First Home Progress Thread

Azz00 · 9 Jul 2018

Hi all,

So after purchasing our first home and already receiving advice from you guys on here I thought I would start a progress thread.

Unfortunately, both myself and partner are only around to work on the house at weekends so progress can be frustratingly slow.

If anyone has any advice please dont hesitate to reply, with it being our first home we are very keen to get as much help as we can!

So! Starting with the house before I took the hammer and SDS to most of it a couple of weeks ago.....

Existing DRAFT plans
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Hallway
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Living Room
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Dining Room
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Kitchen
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Landing
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Bathroom
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Back bedroom
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Comservatory
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Rear garden along with all of the previous owners stone zoo

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And then I got my hands on a Makita SDS.... (I will be uploading more from this point as I get the photos from my phone)

Front Bedroom 1
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Rear Bedroom
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Front bedroom 2
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Anstiss Ltd · 9 Jul 2018

Good progress I take it your not living in then.

Are you planning extending or just renovations

BIGbadmarky · 12 Jul 2018

Ronan Lang said:
I suggest you should take help of some good local builders who can take care all of these work as these tasks are time consuming and as you said you guys get time only during weekends so it will take so long. It's a hectic task. Just a suggestion. Good luck

I don't wish to sound like an a$$ but maybe you haven't grasped the concept of the forums on DIYnot.

Azz00 · 12 Jul 2018

Thanks for the comments guys.

As much as we would love to get a builder in, we are looking to do as much as we can. Both to save money and equally for the experience.

So as we were stripping one of the front bedrooms, the ceiling came down! Luckily it was just an underdrawn ceiling (still dont understand why this had been done) but it definitely took me by surprise when I was stood on the platform!
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So bedroom 3 cleared out.
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Bedroom 2 cleared out.
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Bedroom 1 cleared out.
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Bathroom during.
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Bathroom once cleared. So notice the chimney stack? I had assumed that this would just be resting on the joists so it would be coming out and getting supported properly. However, turns out its not even on the joists, its just tied into the party wall and its floating above the kitchen ceiling......great!
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Draft building regs drawing for the ground floor. let me know what you think of the layout. Baring in mind that there is existing shared access across the back of house hence keeping it (mostly) to the existing footprint of the conservatory and utility.
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I also dug a trial pit outside between the back wall of the house and the utility. I wasnt expecting much of a foundation but it turns out there is basically nothing!

BIGbadmarky · 13 Jul 2018

Cracking work so far. You seem to be making good progress for a weekend warrior.
I like your rationale for doing the work yourself. Its not just about saving cash, its about doing the hard graft and putting your own stamp on your place.
Quick question: What is the soil like round your way? My understanding is you can get away with smaller foundations if your on something solid. That said I think there is still a minimum. Its all clay under my gaff so I think my footings would have to be quite deep to avoid cracking if the clay dries out. Thats my (very basic) understanding of it anyway!

Keep up the good work.

pilsbury · 14 Jul 2018

You seem like you know what you're doing. Certainly your tidying is up there with the best! This is a skill I'm lacking.

Keep those progress pics coming

cdbe · 15 Jul 2018

You must have a good Hoover! My wife ~~has~~ had one until I got started. Are you dropping the ceilings? Even more work but worth doing if you can face it, also makes the plumbing and wiring easier from below - especially if the floorboards (including the chipboard ones) are t&g.

Also I would try my hardest to squeeze a WC somewhere on the ground floor.

Azz00 · 16 Jul 2018

Thanks for the comments guys!

Im not actually too sure what the soil conditions are like, something that I need to check out this week!

As the tidying, we are basically creating our own skip in the front garden

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No plans to drop the existing ceilings. We have thought about it but we love the high ceilings so we will live with a few downstands. Although, I am proposing to underdraw the new ceiling in the extension so that it is flush with the bottom of the steel (I will upload the section once its done) Also, there is only about 100mm between the top of the kitchen window and the ceiling anyway.

