House modernisation

[Chuffy]

Hi all,

I have just bought an old 2 up 2 down terraced house that needs completely modernising. I have been busily smashing things up and now need to think about the order of work. I'll be getting professionals in to do most of the main things so as to a) maintain standards b) minimise time scales, but I aim to do as much as I can myself.

The following needs doing.

1. Complete rewire
2. Damp course in the lounge
3. Back boiler removing and gas hooking up (pipe is in wall but no meter), gas fire installing and combi boiler. (Cold water tank and immersion to be removed)
3. Partition walls moving upstairs to shuffle the bathroom layout. The bathroom floor is currently raised due to it going over the top of the stairs. I aim to reduce the landing and move the bath so that the floor can be lowered.
4. Probably completely replumbed.
5. New kitchen
6. Most rooms replastered.
7. New windows at the front
8. New doors front and back.
9. Ethernet cabling to each room with patch panel under stairs (I'll do this bit myself)
10. Possible loft conversion with dormer window. Planning permission dependant. (The house is in a conservation area!)

I have a few questions regarding what order to get the work done and would welcome any feedback. This is my first house and I am jumping into the deep end so to speak.

Downstairs is all concrete floors and have hardly any sockets. Should I get the damp course people not to replaster so that the electrician and gas fitter can run their cable and pipes behind the plaster / skirting boards? Or should the damp people replaster and then leave it to the electrician & gas fitter to chase channels in the solid floor? The room will probably be replastered by a professional anyway as I think most of the plaster will come off with the wood chip!!

I would like to run Ethernet to several wall sockets, but I believe that cat 5e or Cat 6 can not be run in the same channels as the ring main?

Thanks for any advice. It will be most welcome.

 

[diy_darren]

I would like to run Ethernet to several wall sockets, but I believe that cat 5e or Cat 6 can not be run in the same channels as the ring main?

That's correct. Ideally the cat5 should be as far away from interference as possible, but I've heard of domestic installs where they run in parallel with no problems.

Downstairs is all concrete floors and have hardly any sockets. Should I get the damp course people not to replaster so that the electrician and gas fitter can run their cable and pipes behind the plaster / skirting boards? Or should the damp people replaster and then leave it to the electrician & gas fitter to chase channels in the solid floor? The room will probably be replastered by a professional anyway as I think most of the plaster will come off with the wood chip!!

If you plan all your cable/pipe runs and all your socket/outlets beforehand you can install trunking and then plaster inbetween. You may want heating pipes in external trunking though as I think the heat from them will cause the plaster to crack otherwise.

If everything is planned properly you can do the donkey work (install trunking, chasing walls, notching joists) and leave the professionals to carry out skilled work.

 

[Chuffy]

Thanks diy_darren.

I'll have a better idea of what order to do things when the plumber / sparkie /builder has a look round and I chat to him about the work that is required. Hopefully he'll let me know what would make his life easier. Then I'll know whether to get the damp course installers to replaster or leave it bare.

If he caps off or shows me where to cap off and drain the central heating, i'll be able to rip out the back boiler and maybe the pipework before he starts to lay the new stuff.

In the mean time i'll have to wine and dine the conservation officer and planning department to try and get them to pass the loft conversion and dormer window!!!!

 

[bananaspark]

Re: point 9, as far as i can remember, keep all other cables 15cm away from mains cables.
but if they have to cross, cross at 90deg, pref through an earthed steel tube.

I've done a similar job on a house and used 200m of cat 6 and speaker cable. (you can run hdmi signals over cat6 so just wait a few years and all that extra cabling can be used to controll flat screens and power over ethernet run pcs everywhere).



b/