Jen's-can't change a lightbulb-reno attempt
- Thread starter Bandita
- Start date
Well, here's the start to the fun, got a quote today that made me fall off the chair almost! (This is exact quote):
- Supply tiles, glue and grout for kitchen and bathroom.
- Supply basin for bathroom and toilet.
- To fix the wardrobe and supply melamine.
- Pull out one wall and the corners in the bedrooms around the wardrobes.
PRICE: 14,500 + GST
I've asked him to provide more detail in the quote (are your quotes always this vague?!? - I can't tell at all what he's budgeting for the materials - tiles, toilet, vanity, shower, laundry, wardrobes, etc, etc?? - compared to the labor??) - I think the actual work involved is alot more than detailed in the quote - but still way over our budget! We asked that if we do all the knock down/clear out all the tiles/fixtues, etc. in the bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms ourselves - what would it bring the price down to?
I think it's the knocking out the brick walls that's bringing the major price into it - if these are non-structural (as suspected) - can we do this ourselves? The person who quoted us can do it, so I imagine if he's there anyways (working on the kitchen or whatever - he could supervise?-if it's legal of course?!?)
Thanks!
Cheers,
Jen
- Supply tiles, glue and grout for kitchen and bathroom.
- Supply basin for bathroom and toilet.
- To fix the wardrobe and supply melamine.
- Pull out one wall and the corners in the bedrooms around the wardrobes.
PRICE: 14,500 + GST
I've asked him to provide more detail in the quote (are your quotes always this vague?!? - I can't tell at all what he's budgeting for the materials - tiles, toilet, vanity, shower, laundry, wardrobes, etc, etc?? - compared to the labor??) - I think the actual work involved is alot more than detailed in the quote - but still way over our budget! We asked that if we do all the knock down/clear out all the tiles/fixtues, etc. in the bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms ourselves - what would it bring the price down to?
I think it's the knocking out the brick walls that's bringing the major price into it - if these are non-structural (as suspected) - can we do this ourselves? The person who quoted us can do it, so I imagine if he's there anyways (working on the kitchen or whatever - he could supervise?-if it's legal of course?!?)
Thanks!
Cheers,
Jen
Day 1 - the reno has begun!!
Merry Xmas all!!!
Well the fun has begun!! Due to less than enthusiastic vendors on allowing quotes before settlement, we settled on Friday (of course, after dramas with the bank refusing settlement at the 11am scheduled time - turns out they can't count!
- after a few nasty calls from our solicitors, all was good at 1:30). This early settlement actually turned out to be beneficial to us as we have time off over the Xmas break to get started.
Today (yes, Xmas morning) was Geoff's first day off, and our first start at our reno attempt. We got so much more accomplished than I expected! We only had a couple of hours, as we had Xmas lunch and dinner with family organised. I thought we might be able to get the carpet pulled up - turned out we were able to pull up the entire carpet and nailed down carpet wood strips (not sure what these are called?), pull up the two layers of lino on the kitchen floor, pull out the whole kitchen and tiles - and get started knocking down tiles in the bathroom! That was in 2 and half hours - Geoff is much handier than I gave him credit for!
Alot of that time I spent sweeping up the 40 years of dust which has accumulated under the carpets - it seems to never end!
It wasn't nearly as hard as I expected! The tiles come off quite easily with a hammer, chisel and other tools (altough we haven't attempted the bathroom floor yet.... ), the 2 layers of kitchen lino ripped up with a bit of strength - I actually did that on my own. The carpet took very little time to rip up - but those nailed down wood strips took much longer!
Tomorrow, we'll have the whole day there (although I might be checking out periodically to see the boxing day sales ), so will hopefully see even more progress. Geoff's parents are coming around with a ute and trailer to load up all the rubbish to take to the tip and will probably help us a bit too.
So far, it's actually been fun and much easier than I planned for - I'm sure that will change VERY SOON.
Thanks all for your advice, caution, and support - and if anyone knows any tradies (plumber, electrician, tiler, painter etc) in the Ormond (Melbourne) area, send me a PM - would love to get some quotes from those who you recommend!
Cheers,
Jen
Merry Xmas all!!!
