DIY Home Improvements

[featured_spectre]

Morning all

 

So I am doing some DIY improvements to my new flat (all finalised and got keys this week - Hurray for chain free purchase!). Property cost me £67'000 (with all fees), and I've budgeted £30k for the renovations. The plans I have are as follows and I would like advice on the following:

 

Rip up all the floorboards, they're mouldy and creeky, so need replacing

Get underfloor heating and remove all of the radiators in the room (£6k for whole flat installation including bathroom and kitchen).

Strip ALL plasterboards from All walls and ceilings as there is black mould in almost all rooms, and no insulation in the flat - its a ground floor flat, and frankly, its quite dank, hence cheap price and quick selling due to chain free etc.

Fit a 10inch 12 port patch panel to the studs/joists in the living room (small 16 port one, with an expanding bracket to make it fit)

Run Cat 6 stranded cables to each room and terminate into wall sockets (3 sockets in the childrens room - XB1/PS4, PC, freeview box), 4 in my room (XB1/PS4, Sky+, PC, 1 spare), 4 in the front room (Sky+ - which likely wont stay after the contract - printer, NAS box, 1 spare), 1 in the kitchen (for any purpose, will be adding just in case as I may decide to move the PC etc into the kitchen)

Do new insulation on the walls

Replace all lighting with LED box lighting, which will be around 6W per box light

Replasterboard the walls and ceilings (15mm sheets, £5 per sheet, looking at around 200 sheets).

Fit a 12 port switch to the studs above the patch panel, and connect to the router this will be wall mounted and not physically in the wall

 

 

Bathroom will be refitted (£5k),

Kitchen will be completely re-fitted once the plasterboard is back up in place. (£13k)

 

The underfloor heating and kitchen boiler will be done at the same time, and the kitchen refit done after plasterboard etc is back up.

 

If anyone has any advice on this, that would be appreciated. Materials are on order based on what was asked for by builders (plasterboard, insulation)

 

I have set aside 3 hours every night to make progress on the ripping everything out and should be done within 1 week to have the flat stripped to its bare joists etc.

The running of cables I plan to do over 2 evenings and have everything set in place before adding insulation and plasterboard to the patch panel wall

A friend of mine (who runs a building company) has said he'll do the insulation and replasterboarding of the house (£2k for a weeks work which IMO isn't bad considering he is doing floors and ceilings with one of his workers)

Floor layers have quoted 2 weeks to do the whole flat with underfloor heating including screed coating and curing, and relaying new flooring for me.

kitchen fitters quoted 3 weeks once the floors are done (including doing the insulation and plasterboard which I will supply)

bathroom fitter quoted a week once the floors are done (including doing the insulation and plasterboard which I will supply) - he'll work at the same time as the kitchen fitters

 

Is this all too unrealistic?

[bald_pig]

It doesn't sound unrealistic, however, I'd allow time for delays, you don't want to book your fitters, and then your floor layer is ill and pushes everything back a week for example.

[Katy]

You’ll also need a lot longer than you expect to rip floorboards up - we did our ground floor and it took ages, hardest part was removing rusted 90 year old nails from the joists. In the end we just had to cut them or bend them until they snapped off.

[Steve21]

Morning all

 

So I am doing some DIY improvements to my new flat (all finalised and got keys this week - Hurray for chain free purchase!). Property cost me £67'000 (with all fees), and I've budgeted £30k for the renovations.

 

One thing you might want to check, as I'm assuming from the flat comment that this is leasehold is whether you need leaseholder/freeholder consent to do a chunk of this.

 

Some contracts have stupid stuff in like requirements for carpet, heating wise, insulation etc

 

Just a heads up if you haven't considered it

 

Steve

[featured_spectre]

Already checked about the leaseholder/freeholder consent, and I got permission for everything I've asked for.

 

Floorboards should be relatively easy. The block was built in the early 90s, so not hugely old

[3s-gtech]

If you have mould everywhere, look for the cause. I suspect it's inadequate ventilation rather than a leak/DPC issue. You may need to install vents, airbricks etc to try to sort out the root cause there.

[caffrey]

If the floor is coming up, expect extra cost - if it's as damp as you say and there is inadequate ventilation there will be a good chance the joists will be rotten and maybe even tank the oversite / damproof course in the walls. Also while it's all up put insulation under the new floorboards (Celotex , kingspan) at half height of the joists

 

It's not unrealistic just expect extra costs

[featured_spectre]

yeah the ventilation is shockingly bad, and being taken into account, the bathroom was the worst culpit along with the kitchen and the fitters have said they'll do new vents for thos. Vents have been factored in with my builder friend also for bedrooms and living areas.

