Albas Home Renovation Thread

[albaPhenom]

Bought and moved into an 3 bed end terrace, circa 1950s property in the Glasgow area.

Practically every part of the house will need renovated, ripped out, replaced, cleaned down, etc etc ... so I have my hands full and work cut out for me.

I also don't have a massive budget to just pay people to come in and do everything for me.

I think I'll use this thread as a semi blog / diary or place to keep notes and links and ideas.

Any ideas or recommendations is most welcome.

First things on my list are the bathroom and a kids bedroom.

Bathroom
* Strip out the existing bathroom (downstairs) back to the existing internal brick leaf, clean down the brick.
* Remove bathroom window and replace with window half the width - brick infill opening, render external.
* 50mm stud frame and PIR insulation sitting in front of brick.
* Backing Board / Plasterboard to frame.
* Full bathroom install, double width tray, shower enclosure, shower, toilet, basin.
* Coverings; tile to floor and wall. Ceiling and underside of stairs which shoot into the bathroom to be framed, plasterboard and plastered with new spotlights to ceiling.
* Joinery Work - New door, linings and architrave, new window linings.
* Replace pull string light switch for switch on outside of bathroom door.

Kid A's Bedroom
* Strip existing carpets, wallpaper, ceiling paper, skirtings, door and architrave, window frame lining.
* Spot repairs to loose plaster. Walls are brick with 30mm or so plaster to face.
* Skim walls and ceiling.
* There's a plywood boxed out section concealing 3 pipes, sitting in front of some lath leading to the loft but I don't think there's a tank up there so I'm not sure if the pipes are redundant. If they are, I'll stripe these out and install new frame and plasterboard to line through with the existing plaster walls.
* Joinery Work - Skirtings, New door, linings and architrave, new window linings.
* Replace 4nr 2 gang wall sockets
* Replace light switch for new dimmer switch and existing light for nicer light.
* New Carpets.
* Paint or Paper Walls

 

[albaPhenom]

I'm going to order things ahead of time and store them ready for install.

Sockets
Switches
Backboxes
Internal Doors
MDF Skirtings

maybe architraves?

Anyone know a place online to buy good quality internal doors at a cheapish price (cheap relative to their quality that is)

 

[albaPhenom]

So new discoveries this week are that the ceiling in the bathroom (which is ground floor) is lath and plaster, the window returns at the soffit and jambs, which I had presumed to be timber are actually hard plaster on an old rusting metal mesh lath, fixed to the concrete lintels.

So they're going to be more annoying than I previously thought to replace.

I'm pondering whether to rip down the bathroom ceiling to expose the joists and put in new plasterboard but the ceiling is in OK condition. The previous tenant had strapped some timber battens along the joists to glue on some PVC cladding, so I can see the joists are in at 400 C/C.

I could possibly over-board it with plasterboard but that really goes against my ethos of "strip everything back to the original structure and replace in with better products and build details where possible"

 

[albaPhenom]

Also need to strip out the original alarm system.

Managed to reset the code as none was ever provided when moving in so I used the Engineers code and followed instructions to change the code.

I have no idea how old this system is or if it even works anyway. Either way this area is really quiet and I'm not sure why the previous owner had opted to spend more money on this comprehensive alarm system than getting some worthwhile work to the house done. I'm guessing he was pretty elderly so he may have been conned into getting it installed by some unscrupulous company.

 

[albaPhenom]

Update - 18/05/21

Time for an update. The issue of a lack of tradesmen has been ongoing but now I think I'm in a position where everyone has been engaged and given us a rough indications of a date.

First up this week I have to go along to the supplier and pick up my window, I'm replacing the current 1300 x 1000mm window for a 1300 by 500mm and brick infilling the opening. he current wall construction is a brick cavity wall with an uninsulated 75mm cavity. My builder is coming around this week to install the window

I'm still not 100% sure of the detail to the perimeter of the window on the inside. The window is fixed within the zone of the external brick leaf, I have two concrete lintels at the head with a slight height difference between them, the internal is approx 25-30mm higher than the external.

The cavity is open as shown on this image.

On that inside wall I'll be building a stud frame from CLS set about 10mm in from the window. On that we have a 12.5mm moisture resistant Gyproc board, 6mm tile adhesive and 10mm tile covering ... so approx 102mm o/a from brick to finish face.

So I assume I need some kind of closure to the cavity (btw, I'm also pencilled in to have the bead cavity insulation in the coming months), timber supports, lining and then should I tile into the window or have a timber surround with a facing on the head and jambs and a timber window cill.

Dunno?!? Bit lost on that one to be honest as I don't know the typical build details for internal window surrounds.

OK, so that's the window done and allows me to crack on with the rest of the install.

As said earlier, that wall will be stud frame and all other walls will be stripped back to the brickwork and then dot-dabbed by a moisture resistant gyproc board, ready for tiling.

Floor build-up: I'll screw all existing timber floorboards to the joists (2nr per board per joist), plywood on top which the installer is supplying so I need to check with him on thickness, then hopefully the same 10mm tile on the floor as on the walls.

On this area where the stairs are shooting into the room.

I'm going to strip off that old plywood lining and install moisture resistant plasterboard and plaster finish, painted white as per the ceiling.

That ceiling you can just see there is a n existing wet board, fixed to battens fixed through lath and plaster ceiling into the joists. I am really torn as to whether it would make a better job to pull down that ceiling, expose the joists and fix my boards direct to them (which are at 400 centres) or would I simply be making a messy, unnecessary job for myself and potentially opening a can of worms.

My bathroom installers are in favour of just strapping it out with battens and boarding over.

Bathroom suite consists of:
800 x 1700mm walk-in tray
900 x 1950mm glass screen
300 x 1950mm hinged glass screen
Exposed Bar Mixer Shower - Dual Head
Towel Rad
Floor Standing WC
Basin & Pedestal

All of this will be supplied by me for the contractor to install.