Well the fun has begun!! Due to less than enthusiastic vendors on allowing quotes before settlement, we settled on Friday (of course, after dramas with the bank refusing settlement at the 11am scheduled time - turns out they can't count!
- after a few nasty calls from our solicitors, all was good at 1:30). This early settlement actually turned out to be beneficial to us as we have time off over the Xmas break to get started.Today (yes, Xmas morning) was Geoff's first day off, and our first start at our reno attempt. We got so much more accomplished than I expected! We only had a couple of hours, as we had Xmas lunch and dinner with family organised. I thought we might be able to get the carpet pulled up - turned out we were able to pull up the entire carpet and nailed down carpet wood strips (not sure what these are called?), pull up the two layers of lino on the kitchen floor, pull out the whole kitchen and tiles - and get started knocking down tiles in the bathroom! That was in 2 and half hours - Geoff is much handier than I gave him credit for!
Alot of that time I spent sweeping up the 40 years of dust which has accumulated under the carpets - it seems to never end!
It wasn't nearly as hard as I expected! The tiles come off quite easily with a hammer, chisel and other tools (altough we haven't attempted the bathroom floor yet....
), the 2 layers of kitchen lino ripped up with a bit of strength - I actually did that on my own. The carpet took very little time to rip up - but those nailed down wood strips took much longer!Tomorrow, we'll have the whole day there (although I might be checking out periodically to see the boxing day sales
), so will hopefully see even more progress. Geoff's parents are coming around with a ute and trailer to load up all the rubbish to take to the tip and will probably help us a bit too.So far, it's actually been fun and much easier than I planned for - I'm sure that will change VERY SOON.
Thanks all for your advice, caution, and support - and if anyone knows any tradies (plumber, electrician, tiler, painter etc) in the Ormond (Melbourne) area, send me a PM - would love to get some quotes from those who you recommend!
Cheers,
Jen
Day 2 - the unit is gutted!
Hi all,
Day 2!
We decided to start around 10:30am to give the surrounding units occupants a bit of a break from our hammering at 9am Xmas morning (once we pulled up the carpet, you could hear us from the street).
We managed to get everything ripped out! The bathroom was unreal - the bathtub/shower is in a very narrow space surrounded by brick walls - so narrow a space that they either cut 3 inches into the brick on either side to fit the tub it in initially, or they built the brick walls around the tub. I think it's the latter - as the base and everything was surround in brick. What a job!
Geoff's parents came over about 1:00pm with the ute and trailer to clear everything out, they walked inside and I think wanted to run back out the door! It looked like more than it was though, and we cleared most everything out within an hour or two. The majority of the rest of the day was getting the bath out, and all the bricks and tiles surrounding it. Thankfully Geoff's parents stayed to help us with that part - I would have been quite useless with most of it. The final part of the day was hammering out the tiles on the bathroom floor. My job during that portion was pretty much broom and shovel to clear the way for more pounding.
The concrete floors underneath are helpful in some sense - but the dust layer they carry is absolutely unreal! I sweep, sweep, sweep, and sweep again, and it's still there. We're going to be trying to pick up some sort of heavy duty vacuum from the trading post or something to help with the load.
A few major (later funny) dramas occurred which I'm sure are typical of the first time renos! The first - I thought they would leave the vanity until I could get a plumber in to disconnect it tomorrow - I left them alone to do some sweeping and hear loud yelling from Geoff's Dad "turn the water off!!" Turns out he decided it was time for the vanity and taps to come out. Water was coming out everywhere and in every direction. Geoff has dismantled the bottom part of the plumbing earlier and it was already thrown out in trailer, so the only place for the water to go to go was on the floor and all over Geoff's dad! (as well as the ceiling and walls!) On the upside - we found out where the main water taps were outside the building! We were able to turn it off (along with all the other units in the building I think - yes, we're loved there now ) and get the taps fitted properly (so the water could be turned back on for our patient neighbours!) - and those foam carpet padding we ripped out earlier came in quite handy soaking up our mess!
It was actually 'almost' a good thing that happened - as it led Geoff and his Dad to be incredibly careful working around the pipes in the bricks to get the bath out (pipes, like the bricks, were also built around the bath with little room for error). If they cut those, we'd have been in serious trouble.
