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I used those drawings to build a 3D model of the place and tbh I could've used more! Also half way through that model I learned item 604 out of 4723 things I learned on this project: the drawings are always a little bit wrong.
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Sep 4, 2017 07:43
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Perhaps a little overwhelming but I'm going to  because we've still got a lot of catching up to do.It's mid-April now and the same stuff continues, namely interior demo and rear/side-return extension construction. I was initially concerned that this might be a horrendous mould infestation but no, just bitumen, which is a good thing to put on a hot chimney breast because..?   Not that it matters much, because it's coming out! In the meantime I'm continuing work on my LED project that I never used (I might use a few bits in the kitchen later): The most Shenzhen box ever:  24V? 12V? Eh it's all the same.     I waded through hundreds of pages of terrible ISO-standard £500/section protocol documents to make this happen, i.e. proper RGBW/CCT control of a DALI box. Hint: if you're ever working with an international standard and don't want to pay your country's outrageous prices, it's an international standard, buy it from a cheaper county instead. I recommend South Africa. These mockups should show you what my original idea was:   I then started researching kitchens.  First off, nice, second, I got enough recommendations for induction despite that poll that I'm going to give it a try anyway. Meanwhile, blocks pared back for stitching.  Door lintel goes on the side extension.  This is where I learned another lesson, by idly measuring the height of it. 2000mm. Me: "All the external doorways are supposed to be 2100" Builder: "Nah I took scale off the drawing" "What, this drawing?"  "Oh, yeah you win that one"  Rear extension continues  Getting access to the rear wall because much like my guns it's about to get jacked up  Shitton of steel arrives  Rear extension skin continues  The rear access is put on hold for a moment while we deal with this wall, which is being removed and a steel put across to pick up the roof above.  Smashy smashy  But wait, what's that hiding off in the other room?  Ugh, mouldy insulation. Either sweating insulation or a flat-roof leak. Put that one on the "deal with later" list. More smash   Blasted Took! Wall stitching continues   The set decorators have cleared out the WW1 filming and are gearing up for Mad Max  The front isn't looking much better  but that must mean..  The wall is gone.  I should probably price up all the money spent on the lighting plans. I'll do that next.
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Sep 4, 2017 09:29
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Lighting experiment costs: - Samples of LED strips and control boxes from Shenzhen: £48.61 - DALI control circuits: £34.78 Everything else was bits and kit that I had lying around. Total spend £105,969.79.
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Sep 4, 2017 14:04
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April 25th. A couple of asides to begin with. Remember this photo showing the wall ties holding the inner and outer skins of the wall together?  This is what they looked like in 1908:  Also found this, which at first glance is from 1939, but is actually from the 70s:  Speaking of old, crappy things, here's the gas fireplace I removed, with orange marble surround.  So the main work here is to open up the back of the house so it can flow through to the new extension as one room. The process for that is to knock out a few bricks and put in some jacks which hold up the wall while you knock the bottom out. Unfortunately all the mortar in my house is ancient dogshit and while it's fine and dandy dealing with a distributed compressive force, the moment you start trying to hold up the wall on a couple of points it starts to crack and fall apart. Big Piece Of Wood to the rescue    Sorry, neighbour's airspace. With that secured we can fit the steel upstairs to hold the roof   And with that done it's rip out and refit time          Bricks begone!    In goes the new joists, I was away for this so the builder sent selfies     
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Sep 4, 2017 14:30
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Things are still happening faster than I can post about them but I will endeavour. Mid May and the side return extension gets its upper courses.   Garden continues its descent.   In go all the new joists at the back (with treacherous traversal options).       Ceiling joists on the side-return  The master bedroom gets vaulted  The upstairs is getting pretty empty now, at this point I'm living in the sealed room on the left:    but at least a wall is going in:  Wall cap framed out to split the vaulted hallway from the remnant of the attic  Time to reduce the size of the master bedroom to open up the headspace in the hallway.      What's this hiding at the back?  It's the old boiler  Byee 
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Sep 16, 2017 13:25
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Some diversions. These two fellas show up because my drains are full of poo poo, turns out they're very hard to access  The rear extension roof isn't quite weatherproof yet  but it does look nice open  More walls cleared down   Executive toilet stall installed 
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Sep 16, 2017 13:29
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A new trade enters! The sparkies are on site and ripping out all my poo poo.  Time to chuck the rest of that bedroom floor    Hallway head height open   Start ripping out the upper hallway wall   (aaaaaahhh) If I could keep this open with the same light I would, but it'll be blocked by ceilings 
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Sep 16, 2017 13:39
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The drain people return, it's REALLY hard to get at my interceptor, it seems And roughing out the kitchen so the sparks know where to put the power  Ghetto power supply (still like that as I sit next to it today)  That's it for now, more later.
