DIY basement tanking and flat renovation - big project!

[BlueC]

Hi everyone

Update 29/9 - loads of pics in post 2

We're about to embark on a big project renovating our Victorian ground floor flat including tanking and converting the basement. Thought I'd make a thread here to record our progress - will post lots of pics and ask/answer questions as we go!

Bit of background about me. I'm 35, not in the trades (am an IT consultant) but always been a handy and keen DIYer. Have fitted a kitchen (including first fix wiring and all plumbing), dry lined walls, done a bit of tiling, painting, woodwork, plumbing etc. Quite handy with the tools and always willing to read, learn and give things a bash!

And the house: We bought the flat 2 years ago. It is a ground floor flat in a double fronted Victorian semi. Has a dark and damp basement that is ripe for renovating. Lots of original features throughout which we're keen to preserve/restore as required.

Started to plan this work is January this year with a view to completing it all by end of September but here we are and we haven't even started properly!

Had some quotes for the job and people wanted daft money so we're going it alone. We have a few tradespeople we know and trust and we'll use them along the way, especially our plasterer Nigel who will be helping us a LOT!

First things first here are plans of the current layout and proposed layout. As you can see we've got our work cut out!

Current layout:

Existing layout

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This is the layout before any work began

Proposed layout:

Proposed layout

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This is the proposed layout

Basic plan for the basement works:

* Prep basement including structural work
* Tank basement with cavity drain membrane
* Insulate and board floor
* Batten out over membrane for fixing plasterboard
* First fix electric/plumbing
* Board over with insulated plasterboard
* Sort out joinery - windows and doors
* Skim
* Install bathroom
* Final fix electric/plumbing
* Errm probably some other stuff I have forgotten or don't yet know about!
* Decorate
* Live in it while we sort out the ground floor!!

Will post again shortly with some pics of the progress we have made so far.

Any questions please ask!

For those interested we also have a blog with tons of info and pictures: http://www.renovationblog.co.uk/[/b]

Chris

 

[BlueC]

Here's a load of pics of our progress so far.

Up to now it has all been prep work. We ripped the ceilings down in the basement, then had to get under the crawl space and remove all the old wiring and central heating pipework. Loads of cool stuff under there like newspapers from 1887 when the house was built. Messy work but we got £200 from the scrappy for the cable and pipework.

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We then had to take a wall down in the basement. This was underneath the hallway, and we think it use to be a cool room as it had slate slabs in it.

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Next thing was moving all the services - gas, electric and water all came into the basement and were in the way. Obviously we didn't do this ourselves!

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We're keeping the quarry tile floor and insulating then boarding over it, so we needed to dig a channel around the perimeter for the cavity wall membrane (tanking system) to drain into.

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The coal cellar didn't have quarry tiles so we had to dig up the loosely laid brick floor, excavate to about 4 inches, and then replace it with concrete.

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Next thing we opened up the doorway to the basement store room so that it will be a double door.

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And finally we moved the doorway into the basement bedroom by about 18 inches to bring it further into the corner of the room.

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That's about where we're up to now. Next things are to put a new lintel above the coal cellar door, finish patching up the floor then we're ready to start tanking.

For those interested we also have a blog with tons of info and pictures: http://www.renovationblog.co.uk/[/b]

Chris