To ask for your home renovation tips??

[nomad5]

Have just bought our first house (finally bought after 10 years and 2 DC!!) and so far MN advice I've found on existing threads has been really sensible. Like:

• buy a second vaccum cleaner for the renovation so you don't kill your normal hoover
• roll up carpets if you plan to keep them, while doing work, as it's cheaper and less hassle that trying to protect them
• set up tea station for the builders with a tale of charity shop mugs, tea, sugar, kettle, milk, biscuits etc

So I am here hopeful not BU and asking for any other tips from experienced MN renovators especially ones that relate to not losing your mind renovating with DC around

Pretty please?? The house is a 50s terrace, if that helps....

Tale of mugs?!? Rake of mugs ....

Be prepared for everything to take way longer than you think it will.

Drink plenty of water in dusty environments.

Don’t be wooed into buying MDF skirting boards and architrave, yes they’re cheaper, yes you can get them pre primed. But in a years time they’ll be shredded from wear and tear, unlike those pine ones you decided against.

It’s hard to do so, but factor in the cost of tools into anything you do. That tile combination might seem like a great idea, but when you’ve got to buy 3 different blades for the saw and 2 different diamond drill bits as a result, you’ve just added another £100 into the cost.

Expect the carpets not to go back down as well as you think they will.

Expect to get through more skips than you anticipate, it’s amazing how quickly they fill up.

Good tips babycatcher - esp about it taking longer than expected. Whenever I think "oooh we could do the bathroom now too" I try and dose myself with reality!!

Also imagining putting dark hardwood parquet back down instead of the old carpet.... Need to stay on track!!

Would be especially keen for any tips re IKEA kitchens and how long it takes a novice to paint the whole house interior (white)

I’ve installed and Ikea kitchen into my parents, and we’ve used it for our utility. We chose Howdens for the kitchen but the decision was down the style choice.
I found their kitchens pretty easy to deal with, just time consuming building all the carcasses. My parents kitchen is large, and me and my dad came to the conclusion by the end of it, is Ikea is always right. If ever you find something doesn’t work/fit as you think it should, you did something wrong. Every time we did something and thought Ikea had cocked up, turned out it was us, everytime.

How big is the house? If you’re painting the whole house a single colour that will massively speed the process up. Always paint ceilings first. Don’t skimp on paint quality, by the tile I got to painting the 3rd bedroom and the lounge I felt like I’d already spent enough on paint, and surely white paint is white paint, so bought cheap stuff for those rooms. It was a mare, took more coats this more paint and still finished off patchy.

Replace the skirting boards. It makes one hell of a difference to a room and not as hard as you think it is!

The best thing we did was rescue the original flooring, we hired Sanders and sweated for a week, then used osmo polyx oil (more expensive but doesn't need removing and redoing like varnish, is more natural and can be touched up if the floor gets damaged), it was back breaking but I love it and people always comment on how lovely the floor is, or would've cost us more to recarpet or replace the good awful laminate we inherited. Rescue that parquet if its under there you won't regret it. Also look for original features, our internal doors were all covered in horrible seventies faux wood stuff, we were going to change them all, I took the outside off one out of curiosity and found the original Edwardian doors, again a lot of dancing, glossing and finding appropriate period handles but totally worth it and cheaper than replacing seven internal doors!

Thank you all, this is bloody useful.

babycatcher (or anyone) do you know if you can use Grohe taps in an IKEA kitchen? Current kitchen has a lovely Grohe tap I'd like to keep. Builder is coming to tear the kitchen out on Monday (and I'm going to IKEA to confirm the order on Monday too) so I need to know!!

Skirting board tips are really good.

Did not know about painting ceilings first, thank you. Are there any good YouTube channels/links people could recommend about painting?? I plan to start with the children's bedroom first (because they won't care about my mistakes), followed by master bedroom, then downstairs then the hallway. The top floor will get painted after the new roof is done.

House is 200m2, across 3 levels.

Going to plant bulbs in the garden this weekend ... that's the sole gardening activity planned before we move in!!

Floors are concrete with carpet on top right now so no lovely hardwood underneath to rescue!! Carpets are old but in great condition (thank you, houseproud elderly seller) so will keep them until DC are bit bigger/less sticky then replace with dark parquet to match the other woodwork in the house.

