Which trade to strip a room back to the bricks and start again?

[MeghanThyStallion]

DH and I want to do this with our living room: take everything back to the brickwork and floorboards and start from fresh, with new plaster, wiring, lighting, flooring etc. Has anyone done this? Which trades did you use, which order do they come in and how did you project manage the whole thing?

A general builder would manage this, they will then have subs for the electrics, plaster etc.....

You could strip it all out to be honest and then get a builder to put it back together. Would save you a lot of money.

Ok that's good to know, thanks! DH reckons he could strip it all out, but he also reckoned he could strip, paint and wallpaper the hall, stairs and landing...

We took a whole house back to brick (water damaged, we lived in it at the same time, never again!)

Demolition is the easy part but filthy and unpleasant - though it depends how far you are going for example we took all the ceilings down. Get a bigger skip than you think you’re going to need to get rid of rubble. All our plaster was live which made it easier- I assume yours is similar if you’re going back to brick.

dont skimp on a plasterer but you can save money by prepping yourself - eg plaster boarding the ceiling before getting the plasterer in.

plan out everything you need before you start - sounds simple but you can put extra sockets in and choose wall light locations when it’s back at brick.

I hadn't even thought about a skip. It'll have to go on the road so we'll need a permit. Yuck.

I'd prefer to pay someone to do the whole lot in 1/30th of the time it would take me and DH. I hate DIY and the stress of living in a building site.

Use insulated plasterboard on the external walls and put in some insulation in the ceiling by the external walls. Insulate under the floor also if it’s floorboards.
If your husband has already failed previously with minor DIY, expect the same with major DIY.

Agree with pp, you need a general builder and then they'll sub out the various trades as and when needed. We're doing this with a number of rooms right now, it's horrendously messy and the place is like a building site but can already see the difference now the plaster is on and they are prepping to paint.

It's not massively difficult to manage a small building project with different trades, you might be able to save 20 to 40% that way, as you don't pay for project management and subs often don't charge vat (outside of London).But be prepared for it to take a lot longer.
Schedule of works

1. Gutting (a labourer/handyman/youselves, the lowest dayrate from a builders troupe)
2. Electrician and Plumber 1st Fix I.e. cables and radiator pipes)
3. Insulated plasterboard and plastering (plasterer)
4. Joiner for new doors, architraves, fitted cupboards, skirtingboard, making good floorboards
5. Decorator or DIY painting
6. carpet fitting if required
7. Radiators up and Electrician 2nd Fix (pendants, switches etc) That's for a modern house. If no cavity walls, nr 3 would need to be a lime plasterer and breathable insulation, like cork or sheepwool.

It's a single-skin 1930's terraced house so thankfully our living room only has one exterior wall with a big bay window. It's cavity flooring though so jolly cold on the feet in winter!

To be fair to DH, he's done a cracking job. It just took 8 months.