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Sep 16, 2017 13:42
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How much is fair to expect a contractor to charge for profit and overhead? Have a quote from someone who wants 15 and 15, which seems like a lot. This is for kitchen, baths and flooring. First time working with a renovation contractor, so not sure if that's standard or if I should look elsewhere or try to negotiate.
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Sep 18, 2017 00:26
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Time Trial posted:How much is fair to expect a contractor to charge for profit and overhead? Have a quote from someone who wants 15 and 15, which seems like a lot. This is for kitchen, baths and flooring. First time working with a renovation contractor, so not sure if that's standard or if I should look elsewhere or try to negotiate. Get two more quotes. At no time mention what others have quoted. Pick your favorite contractor and use the quotes as a guide to negotiate.
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Sep 18, 2017 02:27
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Are you saying that there's line items for "profit" and "overhead" on there? If so that's not something I've ever seen either as a client or a contractor myself. Every contractor I've worked with has either charged an opaque amount for either the whole job or parts of the job and that amount included overhead and margin, or they've charged a day/hour rate in a similar fashion. For the fitting of my small bathroom this crew charge a standard £3,400 (i.e. he charges that amount for all bathrooms, not that it's necessarily an industry standard). That includes any construction and fitting required, and tiling (inc subfloor and adhesive), but doesn't include the hardware, fixtures, tiles, or grout. I believe he charges similar amounts to fit a kitchen. I agree with Indolent Bastard's suggestion.
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Sep 18, 2017 07:22
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Any civil engineering work I tender at my job comes back with those line items, there are pre agreed maximum percentages and it should allow us to see what exactly we're being charged. Sometimes that means we go with a particular contractor but we supply hardware, because we get a better discount with that manufacture than they do.
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Sep 18, 2017 08:01
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You tear at my dark capitalist heart with your transparency and equitability.
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Sep 18, 2017 09:11
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Jaded Burnout posted:In goes the new joists, I was away for this so the builder sent selfies It looks like you were living on site during the whole demo and build? What was that like? How much time did you actually spend on site overseeing the reno?
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Sep 18, 2017 12:41
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Yeah he gave me a spreadsheet of all the itemized costs, included profit and overhead line items. I'll go to others to compare. We do have a budget and I've told him the bid exceeds it.
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Sep 18, 2017 12:55
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Loving the work and updates. I like the opened up front entry/staircase a lot.
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Sep 18, 2017 13:50
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Leng posted:It looks like you were living on site during the whole demo and build? What was that like? How much time did you actually spend on site overseeing the reno? Not only living on site but working there, as I work from home. So I've been on site pretty much 24/7 with the exception of a couple of months where I went to stay elsewhere. I would not do it again. Being around made it a lot easier for me to keep an eye on what the builder was doing, not to supervise, I trust them to do things right, but to make sure they're doing the thing that I think they're doing. Being off-site would involve much more stringent and precise communication than was really workable with this crew, but probably a good idea regardless. Being on-site saved me, what, 6-10k in rent, but I think it would've given me much much lower stress.
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Sep 18, 2017 15:00
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dreesemonkey posted:Loving the work and updates. I like the opened up front entry/staircase a lot. The big gap at the top of the stairs gets half filled back in when the bathroom gets rebuilt, but it does at least clear the entryway itself and removes the header wall over the upper back hallway.
