House Renovation diary

[DeadBeat]

Within the next few days I should be completing on a house. Its going to be a large renovation project and i thought id document it here. Ive already posted a few questions about it here and there, but ill put any progress I make into this thread as and when.

here are the photos of how it stands at the moment

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[DeadBeat]

heres the downstairs plan as it currently stands

and here is what i may end up doing downstairs, ive yet to decide as to weather i should rebuild a partiotion wall between dining and living areas, but as it stands the living room is too small for more than one three seater sofa, so needs to be opened up a bit

the first projects will be removing the walls and getting the electrics sorted for which i have a lot of plans. One of the first jobs will also be turning the smallest bedroom into an ensuite for the master bedroom. Currently the room has a box in the corner of it to provide headroom when climbing the stairs.

im planning to build a stud wall in the bathroom, knocking a door through from the bed room, and use the original door for access behind the stud wall, and turn that into a store of some kind, perhaps a heated airing cupboard. like the below:

here it is as it is now, except with a door into the main bedroom

and the plan is something a long the lines of this

the toilet is on the outide wall to the side of the house, and with the box for the stairs in place its not easily moved. I think the shower is best here too, because of the box I cant think of a way to use the space more efficiently, even if i use up all of the space instead of saving a cupboard, the room will still be akward. the only thing this plan misses is some storage for the bathroom. the idea would be a mirror in the recess, and have the shelf of the recess be openable to access the cistern

here is an angle of the storage cupboard

dimensions of the room are as follows

203cm wide
253 cm deep from landing door
246cm High

the box is

95cm wide
71 cm deep
60cm heigh

that means the store room will be roughly 60cm deep
and the bathroom will be roughly

203cm wide
183cm deep

what do you guys think of those dimmensions and do you have any other suggestions?

thanks

 

[3DGuy]

Hi there,

Congrats on the house buy. I've only had time for a really quick glance so just a few initial thoughts (we're getting towards the end of a 14 month long Renovation on our first house also.

1 - "the toilet is on the outside wall to the side of the house"

It looks like you have placed a wall hung toilet? Not sure if this was just because of the model free. however if its wall hung you need a steel frame/boxing in and room for the toilet 4" or so waste pipe New soil Stack on the outside?

Are there 2 windows in the to be en-suite?

Wet room style are a more complex/design to implement. Your going to really want to make sure that place is locked down for water. Also depending on design you may need to raise floor up to allow for the gubbins under it.

Also check the direction of your joists just to be 100% sure Also don't cut out a joist for a Toilet waste hahah! I saw a thread on here where someone cut out like 5 inches from an 8" row of joists.... I'd have gone ice cold if I had uncovered that.

Don't forget to Tank the entire area.

Again where on the quick plan below will your waste pipework feed too? and also nearest access from that area for supplies?

2 - "and here is what i may end up doing downstairs, ive yet to decide as to weather i should rebuild a partiotion wall between dining and living areas, but as it stands the living room is too small for more than one three seater sofa, so needs to be opened up a bit"

- For this I'm unsure given where the door position is if you will really gain anything. It may seem more open but looking at where the original door is to the room your still unlikely to put a sofa in the door way. Will have a look again later but you might actually loose useable space opening it up in that way. PS just be sure its not load bearing... You may need RSJ, permission on structural change there (not 100% sure but for major works sometimes needed to be vetted for the mortgage provider). Before you go demolishing

PS one thing to consider. I know the idea is to Add en-suite but if you have plans to sell, this will/may likely reduce the houses value.

Usually when adding these things in you usually compromise the size of another room, to add in a mini en-suite for the other room. However if you remove a bedroom completely. (Think I head its a 3 bed Semi (same as ours) you change it to a 2 bed with en-suite so you may loose a chunk of value as the En-suite is not liveable space.

Just something to consider even if you don't plan on moving for now, no one knows what may happen down the line

Also it's hard to see without a First floor layout but it looks like the box room is above the hall/stairs area as you mentioned so there may well not be any pipework over there at all, so could need a lot of work to get it over.

