Polished FBs vs carpet vs tiles?

[Truly Exotic]

ok, so im looking at this IP and would like some opinions please,

currently property has floorboards, old, dirty but solid (eg no cracks, holes)

Property is in a low socio economic, $200k price range

agent has said, best to polish it myself (after doing some research, probably not judging by the horror stories ive read) or to be careful as polishing might cost more then new carpets, however im getting the feeling carpet for a cheap IP is not the best

however, I saw one person on here do a 2bdr unit for $1000 in tiles and $1800 in labour, based on $17sqm (tiles) +25sqm (labour)

so Im contemplating on whether to hire an apprentice on the recommendation of a builder to polish or to save on labour costs,

and to also do the kitchen floor (which is currently a series of coloured horrible tiles)

Im looking to really stretch it and do, new kitchen, new tiles in kitchen, polish floorboards, paint (DIY), bathroom, shower, light fixtures for $7-$9k,

 

[wylie]

Why not get the boards polished professionally, including the kitchen?

I've seen plenty of terrible jobs done by home handymen and I'd recommend getting in a professional.

New kitchen, bathroom and shower (plus the other things you want to do) would be difficult on $7K to $9K. Does that include appliances?

Painting yourself will be as cheap as the paint (and your time) and light fittings can be as cheap or as expensive as you want.

 

[Truly Exotic]

Why not get the boards polished professionally, including the kitchen?

I've seen plenty of terrible jobs done by home handymen and I'd recommend getting in a professional.

New kitchen, bathroom and shower (plus the other things you want to do) would be difficult on $7K to $9K. Does that include appliances?

Painting yourself will be as cheap as the paint (and your time) and light fittings can be as cheap or as expensive as you want.

absolutely agree with you, just been reading and more then half have recommended to get it done professionally+horror storeis, so I am intending to approach a builder and ask one/two of his apprentices to do a weekend job of polishing/tiling etc.

The $7k-$9k budget is NOT including appliances,

since this is a cheap IP, everything will be budget, ive been referencing a template from one of the guys on here, here is what it looks like so far
(and yes I know Im pushing it bigtime)

Tiles for kitchen floor/side 20sqm + bathroom side 10sqm=$1000
Labour for all tiling 3 areas+floor sanding $1800
Bathroom Sink+ taps $500
Blinds $500
Kitchen $1000
Dishwasher $500
Paint $300
Labour in Painting $1000 (or I do it myself)
Mistakes/underbudgeting: $1400
Light Fittings: $100

$8000 in total

 

[wylie]

absolutely agree with you, just been reading and more then half have recommended to get it done professionally+horror storeis, so I am intending to approach a builder and ask one/two of his apprentices to do a weekend job of polishing/tiling etc.

A builder's apprentice is NOT a floor polisher If you are going to risk someone else making a dog's breakfast of it, you might as well do that yourself and save the money .

The $7k-$9k budget is NOT including appliances,

since this is a cheap IP, everything will be budget, ive been referencing a template from one of the guys on here, here is what it looks like so far
(and yes I know Im pushing it bigtime)

Tiles for kitchen floor/side 20sqm + bathroom side 10sqm=$1000
If the kitchen has timber floors under the existing tiles, why not sand the whole floor including the kitchen?
Labour for all tiling 3 areas+floor sanding $1800
Sounds too cheap. Have you had quotes?
Bathroom Sink+ taps $500
You could pick sink and taps up on eBay or Gumtree for $100.
Blinds $500
Buy eyelet curtains on eBay or Gumtree for much less.
Kitchen $1000
I cannot imagine what sort of kitchen you will get for $1K.
Dishwasher $500
Ebay, or better still, Gumtree would see a dishwasher for less than $100. I've been watching these for our son so I know you can get a pretty good second hand that still looks good for around $100.
Paint $300
Have you worked this out on coverage, sounds ok.
Labour in Painting $1000 (or I do it myself)
I don't think you'll get a whole house painted for $1K . If you have time, it is easy to do yourself.
Mistakes/underbudgeting: $1400
Light Fittings: $100
Whole house? Allow more than that. I'd go with cheap batten holders and then choose DIY fittings for each room.

$8000 in total

What about looking for a whole kitchen on eBay or Gumtree? If you choose well, it will not cost much to modify.

I just bought four sets of eyelet curtains, lovely fabric, blockout lined for $360 delivered to my door. This is for one room with lots of windows but assuming one window in most rooms, you could curtain a whole house for your $500. Blinds look good, but curtains probably might survive rough handling better.

