House refurbishment project. Plenty of pictures.

[Steve]

Today we had the third electrician in to price and a plumber. Awaiting their prices. The two electricians that have quoted so far have quoted £2200 and £2400. Both prices include an alarm. One is a friend. He was cheaper. Expecting a price around £3k for boiler and heating.

The more we look at the plaster the more we think it's gonna have to come off. In a lot of places it simply isn't stuck too the brick anymore.

Regarding the door linings we also had a joiner friend in to look at them. I think if we leave the linings as they are it will always bug me. So I'm going to remove the bits of wall above the two affected bedroom doors and adjust the headers. Those walls aren't supporting. I'm also going to bite the bullet with the bathroom door and make it a standard size. I'll chuck up an acro or a bit of timber structure to support the ceiling while I do that as the bathroom wall above the door appears to give some support to the ceiling above. It'll all come out then rebuild in chunky stud wall.

 

[Steve]

Wow, good job
I'm to scared to even lift up my hallway carpet lol

Trust me, some of the stuff we're doing, i wouldn't usually attempt. However we are on a budget, so where we can, we're doing it ourselves. We're getting skilled trades in, an electrician, plumber, plasterer and joiner (just to hang doors).

 

[Pandora4]

I got it all to come had my electrics upgraded last week by a mate who's qualified, we had to dig our own massive soakaway. Iv combated flooding at front ,side and now back the other day, I got plasterboard wall half down in kitchen from damp, chimmey breasts bugging me, I just don't know what I'm doing and I'm on budget to, it's gunna be a very long year lol, glad I found this site to give me ideas lol

 

[Steve]

Plumbing has come in at £2300. Plastering at £1320. Good prices. I'm supplying radiators and controls.

 

[Steve]

So the wall came down today. Between the bathroom and wc. Not nice when i had to do it from the confined space of the wc.
first course
getting there.
other side
the tiles just fell off with the sds.
back of the steel bath exposed
it was keyed into the outside wall. You can see the cavity foam.
took the bit of wall out above the toilet door to remove the door lining.
also removed the blocks down the side of the door lining so we can fit a full size door.
the door still shuts, though it affords little privacy. The bath is full of rubble until we get some rubble bags.

 

[Steve]

More pictures
we removed two other door head walls. Easy as the door linings extend to the ceiling, encasing this section of slim blockwork.
this is why we did it. The two door linings are not level due to wall settlement.
i cut through the nails with a hacksaw and nudged the lining up. I will put some framework above to support this in the right place.
other one.
pointless little window in the bathroom, though having two openers in a bathroom can only be a good thing i guess.
nobodys ever seen the toilet from this angle.
ancient electric shower. The door on the right here is being framed out and plastered over.

 

[Steve]

realised earlier i havent put up and external photos. Heres the back garden. An ideal size.
the back of the house.

 

[Steve]

Today was a few odd jobs. My dad fetched his lawnmower which actually did a good job of the front and back lawns. He also took the skirting and architrave off downstairs. I pulled out all the floor level pipework from the old heating system, and also managed to get the back boiler out. It weighs a ton!

yet to decide what to do with this floor. The more i think about it, the more i want to dig the whole floor up and relay it.
hideous big hole where they had the heating pipes going into the fireplace. Needs bricking up.
i didnt tackle this today. Might leave them in situ until the floor is done in here.
dining room floor. Part of it was relayed in 1973, less than 20 years after the house was built. One wonders why. Surely the magnesite wasn't failing even then. . .
pipes dug out from under the living room door.
found these in the loft. Blast from the past.
corner of the living room showing detail of the magnesite covering.
back boiler cavity. Empty. It was a Glow Worm majorca 246.

 

[Cgas]

Looks like fun demolishing it, enjoy. Is the gas supply capped to that BBU at the meter or something cos that's looks like an open end?

 

[Steve]

Looks like fun demolishing it, enjoy. Is the gas supply capped to that BBU at the meter or something cos that's looks like an open end?

Meter has been removed and the valve capped.

 

[Cgas]

Meter has been removed and the valve capped.

Fair play hope you have as much fun putting it back together, will be nice to have it how you want it, then if your missus is anything like mine she will want to move

 

[Steve]

Losing sleep over that floor to be honest. Right now I'm thinking leave it in situ. Nobody else in the area has had it replaced, and if it is sulphate attack its one of the less severe cases. I'll make good by banging out the high points and filling with self levelling. The missus wants laminate in the living room so its got to be reasonably flat, and I'll put down a thick underlay.

A bodge, but at the moment i cant afford £15k for a new floor, especially still having two mortgages. Progress on the sale of our old house is painfully slow. We'll get the kitchen diner floor done with the exension. At that point we may decide to get the whole ground floor done, and seal off upstairs (which will be complete) from dust.

Worth pointing out that the boiler and two fires were supplied by one 15mm pipe. I'm guessing it wouldn't be done that way today! Also all the copper that had been buried in concrete, whilst having been wrapped in some kind of plastic tube, was all badly corroded.

 

[Steve]

Not much done recently due to work commitments. Today we had to have a blitz because the electrician is starting at the weekend, plumber on monday and plasterer starts wednesday! Yesterday I managed to get the new bathroom door lining in, though it aint pretty! And there's now zero privacy! I also framed out the door tops and levelled the linings where I took out the blockwork.

Today I finished clearing the way for the trades downstairs. Demolished a cupboard in the dining room which put up a serious fight and fetched some ceiling down with it too. Also stripped all the woodchip on the living room ceiling. Wasn't too hard as it had been painted with silk paint prior to papering. Jackpot. Plasterer says he'll try to plaster over the woodchip in the hallway as that is stuck seriously well.
sky man been too. He ran his cable through the floor upstairs and out the side of the house. So no cables on the front. Woop.
ugly light fitting. Removed the glass diffuser plate before i knocked it off with the steamer.
ceiling. Stripped.
sky dish. Nice and neat.
slug trails up the side of the house. Wierd.
framework done. Door 1
door 2
bathroom door.
close up of my bodge on the door lining.

 

[phatboy]

You are a machine! How you have done so much whilst doing your own day job in 3 weeks is incredible, good job!

 

[Steve]

Electricians have been in today. Lots of chasing and mess.

downlights in bathroom. Im getting some big food bags for when the plasterer comes.
landing socket and towel rail spur
living room sockets and lights above
tv corner. Lots of plaster to come off this wall.