Other mishap is that one of the surrounding brick walls around the bath is one that we would like to knock out and rebuild much wider - but are waiting for the builder to come tomorrow to determine if it's stuctural or not. Well, now we're seriously hoping NOT as while Geoff and his dad we banging at the wall trying to get the bath out - his mom and I were on the other side of the wall - I started noticing little cracks, asking out loud if those were there before or not (there's lots of small cracks around so I may have missed them) - within one minutes huge cracks started appearing and they were clearly coming through the wall! We yelled out, but there really wasn't much other way to get the bath out. They didn't go straight through the wall, but it's definitly bending and cracking - will be happy to have the builder out tomorrow to determine how important that wall is!
It' still fun, very hard work for us "office folk" - but we're still enjoying it, and again suprised at how quickly we were able to gut the place.
If we could just tame that dust, life would be much easier! Love to hear some tips on how you all handle the overwhelming dust factor!
Cheers,
Jen
Hi all,
Day 2!
We decided to start around 10:30am to give the surrounding units occupants a bit of a break from our hammering at 9am Xmas morning
(once we pulled up the carpet, you could hear us from the street).We managed to get everything ripped out! The bathroom was unreal - the bathtub/shower is in a very narrow space surrounded by brick walls - so narrow a space that they either cut 3 inches into the brick on either side to fit the tub it in initially, or they built the brick walls around the tub. I think it's the latter - as the base and everything was surround in brick. What a job!
Geoff's parents came over about 1:00pm with the ute and trailer to clear everything out, they walked inside and I think wanted to run back out the door! It looked like more than it was though, and we cleared most everything out within an hour or two. The majority of the rest of the day was getting the bath out, and all the bricks and tiles surrounding it. Thankfully Geoff's parents stayed to help us with that part - I would have been quite useless with most of it. The final part of the day was hammering out the tiles on the bathroom floor. My job during that portion was pretty much broom and shovel to clear the way for more pounding.
The concrete floors underneath are helpful in some sense - but the dust layer they carry is absolutely unreal! I sweep, sweep, sweep, and sweep again, and it's still there. We're going to be trying to pick up some sort of heavy duty vacuum from the trading post or something to help with the load.
A few major (later funny) dramas occurred which I'm sure are typical of the first time renos! The first - I thought they would leave the vanity until I could get a plumber in to disconnect it tomorrow - I left them alone to do some sweeping and hear loud yelling from Geoff's Dad "turn the water off!!" Turns out he decided it was time for the vanity and taps to come out. Water was coming out everywhere and in every direction. Geoff has dismantled the bottom part of the plumbing earlier and it was already thrown out in trailer, so the only place for the water to go to go was on the floor and all over Geoff's dad!
(as well as the ceiling and walls!) On the upside - we found out where the main water taps were outside the building! We were able to turn it off (along with all the other units in the building I think - yes, we're loved there now ) and get the taps fitted properly (so the water could be turned back on for our patient neighbours!) - and those foam carpet padding we ripped out earlier came in quite handy soaking up our mess!It was actually 'almost' a good thing that happened - as it led Geoff and his Dad to be incredibly careful working around the pipes in the bricks to get the bath out (pipes, like the bricks, were also built around the bath with little room for error). If they cut those, we'd have been in serious trouble.
Other mishap is that one of the surrounding brick walls around the bath is one that we would like to knock out and rebuild much wider - but are waiting for the builder to come tomorrow to determine if it's stuctural or not. Well, now we're seriously hoping NOT as while Geoff and his dad we banging at the wall trying to get the bath out - his mom and I were on the other side of the wall - I started noticing little cracks, asking out loud if those were there before or not (there's lots of small cracks around so I may have missed them) - within one minutes huge cracks started appearing and they were clearly coming through the wall! We yelled out, but there really wasn't much other way to get the bath out. They didn't go straight through the wall, but it's definitly bending and cracking - will be happy to have the builder out tomorrow to determine how important that wall is!
It' still fun, very hard work for us "office folk"
- but we're still enjoying it, and again suprised at how quickly we were able to gut the place.If we could just tame that dust, life would be much easier! Love to hear some tips on how you all handle the overwhelming dust factor!