 

[Jamie M]

Out of curiosity, how much does it cost to polish the floorboards? A place that we're interested in buying has pine boards under the carpet that we would polish up.

If you were to tile, wouldn't you also have to lay down some type of board over the original floorboards (you couldn't just tile straight onto the wooden boards). So this would cost a bit as well.

Cheers

Jamie

 

[wylie]

Last place we had done was six years ago and was about $1,400 (from memory) for three bedroom small/medium sized queenslander.

 

[Truly Exotic]

What about looking for a whole kitchen on eBay or Gumtree? If you choose well, it will not cost much to modify.

I just bought four sets of eyelet curtains, lovely fabric, blockout lined for $360 delivered to my door. This is for one room with lots of windows but assuming one window in most rooms, you could curtain a whole house for your $500. Blinds look good, but curtains probably might survive rough handling better.

Sorry, can't quote your quote of my text, so it might get a bit messy

- Re: apprentice not being as likely good as pro, yes see your point, damn, might need to see how much a good polisher will cost

- "If the kitchen has timber floors under the existing tiles, why not sand the whole floor including the kitchen?"
you think having tiles in the kitchen is not better? hey, if I dont need to use tiles, I certainly wont, the IP im looking at looks like one half was done and the other half was done by a different person in a different colour 20 years later, looks horrible

-"Sounds too cheap. Have you had quotes?" not yet, hoping an apprentice or young guy starting up could do it, I know one guy on these forum that gets them at these prices,

- "You could pick sink and taps up on eBay or Gumtree for $100.
Blinds $500, Buy eyelet curtains on eBay or Gumtree for much less."
yes, had a look, I can buy wooden blinds for $60 each, very happy! sink and taps, shouldnt be too hard!
Blinds: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-WOOD...U_Curtains_Blinds_Windows&hash=item1c17f0cd0a
Curtains (are these the ones?):
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/One-Piec...U_Curtains_Blinds_Windows&hash=item3cc2a7e615
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/One-Piec...U_Curtains_Blinds_Windows&hash=item3cc2a7e2d3

- "I cannot imagine what sort of kitchen you will get for $1K."
http://www.bunnings.com.au/products_product_straight-line-kitchen_3593.aspx
photo looks good, but someone on a different thread did say they werent very good, while some say its fine
http://www.mitre10.com.au/Kitchens/Imagine-Kitchen-Range
this one is $1000, looks better then the Bunnings one, but I havent managed to find a Mitre 10 shop that actually has one on display

- "Ebay, or better still, Gumtree would see a dishwasher for less than $100. I've been watching these for our son so I know you can get a pretty good second hand that still looks good for around $100."
yes, agree, just not 100% sure about going 2nd hand in terms of what to look for, can get one for $300 brand new on ebay, $100 Im not too sure if a $100 would suit even a crappy IP

- "I don't think you'll get a whole house painted for $1K . If you have time, it is easy to do yourself." I hope you are WRONG

- "Whole house? Allow more than that. I'd go with cheap batten holders and then choose DIY fittings for each room." you are most likely right!


Thanks wylie, Im learning at a fantastic rate!

 

[AlmostBob]

costs about 100 to polish entire house, but I own the gear and just buy sandpaper, 50,80,100,120,150 grit, a relaxing weekend going bzzzzz. laquering is more grief than sanding you really must get every speck of dust and keep it dustless.
epoxy my favourite, mix pour done,, gaps up to 5mm fill & it self levels
glossy as glass
walk on it in 30 mins
drive a forklift on it 24 hours later

 

[Jamie M]

drive a forklift on it 24 hours later

Haha, noted. Thanks Bob. I'll wait at least a day before driving the forklift into my lounge room.

Cheers

Jamie

 

[wylie]

"If the kitchen has timber floors under the existing tiles, why not sand the whole floor including the kitchen?"
you think having tiles in the kitchen is not better? hey, if I dont need to use tiles, I certainly wont.

Our kitchen has the same polished timber as the rest of the house. Ot looks good and is much nicer to stand on than hard, cold tiles too.

- "You could pick sink and taps up on eBay or Gumtree for $100.

I found our son a gorgeous brand new sink for $200 including all accessories. Sadly, the photo didn't show the tap hole (pic from sink site) and when he picked it up, he couldn't use it because he has wall taps and it was also the reverse set up to the generic photo used.

He had to quickly buy one for $169 from Bunnings. Not as "designer" looking, but did the job in a hurry.

I resold the other one for $220.

