How quickly do you think we could get this work done on new house?

[HotChocolate16]

Due to complete on our house on 23 May and it needs quite a bit of work doing I think.

electric rewiring

knocking down 4 chimney breast walls

knocking down small wall between W/C and main bathroom to make one big bathroom

Replastering in most rooms

may need to replace some floor boards, lay insulation down too

boarding up small window in kitchen and knocking out a larger window space on the other wall

ripping out old kitchen and bathroom and fitting new one

carpets and painting new as well throughout whole house

deal with damp - not sure how to do this. It’s a 1930s house and I’ve read online damp course isn’t required.

I know this is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question. But I was wondering if anyones done similar? We have people who can start pretty much straight away. My husband will be doing it himself too, and we have separate people for diff jobs. We are living at my in laws whilst the work is being done too.

It’s worth considering the order things need to be done and how the trades will impact one another. Do you have a trusted builder who will be able to work this out for you and put together a project plan? For example, the plasterer can’t do anything until the electrics, plumbing etc are all done. What you’re having done requires many different trades, and if you have delays getting one of them in, it’ll stop the whole project from progressing.

making a window larger will require a structural engineer I think - definitely worth looking at that asap. Same with the damp - that needs to be investigated asap.

honeslty I’d say 6+ months given how complex it is.

Agree - allow 6 months at least (and that it will cost more than you expect too)

Re damp - most damp in properties is not to do with a damp course - it's things like a blocked air brick, a leaking gutter, even something leaning up against a wall outside or soil that's built up against the wall etc. Look really carefully at the outside of the house where the damp is and see if you can spot what might be causing it. We had a damp corner in a house once that turned out was caused by some badly laid lino that allowed water/moisture to get underneath it. Once the lino was gone the damp dried up.

Good luck!!

thank you both! I was not expecting to hear that long tbh! I’d read on here someone had done similar in 8 weeks or so! We thought 2-3 months in our head!

It's a difficult one as you are getting different trades in and that will complicate things - we did extension/moving walls/electrics/plastering/loft conversion/new kitchen and landscaping and that took 6 months exactly but ours was one team so the second one trade finished the next was lined up. Also meant if there we delays with materials (which there were) the team just did something else so there was no dead time.

That's optimistic. How many builders have given you quotes? And what's their availability?

We have people we know doing the following:
plastering - local guys known to be quick
kitchen and bathroom - family friend although might find someone else to do one whilst he does the other
knocking the walls down etc - my husband and a few others can do this
new kitchen window - we will most likely have to find someone for this as we don’t know anyone
electrics - again we know someone who can sort this within a few days
carpets - same as above
painting - husband and people he knows
damp and floorboards - husband and people he knows too

All third parties can pretty much start as soon as we complete. Electrics will be first obviously

Maybe 6 months for the rewiring and structural stuff like knocking down and rebuilding walls etc, which is much better done in an empty house. I'm pretty sure you'll need to involve Building Control for the chimney breasts, which takes time too. If you want to get it all done before you move in, including plastering and decorating, I think you'll have to expect it to take a longer. 'Husband and people he knows' is fine, but unless they are not working at a day job, it will take a long time and be a strain to do all you describe. We took on a 1920s place which needed similar stuff doing. Moved in after rewiring. and OH is retired so works on the house several days every week. We're now on year 3, just had all the drains relaid, the re-roofing is the next big job. We do what we can, alongside people we pay for those bigger jobs we can't do.
Damp is a whole minefield of its own. A 1930s house should have some form of DPC. But check out Heritage House's website re damp before allowing anyone near your walls with tanking or waterproof plaster or that injection stuff.

Ages. It’s taken almost 6 months so far just for new kitchen here! That’s rewiring, plastering, flirting and kitchen .
main kitchen went in the end of March but they made a mistake on two major cupboards, wrong size fridge etc so it’s all being ‘fixed’ and re ordered and taking forever