Cheers,
Jen
Many years ago before Festo became Festool, we bought an SR 5 dust extracter. It is the best investment we ever made. It can be teamed up to all our power tools and it is the only vacuum I have which can suck those little spiders out from corners. I got a 3 metre nozzel on mine so I can poke it out the windows and clean the dust and spiders out from the eaves of the house. I empty the dust collection bag a couple of times to save buying so many new ones. Eventually though, I just pop in a new one.
http://www.festool.com.au/mediandoweb/index.cfm?ID_O_TREE_GROUP=1767&sLanguage=EN
End of Week 1 - Brick walls are out!
Well it's Day 7 - and after making enough noise to wake up every person in the block, and likely the street - the brick walls are out!! It got very interesting Firstly, over the past couple days I met with the second builder. The builder said, looking into the ceiling, there are structural beams
on the walls we wanted to remove (the one with the big cracks we've already made getting the bath out) - but he said, "Geoff could do it on his own - something about moving the beam over the doorway and putting in 5 dynabolts"? Luckily, he said the walls around the toilet we wanted to remove were fine! Although the builder had alot of confidence in Geoff moving the support beams on his own - Geoff didn't really know alot of what he was talking about, so we decided to organise the builder to come out this (Sunday) morning and help show Geoff how to move the supporting beams in the roof and where to put the dynabolts so we could get started knocking walls out. Unfortunately, he insisted on meeting up there at 7am - so we thought, as we can't be making too much noise that early, we'd just use him to show us what to do, go have breakfast, and start pounding around 9 or 10am to keep the neighbors at bay.
Well, at 7am, there was no waiting until 10am - the builder was in the roof and the banging started - literally some of the loudest noises I've heard in my life. I was in the room below covering my ears and praying that noone came to the door with a shotgun! Mallets, sledge hammers, drills, nailguns, circular saws going like crazy for 1 hour - I was so nervous and feeling so bad for the neighbors I literally felt sick. Thank god it was all over in an hour. The builder had moved the structural beams, put in the dynabolts and we were ready to start knocking out bricks!
The builder left at 8am, we went and had breakfast and waited for Geoff's parents to come and meet us - we told them to take their time and not come until around 11am to give the neighbors some time to cool off and let us apologise. We went to breakfast, and by 9am Geoff was keen on getting back in there to knock out the cubbords. I made him wait til 10am, and within 5 minutes, the neighbor below us was banging back on the ceiling yelling about sleep. So we stopped and did nothing for the next hour - but worry about if we could calm them down enough to let us make ridiculous amounts of noise pounding out the bricks the rest of the day. We apologised to the little old lady next door who said she was going to murder us this morning - but did accept our apology, and we gave her a nice box of chocolates and she said she didn't mind if we made noise during the day. The neighbors downstairs weren't answering their door - they either left or were too mad to answer, but we left them a box of chocolates with a huge apology note and are having some other neighbors (they renovated theirs a few years ago, so understand) apologise for us as well.
Geoff's parents came out about 11am and we had all 3 brick walls removed and the place cleaned out by 3:30! Removing the brick walls was actually less noisy than moving those support beams!
An interesting side note - we have a little storage area in our carpark - which was full of "junk" we thought were left behind by previous tenants/owners, so last Tuesday we filled it into the trailer we were removing everything else in. The next day, when I came to the unit with the builder, I had some very unhappy neighbors outside, as we had removed the body corporate materials and their wheels for their grandkids bikes. Turns out that area hadn't been touched for years and years, so the body corporate had taken it over and put all their belongings in their (we thought it was left over junk!) Luckily, we were able to get the stuff back before the trailer went to the tip and all is good again
They all can't hate us too much though - the ones across the way gave us a bottle of wine when we gave them a box of chocolates!
It's been hard getting tradies this past week because of the holidays, but next week we have an electrician and hopefully a plumber coming out to help us a bit more in deciding our final plans and layout. Next week will also involve getting all the materials so we can start sanding, re-plastering, gapping, and cleaning the walls
The builder will be coming back out to re-build a wider wall around the previous bath area - which we're going to turn into a seperate laundry.
The drain pipe for the shower is quite high - which is slightly dampering our hopes to put in a fully tiled shower as it will have to up higher - so will need a step into it - but will find out a more about this when the plumber comes.
