First house project

Crooksey · Post by **Crooksey** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 6:58 am

Just exchanged on my first house and get the keys tommorow (hopefully) :).

I decided togo for a wreck of a 3bedroom, rather than a swanky new 1bedroom place.

Its got 3 bedrooms (end of terrace), big kitchen and a massive garden with shed and garage!.

It needs literally everything doing, first off I will list what tradesmen will be doing...

1. Removing backboiler from lounge and fitting a combi boiler in the loft
2. Replacing all windows and doors

Thats about it, the work I plan to be doing (with mates and dad) is...

1. Partial re-wire with new consumer unit (just ordered £350 quids worth of supplies!) I have gone for superswitch sockets etc for a better finish.

2. New kitchen (purchased)

3. New bathroom (purchased)

4. Every room has either woodchip or artex on the walls, so this needs to be stripped.

5. New carpet all over (allthough there are real wood floorboards that are mint, I could sand theese in some areas.

6. Replace all doors and architraves (and skirting)

7. Knockout a few cupboards

8. Landscape garden and build a new shed.

Thats about it.... (famous last words)

I hope the house will be in a state that I can move into in about 2 months.

Will add pictures at as many stages I can, any advice welcome anytime.

blakes · Post by **blakes** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:47 pm

Good luck with it mate. Looking forward to progess pictures.

I'm feeling for you as far as number 4 is concerned. I hate that crap

!!

thescruff · Post by **thescruff** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:52 pm

Tip.

Get one room completed, so you can see some progress.

Good luck.

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:07 am

plan the electrics and all pipework as well as comunications to take place before the floor is fixed and before completion of the new skirting and architraves decoration

royaloakcarpentry · Post by **royaloakcarpentry** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:17 pm

Think carefully about positions of socket outlets so you can arrange furniture around the room in different layouts. You can never have too many sockets, in my opinion.

Ask tradesmen if they mind you giving them a hand....good way to learn and a bloke who knows his stuff will be only too happy to have you watching or helping as long as it doesn't slow him down.

vinesh · Post by **vinesh** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:05 am

Right about sockets - you can never have too much!!

Our house -

4 sockets in each room (1 in each corner). Extra near the TV

TV in every room

Phone socket in selected rooms.

MK outdoor sockets at the back and front of the house. Power to the sockets is cut off by a switch inside the house. Don't want anyone stealing my electricity!!

If we were to re-wire the house again I would go for double CAT 5 in every room as well.

Artex -

We had artex. Don't try stripping it - takes too long. Easier to get a plasterer and skim over.

All the best.

Crooksey · Post by **Crooksey** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:53 am

Some progress...

A partial re-wire has turned into a full house re-wire, due to the shoddy state of the electrics. (found one capped of sockets with raw plugs over live wires).

The house has had one elderly owner since new and has had no work whatsoever done to it. So all I can assume is shoddy contractors in the days before part P.

Kitchen ring main is complete now, and from 1 2 gang socket I now have 6 in the kitchen.

Next job is lounge/hall, then a full re-wire of upstairs.

Im so lucky to have decent neighbours, bloke next door has plugged extension lead in so i can have kettle/torch plugged into mains.

Only a few hours to put in today because of mothers day, so I will upload loads of pictures of the work.

Crooksey · Post by **Crooksey** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:55 am

vinesh wrote:Right about sockets - you can never have too much!!

If we were to re-wire the house again I would go for double CAT 5 in every room as well.

its my first place and im lacking in funds.

Where my office is, it will have a phone point, and I have a wireless router that I have customised into a rane extender with 4 ethernet ports, which will form the cat 5 ports for TV/PC area. That cost me £20 for router and used free DD-wrt firmware, dead cheap, easy to install and can be moved from room to room and house to house.

vinesh · Post by **vinesh** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:45 am

Crooksey wrote:
vinesh wrote:Right about sockets - you can never have too much!!

If we were to re-wire the house again I would go for double CAT 5 in every room as well.
its my first place and im lacking in funds.

Where my office is, it will have a phone point, and I have a wireless router that I have customised into a rane extender with 4 ethernet ports, which will form the cat 5 ports for TV/PC area. That cost me £20 for router and used free DD-wrt firmware, dead cheap, easy to install and can be moved from room to room and house to house.

Rane - is that the same as the powerline plugs?

DD-wrt firmware - interesting. I'm doing some reading on this.

I will have to look into this for my home.

Thanks

Crooksey · Post by **Crooksey** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:27 pm

What I meant was *range extender

DIY_Johnny · Post by **DIY_Johnny** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:44 pm

For wiring I added phone sockets, Cat6, 3 Sat cables and in all rooms. Use modular face plates and even if you don't want them you can leave the wire behind the face plate (within reason). All cables run back to a central point

Material is not that expensive, work is in putting it in as as you are taking boards up you might as well do it

I will never use all the cables but never sure who uses what room in the future

BY will charge 150 to run a phone line into your house. Putting in sat cables afterwards looks bad unless you can hind them properly

Crooksey · Post by **Crooksey** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:35 pm

Work so far, kitchen as standard...

Units out, wall unit was 1 peice...

Some sockets in...

Lighting and spur for extractor...

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 5:21 pm

Looks like it is starting to come together now. Looking forward to seeing the build

royaloakcarpentry · Post by **royaloakcarpentry** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:59 pm

SACRAMENTO..............that was a proper kitchen built with love and tenderness by a carpenter and you killed it. Don't get them like that any more. lol

Well worth doing full rewire anyway and giving the old plumbing the once over. Nothing worse than doing a house and then having to rip flooring up 5 years later to rewire and sort plumbing.

Crooksey · Post by **Crooksey** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 5:08 pm

House re -wire COMPLETE

Kitchen in (pics soon).

Also found this today...

No wonder the old wiring didnt work at all, that cable is the first cable from the old fuse box and was the start of the old circuit radial.