Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Jul 15, 2012 3:19 pm Being a total noob to even the concept of renovation and seeing as there seems to be more and more people like me out there I thought it would be great if some of the more experienced people could share things they wish they had known about renovating, resources they wish they knew about or had read, or even valuable tips they are able to share. Ones from the un-handy like myself would be great too. Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 2Jul 15, 2012 8:54 pm Every time we do a reno we learn something new as you come up against different problems. The main thing I learned on the first reno is that bathrooms take longer than you think. ALWAYS get the bathroom stripped the first day and keep at it. You can't do it in a day as you need to strip it, line the walls and ceiling, waterproof, wait, waterproof, wait, tile, wait, tile, grout, then put the shower etc in. Strip everything out first then you have clear working areas. Google is your friend and Youtube can teach you anything. Found that out when I had to cut cornice and when my hubby rang up and said "By the way can you grout the kitchen tiles" when I said I didn't know how he said "it's easy, stuffs in the tub in the lougeroom" and hung up. You learn as you go. We can now do everything ourselves (except plumbing, electrical of course). We do contract some work out if it's a big job. Sometimes it's not worth spending 2-3 days doing something a professional can do in a day. Don't forget plenty of food and drinks. And get your own tools. Men don't put things back and you waste time looking for stuff. Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 3Jul 15, 2012 9:07 pm When my husband and I started renovating an old house we'd bought we did a few things on the cheap (a bathroom and kitchen) - if we'd had our time over we would have waited a bit longer and saved the money to have them done properly.......we learnt along the way. It was a great start for us and a foot in the housing market, but it felt like we were constantly renovating, extending, painting etc.....If we'd had the foresight to see the finished product we would have done it all in one hit instead of dribs and drabs and saved ourselves years of living in an unfinished home.........and it was only when we decided to sell it that all the last little jobs got finished !!! Typical !!LOL Good luck with it !!! Owner Building on 1800sqm Sanity Intact so far Locked up March 2012 Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 4Jul 16, 2012 3:31 pm Thanks travelbug and lynny-jane. I am a bit scared of DIY tbh. I have no problem taking things out and smashing things myself but things like tiling - what if I completely stuffed it? Grouting, ok I think I could maybe do that. I agree though about doing everything at once if you know what the finished product is that you want. Any other tips appreciated. Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 5Jul 16, 2012 5:13 pm As a retired tradie I think the biggest tip is to start small and learn as you go, for example-- So many people who have never opened a can of paint ask for advice on painting a whole house, rather than pick a room or small outside section to get the feel of it. They have no concept of preparation and are bull at a gate to get the paint on, then whine about a poor finish. Ditto with tiling, paving etc etc Arfur Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 6Jul 16, 2012 7:03 pm Uncle Arfur - Yes, I think research seems to be coming up as the key and not taking on too much. We painted our whole house without ever having painted before. But, I did lots of research first and asked questions of other people/paint shop people. But we got someone in to do the sanding and polishing of our floorboards - no way would I attempt something like that kind of job. I wish I knew someone like you who could show me the ropes but sadly we have no tradie friends or rellies. Hence why I am on a forum asking these questions I guess. More please! Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 7Jul 17, 2012 4:03 pm Where are you located. I've visited a few people from another forum's houses to give some tips. Even brought my painting clothes once. Happy to help if you are in Sydney. We get in and work as quickly as we can and get it all done in 5 weeks usually (complete new inside). But our PPOR has been different. SLOWLY getting it finished. Quality work is very important. I went to an open home a few weeks ago where someone had bought it to reno and sell. It is the worst reno I've seen in my life. Apparently it took 2 weeks and looks like it. Rough bits in the walls and painted straight over (one coat, you can see through it). Floating floor poorly laid and they painted after so it's covered in paint drips. Cheap kitchen poorly installed (and too small). I could go on. It's been sitting on the market empty for 6 weeks. I shake my head as I can see that an extra couple of weeks and a few extra thousand $ it could have been amazing. After 5 weeks they decided to add 2 feature walls (which looks terrible also). Keen to see how long it sits there and what they end up getting for it. The agent said when we were discussing how discusting it was "You've got a good eye". haha. Don't think anyone could miss the faults. We reno to a high standard and are proud of all our work. I don't like poor workmanship. If we can't do something to a high standard we pay someone to do it. Like tiling. We do kitchen splashback but wouldn't do a bathroom. I've laid half a house with slate though. Agree with other poster- start small. Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 8Jul 17, 2012 4:38 pm Thanks travelbug. I'm in Perth so a bit far away which is a shame! Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 9Jul 17, 2012 11:29 pm Cheap tapware will cost you time and money to replace soon. I've didn't learn these the hard way (at least I got this right first time): - Spend more on items which you can't or are difficult to replace, i.e. kitchen and bathroom vanities. - stone benchtops make the kitchen more upmarket - and best tip, like travelbug says never tile yourself. It will make your reno look like a DIY job, even if everything is perfect. You can spot a DIY tiling job a mile away. Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 11Jul 18, 2012 6:10 am We spent too much time in an old place patching walls, fixing peeling plasters etc should have just stripped the walls and put some new sheets over the brick. Would have saved a lot of time and come up a lot better. Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 12Jul 18, 2012 10:46 am JB1 Cheap tapware will cost you time and money to replace soon. Not necessarily so. I bought my place thirteen years ago and changed all the tapware to some white with gold trim elcheapo brand that resemble the Harmony old style, bought from Mitre 10 for under $200 total. They still work well and look great. Arfur Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 13Jul 31, 2012 3:13 pm I've done three renovations solo and have learnt a bit from each but there are few obvious things I sadly learnt the hard way. Shopping lists - nothing wastes more time than numerous trips to the hardware store. Make lists when you are alert not at 3am and prepare them when you are in the room you intend to work on and mentally go through the steps, this will help jog your memory. If you are doing multiple rooms it pays to divide up your lists and seperate the items as soon as you get home so you don't end up using the wrong materials in the wrong room. I guarantee spending a bit of time on this simple task will save you a lot of time in the long run. Mask off areas really well - if you are doing any demolition work, dust will travel hundreds of meters, up stairs, downstairs and through the tiniest of gaps. If you don't want to sleep in it, have it end up all over your neighbours clean washing and want to be able to breathe through the night, it pays to do this well. Bite the bullet and call in a professional when you need to. If you've stuffed an item but can't quite put your finger on how, chances are trying to do it again will only cost you more time and even more money. Cut your losses and get someone in, most tradies seem happy enough to let you do the dog work to keep your costs down. Fess up to your own limitations/bad workmanship and most will have a bit of a laugh with you and not slog you too much. Getting someone else, like a partner, to talk with the tradie often results in a bigger bill. There is a plumbing mob in Sydney with the slogan "we repair what your husband fixed" always makes me giggle. http://camdenbuild.blogspot.com.au/ by invite only please pm me Re: Renovating - What you wish someone had told you. 14Aug 10, 2012 5:44 pm I'll tell you something I was so thankful for when we renovated our kitchen was a second bathroom. We were with out kitchen for about 3 weeks as we had a bit of structural work and just dedicating one bathroom for the tradesmen and then we had our own and I could set up the dish drainer for our mugs and I did not have to feel an invasion of privacy to all my bathroom items. And I didn't have to keep cleaning "their" bathroom. Of course a portable toilet outside would have been better but we didn't think of this and didn't know how long it would go on for and it would have been an added cost. What you are looking at is fibrous plaster, true gypsum, it is cast on horizontal beds with fibers included to give strength. I has no Asbestos in it. Houses before 1985… 2 7135 That is a really good attitude Akin to you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I do enjoy watching that tik tok inspector from Victoria but he does go a little… 12 81883 Looking to start the journey of becoming an owner builder in SA. Feeling pretty (overly) confident on the building and construction details, but really struggling to find… 0 8417 |