want to do some reno (Not DIY) - where/who to start?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › want to do some reno (Not DIY) - where/who to start?

Batman

Mad Scientist
30012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#288537 7-Jul-2021 07:02

so we will get a new roof, new kitchen, put in a new shower, change old hot water cylinder and modify a bathroom.

1. who do we contact in which order? roofer is set. kitchen people say a few mods needed which they can't help with.

2. also while roof is off, will put more batts, remove a chimney. we have a copper tank in roof to give water pressure. it has a pipe through the roof to drain. want to get rid of this. can pipe not go through roof? should we change to mains pressure or stay at low pressure HW?

3. would you put wires in the roof while it's off?

4. while scaffolding is on i guess we should repaint.

any ideas / advice welcome. been sitting on this for a while paralyzed with not knowing where to start.

timmmay

20857 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5349

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2740295 7-Jul-2021 07:51

2. Go for mains pressure, it's heaps better, I did it about 10 years ago.

3. What wires would you need?

1. I think contact a general builder, or a company that does kitchen / bathroom work that will project manage it for you. If you want recommendations post your location.

Batman

Mad Scientist
30012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2740296 7-Jul-2021 07:53

timmmay:

1. I think contact a general builder, or a company that does kitchen / bathroom work that will project manage it for you. If you want recommendations post your location.

Dunedin

Bung

6733 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2926

Subscriber

#2740326 7-Jul-2021 08:52

When is this all set to happen? The roofer may be able to work around a couple of days good weather but mid winter in Dunedin wouldn't be my choice for painting the house.

itxtme

2102 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 557

#2740477 7-Jul-2021 12:12

You need to choose if you are going to project manage it or not. Giving the feeling of paralysis I would suggest maybe you are not best to do that job! Building renovation firms do run jobs like this ie. project manage. They will have contacts for all of the trades required and organise all of that. The biggest problem with this avenue is you will likely have to wait. The demand for this work is huge and wait times are 6 months+ generally.

If you did want to project manage it then assuming you want to live in the house then for the jobs it totally depends what skills you need.

For the bathroom what are you changing the shower to? Same position? Waterproofing consent required? You will need a plumber, but they dont ordinarily install showers. They will probably have a contact that does. Are you going to tile the floor/ leave as is

For the kitchen you will need a builder to make structural changes. Are you going to tile? How much reconfiguring is actually required?

Batman

Mad Scientist
30012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2740492 7-Jul-2021 13:00

Bung: When is this all set to happen? The roofer may be able to work around a couple of days good weather but mid winter in Dunedin wouldn't be my choice for painting the house.

Yes let's make it in summer, that gives me more time!

Batman

Mad Scientist
30012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2740494 7-Jul-2021 13:00

itxtme:
You need to choose if you are going to project manage it or not. Giving the feeling of paralysis I would suggest maybe you are not best to do that job! Building renovation firms do run jobs like this ie. project manage. They will have contacts for all of the trades required and organise all of that. The biggest problem with this avenue is you will likely have to wait. The demand for this work is huge and wait times are 6 months+ generally.

If you did want to project manage it then assuming you want to live in the house then for the jobs it totally depends what skills you need.

For the bathroom what are you changing the shower to? Same position? Waterproofing consent required? You will need a plumber, but they dont ordinarily install showers. They will probably have a contact that does. Are you going to tile the floor/ leave as is

For the kitchen you will need a builder to make structural changes. Are you going to tile? How much reconfiguring is actually required?

Project managed sounds like the way to go

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10018

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2740778 7-Jul-2021 18:22

timmmay:
1. I think contact a general builder, or a company that does kitchen / bathroom work that will project manage it for you. If you want recommendations post your location.

Can't emphasise this bit enough, this looks like a complex pile of stuff that you definitely don't want to spend the next three months micromanaging yourself. In particular a builder will have set subcontractors and suppliers that will get things done, and can sort something in one phonecall like getting someone in on short notice or tracking down some in-short-supply materials that'd take you a fortnight of phone tag to track down and then another three-week wait before it turns up.

semigeek

1606 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 124

#2740802 7-Jul-2021 20:41

I see you are in Dunedin, who are you getting to do the roof? If you don't want to put it out in the public arena, feel free to message me.

Anyway, as far as order of things needing done, there really isn't any set order you should do things, well in my opinion. My partner and I have been slowly doing up our house, we did the roof and the kitchen around about the same time though, except we did the kitchen ourselves except for plumbing and wiring. We got a few more sockets wired in the kitchen and a bit later on, rewired the house as it was that old wiring that crumbled when you touch it. Personally, if you are getting a roof, I would wait for warmer weather if you can, so you can then use the scaffolding to paint the house. Or if you can't wait for the roof to be done later or it doesn't fit in with the roofers schedule, maybe hire movable scaffolding for painting when Summer comes, if your house isn't too high. But yeah, there is no real order to do things, more often than not, it's fitting in with trades people. Just a heads up though, which you probably know anyway, there is a delay on getting work done due to tradies being busy. We just got new double glazed windows about a month ago, and they were ordered about November last year.

aucklander

478 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 11

#2743171 12-Jul-2021 15:12

maybe I missed something - but nobody mentioned design, drawings, building consent, etc?

Scaffold - if you remove the roof then house wrap would be needed. This is generally done a separate company, not by the scaffolding team. Wrap will add an engineering fee to the scaffold, as it needs to be designed differently (wind load becomes the main load). Also, if you require access for painting while the scaffold is up, this will increase cost of scaffold as they now have to install platforms all around every 2m in height - which otherwise would not have been included in their initial offer.

Self project manage - did this myself recently, just obtained final council sign-off last month, nearly 18 months later after a project which was supposed to take maybe 8 months. Quotes from builders placed the project at $430k - $450k incl GST but excluding a number of items relating to landscaping. Total cost after self manage stopped at approx $340k with me supplying all materials and consumables, builder on labour only for the structure only, separate guys engaged by me directly for earthworks, concrete delivery, concrete pump, timber / trusses supply, roof, gib fix, stopping, tiling, did all interior and exterior painting ourselves and also the floating laminated floors, pre-piping the AC, all internet, CCTV and TV wiring ... Extremely happy with final result (quality vs price) but honestly, I will never EVER touch another project which requires Council inspections. I will limit myself to whatever can be legally done without a consent (maybe towards a bit of extreme DIY - I am not a builder or other trades person).

And do not forget about some expenses which you might not currently have on your list: site toilet, contract works insurance, signage and first aid kit, etc (if you self-manage), arrange construction loan with the bank if you need one.

Selecting and nominating a builder to be in charge of everything will be one of the biggest risks you will ever take and will offer the highest total cost for the minimum amount of trouble or involvement from your side. You decide what you want and what you can do. The above cost also includes approx $6k of legal expenses as the builder just decided to move to another job after he got full payment for this one, without finishing it... imagine if the builder does that and he is in charge of all other subs - where does that leave you? At least in my case, the builder was one of the trades, I was still in control over the rest of the trades involved.