Question - Where is your boiler? Gas? Combi? Standard? I cant see where it would be located

Also it looks like you may remove a wall to the kitchen also? remember you loose a lot of wall/base storage also when doing this kind of thing.

Just a few initial thoughts. Our house has undergone a 100% pretty much renovation. The only things left was the first floor flooring/joists, ground floor, roof and wall bricks pretty much

Every piece of wire was removed and re-done, networked, coax added. Every trace of pipework also removed. Everything chased in, central heating fitted etc. Large amount of work It's finally coming together now!

 

[DeadBeat]

Hi there,

Congrats on the house buy. I've only had time for a really quick glance so just a few initial thoughts (we're getting towards the end of a 14 month long Renovation on our first house also.

1 - "the toilet is on the outside wall to the side of the house"

It looks like you have placed a wall hung toilet? Not sure if this was just because of the model free. however if its wall hung you need a steel frame/boxing in and room for the toilet 4" or so waste pipe New soil Stack on the outside?

Are there 2 windows in the to be en-suite?

Wet room style are a more complex/design to implement. Your going to really want to make sure that place is locked down for water. Also depending on design you may need to raise floor up to allow for the gubbins under it.

Also check the direction of your joists just to be 100% sure Also don't cut out a joist for a Toilet waste hahah! I saw a thread on here where someone cut out like 5 inches from an 8" row of joists.... I'd have gone ice cold if I had uncovered that.

Don't forget to Tank the entire area.

Again where on the quick plan below will your waste pipework feed too? and also nearest access from that area for supplies?

2 - "and here is what i may end up doing downstairs, ive yet to decide as to weather i should rebuild a partiotion wall between dining and living areas, but as it stands the living room is too small for more than one three seater sofa, so needs to be opened up a bit"

- For this I'm unsure given where the door position is if you will really gain anything. It may seem more open but looking at where the original door is to the room your still unlikely to put a sofa in the door way. Will have a look again later but you might actually loose useable space opening it up in that way. PS just be sure its not load bearing... You may need RSJ, permission on structural change there (not 100% sure but for major works sometimes needed to be vetted for the mortgage provider). Before you go demolishing

PS one thing to consider. I know the idea is to Add en-suite but if you have plans to sell, this will/may likely reduce the houses value.

Usually when adding these things in you usually compromise the size of another room, to add in a mini en-suite for the other room. However if you remove a bedroom completely. (Think I head its a 3 bed Semi (same as ours) you change it to a 2 bed with en-suite so you may loose a chunk of value as the En-suite is not liveable space.

Just something to consider even if you don't plan on moving for now, no one knows what may happen down the line

Also it's hard to see without a First floor layout but it looks like the box room is above the hall/stairs area as you mentioned so there may well not be any pipework over there at all, so could need a lot of work to get it over.

Question - Where is your boiler? Gas? Combi? Standard? I cant see where it would be located

Also it looks like you may remove a wall to the kitchen also? remember you loose a lot of wall/base storage also when doing this kind of thing.

Just a few initial thoughts. Our house has undergone a 100% pretty much renovation. The only things left was the first floor flooring/joists, ground floor, roof and wall bricks pretty much

Every piece of wire was removed and re-done, networked, coax added. Every trace of pipework also removed. Everything chased in, central heating fitted etc. Large amount of work It's finally coming together now!

Many good points. I should have pointed out that the wood colour lines are stud walls in order to hopefully hide a frame, but i may have rethought this plan a bit last night, so i may post some revisions later.

im pretty sure the joists run left across the house side to side, which should allow the drains to run under the floor to the side of the house ok, there will be new drains going in on the outside wall but look like they will meet up with others fine, I have a drain man who is going to help with this.

Removing the walls will defo require RSJ's and I have someone coming to look at the work. ill see if i can upload the latest downstairs plan later to show you how an extra sofa should fit without the wall.

the kitchen is really long, I think ill struggle to afford all the units even with the wall gone let alone the extra if the wall remains lol.

currently the boiler is in the back bedroom above the kitchen, its a fairly new combi. I have two trains of though with this.

the first is to move the boiler directly below its current position which would probably be the cheaper option as the pipes would all lead there anyway. this would put the boiler into the kitchen where i could hide it in a cupboard.

the second is to possibly move the boiler into the cupboard i'm creating in the new ensuite, where it would be completely hidden and out of the way, should still be enough room to service, i may see what a plumber thinks is best here, im half expecting to have to replace most of the plumbing anyway.

