2 bathrooms, 1 kitchen

[gumballw]

I’m a novice DIYer re-doing my 2 bed basement flat (Victorian mansion block conversion). Major items on the refurb – expanding the kitchen, adding a couple of en-suite bathrooms, refurbing two bedrooms, carving up the hallway and doing some landscaping to the garden. I reckon this is a 6-month project and I’m into month 1.

F**k of a lot harder that I was expecting…

I’ll be posting here to keep a log of my progress, but also to inform all the questions that I’ll be asking on the forums

First things first, here is the layout when I started:

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Tiny kitchen, open plan hall and dining room. One bathroom with separate loo (with no wash basin) that opens directly into hall. Wasted boiler room next to master bed being used for immersion tank and misc storage. Unused walk-in closet. Excessively large hallway


And here is what I want it to be:

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Expand kitchen into dining/hall, erect stud wall to separate. Convert bolier room/storage into master bed's ensuite bath. Convert existing bath to bed 2's ensuite w/ shower. Add storage/coatroom to hall so guest WC doesn't open directly into hall. Move doors to master and 2nd bed

 

[gumballw]

So, beginning at the beginning..

This last month has been the concentrated on expanding the tiny kitchen into the adjacent dining room/hallway and sticking up a stud wall with double doors to separate it from hall/front door.

Documented progress – didn’t take any full-scale pics of it before starting but…

Ripped up the s***ty laminate flooring – one of those temp jobs that’s been there for 15 years… Under the laminate – mouldy carpet.

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Carpet comes up. Damp looking screed.

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Turns out the screed is over a layer of vinyl tiles. Those tiles are on more vinyl tiles. There’s so much moisture under them that they literally float off (non-bitumous adhesive) and I clear the whole lot back to the concrete.

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The blockwork arch at the end that separates the kitchen from the dining room/hall needs to come down to open up the space. It is sitting on top of the two sets of vinyl tiles and screed, so has to come down before I can clear the floor in the old kitchen. While I’m at it, I strip the heavy duty wallpaper from the walls to find a half gypsum/half lime plaster wall with A LOT of damp (probs because of the wallpaper trapping moisture?).

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[gumballw]

At the other end (hallway side) there's a small step down. Rather than ruin the end of the marble floor by putting the new stud wall over the marble tiles, I decided to stick on the lower floor. However, this meant the head plate ran between the ceiling joists. Ripped down the ceiling, fitted bearers, and re-boarded. Slapped down a couple of coats of liquid DPM under where the sill plate was going, and then put up the wall.

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Used soundshield board on hall side, fireboard on the kitchen side and filled with mineral wool. Only niggle was creating a new step for where the double doors were, but had a bit of a play with mixing up concrete and it came right in the end.

Plastered the lot and fitted the doors. It looks a bit untidy, but I can assure you it's bloody smooth. Took a f***ing age.

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[gumballw]

Next task was to tile the floor.

I worked out the layout I wanted (am keeping costs to a minimum by not switching around the services) and stuck down a load of wickes' finest porcelain fakies. Look lovely if I do say so myself.

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There was A LOT of cutting involved because apparently straight lines didnt exist before 1900... Also, went through 6 bags of self-leveling compound trying to sort out the 4" drop from right to left. Ended up having to use a shed load of quick setting flexi adhesive to even the tiles out in the end. All laid over some more of that lovely liquid DPM stuff.

Not sure if this was the best way to go on the step, but mitre cut the tiles so that they fit nicely. Packed it out thoroughly with the tiling adhesive, but didnt have corner tiles, so will just have to hope it holds up.

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Next step: order some lime plaster to finish up the walls that aren't gypsum. Multi-finish the rest, stick up the coving and paint. Will do the new units when I've moved the radiator - have to teach myself a bit of plumbing first...


Thoughts and comments very gratefully appreciated!

 

[ivixor]

Seems ambitious!

I would have saved myself some work by not doing some of the work - specifically the faffing around with moving the doors around to the master bedroom could be avoided.

Looks good though!

 

[Nige F]

Next task stick up the coving and paint. Will do the new units when I've moved the radiator - have to teach myself a bit of plumbing first...


!

Argh - coving . How are you getting the soil pipe from the new bathroom to the drains

 

[gumballw]

Ah yes Ivixor, moving the doors is a faff, but to be honest I reckon it's worth doing (and I quite fancied having a go...). The second bedroom (10ftx 9ft) will really benefit from having the extra couple of feet and the master bed will have some storage as a bit of a buffer between it and the hall. Also, the current arrangement means that sound travels really well between the two bedrooms and my missus isn't a quiet... erm... sleeper. Thanks for the comments, appreciate it!

Nige F, not a massive fan of coving either, but the stuff is in most of the flat already and...well, sod it, I've already bought it. On the loos - I'm still not 100% about that one. The soil pipe is right next to the old WC and I'm thinking about digging up the slab and laying a new horizontal connection above the existing one. Will have to have a conversation with building control to see what's allowed. Otherwise I'll be running it under master bed floorboards to the garden, digging up all along the outside and connecting to the main drain (again, need to find a friendly BCO).

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Any comments on drainage would be great as really haven't got a clue... yet!