PLEASE share your home renovation tips- I need your sage advice

[Apatite1]

Hi everyone

I'm a complete newbie in the scary world of home improvements.

We are hoping to build a two storey extension and completely change the internal layout of a house. It's a dilapated 60s box right now.

We haven't hired an architect yet.

I would be very grateful for all your tips on how to do this as painlessly as possible, and on a tight budget. Our dream house will need £300k plus (which tbh this house isn't worth spending that much on): we have a third of this plus contingency unless I win the lottery or pull off that diamond heist . We need to cut corners all over, I've started looking for ex display kitchens, bathrooms etc already.

I'm looking for advice on everything from what to ask an architect, to what to put into a building contract, down to where to get door handles from. If would be great to hear from experts like noddyholder and PigletJohn, I'm out of my comfort zone by a considerable distance here!

I'm happy to answer any questions you have and it would be great to collate a thread of useful tips for others to refer to in future.

If you found great service with any companies, including builders in south east london, please share your thoughts.

Thanks to you all in advance!

Apatite dazed and confused

[Mum2KSS]

Hi - we are in week 7 of our new extension and wondered how you all are getting on??

[kittentwo]

I agree apatite 1 why not go to town on one bathroom an less on others. That is what we will do. In fact I plan to try and re use some of my existing 70s tiles as a bit of up cycling especially for kids bathroom or guest en suite. Think our bathroom we will go to town on and maybe little turquoise loo. 7k seems a fortune. Do you plan to stay there for a good few years? If you do then at least you will get the enjoyment of them .

[Apatite1]

Gak, that's a lot! How about for one bathroom only, then something else for the rest?

[SunflowerLV]

The tiles are about £80 per m2 so for three bathrooms it will be around £7k.

Thanks Kitten, I am going to look at engineered wood tomorrow and give it a bit more thought.

[Apatite1]

I also vote for engineered wood (we are getting underfloor heating too) and the tiles of your choice. I think you save on sinks, toilets but not taps and tiles, unless you want plain white. Which you don't.

I'm not project managing, as I work but mostly because I simply don't know what I'm doing, it's hard to coordinate the different trades and I'd be responsible for any mis timings. Too much pressure for me!

[kittentwo]

We had I solid oak at the last house and it got better an better with age so I would go for engineered oak over laminate mine did scratch and dent and mark but just made it look better with some character. We are going for parquet flooring this time as a nox to the 70s era of the house. I love tiles so I would splurge. But then again we quite often have a fantastic bunch of flowers but no bread or milk in the house ;)

[SunflowerLV]

I have planning permission for mine but only after appealing.

I am currently on maternity leave so was thinking of project managing - is that crazy with a 3 mth old and 4 yr old?

I've seen tiles that I love from World's End Tiles but they are super expensive. Can't decide whether to splurge on them and cut back elsewhere. What do you guys think, are expensive tiles worth it?

Also can't decide between laminate flooring or engineered wood. I think laminate would be more practical with children but DS prefers engineered. What do you think?

[kittentwo]

No plans still being drawn up. Think we know what we want to do with it now.

[Apatite1]

Welcome sunflower and kitten! waves

Sunflower, I'm in SE London too. Now awaiting planning permission. Defintely enlarge your pipes, most older houses don't have wide enough pipes to get a good flow for more than one tap running at the same time. I see you are having three bathrooms so you'll need it for sure. Will you be project managing yourself?

Kitten, wow kudos to your husband for doing it all himself! Have you gone in for planning permission now?

How is everyone else doing?

[kittentwo]

My dh is a builder and we are extending an renovating a 1974 detached bungalow. Have stretched ourselves for this place so not a lot of cash spare will cost us about 80, 000 not including labour but obviously he wont be earning any money while he is working on it. Our plan is Get plans passed get shell built. Plumbing electrics plaster out. Then save an one room at a time. Living in it with kids pets etc during the process have allowed ourselves about two to three years. Want to do it to a high quality finish so will take our time. Thankfully I have a great capacity for living in chaos :)) good luck with yours .

[SunflowerLV]

Hi can I join this thread.

I live in SE London and looking to embark on a house renovation. I am planning a new kitchen, 3 bathrooms and 1 toilet, garage conversion, loft conversion, install walk on glass floor panel, update utility room, sliding doors and lean-to glass roof and a garden makeover.

I've been meeting with builders the past few weeks and it turns out that I need a new heating system as my pipes are too small and I need to rewire the whole house. It is all getting very expensive.....

[SASASI]

Planning still going through here too - we didn't talk to neighbours about them though! I guess as were not already living in the property it might have been a wierd conversation starter lol.

Have also been looking at kitchens - fell in love with a silestone quartz worktop which will be rather expensive!

I can't wait to have more space - one DS 12 weeks old here & I can't believe the amount of stuff there is. Thankfully our new pad will have a toy room / 2nd lounge.

I'm in NI & prices are definately a lot cheaper here but all in comparison to wages I guess. Our budget is 75k but planning on doing a lot ourselves & my dad is recently retired but loves this kind of thing!

Currently having all the asbestos removed so once that's done the inside can be gutted & taken away in a skip.

[AryaUnderfoot]

I'm not sure if we have time penalties - DH sorted out all the contract stuff. TBH, they are still ahead of schedule. I'm just a bit impatient and don't like seeing the project progressing in big bursts of loads of progress followed by days with no-one on site. I suppose it's the nature of a project like this that's going on in November!

