Order of Works?? Eek!

[lindsayg]

I'm about to buy a top floor flat and do it up. I don't need to live there while the work is ongoing, but I do need to plan it out, and I'm a bit stuck!

It's a medium-sized one bedroom flat, which currently has a galley kitchen off the lounge, a decent sized bathroom with a wooden false ceiling, and a carpeted bedroom with fitted, mirrored wardrobes along one wall.

This is what I want to do...

1. Tear out the bathroom suite, the kitchen suite, the mirrored wardrobes, the bedroom carpet, the false ceiling in the bathroom and the laminate floor in the lounge.

2. Get the electrics looked at (the survey says the consumer box is a bit elderly).

3. Get the back boiler in the lounge looked at (also elderly)

4. I think I might want to have a gas fire installed in the bedroom.

4. The wall between the galley kitchen and the lounge is a stud wall - I want it moved back about a foot and a half.

5. Create a new doorway in the wall between the kitchen and the hallway - I'm pretty sure this isn't a supporting wall.

6. Replaster throughout

7. Put in a new kitchen - but, in the room which is currently the bathroom

8. Put in a shower room with toilet - in the room which is currently the kitchen. (My plumber has seen it, he says it can be done.)

9. Decorate


Okay!! Here's my question.. I've listed the work above in the order I think it needs to be done in. But I've never taken on so much in one go before.

What do you think of the order? What would you change?

In return, I will post photos as it goes, including of all the comedy moments as it goes wrong. Promise.

 

[wanabechippie]

Hey.

Not a professional, but to me that order sounds about right. It may be worth squeezing in a visit from building control (or whatever the Scottish equivalent is) as well as a reputable builder/structural engineer to take a look at your plans re: moving walls/creating doorways.

Stud walls can be load bearing. Also, there's a fair bit of difference between 'Think it's not load bearing' and 'it's not load bearing'... Better safe than sorry!

It's a really good thing that you're not going to be living in the flat during construction work. makes the job a huge amount easier for both you and the trades.

If possible, get all trades together and talk through your plans. Should make it easier to get 1st & 2nd fixes done when the flats in the state that they need it (flat's gutted + studded - 1st fix. plastering's done + you know where everything's needed - 2nd fix).

Good luck with it! Get loads of photos taken. Allows you to see how far you've come (or not).

 

[ColJack]

unless it's a particularly large bedroom, then i'd recomend against the fire in the bedroom unless there's already a fireplace there..

 

[lindsayg]

Ah yes, sorry, I didn't explain that part, did I?

I'm also swapping over the bedroom and lounge, as they are the wrong way just now.

There is currently a gas fire in the lounge - soon to be bedroom. But not in the bedroom - soon to be lounge.