Advice wanted please - complete house renovation

[tracytop]

Hi,
I have recently purchased a house that has been derelict for a number of years, my circumstances have changed since I purchased the house and I'm now living in a mouldy damp falling down health hazard.

Externally I need to repair/replace the roof & gutters and repoint and re render the walls to make it water tight.
Once this is done there is a lot of work required inside. I'm unsure on the order that things should be done.

Basically I need to take it back to a shell and start again. The ceilings are falling down (large holes every where and new bits fall down every day), the floors are rotten (big patches of floor boards I know not to step on as my feet go through them) and I'm sure the floor joists are rotten too. The boiler does not work and there is mould all over the walls, even a few mushrooms sprouting here and there.

So I know I need to strip it out, then put it back together again, but really need advice as to the order I do the internal stuff. When stripping out I want to remove an internal (load bearing wall) to make the ground floor open plan.

So work I plan on doing is:

1. Replace floor joists (use a builder)
2. Replace floor boards
3. Remove radiators
4. Remove load bearing walls (use a structural engineer and builder)
5. Take other walls back to brick and take ceilings down
6. Open up old fire and chimney that is covered over (reline by a contractor) and install log burner (this has been donated to me)
7. Replace boiler (use a contractor/gas engineer)
8. Move sockets and lights to where I want them due to new layout (do i need an electircian or can I do this myself?)
9. Move plumbing for kitchen to new location
10. Move gas for kitchen to new location (use a contractor/gas engineer)
11. Plaster board and replaster throughout walls and ceilings
12. Install new radiators (the current ones are full of black muck)
13. Install old kitchen cupboards into new location (paint the doors to freshen them up) and appliances
14. Decorate
15. Furnish

Have I got the order right?
As I said earlier, when I purchased the property my circumstances were different, but now I find myself having to tackle this without a lot of money, while living here too. I'm hoping that I can do a lot of the stripping out myself and only pay people where absolutely necessary to put things back in (structural, gas, electric) trying to learn a lot myself through advice forums and online videos.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[^woody^]

More or less in an order that is do-able, although some tasks can be swapped and others will overlap.

To visualise things, it might be better to set those tasks our horizontally (lines on a spreadsheet) and give them a nominal time period (one column per week). This will be like a project plan and it helps to see what tasks can be done concurrently or can overlap, or be moved about.

Or use an online project planning site for free.

 

[tracytop]

Thank you Woody for the advice, will have a google search now for a project plan template/example!

My biggest fear is that I will do something then have to rip out/remove what I've done as something else should have happened first!

 

[jacko555]

If the roof/gutters/pointing need work, I dont see them on your list. Also what are the windows like? Looks like this winter may be tough but, maybe think about making it water tight sooner.

Depending on time, skill/willingness to learn, and funds, I would consider joist replacement/supports/strengthening as a diy task.

Id also, as heating is dead, see if you can open that fireplace sooner yourself. It may be usable with an open fire after a sweep, which is cheap. Installing the burner safely and legally will take a heatas engineer and maybe flue, but, an open fire could be warming you now.

 

[^woody^]

My biggest fear is that I will do something then have to rip out/remove what I've done as something else should have happened first!

No, your list seems to have all that covered

 

[tracytop]

If the roof/gutters/pointing need work, I dont see them on your list. Also what are the windows like? Looks like this winter may be tough but, maybe think about making it water tight sooner.

Depending on time, skill/willingness to learn, and funds, I would consider joist replacement/supports/strengthening as a diy task.

Id also, as heating is dead, see if you can open that fireplace sooner yourself. It may be usable with an open fire after a sweep, which is cheap. Installing the burner safely and legally will take a heatas engineer and maybe flue, but, an open fire could be warming you now.

Sorry yes roof, gutters and pointing are first, then anything internal. Windows seem ok, ideally I would replace but that would be more a cosmetic thing, I have looked and there isn't any condensation between the pains, so they will do for the forseeable future.

Joist replacement, I will have a look on some videos if you think it is doable by a diy-er. I am a complete amateur, but definitely willing to learn, needs must, and I'm not shy of getting my hands dirty and giving things a lot of research and then having a go.

As for the chimney, I pulled the wooden board off the fireplace, lit a small fire in the grate just to see, and found smoke coming out of the fireplace next door, which has definitely been boarded up at some point and a radiator put on the wall in front of it. I will see about getting a sweep in to look asap. Currently sat in many layers nursing a hot water bottle!!

