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  1. #1
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Big Brand's House Build

    Likely to be any interest if I update this?

    Just bought another house, needs fair bit of work doing. To keep me sane, and some ideas along the way, might start a build thread of progress. If there is no interest I'll end it.

    Bought a 3 bedroom mid terrace.
    Ex council house, bought from them early 2000's.
    Had any much by the way of maintenance.

    Plans:

    * New bathroom
    * New Kitchen
    * New Combi Boiler remove old back boiler and tanks.
    * Strip & Paper decorate 1 master bedroom, 2 double rooms.
    * Decorate hall stairs and landing
    * New carpets and Vinyls
    * Conservatory added and built into the kitchen.
    * Landscape garden.
    * Open up driveway.


    Got the keys on Friday and been in this weekend to start a fair bit.

    8 Thanks given to BigBrand

    akimba (19th February 2018),  Ashley (21st February 2018),  ilscuro (19th February 2018),  JonEp (19th February 2018),  MHP (18th February 2018),  Mystical_2K (21st February 2018),  Over Carl (21st February 2018),  stevo25 (19th February 2018)  


  2. #2
    DF VIP Member akimba's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    photos dude else we cant compare the before and afters ;-)

    Thanks to akimba

    BigBrand (21st February 2018)  


  3. #3
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    I like tracking these things mate. We bought an ex-council house in 2014 and in that time fitted a kitchen, bathroom, rewired and new central heating system. Still working through the rooms plastering and getting professional decorators in making it look good.

    Thanks to Brydo666

    BigBrand (21st February 2018)  


  4. #4
    DF Super Moderator Rick Sanchez's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Congratulations!

    Quote Originally Posted by BigBrand View Post
    * New bathroom
    * New Kitchen
    * New Combi Boiler remove old back boiler and tanks.
    Check the scrapyards/reclamation yards/house sales/facebook and Gumtree before blowing thousands.


    Quote Originally Posted by BigBrand View Post
    * Conservatory added and built into the kitchen.
    Make sure you don't build a single skin as it's a nightmare and expensive to fix.
    Domain Registration, SSL Certificates and Web Hosting - Fusionhost- 25% Discount Available On All Web Hosting Plans For DF Members - Code: DF2022

    Thanks to Rick Sanchez

    BigBrand (20th February 2018)  


  5. #5
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Cheers all.

    Will sort some pictures out shortly, got loads on my Onedrive.

  6. #6
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    Mystical_2K's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    My old man used to do up houses etc. and he saved a fortune by shopping on eBay etc. and grabbing some proper bargains.
    Usually stuff people had ordered and it either didnt fit or they didnt like, most looked brand new or just needed a clean.
    I remember him doing a complete bathroom suite for under £1,000 and it looked great.
    You know he grew up as a little shitspark from the old shitflint and then he turned into a shitbonfire and driven by the winds of his monumental ignorance he turned into a raging shitfirestorm. If I get to be married to Barb I'll have total control of Sunnyvale and then I can unleash the shitnami tidal wave that will engulf Ricky and extinguish his shitflames forever. And with any luck he'll drown in the undershit of that wave. Shitwaves.

  7. #7
    DF Super Moderator
    DejaVu's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Being an estate agent, I have loads of interest in do-ups. I always re-visit the run down places that clients bring back to life.


  8. #8
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    With my brother in law and his dad doing property development on the side, they're both competent at the majority of building aspects (extensions, building and removing walls etc), I'm fine with internal DIY, but learn most of my skills as I go.

    I've taught myself to plaster, can do some brick work and fitting windows/doors etc.

    I don't plan on doing this on a tight budget, but we do have a budget and will be doing most of the work ourselves.

  9. #9
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    Ashley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Well done, look forward to seeing the befores and after pictures.

    I find YouTube is good for anything I get stuck on building wise.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  10. #10
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Ok, so I've been that blooming busy, I haven't had chance to do anything on here yet, it's all been at the house! I'll get some progress pictures up shortly.

    Safe to say, it's been a learning curve, and I'm not as good at DIY as I thought I was!

    2 Thanks given to BigBrand

    Mystical_2K (26th April 2018),  rebrabuk (27th April 2018)  


  11. #11
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    OK finally got around to posting some pictures.

    Bought this mid terrace at the end of a cul-de-sac, in an up and coming area. It's my third property, and I've bought this one to do up whilst I live in it, then plan to sell on afterwards.

    Firstly, at the end of a cul-de-sac parking on the road is tough, it has a large drive, so first thing was to take out the gate posts. New fencing is needed and I need to re pint the driveway slaps and step, and some UPV cleaning and general tidying up.

    Last edited by BigBrand; 10th May 2018 at 10:01 PM.

  12. #12
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Within the same weekend, I got to work on the lounge.

    This is how it was when we moved in:





    It had an old back boiler, so I had someone come in and take that out and fit a new combi boiler at the same time. The reason I plastered up the breast and not brick/vented is because next Jan we're going to get a log burner installed.