Blinds $500, Buy eyelet curtains on eBay or Gumtree for much less."
Those curtains are the eyelet style I like. I can be less fussy about them as they are a more casual style than some other styles. The ones we bought were expensive because we needed to pay extra for heavy blockout fabric for the room we were buying for (faced west). But those you have found would be great, maybe in a light colour though.

- "Ebay, or better still, Gumtree would see a dishwasher for less than $100. I've been watching these for our son so I know you can get a pretty good second hand that still looks good for around $100."
yes, agree, just not 100% sure about going 2nd hand in terms of what to look for, can get one for $300 brand new on ebay, $100 Im not too sure if a $100 would suit even a crappy IP

When I was looking I was getting probably six to ten dumped in my inbox each morning. Some looked old and others looked good. Some were almost new looking. I tended to read the description and pick up a sense of why it was being sold.

Thanks wylie, Im learning at a fantastic rate!

You will learn so much as you go about this renovation.

 

[travelbug]

absolutely agree with you, just been reading and more then half have recommended to get it done professionally+horror storeis, so I am intending to approach a builder and ask one/two of his apprentices to do a weekend job of polishing/tiling etc.

The $7k-$9k budget is NOT including appliances,

since this is a cheap IP, everything will be budget, ive been referencing a template from one of the guys on here, here is what it looks like so far
(and yes I know Im pushing it bigtime)

Tiles for kitchen floor/side 20sqm + bathroom side 10sqm=$1000
What do you mean bathroom side? as in just skirtings? Is the bathroom good? I'd be spending money here if not. A new vanity and toilet can make a world of difference.
Labour for all tiling 3 areas+floor sanding $1800
Bathroom Sink+ taps $500 buy a new vanity off Ebay under $300- nice
Blinds $500I got whole house verticals $500
Kitchen $1000 For new you'd get a Bunnings straightline kitchen for $749. Cheap and looks it.
Dishwasher $500 You don't want to pay for a decent kitchen but you want a dishwasher???
Paint $300
Labour in Painting $1000 (or I do it myself)You'd have to do it yourself.
Mistakes/underbudgeting: $1400 Keep going
Light Fittings: $100 You can get cheap oyster ones from Bunnings. They're OK

$8000 in total

Kitchen and bathroom are the 2 rooms that sell (and rent) a house. Every one of ours has rented first week. People look at the kitchen and bathroom and say WOW we want it.
If you want to see my latest reno go to Youtube and type in LovetoReno.
Because of the fire we spent $25K (but we painted the roof and did the driveway- not shown in video). We usually spend $15K total new inside, the same as in the video.

We usually polish floors (except in really cold areas) but carpet the bedrooms. Paid less than $1000 for lounge, dining, kitchen hall. $600 for huge dining, 2 halls, kitchen. It would take you (inexperienced) days to get it sanded and polished. Time = money.
We carpeted the last one due to burns in floor and floating floor already in kitchen, dining which was in good nick. I don't like tiles anywhere except bathroom, kitchen and laundry. I feel it loses the "home" feel that tenants like. One house we bought had tiles throughout (except bedrooms and lounge). We ripped them up. The polished floors look great.
We are looking for a new PPOR and the first thing I notice are the crap, cheap kitchens. Not worth it to save a thousand $. The cheap laminate ones won't last either if renting.

As I said spend your money where it counts.

 

[DaveM]

WHen I did the same reno recently, it was $1800 to remove carpet and sand/polish, or $2000 to remove carpet and recarpet in a cheap rental polyprop.

I went the sand and polish, lasts much longer, spills etc dont damage the carpet.

I just put in the special conditions that felt to be put under bed posts and chairs.

 

[vaughan]

You can probably save more than $200 of you lift and remove the carpet yourself. Many councils will pick up old carpet for free if you give them a phone call.

 

[wobbycarly]

You can probably save more than $200 of you lift and remove the carpet yourself. Many councils will pick up old carpet for free if you give them a phone call.

Old carpets can be great weed matting under chips or equivalent. They still let the water through, and will rot eventually, but last well.

 

[tvadera]

Hi,
Got old carpets removed, floor boards sanded n polished for 1800 2 years back for 3 bed + study house


QUOTE=Jamie M;884427]Out of curiosity, how much does it cost to polish the floorboards? A place that we're interested in buying has pine boards under the carpet that we would polish up.

If you were to tile, wouldn't you also have to lay down some type of board over the original floorboards (you couldn't just tile straight onto the wooden boards). So this would cost a bit as well.