If budget is an issue I'd suggest doing your own kitchen. We got our flat pack cupboards from Wickes, solid oak worktop online, then paid a joiner to fit it. A fitted kitchen for about a grand. It's exactly what we wanted but for some reason kitchen companies add on a huge margin, same for bathrooms.

What's the scale of work? i.e walls / ceilings coming down, or lighter (new kitchen, bathroom and decorating etc)?.

suomy mostly lighter aside from a wall coming down between kitchen and dining (builder doing that next week) and a complete rewire (DH and an experienced friend).

totally agree re new skirting boards - makes a huge difference.

Following this with interest as our house is a project, DD is on holiday shortly and I am thinking about sanding her bedroom floor while she is away. How long did it take ? And how big was the room?

If you are painting the whole house one colour consider getting someone on with a sprayer. We renovated our entire house and after DH had spent weeks painting it we saw a property program where some bloke with a special machine had come in and done a house in a day! Pays if you are painting before floors and kitchens go In!

Start at the top of the house and work down.

Use Johnston's Trade paint.

Mask off the areas not going to be painted by emulsion ie window and doorframe.

Use a roller on an extendable handle.

Paint the corners, joints first with a brush, then use a roller to fill in the middle.

Remove or loosen light switches and cover in masking tape. You can just put a small plastic bag over it and then wrap tape round. Turn your lighting circuit off first. Do the same with sockets (inc electricity).

Be prepared for the unexpected ie when we did our bathroom the plan was to remove the tiles then re tile. The old tiles were so firmly adhered we ended up taking the plaster off too. We also discovered part of the bathroom floor had wet rot. So ended up costing 4 times as much and taking 2 months longer!

Work systematically, finish one room before moving onto the next.

Allow plenty of time. And it will be dirty and dusty.

Plan your order well ie electrics first.

Agree with the lifting of carpets.

Use a work light or light your area. So you can not miss patches etc.

Use good quality brushes. Clean them, comb them and hang them up to dry. Bristles facing down.

Good luck

that was longer than I thought

One room at a time or you’ll end up like me, six years in, with not a single finished room.

Go for the best quality you can.

Keep a list per room of EVERY job that needs to be done. However small they may be (eg measure for curtains).

And enjoy it!

More great tips, thanks!

Will Google about the spray paint to see if I can find someone, have never heard of that before!

Order of work is:

• demolition/remove old panelling and wall fixtures/turning one doorway into a new wall/knocking through another wall
• moving a radiator and gasfitter closing the not needed gas lines for eg fireplace
• rewire
• installation of a toilet (there is no toilet in the bathroom... Only loo is the guest loo by the door!!!)
• plastering
• prep for kitchen installation
• kitchen installation
• painting

Move in (February) and then roof renovation once weather is better.

Does that sound realistic?

I'd like to renovate the bathroom now but it's in liveable condition and I'm wary of bad surprises and extra cost. But it is a messy job and arguably better to do it when nobody living there. Any thoughts?? Is the benefit of re-doing bathroom before moving worth extra cost/squeezing into schedule?? I had hoped to leave it for now and plan more carefully.

How many weeks does plaster take to dry (in winter)?!? It shouldn't be huge amounts of plaster, just to patch up after the rewiring. Was hoping it would dry in 1-2 weeks while kitchen gets done and then I can paint before we move in.

Fucking hell, this is all new to me alright!! Grateful for MN wisdom.

Ask builders for who they suggest as a supplier eg most prefer howdens for kitchens and joinery as they are local and can easily (and crucially immediately) swop units etc. If you can afford solid wood go for it, it lasts. Plastering is the worst - buy a dehumidifier to speed up drying and reduce moisture elsewhere in house especially in winter when you can't have windows open. Tell your insurance company to ensure you are covered. Add 20% to budget for contingency. Get a trade card if using a supplier a lot. Oh and save money on flooring by installing good floor boards and oiling them - our oak ones cost about £1000 more but saved putting anything on top )and look lovely still). If you can send the kids away during kitchen and bathroom replacement do - kitchen was the worst, 6 weeks of microwave meals and takeaways plus going to the laundrette (I paid for service washes in the end like real life eastenders!)

Oh and if you are diying buy a proper mitre saw for skirting boards and never skimp on cheap gloss, b&q brand is terrible (their emulsion is fine though). Water tile cutter is best too, if you are local to me welcome to borrow!

Plaster needs at least a week in winter with heating, took five days in hot June. If you have north facing walls or an old house (pre cavity walls) consider internal insulation.