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Sep 18, 2017 15:02
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Still in May, we uncover the remaining tilework. Was a shame to rip that out. This wall was a little.. wobbly.. so we replaced it.   Some temporary "not dying" structures outside my room.  The sparkies get to work.    Clearly it would be too much trouble to specify whether this fuse was 60 or 80 and it's illegal to open it so.. put a call in to UKPN.  More junk     Rear extension gets covered and studwork    Putting in the extra steels and replacing various walls cost £2,640. Total cost so far £114,246.52.
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Sep 18, 2017 17:37
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Speaking of some of those walls..  This catnic gotta get raised yo, it was made for a grandma   A craned-neck view of the rafters above the entry hall  Brick up dat window bicth    Side extension gets wrapped and studden   More floors go bye    More power   The oven supply is rated for something like 42A but even that's a push, as the likely range to go in would hit 63A@230V if all of its functions were cranked at once. Had to move the gas supply    Gas supply work £760.80. Total cost so far £115,007.32.
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Sep 18, 2017 17:50
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This has remained my entire aesthetic for many months now Uncovered the hearth, and while lifting the floorboards, an old hammer presumably left by the builders.    Downstairs floorboards come up and boy are these joists rotten as heck    And sistered joints propped up on stacks of slate  See ya    Lintel time    Picked out likely choice for internal doors  This spot is probably a good choice for An Art later on   Replacing floor joists £552.00. Total £116,111.32. Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Sep 18, 2017 |
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Sep 18, 2017 17:59
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End of May and I spend a weekend or so running some cat 7a. Don't @ me.     Not super fun working up on this     Babby's first toolbelt, I won't work up a ladder again without one  I accidentally burnt out the builder's £300 drill, fortunately the replacement part was £20 delivered.  In the end I wound up getting the builder to finish off the wiring. He used too much so I had to buy another reel. There's like 700m of cable built into this house now. Network cable £624.85. Drill part £23.98. Total costs so far £116,760.15.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:24
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POSTS! It's late June and Things are Happening. The new pad goes under the kitchen, lowering the floor there so we can fit in the new floor height  Up go some stud walls    Underfloor heating on the new downstairs joists   ta-daaa Decided to add some remote-operated Velux skylights. One in the master bedroom, one above the entryway.     Velux costs: £2,946.10 Total spent: £119,706.24 Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Sep 30, 2017 |
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Sep 30, 2017 16:01
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Going to have to clear out this fireplace at some point. Network cabling gets finished     Hoofa doofa that bundle.
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Sep 30, 2017 16:13
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Time for some more walls to get their second fix boards and plaster.      Still a couple of unfinished areas.   You may have also noticed that the walls with windows on haven't been boarded anywhere. That's because all the windows are being replaced and we didn't want to do the returns until afterwards. I move back in and settle down to work on the world's worst desk.  Master bedroom starting to look nice. Relatively speaking.   Hallway boarded up. 
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Sep 30, 2017 16:25
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With these tools I will make a functioning space.   The spreads are out in force.       Gross   They had built up this extension two-thirds before I'd moved back in, and my only question to them was "why does it not have a damp-proof course?" I asked this over and over again, explaining that I didn't understand and could they explain why damp would not rise up in that wall. Despite me accepting their explanations each time, they eventually either gave up or grew a conscience, and knocked it down and rebuilt it with a DPC installed.   Front extension: £2,352.00 Total cost: £122,058.24 Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Sep 30, 2017 |
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Sep 30, 2017 16:33
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Can I have that neat old hammer?
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Oct 1, 2017 17:11
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Applesnots posted:Can I have that neat old hammer? I might rebury it.