Costs to date: $15 for tape measures and drill bits; $15 for stanley knife; $17 for dynabolts and brick chisel; $70 for 2 trips to the tip; $25 for chocolates for all the neigbours; $10 for 6 pack of beer for painter for coming out at a ridiculous time at night; $55 for carton of beer and 2 bottles of wine for Geoff's parents (we've almost spent more money bribing people then on the unit so far).
Total costs for gutting the entire unit and knocking out walls: $207.
Geoff got a drill for Xmas, and all the other tools he or his parents already had. The builder hasn't charged us yet - as he'll be building the new wall and the wardrobes, so there are more costs for him.
I've been taking pictures of everything so far - so when I can work out how to load them into the computer you can see our unit demolition in progress!
So far - still fun!
Cheers,
Jen
This is getting interesting
What did the builder say about the wall? Structural? Are the cracks going to be a problem?
How is the bathroom going?
Dan
Well it's Day 7 - and after making enough noise to wake up every person in the block, and likely the street - the brick walls are out!! It got very interesting
Firstly, over the past couple days I met with the second builder. The builder said, looking into the ceiling, there are structural beams on the walls we wanted to remove (the one with the big cracks we've already made getting the bath out) - but he said, "Geoff could do it on his own - something about moving the beam over the doorway and putting in 5 dynabolts"? Luckily, he said the walls around the toilet we wanted to remove were fine! Although the builder had alot of confidence in Geoff moving the support beams on his own - Geoff didn't really know alot of what he was talking about, so we decided to organise the builder to come out this (Sunday) morning and help show Geoff how to move the supporting beams in the roof and where to put the dynabolts so we could get started knocking walls out. Unfortunately, he insisted on meeting up there at 7am - so we thought, as we can't be making too much noise that early, we'd just use him to show us what to do, go have breakfast, and start pounding around 9 or 10am to keep the neighbors at bay.
Well, at 7am, there was no waiting until 10am - the builder was in the roof and the banging started - literally some of the loudest noises I've heard in my life. I was in the room below covering my ears and praying that noone came to the door with a shotgun!
Mallets, sledge hammers, drills, nailguns, circular saws going like crazy for 1 hour - I was so nervous and feeling so bad for the neighbors I literally felt sick. Thank god it was all over in an hour. The builder had moved the structural beams, put in the dynabolts and we were ready to start knocking out bricks!The builder left at 8am, we went and had breakfast and waited for Geoff's parents to come and meet us - we told them to take their time and not come until around 11am to give the neighbors some time to cool off and let us apologise. We went to breakfast, and by 9am Geoff was keen on getting back in there to knock out the cubbords. I made him wait til 10am, and within 5 minutes, the neighbor below us was banging back on the ceiling yelling about sleep. So we stopped and did nothing for the next hour - but worry about if we could calm them down enough to let us make ridiculous amounts of noise pounding out the bricks the rest of the day. We apologised to the little old lady next door who said she was going to murder us this morning
- but did accept our apology, and we gave her a nice box of chocolates and she said she didn't mind if we made noise during the day. The neighbors downstairs weren't answering their door - they either left or were too mad to answer, but we left them a box of chocolates with a huge apology note and are having some other neighbors (they renovated theirs a few years ago, so understand) apologise for us as well.Geoff's parents came out about 11am and we had all 3 brick walls removed and the place cleaned out by 3:30! Removing the brick walls was actually less noisy than moving those support beams!
An interesting side note - we have a little storage area in our carpark - which was full of "junk" we thought were left behind by previous tenants/owners, so last Tuesday we filled it into the trailer we were removing everything else in. The next day, when I came to the unit with the builder, I had some very unhappy neighbors outside, as we had removed the body corporate materials and their wheels for their grandkids bikes. Turns out that area hadn't been touched for years and years, so the body corporate had taken it over and put all their belongings in their (we thought it was left over junk!) Luckily, we were able to get the stuff back before the trailer went to the tip and all is good again
They all can't hate us too much though - the ones across the way gave us a bottle of wine when we gave them a box of chocolates!
It's been hard getting tradies this past week because of the holidays, but next week we have an electrician and hopefully a plumber coming out to help us a bit more in deciding our final plans and layout. Next week will also involve getting all the materials so we can start sanding, re-plastering, gapping, and cleaning the walls
The builder will be coming back out to re-build a wider wall around the previous bath area - which we're going to turn into a seperate laundry.