We now have to budget for a new living room carpet as well. We moved the furnitre out today and it will not be going back in the same places (some will go in the family room). Our 10 year-old carpet has not worn at all well and has faded/marked terribly. It's either a new carpet or a rug that's almost the size of the room!

[Apatite1]

Gah, so frustrating when it doesn't move quickly Arya! I hope it picks up soon. Do you have time penalties if the builders go over schedule?

[AryaUnderfoot]

Our project is zooming along at a snail's pace.

The main roof trusses (sp?) and gable end are done, we're just waiting for the roofers to come and do their stuff, as well as having the fascias and guttering replaced.

We've cleared the living room and DD's bedroom today as a friend was available with a box trailer and sodding great big Merc to help us shift everything to a storage unit. Our kids are now officially sharing a bedroom, and Santa is under very strict instructions to only bring small presents this year!

[Apatite1]

Hi mam! No we are still running feasibility studies, but the budget has tripled. Still, it's still way less than buying the same size house in London that wouldn't need any work. I'm hoping we are doing the right thing here, but we are hoping to stay here for at least a decade.

You're well ahead of me in the process.

I'm loving the look of the ewe kitchens, it'll look amazing!

[MAM48]

Hi Apatite, all good here thanks and same as you the budget is increasing day by day! Planning still going through so trying not to get too carried away just yet.

I have finally decided on my kitchen though - tis lovely! It is by Ewe and part of their Intuo brand.

Have you drawn plans up yet?

[Apatite1]

How are things going for you guys?

Our project is going to be a lot more expensive than we thought, but we will just have to suck it up....

[AryaUnderfoot]

One thing that I found really useful was browsing through planning applications on our council's website. All the applications are online and I spent ages going back through applications in the local area and seeing what things the council did/didn't like. It was also really useful to find the names/details of architects and building designers as their details were usually included on the plans and drawings.

[AryaUnderfoot]

Our original budget/guestimate was woefully inadequate and we had to increase it considerably. We've also suffered from the inevitable 'project creep' - things like having all the gutters and facia (sp?) boards replaced with UPVC ones. We're also having the hall/stairs/landing re-plastered as someone in the dim and distant past decided it would be a great idea to 'texture' the walls with Artex (yuk).

We did, however, decide on all the 'extras' in advance so these were included in the tender document that went out to the builders. Hence, we know exactly what the final budget for the build will be. We do have a budget for furniture, but not much. Our house suffers from severe furniture overcrowding, so we will mainly just be spreading out the stuff we already have. The hard flooring in the family room and landing are part of the building contract, so we've just (haha) got to carpet the stairs, landing, bedrooms and office space.

Bricks were a real issue and the extension definitely looks different. Although the colour match on the bricks is pretty good, the new bricks just look too 'new' and regularly shaped/spaced. The bricklayer blended in with some bricks that were reclaimed from the garden wall that's been taken down for the extension, so the join between bits of the building don't look too bad.

Our house is on a corner plot but the house itself faces sideways in the plot. So, although it's a side extension, the new bit is being built towards the road. That part of the garden was originally enclosed in a brick wall. We've 'lost' this section of garden as the bit that isn't going to be built on will form the new drive. The council weren't very happy about the layout of the parking space (at 90 degrees to the road and not 'independently accessible') but we managed to get the planning permission through without too much hassle.

I will keep you updated!

[Apatite1]

Course you can join! Have you found you've been sticking to your budget so far? Are you having to match your bricks or use reclaimed bricks? Have you had to budget for new furniture? How did you create another parking place? Just being nosey

[AryaUnderfoot]

Can I join?

We started our two-storey side extension at the end of September. We are adding two bedrooms upstairs and a family room downstairs (no kitchens/bathrooms so fairly simple). We are having to lose one of the upstairs bedrooms to access the new rooms, so it will become an open plan landing/office space so DH and I can work from home without killing each other in the dining room any more.

We employed a designer/project manager who helped us put together a really detailed design document that we could use to get a fixed price spec. The only complicated bit was that we had to create another parking space for planning permission to go from a 3-bed to 4.

Builders started on the 24th September and have just put in the final lift of the scaffolding ready for the final blockwork and roof. Our house (1970s boring box) is tile hung on the first floor so just blockwork which was really quick to put up.

Getting hold of bricks at the moment is a bit of a problem for most builders - they are in quite short supply apparently!

[Apatite1]

Thanks for the info marmite, v helpful. I think we may need to double our budget: we need to buy all new furniture (our ikea stuff has fallen apart), new driveway and garden so I think our initial budget was very unrealistic.

[Marmitelover55]

We lived in our house during our extension (16 and 1/2 weeks). My husband also works from home/often on conference calls too. Glad we stayed though as could keep a close eye on things/be on hand to make decisions as and when etc. We somehow managed without putting anything into storage. The work finished at the end of July and we love out new space. Ours is only single story extension and knock through of existing rooms. We have ended up with a new kitchen, dining area, large "snug" (as the architect calls it), utility room and study area. All in all we spent about £95k, but this includes furnishings, new tv and a lovely painting too

[Apatite1]

That sounds like a big extension MAM! I'll be talking kitchens with you later. Have you already been around the kitchen showrooms? I went last week to get a feel for prices and all the ones I liked were £50k plus. Serves me right for going to wigmore street. I thoroughly enjoyed it though, it was kitchen heaven.

I'll try and be ultra decisive about the layout. I usually am about things but who knows I might not be here. It's a huge decision. And I'm making 90% of all the decisions as husband is too busy at work and I'm part time.