The house was a 3 bedroom semi, but has been extended at the back so its now a 4 bed semi, the box room only just would fit a single bed with no real cupboard or desk space. so its best suited to a study or ensuite, and ill miss the ensite I currently have in the flat so i think its a good choice.

ill upload some more images later when i get chance

 

[DeadBeat]

Here is the revision i worked on this morning

please reader be aware that colours tiles furniture and such are all placeholders and nothing like what I actually want so dont read too much into those, its more about layout that anything

here are the floor plans for downstairs

if you compare this to the below you should be able to see how i get a bit more space for seating at the expense of dining room space which was much too big anyway

 

[Jambart]

These renders look brilliant. What software did you use to create them?

 

[Dextraneous]

Great to see imagination in action

Three things spring to mind (although /i haven't read details overly carefully, so I apologise if you've already addressed these):

1/. Do you really need 2 doorways through to the living areas?

2/. The kitchen units overhanging into the dining area seem to be crying out for a breakfast bar of some description.

3/. The main problem with having open plan areas is that noise travels. Specifically, washing machine and tumble driers go on for hours on end, which is highly irritating when you're trying to relax, read or couch potato.

 

[DeadBeat]

point 1, no it doesn't need them, but the hallway would look weird without them both. and it doesnt save me any room in the living room to remove it, and it woudl probably be annoying to have to walk through the living room to get to the kitchen from upstairs

point 2, yeah this is probably the plan

point 3, this is actually the first valid point anyone has made against opening the area out. I wonder if there would be a way to section it off that wouldn't look rubbish

 

[Jambart]

I tried asking this a few days ago but my formatting screwed up so you might have missed it -- what software did you use to create these plans?

 

[Dextraneous]

point 1, no it doesn't need them, but the hallway would look weird without them both. and it doesnt save me any room in the living room to remove it, and it woudl probably be annoying to have to walk through the living room to get to the kitchen from upstairs

point 2, yeah this is probably the plan

point 3, this is actually the first valid point anyone has made against opening the area out. I wonder if there would be a way to section it off that wouldn't look rubbish

1/. Fair enough but you could obviously either make the living room door the main entrance, and/or make the other door "false" one for appearance sake (kind of like what they used to do in stately homes for appearances sake , now there's posh)

2/. Sorted

3/. No realistically plausible solution springs to mind unless you could do something in the yard out back. Having spent many a night living with this noise in the background, I'd definitely try to find a solution, especially if you like watching corrie

 

[DeadBeat]

Im Using google sketchup to do the plans, all free, just had to measure the house a lot lol.

I think the best solution is to keep both doors tbh, with the back door where it is as well it doesnt really help me not to have them.

but noise reduction from the kitchen would be nice. but at the same time, it would be nice to see the living area while cooking or preparing stuff in the kitchen

ill have to have more of a think...

 

[Dextraneous]

Just a passing thought about that cupboard space upstairs...washing machines are about 60cm wide, and you are fitting a load of pipes in the en suite adjacent to it

Might seem unusual, but hey ho, needs must.

 

[DeadBeat]

I actually think it make more sense to have the washer upstairs, we're forever carrying washing from bedroom to kitchen and then from kitchen to bedroom, makes most sense just to carry it to the landing, but the mrs wasnt much for it, to unconventional ha

its a thought i may explore

 

[Dextraneous]

The other option might be to have a second wash room in a shed out in the garden. Not great in the winter months, true, but at least it might quieten up a few evenings. If you've got kids, or intend to have them, then trust me, that washer will be on a heck of a lot.

 

[Morgan19]

I also suggest you try and find a space outside in your shed or garage for your washer/dryer. Sometimes our washing machine sounds like a helicopter about to take off and it's a pretty new model. I can shut the door on it but there would be a lot of complaining if I couldn't.
Thanks for the name of the software, it looks great and even better that it's free!