The drain pipe for the shower is quite high - which is slightly dampering our hopes to put in a fully tiled shower as it will have to up higher - so will need a step into it - but will find out a more about this when the plumber comes.
Costs to date: $15 for tape measures and drill bits; $15 for stanley knife; $17 for dynabolts and brick chisel; $70 for 2 trips to the tip; $25 for chocolates for all the neigbours; $10 for 6 pack of beer for painter for coming out at a ridiculous time at night; $55 for carton of beer and 2 bottles of wine for Geoff's parents (we've almost spent more money bribing people then on the unit so far).
Total costs for gutting the entire unit and knocking out walls: $207.
Geoff got a drill for Xmas, and all the other tools he or his parents already had. The builder hasn't charged us yet - as he'll be building the new wall and the wardrobes, so there are more costs for him.
I've been taking pictures of everything so far - so when I can work out how to load them into the computer you can see our unit demolition in progress!
So far - still fun!
Cheers,
Jen
Hi jenD
Reno emotional curve:
beginning - demo exciting and real quick
Middle - depression, is it ever going to be finished - Oh no more tiling / painting - all those little bits.
End - excited all coming together looking good - you stand around and admire your work a lot.
Flat pack kitchens, I love them IKEA are really good - tho, I do not use the adjustable legs, I find them a pain in the A.... use 100mm pine make a frame level it off, put on the kick boards (decorative ones, on seen sides ) make up the cabinets and attach them. easy peasy
Oh by the way the handyman mag (with the pink writing) sold in Bunnings / newsagents has an article on how to install flat pack kitchens.
Celeste
Reno emotional curve:
beginning - demo exciting and real quick
Middle - depression, is it ever going to be finished - Oh no more tiling / painting - all those little bits.
End - excited all coming together looking good - you stand around and admire your work a lot.
Flat pack kitchens, I love them IKEA are really good - tho, I do not use the adjustable legs, I find them a pain in the A.... use 100mm pine make a frame level it off, put on the kick boards (decorative ones, on seen sides ) make up the cabinets and attach them. easy peasy
Oh by the way the handyman mag (with the pink writing) sold in Bunnings / newsagents has an article on how to install flat pack kitchens.
Celeste
Thanks Celeste!
I think that reno emotional curve is an everyday thing with us! All the time we decide what we need to do, get excited about it and head to the shops to buy the tools - then, while going up and down the aisles - where we start seeing everything else we also need to do - just thinking about it gets so overwhelming and then we start comparing prices and realise everything was cheaper somewhere else - that we often leave with nothing! We also remember we need this tradie to come and tell us about this, and that tradie to come and tell us about that before we should really buy some of these things - and getting tradies motivated is like pulling teeth! Something keeps coming up (granted, the Xmas holidays would always be a struggle - but we organised plumber and electrician for today - it's turning into tomorrow now); the flooring place who we were very excited about (they had end rolls of the carpet we wanted at an unbeatable price and excess flooring in the back they were trying to clear out for some space) came out to do the measurements BEFORE settlement still hasn't sent us the quote - despite daily phone calls with them - bizarre - and the more they don't seem to want our money, the more we've been doing things ourselves But then, we get to the unit, just start doing things - and it's so much easier than what we were worrying about going up and down those aisles imagining the worse! So the excitement comes back!
Definitly an emotional rollercoaster!
For the kitchens - I really like the idea of the flatpax - and with Geoff and his dad's proven handyman skills so far, I'm now sure they would be able to do it (I think a girl at work gave me that magazine edition you're talking about - great stuff!) We really like the Ikea and Box & Bench kitchens - heaps of colours, designs, choices, etc - we have some affordable quotes from them too - but someone's fiance at Geoff's work is a cabinet maker who's on holidays and is keen to make an extra $ before he goes back to work, so they're coming out tomorrow to have a look - so we'll see how that goes. If no good - we'll be getting one of those flatpax!
This weekend, we're hoping to start the sanding down and patching of the cracks, chips, gaps around the walls. I HOPE we'll have all tradies in to tell us what we can and can't do, and answer our millions of questions (which the 2 builders have helped with, but no definite answers from them) and start to arrange times with them to come to do their work.
