Need help/advice on flat renovation please! Complete newbie

[Cappulatteccino]

Hi, I'm hoping to complete a flat sale (fingers crossed) by then end of next month. I'm hoping to have a 3ish month overlap, staying in my current rented accommodation, whilst giving the flat a face-lift.
Here is what I would like to do....
Flat is carpeted throughout, I want to rip this up and put down LVT
Replace 2 bathroom suites, there will be no changes to the configuration
Replace kitchen, again, no real changes to the configuration. The cabinets etc are just pretty old.
Paint walls
That's it!
My questions are....
Is 3 months reasonable?
Where do I even start? Friends have given me the names of tradesmen who they've used for bathrooms etc...
But I don't even know what comes first. Do I shop for the suites 1st then get the fitters in? I just don't know where to start?
Can someone who has done this before talk me through this please?
Thanks for reading all of this!!!

Firstly, check that hard floors are allowed. It should be in the lease if not allowed.

I would try and find someone that does kitchens AND bathrooms. The fi

Do you need to rewire or renew heating? If you are taking up the floors and painting the walls it's a golden opportunity to do these things if needed.

We did all of what you are planning, plus more, and had a project manager. We chose all the fittings such as kitchen and bathroom items.

The building company recommended suppliers they liked to work with and, in general, we chose from them - I checked prices online and by phone against other suppliers too though.

I don't think you will be able to get a kitchen or bathroom fitter who is any good this side of Christmas unless you are prepared to pay over the odds to get the work done. Trades people book up quickly this time of year as lots of people want things done before Christmas. You would be better moving in and getting it done after Christmas.

In terms of planning you need to work out exactly where you want everything to go in each kitchen and bathroom and order all the parts. Don't forget lighting and radiators. And sockets in the kitchen.

The lead time on certain kitchen and bathroom bits can also be over 2 months so again, better to wait till you move in and then start ordering things. Some places will let you put a future delivery date in so that you don't end up with a house full of kitchen cabinets and bathroom bits.

Three months would be doable, provided the trades are available, we have just renovated a very small cottage, took 2mths, re-plastered, re-wire, new flooring, repainted inside & out, new shower room, new kitchen, garden tidied & re shingled. Cost around £20k just to give you an idea.

I bought the kitchen (Homebase) would recommend, plumber supplies all the shower room sanitary wear. DH did all the painting, gardening, pulling up old floors etc.

This is the right time to sort out the electricity wiring - you may need to add new circuits to the kitchen as we tend to have more appliances and desire for plugs than when the kitchen was first fitted.

Think where else you might want to add plugs (by the bed, desk, sofa, somewhere to charge cordless vacuum, by the WiFi router, tv, gaming console etc etc) and get them all put in before painting. Say goodbye to extension cables by putting plugs in where you need them.

And lights - do you want to add or move light fittings? Do it now before you paint.

Check your lease re. LVT. Some leases insist on carpet only for flooring, to help with sound etc.

What floor is the flat? If you take up carpet and you are above ground, you may find that you end up with complaints from your neighbours below you as it really does make a huge difference to the noise levels.

It’s tempting to ‘get things done’ but I have found over many houses that you don’t really know what you want until you have lived in it for at least a month or two. You need to see the light at all times of the day to choose colours, and install the right sort of lighting, you need to use a kitchen to agree with the layout, even the bathroom , you might find that a different sort of shower/ bath or cupboard arrangement would be much better.

As you have the luxury of not moving in, don’t rush to make the ( wrong) decisions. You can certainly smarten things up re decoration, but serons fittings need time.

The poster above beat me to it. My advice would be to live in the flat for a while and get a feel for exactly what you want to change. As long as it’s not actually falling apart you can cope with things being a bit shabby for a while, while you make a list of what will make your life easier — you need a plug point exactly THERE; actually the fridge is in totally the wrong place; you need to reconfigure a bathroom to allow for storage etc.

Sound disturbance can be bad as pp have said, you can put acoustic insulation underneath to help with this, in fact it would be good to know if the flat gets much noise from neighbours... the work could be an opportunity to think about acoustic insulation for your own protection.

check if you need re-wiring first, because if you do it up and then realise u have to re-wire, it's like doing it all over again. strip back everything in your mind. start with electrics and plumbing - do these need doing? then move onto gas and boiler. then windows/doors/walls/ceilings etc etc. check the bare bones before decorating.

Oh and living in the property for a bit is excellent advice above! Btw youtube is a good source. I watched a renovation project a family did who didn’t live in the property first m. The extended the kitchen and put skylights in, with tv and sofa right below it, but they didnt know the sun would be going over it directly for most of the day so they always had tv glare and exposed to the sun (v uncomfortable and a waste of money).

Thanks so much for this! Lots and lots of useful tips here.
I understand the advice about living in the property first. It is liveable, but the current fixtures are such low quality that I think I'd be miserable in there.
I also thought it'd be much, much quicker/less stressful to do the renovations whilst the flat was empty?
The thought of getting the renovations done whilst I'm living in there fills me with dread.
It really is quite a small 2 bedroom flat and I'm not planning any changes to the configuration at all. I like the way it is set out already, its just that the actual contents and fittings are a bit gross currently.
So based on the above posts, looks like I need...an electrician, a plumber, a bathroom and kitchen fitter, floor fitter and painter(I have NO DIY skills whatsoever).
I'm really sorry to ask what seems like such basic questions but...
Do I have to source each individual tradesman separately and by myself(of course I do but that seems so labour intensive!)? How do I know what to do first? The floors? The bathrooms? And like, how do I overlap tradesmen? Like do I book the bathroom fitter to come when the floors are done?
The more I type the more I feel like I'd need a project manager of sorts, but it seems a bit OTT for what is essentially a pretty small flat. Maybe there are companies that exist where you just give them a brief, and they sort everything out re sourcing tradesmen etc? I am willing to pay over the odds for this.
Help!!!!
Yes, LVT is allowed. That is what was there initially before the current owner laid down carpet.

You just need to find a builder/ building company. They will have their own trades and arrange for them to come in the right order.