Its funny you should say that actually. We keep changing our minds about the w.c. We have drawn the plan with the w.c. on the back of the house, in the middle and at the bottom of the stairs. But I cant see how we would get the foul away from the last two options (drainage runs across the back of the house).

Anyway, this weekend we pulled out some existing stud to inspect the brick work around where we want to the steels...

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Unearthed these which way an absolute tonne!
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pilsbury · 16 Jul 2018

Even your front garden dumping ground is tidy. A tidy site is a happy site. That's why I'm so miserable!

Anstiss Ltd · 16 Jul 2018

I would even if it's a bit more difficult try and hide the steels in the floor void rather than lowering ceilings

Bullet-Proof_Biscuit · 17 Jul 2018

Timber lintels?

Worth considering keeping or at very least reselling those terracotta floor tiles! They polish (clean) up great and are extremely desirable in hallways & kitchens for period builds. just worth a thought!

Keep up the good work.

Edit: I would run a 22mm pipe from your boiler/cylinder cupboard to your bathroom/shower while you're in there, in case of want a power shower...

Beers,
HH

cdbe · 17 Jul 2018

Sorry, when I said drop the ceilings I meant to replace, not to lower - obviously depending on condition.

Regarding WC, you can run a long, long soil pipe through your house with very little fall on it - now is the time to get that pipe in!

Also, see what your water supply pipe is like another job well worth doing now if it needs it.

Azz00 · 17 Jul 2018

pilsbury said:
Even your front garden dumping ground is tidy. A tidy site is a happy site. That's why I'm so miserable!

Haha thanks mate. Im just waiting for a weekend when we are free again to get another skip in!

Thomas Anstiss said:
I would even if it's a bit more difficult try and hide the steels in the floor void rather than lowering ceilings

We thought about this. But the steels are proving to be a little more complex than we first thought. For the most part it would be fine but im not sure about hanging / notching the existing joists in the rear bedroom? I will throw it at the SE once I hear back from him this week hopefully.

Bullet-Proof_Biscuit said:
Timber lintels?

Worth considering keeping or at very least reselling those terracotta floor tiles! They polish (clean) up great and are extremely desirable in hallways & kitchens for period builds. just worth a thought!

Keep up the good work.

Edit: I would run a 22mm pipe from your boiler/cylinder cupboard to your bathroom/shower while you're in there, in case of want a power shower...

Beers,
HH

Yes existing lintels are timber.

Great shout. We were looking at tiling the hallway so it would be nice to do it with the original tiles!

Yes we will be doing. When we bought the house they explained that they had just had a new combi boiler put in and with it, a new shower connection (just not connected to a shower yet) I will have a look around to see if I can see the pipe anywhere! The boiler is in the kitchen below the bathroom so it shouldn't be too hard to do if they haven't.

cdbe said:
Sorry, when I said drop the ceilings I meant to replace, not to lower - obviously depending on condition.

Regarding WC, you can run a long, long soil pipe through your house with very little fall on it - now is the time to get that pipe in!

Also, see what your water supply pipe is like another job well worth doing now if it needs it.

Ah yes I see now. We had a plasterer come in and he said that he would be happy to skim over the existing.

Good point! Back to AutoCAD!

Azz00 · 17 Jul 2018

Also, can anyone recommend any builders around Sheffield, S20 area?

While im happy to do most things. The foundations for the extension, new blockwork and anything steel related isnt something I want to take responsibility for.

We have friends / family that are; plumbers, electricians, plasterers, plumbers & steel fabricators so it would just be the "base" work.

Anstiss Ltd · 17 Jul 2018

Azz00 said:
We thought about this. But the steels are proving to be a little more complex than we first thought. For the most part it would be fine but im not sure about hanging / notching the existing joists in the rear bedroom? I will throw it at the SE once I hear back from him this week hopefully.

Your se should be able to do it even if you cut them back level with the steal then a timber in the web and jiffy hangers.

Or cut back and then sistered in to the web se can do the calcs and spec the overlap and fixings to keep BCO happy

diynot

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First Home Progress Thread

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