Advice - Renovation - steps

Static M.e.

Hi,

We are in the process of buying house, built around 1965, which requires a lot of work. It has a garage which we are hoping to convert, the rads and boiler need to be replaced, carpet needs to be replaced, bathroom needs to be replaced, it needs new smoke alarms throughout the house, the kitchen needs to be modernised, and all the windows and door need to be replaced. I would also like to get solar on the roof.

We will be moving into the house, doing some minor changes (0-3 months) and then looking at doing some of the bigger tasks. I expect to be in the house for 20 years.

I'm not sure how to approach all of these changes. I am concerned that we will start replacing floors (carpet) in the short term only to find out that as the rads need to be upgraded the floors will all need to come up. I would like someone to look over the house and just tell us what is possible within a budget.

Do I need the services of an architect to come in provide us a "plan" for the house and what to do first, second, third etc. or do I need a good builder to do it for us?

I'm not sure where to start. Any advice, links, videos, etc. would be great. Thank you!

flyer_query

First bit of advice is get an airtightness test. Its not cheap, depending on house size it will cost €500 to €1,000. This involves an engineer spending half a day in the house testing where your house is losing hot air out and cold air leaking in. Its best done in the winter when its cold outside as your house needs to be about 10deg warmer than outside to allow the leaks to be detected. You will get a report at the end of it which will mean you can target the areas which give best return on spend (both short term and long term). Also a good report to talk through with trades people.

Regarding timing, if possible live in the house for the winter to figure it out, what you like / dont like, where the problems are (eg add / move / enlarge a radiator). Accept that the decor isnt what you want. As you say no point having to rip up something you only just paid for.

Your biggest problem is going to be getting trustworthy tradespeople. Each trade has its own skills and qualifications so getting one single person to assess everything isnt really possible, you will need a plumber to look at plumbing, electrician to look at the electrics etc. Also as an example most plumbers wont want a big messy replumb jobs as they can get easy work on new builds or make more money on the smaller jobs.

Another piece of advice is get your heating system serviced (gas boiler is a gas technician, oil boiler is a plumber), get the technician to spend a bit longer to give you a full assessment on your heating system (boiler, radiators, type of pipes, hot press condition etc). Even if you dont go with the plumber for the big job it will have been good to have got an assessment.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122679161#Comment_122679161

If the airtightness test also includes a full heat-loss survey, then yes, that's the first step. No point in attempting to move forward without a plan around directly addressing how the heat is escaping.

Doolittle51

A house of that age is going to require a lot of work. Most likely has had many changes to electrics & plumbing over the years, so a full rewire & replumb would be advisable.

Probably needs a full rewire, replumb, new kitchen, new bathroom, floors could be rotten, plaster could need re-skimming etc.

Rewire & re-plumb would need to be done first anyway.

Hope you have deep pockets, could easily sink 150K+ into a house of that age