Thank you for taking the time to comment!!!

 

[jacko555]

Joist replacement, I will have a look on some videos if you think it is doable by a diy-er. I

Hopefully not all need replacing and rotten bits can be cut and sistered (bolt new sections to the old)

 

[Deleted member 267285]

If you have smoke coming out of next door, it’ll need more than a sweep. Oil filled radiator could be beneficial for the time being?

 

[tracytop]

If you have smoke coming out of next door, it’ll need more than a sweep. Oil filled radiator could be beneficial for the time being?

I've just contacted a sweep on the registered list to ask about prices for a cctv survey. Oil filled radiator I think is on the priority list, I'm thank ful that the shower is electric, even if it is only a dribble it's bliss in the morning!

 

[Captain Nemesis]

Definitely just a traditional chimney, no old flue(s) that might have asbestos?

 

[tel765]

OP, without a wiser in the ways of the building trade head on site you might be ripped by most everyone who comes and goes doing rubbish work for high money.
How you find your professional i dont know but as you know you are very vulnerable as a "complete amateur" living on a building site - they will see & take advantage of this.
Maybe you can find some old retired guy who would stand & watch over & guide you?

Of course, you can learn from vids & utub and sites like this but it will be a very slow curve - but you can certainly learn and do it, its mostly experience not rocket science.

 

[tracytop]

Definitely just a traditional chimney, no old flue(s) that might have asbestos?

I really don't know. For now the board is back on and I will wait and see how much a survey is.

 

[tracytop]

tracytop,
Beware of whatever this jacko555 user name is posting. He's already made an number of errors, and he's not even read your original post properly.
He's trying to be a big shot building trades expert when he cant even fix a curtain rail in his own house - beware!

OP, without a wiser in the ways of the building trade head on site you might be ripped by most everyone who comes and goes doing rubbish work for high money.
How you find your professional i dont know but as you know you are very vulnerable as a "complete amateur" living on a building site - they will see & take advantage of this.
Maybe you can find some old retired guy who would stand & watch over & guide you?

Of course, you can learn from vids & utub and sites like this but it will be a very slow curve - but you can certainly learn and do it, its mostly experience not rocket science.

Hi, yes I agree that being a complete amateur I am a potential target for paying over the odds for sub standard work, and I'm sure at some point in this process I will, so I will definitely think about having someone on hand to advise/oversee. I'm totally up for hours of research, and already found that you can read 2 articles about the same thing and get totally opposite advice, so I'm not just stopping at the first thing I see I am going through hundreds of pages and videos. When I come to getting quotes I'm hoping that I will have done enough homework to understand the job I am asking to be done and be able to talk through the details so that I know exactly what I am expecting/paying for, I also will use only registered trade people, check that prices are competitive, but not ridiculously cheap that they are too good to be true, and where possible try and go with trusted recommendations. And finally I definitely won't be declaring that I am an amateur!

 

[Notch7]

Hi, yes I agree that being a complete amateur I am a potential target for paying over the odds for sub standard work, and I'm sure at some point in this process I will, so I will definitely think about having someone on hand to advise/oversee. I'm totally up for hours of research, and already found that you can read 2 articles about the same thing and get totally opposite advice, so I'm not just stopping at the first thing I see I am going through hundreds of pages and videos. When I come to getting quotes I'm hoping that I will have done enough homework to understand the job I am asking to be done and be able to talk through the details so that I know exactly what I am expecting/paying for, I also will use only registered trade people, check that prices are competitive, but not ridiculously cheap that they are too good to be true, and where possible try and go with trusted recommendations. And finally I definitely won't be declaring that I am an amateur!

Never source tradesmen from internet sites. Loads of threads on here of people being done over by chancers.

Do some networking....if you see an extension being built near you, pop in ask the builder running the job for a few contacts.

Of pop in to your local independent builders merchant / electrical merchants etc and ask for some contracts. Tradesmen in your town will go to a local branch.

 

[kingandy2nd]

Never source tradesmen from internet sites. Loads of threads on here of people being done over by chancers.

Do some networking....if you see an extension being built near you, pop in ask the builder running the job for a few contacts.

Of pop in to your local independent builders merchant / electrical merchants etc and ask for some contracts. Tradesmen in your town will go to a local branch.

Good advice this.

It sounds like you’ve got a lot of external work to do first, which may require scaffolding. I have found my scaffolder to be an excellent source of contacts for other trades (roofer, plasterer (for rendering), etc).