Thanks Annie, good tips and a kind offer! We live on the continent so we're doing this while also dealing with tradesmen etc in our second language (would not recommend that for your first house renovation, btw). Hence my total gratitude for MN advice in English!! I sometimes get bits and pieces ordered from UK for the house or can Google the local equivalent.

If anyone is good at DIY and wants a European winter holiday with "rustic" free accomodation, PM me

We are just at the end of our renovation - ten days before my due date (ha!)

Few things:

Do your bathroom now!! Bathroom renovation is bloody messy (tile cutting dust is the worst) and you won’t regret it.

We lived in our house while having ours done and we kept one room clean for sake of our sanity and then sealed the rest - but sounds like you don’t have that problem

Might be hard overseas but having a schedule of work and coming back to it each week with the builders to check you are on track has been great for us. Ours are finishing a week early.

Gas work takes forever and can hold you up - same with any inspection work. You can hire a private building inspector which is faster (again maybe not relevant in your country)

Pay on time in instalments and don’t take ages making decisions on things like fixtures and fittings etc, factoring in delivery times. our builders have said this is one of the big things that holds builds up usually if clients change their mind a lot.

Leyland will mix any paint colour including farrow and ball for a fraction of the cost and decorators far prefer it - the quality is good

Demolition goes really quickly and is really really exciting - then it all slows down a bit!

Our plaster just took 7 days to go off - we also had a lot of concrete in the foundations which ended up slowing us down because it took an age to set

And remember it will be over before you know it and you’ll have a wonderful clean amazing house to enjoy which truly is YOURS.

And factor in a good contingency. You’ll be the skintest you’ve ever, ever been (we are) but totally worth it.

Definitely try to do the bathroom before you have to move in. We are currently in to week four of a five day bathroom job! Our plumber removed everything then discovered what a botch job the previous owners had done (think rotting walls behind wrongly fitted tiles). So we have had to get new tiles we didn't expect (we hoped just to fit new bath suite), fit in a tiler, and of course the plumber now has to fit us in between other jobs rather than doing it all in one week. Fortunately we have another toilet and an en suite, but I hate having DS trapping through!

Ikea kitchens are great, I exDP and I self-fitted one in my last house in 2000, sold the house in 2014, it still looked like new, and was still being sold if the new owners needed any spares. But I would avoid wooden work surfaces. They look lovely, but do need regular oiling, and I could never quite keep up with it behind the taps.

With painting, spend most of your time on prep - rubbing down, wiping down, masking up, the painting itself is relatively quick, esp white emulsion. And as PPs have said, a really strong, moveable working light is indispensable, all that white will send you snow-blind and you will miss bits if you haven't got a good light.

And finally, when DS was younger, we went for good underlay, cheap carpet, professional fitting. You only need do the underlay once, but professionally fitted cheap carpet will look good for a couple of years and you won't resent the sticky fingers - I'm talking off the roll at £5.99 /sqm and replacing every three or four years. Now he is an older teen, I'm happy to spend for quality, lasting carpet. Kind of the same for bathroom tiles, cheaper tiles, professionally fitted.

If you need cheap flooring until you can afford to do what you want, go to a carpet shop, get a remnant close to the size of the room and have it bound. You end up with a cheap giant rug/carpet that is easy to replace/remove.

IKEA shells for kitchen- but buy handles/front from other places (there are companies that design alternative fronts especially for use with ikea).

If small bathroom, look at installing underfloor heating behind the tiles on the wall instead of a radiator. (You can hang hooks to give somewhere for towels to dry).

Spend money on switches/plugs. No point spending hundreds of pounds on paint and having the part you touch daily feeling like cheap plastic. And more plug sockets are nearly always a good idea.

Paint radiators if you are going for strong colours on the wall.

I prefer Dulux trade to Johnson's, but any trade store will probably give you a trade discount if you chat to them about the size of the project you're doing.

Dark and dingy rooms will nearly always be dark and dingy unless you're tearing down walls/changing windows. Think about how to bounce light in or embrace darker colours.

Tiles on a hallway wall if you have kids. Easy to clean mud/scrapes from.

Plaster takes around 2 weeks to dry - I was advised not to turn heating on and to keep windows closed for first few days to avoid cracking. Remember you have to mist coat before painting. It's not so much the painting that takes long, it's also the wait between coats, and the prep.