I like your advice of not getting quotes from tradies (in a different thread I think) - firstly, they seem to HATE giving them and the quotes we had we've hated, so are finding it better to ask what's the most affordable way to do this or that and how much time it will take for them to do it - and they often advise what we can do ourselves. I'm hoping they aren't underestimating the time (and so far they haven't). By overestimating their time, I can estimate costs. I'll let you know at the end whether this is a good result or a plan for failure
After all my rambling - I do have a question for any who are experienced with concrete floors. With the place stripped - the echos of the noise make things 10x what they would be. We are planning on putting carpet in the bedrooms - and tiles in the bathroom and floating laminate - or (because we have found a great price) vinyl floorboards in the the living, hallways, and possible kitchen. If there's not enough for the kitchen (it's a surplus, so the price is based on what they're trying to get rid of) - we'll be doing tiles in the kitchen as well. If we use the vinyl floorboards - we love that they can get wet as we KNOW the tenants will be moping them! - they seem so thin (and there's no underlay) - what will the noise/echo factor be like - do vinyl floorboards and tiles absorb sound on concrete base? I'm worried it will sound like you're walking into a dungeon!
Thanks for the help!
Cheers,
Jen
I think that reno emotional curve is an everyday thing with us! All the time we decide what we need to do, get excited about it and head to the shops to buy the tools - then, while going up and down the aisles - where we start seeing everything else we also need to do - just thinking about it gets so overwhelming and then we start comparing prices and realise everything was cheaper somewhere else - that we often leave with nothing! We also remember we need this tradie to come and tell us about this, and that tradie to come and tell us about that before we should really buy some of these things - and getting tradies motivated is like pulling teeth! Something keeps coming up (granted, the Xmas holidays would always be a struggle - but we organised plumber and electrician for today - it's turning into tomorrow now); the flooring place who we were very excited about (they had end rolls of the carpet we wanted at an unbeatable price and excess flooring in the back they were trying to clear out for some space) came out to do the measurements BEFORE settlement still hasn't sent us the quote - despite daily phone calls with them - bizarre - and the more they don't seem to want our money, the more we've been doing things ourselves
But then, we get to the unit, just start doing things - and it's so much easier than what we were worrying about going up and down those aisles imagining the worse! So the excitement comes back! Definitly an emotional rollercoaster!
For the kitchens - I really like the idea of the flatpax - and with Geoff and his dad's proven handyman skills so far, I'm now sure they would be able to do it (I think a girl at work gave me that magazine edition you're talking about - great stuff!) We really like the Ikea and Box & Bench kitchens - heaps of colours, designs, choices, etc - we have some affordable quotes from them too - but someone's fiance at Geoff's work is a cabinet maker who's on holidays and is keen to make an extra $ before he goes back to work, so they're coming out tomorrow to have a look - so we'll see how that goes. If no good - we'll be getting one of those flatpax!
This weekend, we're hoping to start the sanding down and patching of the cracks, chips, gaps around the walls. I HOPE we'll have all tradies in to tell us what we can and can't do, and answer our millions of questions
(which the 2 builders have helped with, but no definite answers from them) and start to arrange times with them to come to do their work.I like your advice of not getting quotes from tradies (in a different thread I think) - firstly, they seem to HATE giving them and the quotes we had we've hated
, so are finding it better to ask what's the most affordable way to do this or that and how much time it will take for them to do it - and they often advise what we can do ourselves. I'm hoping they aren't underestimating the time (and so far they haven't). By overestimating their time, I can estimate costs. I'll let you know at the end whether this is a good result or a plan for failure After all my rambling - I do have a question for any who are experienced with concrete floors. With the place stripped - the echos of the noise make things 10x what they would be. We are planning on putting carpet in the bedrooms - and tiles in the bathroom and floating laminate - or (because we have found a great price) vinyl floorboards in the the living, hallways, and possible kitchen. If there's not enough for the kitchen (it's a surplus, so the price is based on what they're trying to get rid of) - we'll be doing tiles in the kitchen as well. If we use the vinyl floorboards - we love that they can get wet as we KNOW the tenants will be moping them! - they seem so thin (and there's no underlay) - what will the noise/echo factor be like - do vinyl floorboards and tiles absorb sound on concrete base? I'm worried it will sound like you're walking into a dungeon!
