Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Flip

Original poster

What would you do first? Heating or kitchen

25 replies

wonderstuff · 26/04/2014 21:37

We are (hopefully, yet to exchange) buying a new house. Currently has a 80s kitchen next to a lounge diner and we want to make it into a kitchen diner and separate lounge. Lounge also sporting a faux-fireplace that I'm going to immediately rip out. Current owners have taken out GCH and put in storage heaters and air-conditioning units.

I have a limited budget. Do I do the kitchen or heating. I'm going to need to skim lounge after ripping out 'fireplace' how annoying is storage heating going to be if it's a proper cold winter?

While I'm here are we crazy to get man and a van rather than proper removals company (we're moving less than a mile from and to a 3 bed).

OP posts:

tootiredtothink · 26/04/2014 22:08

Heating

specialsubject · 26/04/2014 22:10

heating, heating, heating.

storage heating does work but gas is much better if you have the option. Summer is the time to get it fitted, the installers won't be available in winter as they are all out fixing things. Just position things to leave options open for your future changes.

air-con? In the UK???? What, no windows?

as for man and van - you'll still need to pack stuff.

MrsC1966 · 26/04/2014 22:10

Heating

mousmous · 26/04/2014 22:16

heating.
the kitchen is 'only' costmetic. put what you save in heating costs with the new efficient heating system into the kitchen fund.

PigletJohn · 26/04/2014 22:30

running pipes, and cables for rewiring, are dirty jobs, and best done while the house is empty, or at least before it is decorated and recarpeted.

PigletJohn · 26/04/2014 22:32

p.s.

the air-conditioning units might be heat-pump heaters in winter. They are said to be quite economical to run, but are expensive to buy, and I am not very trusting.

Naoko · 26/04/2014 22:33

Heating, heating, heating. After a decade in rented accomodation with storage heaters I have sworn that if I'm ever in a position to buy, I will not buy a house with storage heaters, or only do so if it's sufficiently cheap that I can immediately afford to rip them out and replace with GCH. You do not want to live with these bastard things.

Original poster

wonderstuff · 26/04/2014 22:33

He's installs refrigeration units and she has a fear of gas..

I was thinking kitchen, because if we're taking out this fireplace we need new flooring and plastering, so if we're going to rejig the ground floor a bit why not go the whole hog. But if storage heating is going to be a nightmare.. DH reckons the air con units will blow out good heat.. I wonder if we can move walls and do the floor, or live with crap flooring and do the heating then save for the kitchen.

The man and a van thing is making me nervous. I'm going to order good boxes and start packing next week.

OP posts:

mysteryfairy · 27/04/2014 06:54

Surely you need to do the heating before the cosmetic stuff or you'll damage the finish when you do the heating.

TBH I would be questioning if it was the house for me if I couldn't afford to do both fairly quickly.

MrsTaraPlumbing · 27/04/2014 08:00

Definitely heating first.
Before decorating, before new flooring.
As said it is ideally done in an empty house or one where nothing needs "protecting".

On the air con subject. Don't be in a hurry to rip it out , find out more about it and live with it for a while. If you have what we have then to buy and install each unit would cost about £1,000 and must be done by some one qualified in refidgeration gas.

It had been my life long dream to have air con!
Even though we have only a few weeks of stifling humid heat in the UK each year.

In my house I have one unit on the ground floor it is an air to air heat pump. It cools in the summer and if I leave the doors open it will keep the whole of the ground floor cool. It might be expensive but I work from home and it is a luxury I like to enjoy.
It can also be reversed to heat the home. This is a function I don't use much but it is instant, like turning on an electric fan heater instead of waiting for central heating to warm up. So I use it when I just want a short and fast blast of heat.
I think air to air heat pump used for heating is supposed to cost only about 33% of the cost of producing the same amount of heat from an electric radiator - I could have that figure wrong so don't quote me.

I know some people off mains electric grid use these heat pumps in preference to oil/lpg.

poocatcherchampion · 27/04/2014 08:20

heating. like we should have....

Original poster

wonderstuff · 27/04/2014 08:24

We did think we'd be able to afford either straight away. The house is a decent size and we're in that position where a deposit was the biggest barrier to buying a house, so getting a doer pure seemed sensible. Now my mum has forced a few grand on me so we can get started. So has heating first, after getting rid of this fireplace that I absolutely can't stand.

OP posts:

Rinkydinkypink · 27/04/2014 09:52

God yes heating! If your kitchen functions just live with the ugly.

I'd rather be toasty and with ugly any day.

Sandthorn · 27/04/2014 10:38

Heating. Definitely heating.

specialsubject · 27/04/2014 12:30

BTW ask on your local freecycle for boxes and packing materials - move quick if any do come up! Saved me a fortune and after the move, put them back on freecycle and they were gone.

Also get cardboard for awkward items from supermarkets.

get thee to Wilkinsons for LOTS of packing tape and labels.

Original poster

wonderstuff · 27/04/2014 13:10

Hadn't thought of freecycle. Just to be clear house has got heating, just electric storage heaters rather than gas. Am I right they are either on or off, you don't have the thermostat control? We have them in bedrooms at the moment, they are fine, but we only have them on for half an hour before bed.

OP posts:

InsertUsernameHere · 27/04/2014 16:07

Heating. Boilers often end up in the kitchen, so if you so the kitchen after the heating you can have it seamlessly built in and not have to see it. If not you might end up looking at your boiler, or have to compromise on where you end up putting it. Ps storage heaters work well for people that are in the house all day and IMHO are fairly useless if you are our at work and then want to come into a warm house in the evening. Do heating in the summer when a week or so with no heating isn't problematic (eg your pipes won't freeze!)

InsertUsernameHere · 27/04/2014 16:09

Ps what you describe sounds like electric heaters rather than storage heaters. You can have a warm house with electric heaters but it is a kin to burning money.

Fluffycloudland77 · 27/04/2014 16:59

Heating first.

You can have a lovely effiecent valiant or Worcester bosch condensing boiler fitted

PigletJohn · 27/04/2014 17:01

please attach of photo of these heaters, especially any control they have (may be behind a flap or sliding panel).

SarcyMare · 27/04/2014 17:23

Heating makes a mess of the house, needs floorboards taking up, often requiring plastering afterwards, so,please listen to everyone and do heating first.

And nothing wrong with do'er upers. So ignore the other silly person who,suggested not buying it at all if you couldn't afford it all at once.

gamerchick · 27/04/2014 17:36

Definitely heating first.. I was slightly traumatised at the mess of getting the old heating ripped put and new one put in. The kitchen and whatnot is cosmetic.

cafesociety · 27/04/2014 17:38

Get the heating done and out of the way. You will regret it if you do it the other way around.

Original poster

wonderstuff · 27/04/2014 19:32

I'm convinced! Thanks all.

OP posts:

cressetmama · 28/04/2014 12:40

We have one electric heat pump and AC unit in our kitchen, which is brilliant. Warms the room quickly and saves running the oil central heating throughout the rest of the house. Would not be without it. We have a big live-in kitchen, dining room and hall, so it is the room that's always in use. And it's very energy-efficient. Ours delivers about triple the BTUs relative to its kW consumption. I'm hazy about the figures but 2kW input and 6kW output sounds about right.

In agreement with other posters about the sequence of projects. Do the messy jobs first!

Flip