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Oct 1, 2017 21:31
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We're rapidly catching up to current, now 8th September. Most of the walls have been boarded, the tower's down, and tools are being gathered in the kitchen for removal to make way for the screed.  Entryway (with growing damp patch) still contains the old lovely door and the outside doesn't have a roof, but we can't progress without the new front door     So in the meantime some internals. Lighting   Rear loft access   Vaulted bedroom ceiling getting a coat  Test fit of power socket  Still many network cables waiting for my attention  Goddamnit guys you got one of the plurals right 
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Oct 1, 2017 21:42
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Remember this hallway? Well because I'm not putting a fire door back there and the stairs are in the front half of the house, there's no longer 30 minute protection from fires breaking out in the kitchen and the front exit could become engulfed in flame. So I need to replace all the windows upstairs with fully opening ones for escape. May as well do the ones downstairs too. And the external doors. This was sort of unexpected in that I didn't find out until we were well underway on the project but I also knew about it months ago. The window fitters arrive!              New back door   New front door   People then kept showing up at the "front door" which was actually the outer of two doors. If you have to do something 3 times or more, automate it.  8 windows 2 bays and 2 external doors: £8,097.00 Total cost: £130,155.24
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Oct 1, 2017 21:55
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More walls starting to fill out.  This is the first window in the house to have plastered reveals in 6 months. It makes quite a difference to the appearance.  Tower goes back up and the giant entryway walls get plastered   I get started on some downstairs network backplates.   Having only worked with trunking in the past this was a learning experience, and I wound up circling the room twice in order to fix my first attempts. An annoying extra cost; I knew the leadwork on top of the bays was tatty but I thought I could put it off longer. Turns out you really need to get it done before rendering the front of the house and I'd just brought that work forward. So in comes a leadworker.       New roofs: £2,640.00 Total cost: £132,795.24
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Oct 1, 2017 22:08
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Jaded Burnout posted:I might rebury it. Ok, Thats cool.
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Oct 2, 2017 07:23
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POST post POST post POST 22nd September, parts for the downstairs bathroom start to arrive.  Time to remove that old doorway.   Not pictured: the clenching of buttocks as a single screw is removed and this entire set of bricks shifts downwards  The one screw that was holding it all up:  Cursed again by the 100 year old mortar having lost its tensile strength long ago. The only thing holding up the top-front of the house at this point is the dot & dab load-bearing plasterboard. New lintel time   Phew. Lintel mats & labour: £100. Total cost: £132,895.24.
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Oct 3, 2017 09:52
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Front extension roof headers go in, laser aligned with the internal ceiling   Job done  Now we've fully uncovered these markings I know the house is from 1909, not 1908.   Front extension gets a little plywood and DPC hat to keep the water out until the flat roof goes in  "Level loads only" uh huh 
Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 10:01 on Oct 3, 2017 |
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Oct 3, 2017 09:58
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24th September and prep starts for laying the screed.        At the same time the rendering is underway outside.   Then I notice this cable running through my soffit between the neighbours' houses     I google the name on the box and it turns out to be a house-to-house relay TV cable company that shut down in the 80s. When I talk to the neighbours about it they tell me they never knew what it was and just left it because the unknown is scary. I'll be ripping that out. Screed prep continues.         
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Oct 3, 2017 10:11
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I'm insanely jealous of what you've done to that house. I live in a semi from 1911 and I recognise so many small things.
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Oct 3, 2017 11:26
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Be careful what you wish for, the posts don't convey the soul crushing stress of it all. 28th September and after many delays the pour begins.   The levelling process is an interesting one, a 360º laser is set up and these little spider dudes are placed and adjusted using a rod with a laser detector on it.  The guy rotates the rod to adjust the hight of the spider dudes until the detector beeps  This little spider dude in particular was a worry because it kept on going up and up to worryingly near the threshold of the door. But it was fine.  There was some more worry because one of the spots didn't have a lot of space above the pipes for screed, but the builder was willing to take responsibility if it cracks. So it begins.                   And so began 72 hours of house arrest while I waited for it to set. I ate a lot of sandwiches.
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Oct 3, 2017 17:02
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The lake of concrete is quite unsettling.
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Oct 3, 2017 17:05
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After 48 hours the ground was solid enough to walk on lightly with some boards to spread weight. I can tell you it's super weird to walk on a floor that was milkshake 2 days previous.      Freedom! 
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Oct 3, 2017 17:06
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The pipes sticking out of the floor at the manifold are creepy and will I suppose remain so forever  Thresholds for internal rooms look good, there's about the right about of difference for the finished flooring.     So there we go, we're up to date. I'll keep postin' when there's somethin' to post.
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Oct 3, 2017 17:12
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