First time renovating a house - any advice?

Thok · 27 Aug 2018

Hi,

We are considering selling our house and buying one that requires renovation. It's structurally sound but dated and in need of modernisation. It probably hasn't seen any work on it since the 60s so we are looking at the following work.

Single story extension to the kitchen and dining room to make a kitchen diner
1st floor extension over existing flat roofed garage (this may need to be done at a later date as a second phase)
Full rewire
New boiler and central heating
New windows and doors
Replaster throughout
New interior woodwork (skirting, door surround and doors etc.)
Creation of downstairs toilet
Refurb of utility room and garage
New bathroom(s)
New carpets throughout
Decorate throughout

I am sure I've probably missed something off so any suggestions would be greatly received.

The plan would be to live in a rental property nearby for about 6 months while the work takes place. This should hopefully make things easier/quicker as the house will be empty while most of the work takes place (we may move in once the worst is over).

This is the first time either of us has thought about doing anything like this. Can anyone offer any advice about:

What jobs need doing in what order?
Are there any big jobs we have forgotten about/not considered?
What pitfalls do we need to look out for, etc?
What professionals do we need to get involved (architect, structural engineer, planning engineer etc.)?

Here are some rough plans of what the house is currently like (top) and what we'd like to change it into (bottom). These are just my quick ideas based on other ones on the same road/what we think could be done so they may not be feasible/structurally possible.

foxhole · 27 Aug 2018

You need to check foundations to garage are adequate to take weight of upper floor.

Thok · 28 Aug 2018

foxhole said:
You need to check foundations to garage are adequate to take weight of upper floor.

Yeah, I thought that would be the case. How would you go about checking the foundations without digging them up? Would a surveyor/architect/another profession be able to tell based on the construction type/age?

foxhole · 28 Aug 2018

Building control will usually require sight of foundation depth, so a hole.

SammyInnit · 29 Aug 2018

Thok said:
Yeah, I thought that would be the case. How would you go about checking the foundations without digging them up? Would a surveyor/architect/another profession be able to tell based on the construction type/age?

You'll need one anyway so it's worth asking.

foxhole · 30 Aug 2018

With a garage the foundation under the door is often omitted as it carries no weight (and can save a few £ on concrete), this changes if you want to build above.

ivixor · 20 Sep 2018

That is a boatload of work. 6 months seems optimistic. If you are talking about hiring individual trades yourself, you will need a very detailed project plan, with all the dependencies between the tasks identified. The fact you're asking about them here means that you should probably be talking to a builder which can manage completion of everything end to end. They will work out the plan for you and give you a finish date. And a very large bill.

TofuSpaceship · 20 Sep 2018

assuming you already have all the builders, plumbers and sparkies all geared up to start when you decide, by the time you have the SE do the drawings (and in our case he came twice), submit to BC, start the work, you can expect for a good two months to have passed already.
If you are not in the property yet, I am not sure how you can manage to have the SE around?

Notch7 · 20 Sep 2018

Your project success depends on how good your builder is.

6 months is prob not long enough unless you plan really well.

Allow 3 months to get architect to do drawings and get planning.

6-8 months for building works, internals kitchen etc.

1 month for decorating, finishing bits, carpets etc.

Be prepared for more effort on your part than you ever imagined. Clients are often shocked by the amount of decision making needed.

Before you do anything, see if your budget is somewhere in the ballpark of the work you want done. Itll be over £100k Id be guessing without totting up each bit.

stealthwolf · 21 Sep 2018

I've seen a similar level of work undertaken by a cousin. It took two years from start to finish.

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First time renovating a house - any advice?

SammyInnit

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