Renovation of a 1970’s house

[LaLaFlottes]

Hi all - we are considering putting in an offer on a house that was built in the 70’s of around then.
Jobs that need doing are below.

I was wondering what order we should do everything in, trying to get my head around the project! Any pointers would be appreciated.

New flooring - upstairs and downstairs

New kitchen

Maybe knocking wall down between kitchen and living/dining room (tbc)

New bathrooms (downstairs loo, main bathroom and en suite) - may have to wait

Maybe knocking down a wall between two bedrooms to create larger space/dressing room

Removal of an old fashioned style of fireplace where you could have a gas fire and changing to a log burner if possible

Plaster a couple of ceilings that have artex

New skirting boards

Add coving

Maybe block up a door from the kitchen to the driveway and make it a window instead

You should not install a log burner these days. Many people I know have removed their gas fires and removed the fire surround completely. Just use the space for logs and candles.

The first thing to do is the building work. Removing walls and doors etc. Get plans drawn up and evaluate if walls are load bearing or not.

Then do the ceilings, paint throughout, do the floors and the whole kitchen. Bathrooms are presumably stand alone and can wait.

Once you have decided on which walls are going and if you need beams or not, then you can see if builders can quote.

I would do the technical stuff before doing the pretty stuff.
Removal of walls may mean repositioning of electrics and plumbing, new ceiling and repair to skirting boards and floors.
I would try and live in the house for a year to see how you actually use the space and to see how the seasons and natural light affect the rooms.

My advice would be to rip out everything, get the structure of the house how you want it, then first fix plumbing and electrics, then plastering, woodwork eg skirting, then painting then flooring, and then final fix electrical and plumbing.

Easier to do whole house in one go but we did ours room by room (more expensive in the long run though)

Hire a skip!

@TizerorFizz why not a log burner? We have one and love it

Thank you both - I didn’t realise that about log burners. Maybe we just get rid of the surround so it’s not as dated and then like you say make it look nice or look at an electric or gas “stove look” type of thing if that exists.

Who would we ask to come and evaluate the wall removal? A builder? The bedroom idea is fairly straightforward as it’s just a stud wall I think - the kitchen one could be more complicated though!

Stupid question but the floors creak and would need to be fixed before laying new carpet upstairs - who would do this type of work?

Sorry - we’ve had new build before so this is our first time!

@mercury92 thank you!

I think from a plumbing and electrical point of view it’s hopefully all ok - we wouldn’t be moving anything plumbing wise, I guess it might just be the kitchen affected by this.

We will need to live in it while we do it all so room by room could be easier, but we are in a budget so would have to see!

Get a builder in and ask for a quote to knock down walls, replace skirting and coving, fit new kitchen and bathroom, re plaster where needed and check the floorboards (mainly they all creak so probs fine).

After all that is done, you can arrange for flooring to be fitted.

Flooring and decorating is always last. Just as a note, you should ask an electrician to check the wiring - some 70s houses need a full re-wire.

Oh and fire happens just before flooring.

Builders can look at creaking floors. They would need to take the floors up though to see where the issues are. It might be possible to put a hardboard floor over the top.

Log burners emit particles which can be worse than traffic. They are not outlawed but there is a lot of evidence that they pollute the air. There are cleaner forms of heating.

We have two (installed 40 and 25 years ago) and rarely use one of them. The other is only used when it’s really cold - like last night! I live rurally and I’m aware they are not conducive to clean air, but I do think in towns they are potentially a problem.

A dimplex opti myst stove is the best electric fire I've found. The water vapour creates fairly realistic flames and there's a fan heater if you need heat.
But order of works:
Structural
Electrics and gas
Joinery (skirting, doors and architraves plus any built ins)
Painting
Carpets/flooring.
Get a builder in for the structural - hopefully one that will project manage it too to get all the other subs in as and when needed.

Don’t let a builder guess at structural load bearing walls. If you need advice on the structure you need a structural engineer.

I'd always advise getting a good house agent (maybe more than one) in and asking them what's worth doing.

We did that, saved money and time by not doing things we might have thought necessary, and put thousands onto the value* by doing something we hadn't thought needed doing.

• we got a valuation first, then again when we had done the work. The second was about 10 grand higher, a significant profit on the work we did, and we actually asked for and got about another five on top of that, IIRC. And that was in a static market at the time about 3 years ago.

(sorry, posted on wrong thread!)