[featured_spectre]

If the floor is coming up, expect extra cost - if it's as damp as you say and there is inadequate ventilation there will be a good chance the joists will be rotten and maybe even tank the oversite / damproof course in the walls. Also while it's all up put insulation under the new floorboards (Celotex , kingspan) at half height of the joists

 

It's not unrealistic just expect extra costs

 

Total outlay at present is £26k (ish) with £4k extra budgeted, but can add another £10k if needed.

 

The electrics are all fine, but whilst the walls are out, I may also ask my builder friend to add extra plugs also (turn single sockets into doubles, and such).

[robyholmes]

Have you considered a HVAC system rather than under floor heating? It would solve your ventilation problem. Under floor heating can have a problem of being slow depending on the thickness of your floors.

[mikeprice]

I agree with the above - especially look for other causes of damp just in case

 

Just commenting to say Good Luck really!

[XiJ]

Sounds brilliant. I’d concentrate on the damp issues / it really got me down in our old terrace. Run as many cat6 sockets as you can. I’d do every wall in the living room and at least a couple per bedroom / office. I’d try and find place for a full width cab and switch / for any further expansion.

[SpuffMonkey]

If you have mould everywhere, look for the cause. I suspect it's inadequate ventilation rather than a leak/DPC issue. You may need to install vents, airbricks etc to try to sort out the root cause there.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Definitely this, or you'll be throwing cash away!

[featured_spectre]

Thanks for the advice so far.

 

I have stripped the walls back over the course of Friday night and all day yesterday. Zero insulation...anywhere and there is a vent which has been "leaking" which looks to be the root cause of mould so I've covered it with duct tape for the minute whilst I start on the floor. The vent itself has a crack and a hole in it, which is not ideal, and with there being a gap between the wooden frame and the brickwork, it seems moisture just went everywhere, so that's the first thing to fit.

 

Someone asked about HVAC, and as much as I'd love it, unfortunately there is nowhere for the unit to go that is safe and away from public access/places it can be easily damaged.

 

Floorboards this morning, and we've pulled up the rotten one where the leak was, and has as someone suspected, rotted the beam so that will also need replacing. So I've spoken to the flooring company already this morning as they're due in next week, and they've said they'll replace all rotten beams and charge on an as is basis.

 

My builder friend will replace the vent later in the week to prevent further damage as the duct tape may not be enough, but so far...and look at doing a damp proof membrane whihh won't cost too much, before insulation of the walls. It's going on schedule so far but as suggested by some, I will need to make a few calls to push some people back a week.

[jmak]

Are there any neighbouring flats? Might just be worth checking whether any of them had similar problems and how they cured it. You really don't want to get all the decorating done and find that the damp comes back.

[featured_spectre]

I asked the next door neighbour about it, and the one directly above, and they've said that they have had no issues with damp or mould. So I think it's quite isolated. I've got 1 rooms floorboards up. Bloody hard work!!!

[jmak]

I asked the next door neighbour about it, and the one directly above, and they've said that they have had no issues with damp or mould. So I think it's quite isolated. I've got 1 rooms floorboards up. Bloody hard work!!!

Sounds good - keep up the hard work!

[mikeprice]

Good on you - well done

 

Personally I love hard work - I could watch it for hours

[featured_spectre]

2 rooms floorboards removed. I gave up at 5pm today, my arms are stiff as hell!

[caffrey]

Well done,

 

Took about 15mins to get my floor up - mind you...

 

[featured_spectre]

Yeah mine weren't anywhere near that bad except where the black mould was heaviest. Its one section that will be replaced entirely.

[mikeprice]

Well done,

 

Took about 15mins to get my floor up - mind you...

 

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Wow - good job you took it up - the alternative would have been you, the floorboards and the joists all moving down suddenly

[Andrew_C]

Built in the 90's with damp problems?? There are no excuses for ventilation being that poor, you need to look carefully for a problem. Say a slow leak in the plumbing upstairs trickling down inside a wall.

[bald_pig]

Built in the 90's with damp problems?? There are no excuses for ventilation being that poor, you need to look carefully for a problem. Say a slow leak in the plumbing upstairs trickling down inside a wall.

 

And you think the damaged vent surrounded with mould isn't the problem?

[featured_spectre]

Did the bathroom flooring yesterday. Looking at more of the vents and mould locations etc, the mould is focalised around broken the vent, and the drip pattern along the floor and walls etc. It is less than ideal, but is being fixed. I've used a cleaning product that is specifically for black mould.

 

Looking at the walls where I have stripped everything back, there are no leaks from the floors above, no damage to the ceiling or beams above head height etc when looking. I've asked my friend to fully assess when I've pulled the floors out completely. The duct tape has made a difference as there is no drips now.

Edited September 3, 2019 by featured_spectre