the extension years ago. Work and family life is too busy these days.

did you do these renovations before living there?

We are still living there, extra stress with 2 toddlers, but I could justify moving out, thankfully its a big house with plenty of space to hide. The dust is very bad though, but only really if the ceiling are disturbed.

 

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The dust is bad, but hopefully will feel worth it 6 months from now

50mm PIR in the stud. The section below the window got an extra vertical and some osb to hang a heavy radiator on.

And ready for plaster, we’ll nearly, the wood chip needs stripping off the ceiling.

Turned out I was 1 muteboard short and I wasn't prepared to pay £150 for a single one delivered so made my own using 2 different car sound insulation mats sandwiched inbetween 2x 12.5mm boards all held together with contact adhesive!

Master bedroom has one more days work before it’s also ready for plaster.
The original window architraves didn’t all survive so I’m going to have to come up with a plan to replace them.

En-suite will now go on the waiting list for the bathroom fitter, but no rush.
The soil, shower, sink waste and extractor vent have all been cored in preparation.

 

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How it getting on? Looks good!

Is the soundboard onto neighbours walls? Is the sound transfer bad?

There’s been a brief hiatus which allowed me to move some sockets and fill the voids under the floor boards with a combination of sound insulation and loft roll. Also paid someone £100 to strip the ceiling of the woodchip!

All go this bank holiday though, plasterers came this morning at 8:30!

The soundboard is on the party wall, it’s a 2 brick thick solid wall but with poor mortar and what seems to be shared joist holes. You can hear loud TV and loud conversation.

 

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My eldest’s room is all plastered.
Wide angle and high window makes it look small but it’s 4.9x3.8m with high ceilings.

Plan is some nice big skirting, picture rail and some reproduction cornice.

 

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Master bedroom plastered and mostly dry

Need to crack on a find someone to make me some nice built in wardrobes.

I’m doing a lot of the finishing joinery myself but have been delayed by deliveries of scrap wood

Once I’ve done the skirting behind the radiators the plumber will do the radiators and the first fix in the en-suite