Thanks for the help!
Cheers,
Jen
Hi Jen
Have you spoken to the body corporate as it is normally against the rules to use hard surfaced materials in living areas.
The way that people do use them is by using approved glues or underlays which absorb the transmission noise.
If you don't clarify the situation and later the body corporate decides that you have contravened some rules they can force you to remove those finishes. I have experienced this with one of the stratas I am involved with where a numbe rof unit owners had removed carpet and replaced with tiles, they now again have carpet over the tiles. It would be very dishaertening if this was to happen after all your hard work.
hth
Really?!? Never thought of this! I don't "think" it will be a problem as the people across the way have tiled floors - and there doesn't seem to be too many rules on the place (old 1960's block of 8 units, people have gas water heaters, aircons attached to the outside of their unit walls, etc) - but I will look into it.
Also, is the glue used to install the vinyl floorboards the type of glue you're talking about that absorbs sound?
Thanks!
Jen
I can confirm what handyandy mentioned about some body corporates requiring sound-absorbing underlay. I used to sell floorboards and this was one of the things that we always advised customers of, as most people are blissfully unaware of this. It can increase the price quite dramatically, so you need to be able to source an underlay that will be both affordable and effective. I didn't sell vinyl floorboards but as far as my understanding goes, the glue required for these is only to secure them in place. The underlay is separate.
One thing to consider is whether the body corporate require underlay or not may in fact be irrelevant. Say they don't require it, you go ahead and install your floorboards, and then the people below the apartment kick up a fuss about the noise. Then what? It might be worth installing the underlay regardless just for peace of mind.
One thing to consider is whether the body corporate require underlay or not may in fact be irrelevant. Say they don't require it, you go ahead and install your floorboards, and then the people below the apartment kick up a fuss about the noise. Then what? It might be worth installing the underlay regardless just for peace of mind.
The block of units that I saw this happen as an issue dated back to 60-70's units.
A friend had this issue in a block that dated back to the 60's. They had to use special sound absorbing glue that cost them a fortune luckily it was only a bedsit.
I wasn't advocating to use glue with the vinyl as I am not familiar with the product I was just using generic terms and trying to make you aware of some issues related to the statements you made.
Previously I used tile glue for tiles that was rubber based and actually allowed the tiles to flex.
Cheers
Thats what my tile guy used for my kitchen wall tiles because I have a very flexible timber Qld'r. It looked like chewing gum icecream.
Picture time!!
I think I finally have been able to get our photos off my camera, onto this computer, then due to their massive size into the photo gallary and hopefully linked here! You have no idea how long it's taken me to work out how to get these photos onto this forum! I think it's taken longer than the reno itself so far!
So here we go - 1) "original" kitchen before gutting, 2) the lovely lino floors , 3) kitchen stripped but not removed, 4) kitchen removed
If that works - I'll continue onto the bathroom photos!
Cheers,
Jen
I think I finally have been able to get our photos off my camera, onto this computer, then due to their massive size into the photo gallary and hopefully linked here! You have no idea how long it's taken me to work out how to get these photos onto this forum! I think it's taken longer than the reno itself so far!
So here we go - 1) "original" kitchen before gutting, 2) the lovely lino floors
, 3) kitchen stripped but not removed, 4) kitchen removed
If that works - I'll continue onto the bathroom photos!
Cheers,
Jen
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Bathroom pics (before)
Ok, I'd prefer to have little thumbnails you can click on to make larger - but not sure how to do that from the gallery, so bear with me....
Pics of the bathroom before - you should be able to see how disfunctional it was (totally unable to use laundry if wanted a chance of getting into bath, brick walls everywhere, etc...)
Onto to the bathroom removal....
Cheers,
Jen
Ok, I'd prefer to have little thumbnails you can click on to make larger - but not sure how to do that from the gallery, so bear with me....
Pics of the bathroom before - you should be able to see how disfunctional it was (totally unable to use laundry if wanted a chance of getting into bath, brick walls everywhere, etc...)
Onto to the bathroom removal....
Cheers,
Jen