Cheers

Jamie[/QUOTE]

 

[Truly Exotic]

Thanks everyone, thanks travel bug,

Ive attached a poorly handdrawn layout of the place, it came off the sec 32 so its reasonably to scale,

I agree, I was thinking about spending the most on the bathroom and kitchen as thats what I believe people make their key decisions on, so I am currently looking at the $740 Ikea or $1000 Mitre10 (which I havent inspected yet) I assumed that you need a dishwasher and hence I included it , but travelbug seems to think otherwise, should I spend another $500 on an even better kitchen and skip the dishwasher???


The above diagram shows the layout, all the white/blank areas are floor board, the red bit is some really old horrible looking yellow tiles, whereas the green bits are some dark green/blue mosaic tiles that has been put in later,

anyway, what I meant about side tiles in the bathroom and kitchen were the tiles on the walls, which are either really bad looking (one type has flowers all over it, while the other is like 2cmx2cm old style swimming pool tiles)

anyway, would apprecaite if someone could give me a few ballpark figures,

Im comparing whether to put cheapo carpet in or to polish the boards, the boards are old and dirty looking but appear structurally fine.

As you can see the kitchen has 3 types of flooring, I am not 100% sure if there are flooboards under the 2 tiles, but I assume they are, would it recommended that I rip out the tiles and have a polished FB kitchen?

The bathtub area, toilet and laundry are actually either concrete or plasterboard walls, do you recommend that I tile it to make it look better since they all have the same hideous green/jade/dark blue mosaic tiles

And finally there is a passthrough window with plastic slide windows, say about 1.5mx60cm in wooden frame, I am thinking about removing the plastic slide windows, and leaving it, or a if guy can make the window taller, for cheap, I might make the window bigger,

as for polishing, the total square metre is approx 65sqm, so im not too sure how that compares to ive been told good cheap tiles are $17+$25labour per sqm, which makes it $42 per sqm,

For bathroom, the vanity is fine, shower is fine, taps need replacing, 1 wall of tiles is fine, however the other wall has no tiles (just concrete/plaster),

anyway, appreciate everyones feedback as I am jumping around,

NOTE: love this forum, I feel like going to rennovate it right now even though my offer hasnt been accepted

 

[Ocean Architect]

If you tile directly onto the floorboards, you'll ruin the boards or set yourself up for a huge expense if you ever decide to go back to floorboards.

If you put ply over the boards to protect them in the case of ever going back to polished floors, it gets expensive and you might get tiles lifting.

If you put carpet into a rental property, as you said, they'll get grotty quickly and you set yourself up for replacing them more frequently than you would tiles or re polishing.

To be honest, for a $1000 expense re polishing that will last for a fair while, be done relatively quickly, and to be honest, is likely sorely needed to improve rentability in a poor area/small apartment, I would tend towards simply polishing them and thats that.

Just my 2c

 

[travelbug]

Hi,
If you can get away with a $1000 kitchen it's really not big enough for a dishwasher. Also if the house is cheap enough to only warrant a $1000 kitchen why would you want to spend $500 on a dishwasher? Personally I would only put a dishwasher in a much more expensive house (where it's expected). People living in $200K houses wouldn't expect it. But i would never put a $1000 kitchen in a place (except a granny flat). They look as cheap as they are. If you use one of those the tiled area will be small. You can tile the splashback yourself. Just buy plain white tiles. Easy.

I'd go polished floorboards through all but the bedrooms (personal preference for bedrooms). Rip up the tiles and carpet yourself.

I'm still unclear what you mean in the bathroom. Do you mean just tile the one wall? If you are going to completely tile the laundry bathroom it will impact on your costs. If you rip the tiles off you may need to rewaterproof.
If you get it post photos for better ideas.
What city? town is it in?

 

[Georod3]

if you strip the carpet and remove any nails etc its about $28sm ( that's Brisbane pricing)

that's a clean floor just to putty, sand and coat..

i do this is all my IP's

I prep which is easy and then the floor guys just rip into the work

make it easy for them and the cost will same for your pocket.

and i always find they are hard wearing and good looking

cheers

G

 

[Truly Exotic]

If you get it post photos for better ideas.
What city? town is it in?

ok, here are some photos

the bathroom has tiles where the shower is, and the rest of the room is concrete, so im wondering on how to tackle it?

whereas the kitchen, as you can see is L shaped, and im trying to work out how to get the $750-$1000 kitchen,
also, as you can see there are 2 types of tiles laid, which are horrible, I get the gut feeling that the green tiles have been laid directly onto concrete and there are no floorboards,

however the rest of the house is floorboards