House Renovation diary

[Dextraneous]

So, our conclusion is that for casual, overnight washes, the kitchen is fine. For run of the mill, a shed will be fine. If you both work, then a laundrette for bedding/towels and occasional shirts with ironing is ideal

Well, that's the way we do things.

If you've got kids, then god help you. Noise from a washing machine will be the least of your problems

 

[DeadBeat]

Thought i would update this thread, the progress is slow, down to finances but things have taken off a bit lately and we are in the middle of a very messy stage in the house build.

the first big project we did at the end of last year was to install a shed detailed in the following link, i needed somewhere to put a bench and house wood and some tools. Ive not yet got as far as fitting the bech but we recently got electric in there so it will be a good project for a slow weekend.

//www.diynot.com/diy/threads/my-shed-project.425333/

Then it was the decking at the beginning of this year, just in time for summer. Here is a thread with the details of that and the finished pictures

//www.diynot.com/diy/threads/decking-project.432126/#post-3394539

The Third big project was to re insulate and floor the loft space so we could move stuff into the loft and out of the way

 

[DeadBeat]

We then had the walls removed downstairs, forgive the massive mess that is our home, and i fitted a UPVC back door that i got for free from a family member, which was as good as new.



then recently came the house re wire, with new lights and stuff to boot!



upgraded the lighting on the deck

 

[DeadBeat]

During the recent months we have planned and ordered the kitchen, which has arrived and has forced our hand into a few more jobs, firstly we needed the boiler moved, in order to do that i needed to plan the kitchen down to the cm and we had to remove the bath!



Then the boiler move!



Kitchen arrives



Then we removed a bathroom studwall, as it was in a weird location and will allow us to fit a slightly bigger bath

 

[DeadBeat]

Finally bringing us up to date, we started on a new ceiling in the kitchen, the original was very wavy and about 4 inches higher at one side compared to the other, so we have created a frame and my jobs this week are to complete the frame and attach all the plasterboard.



Currently were living with no real kitchen and no bath or shower, missing floors and ceilings, but with new power. its a challenge to say the least, but luckily the mrs would live in a box in the garden if required, as im sure most other halfs and probably most of you would struggle to live in the above mess!

so wish me luck, here are some of the renders of the kitchen in sketchup

 

[DeadBeat]

I was able to complete the frame for the ceiling last night, so tonight's job is to fit the rest of the plasterboard up and re measure and re fit the spots.

 

[DeadBeat]

ceiling finished ready for plaster today, a few small bits to finish off before the plasterer arrives but shouldn't be too long

 

[DeadBeat]

here is how the bathroom looked before this weekend, the bath has turned up and it was time to make a proper start.

the plan is to change the orientation of the bath and move the sink around leaving the toilet where it is. in order to do the tiling ive pulled up the floor to fit a thick plywood floor as recommended on here. I also realised that, the plumbing had been set up where there would have been a number of connections under the bath in locations impossible to reach when the bath is in place, so i decided to re do all the plumbing so there are no connections under the floor in the bath room. All connections will be accessible from the hall way and a small access area that will be under the kitchen unit. this should future proof it from any leaks, as i wont need to pull the whole bathroom apart to fix it.

heres how i moved the pipes

the next step was to level out the floor, the joists were far from level and i wanted the floor to be as flat as possible, so i decided to add move wood to the joists and then nogin between to make it as strong and solid as possible.

 

[DeadBeat]

only half the room done as im trying to leave the toilet in place as long as possible, living in a house without a bath/shower is bad enough

 

[sh4d0w]

Nice work - coming on.

Please can i ask - what software was used for the 3d planning and design?


Ta

 

[DeadBeat]

The software is sketchup

 

[DeadBeat]

lots done this weekend, used the new laser lever to build a frame, decided to make the back wall much deeper to facilitate a niche. after watching some videos online, I slightly angled the top and bottom of it to allow water and moisture to run off, ive also bought some tanking liquid to tank it prior to tiles, ill be boarding the framed areas out in Aquaboard.



then i added a support for the side of the bath, i shaped the wood to allow the wood to support under the side of the bath and not the thin edge, the edge hangs over. I want to reduce movement on that side of the bath so thought this would be a good idea,



I then fitted up the bath and set the height and added the waste pipe, making sure there was a fall over the entire pipe.



I decided to make the thin wall to the corridor out of 5x2, the wall was to be 3x2 and 3 inches wide, but due to space we had to make it 2 inches wide so we turned the 3x2 side ways, i realise this isnt ideal and decided that although the wall can be only 2 inches wide, i can use much wider boards side way to try to add back some rigidity. and 5x2 was easy to lay my hands on at the lumber yard, it also was the perfect width to house the mount for the shower mixer which i was very pleased with.



I then cut the holes and test fitted the aqua panel and fitted the bath taps and shower mixer

 

[DeadBeat]

Once that was done I plumber in the bath and shower



I added a none return valve and a normal valve so i could turn the water off.

and i just like this image



Hopefully ive done all this correctly, its my firsty real attempt at plumbing, have to admit i like the flexibility of using plastic pipe but im not convinced about the push fit connectors althoug ive seen the pressure test videos, i might do the next bathroom i do with plastic and compression joints. I did the waste with the solvent type pipes and joints so they should never leak. ive left everything as accessible as possible from the bath panel side, but i dont intend to cover this side of the wall for some time to test for leaks.

bonus working tap

 

[Danturboc]

Superb work there! Love the idea of building the frame in the bathroom for abit of a cubby hole. And angled for the water to run off is clever too.

 

[cjard]

Getting pretty good with that sketch up I must say.. Been a massive asset in my build, even considered using it to record the locations of every pipe and wire but I'd never get any building done.. Also impressed that you're not afraid to buy the right gear for the job.. Nothing like making life hard work trying to get by with crappy tools. I've one of those dewalt lasers and it's great. Recently picked up a screwfix own brand equivalent for £20, haven't used it yet but it'll be interesting to compare. Main idea behind having multiples is to have lasers marking pipes and wires before I erect a plasterboard so I (or my hard of thinking labourer) knows where not to wind a screw in..