    When the combi boiler was being fitted, they fitted the filter as standard, I thought nothing of this at the time. But infact once I had the kitchen, it would have been right in the way for the dishwasher, so I had to get that moved up also.

    Was only a quick job (cost me £40) from a mate. I could then fit the earth bonding clamps. Just need to loop in with some more conduit cable.

    Last edited by BigBrand; 11th May 2018 at 12:37 PM.

  13. #13
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Stripped.




    Papered the feature wall, and painted the remaining walls, Cloud 9 underlay and some nice thick carpet.

    This room is completed now.

    Last edited by BigBrand; 11th May 2018 at 12:32 PM.

    Thanks to BigBrand

    CallmeGoose (10th May 2018)  


  14. #14
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Next room was bedroom 2.

    Original:




    Now. Nothing special here. Just painted walls and ceiling. New ceiling rose and new carpet.


  15. #15
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Then came the master bedroom.

    Large in size, but unorthodox shape. It has a chimney breast in the corner, on the other wall, a double window and a single window. It really fucks with my symmetry requirements.

    Anyway, nothing much here, just new feature wall paper £37 a roll!! and lining paper all round, painted.

    I layed the underlay, and new gripper rods in all rooms.



    Original:




    And finished: We bought two wardrobes and 2 chest of draws, so these are mirrored either side.






    Last edited by BigBrand; 11th May 2018 at 01:04 PM.

  16. #16
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Now onto bedtroom 3, the box room. This is my favourite room, for obvious reasons.


    Here, by request I had to go for a camo feature wall, bunkbeds and a green wall. I chose a lighter green to keep in with the theme, but keep the room light as the paper is a little dark.


    Original:




    Starting with the papering, was tricky as shit around the boxed pipes from the old back boiler. Decided to leave the box in, as taking it out would create much more work.

    Finished with some wardrobes, bunk bed, camo net and a desk underneath.


  17. #17
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    So I was just over 3 weeks in, and had done the lounge, and three bedrooms. I was working 14/15 hour days at the weekends, and 45 hour work weeks, with 5-6 hours per night atter work. It was really tough for a while.

    Often coming home really tired to the house I was staying in, so much so I got done speeding, and not sure much about my lane discipline.

    Last edited by BigBrand; 11th May 2018 at 12:57 PM.

  18. #18
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    Next up was the kitchen:

    I'd got a new one on order and I had decided to move the kitchen to a small open plan, from the galley kitchen it currently was.

    This is how it was originally:




    This is the plan, a small, compact kitchen. Includes oven, hope, washer and slimline dishwasher.




    So out came most of the old kitchen:


    On the large wall, I installed a new ring main for the kitchen. This included some sockets, oven connection unit, switches. I used easi grip plaster to fill the channels and capping in. the units will go over the top of this so wasn't 100% as neat as I'd like it.

    Also removed the partition wall which housed the old water storage tank. Put some plasterboard on the ceiling and tried to plaster best I could to fill the gaps and over the ceiling. I will get a proper plaster in to finish the job so I can paint over to a finish after.

    Removed the old units and prepped for the new kitchen to be installed after I did the first fix on the ring main.





    Last edited by BigBrand; 11th May 2018 at 12:59 PM.

  19. #19
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    The Combi boiler was installed in the kitchen as per the plans, I've fitted up the earth clamps and ran my conduit wire back to the CU to be connected at a later date.

    The kitchen is now arrived, and will get cracking on fitting this over the weekend.




    Once this is all installed, I will remove the old sink and units, and the other 2/3rds of the kitchen will be open plan. Next year I will be knocking through and into the conservatory. More on that to come.

  20. #20
    DF VIP Member BigBrand's Avatar
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    Default Re: Big Brand's House Build

    OK, so actually the kitchen has been done last two weeks, before that, I actually did the bathroom.

    This was a real PITA. I bought a suite from Victoria Plum, and this house just seemed to have none standard fitting of pipes, sanitary ware and connections. So had to do a fair bit of customer work to make things fit together.


    Anyway, the bathroom is only very small, the smallest bath you can get 5000mm, which was cut into the plaster in one side due to all four walls running off horribly!.

    Original:





    So first job was to rip it all out. All tiles and start fresh.






    I then removed the electric shower, as we were having a riser shower from a mixer tap, with overhead. This needed a little work as the pipe connections were not at the right end as I wanted the taps at the other end. This was mostly due to when you're having a bath (if you can fit!) you don't want you're head next to the toilet, and with the screen it'd be really difficult to access.

    So I did get a plumber in, just to sort the pipes our and give me some connections for the bath, and then to run some verticals up for the shower bar with some 90 degrees on it.



    I removed the old shower, pull cord and removed the cable wich luckily only went straight down into the CU, I then plastered up. Nothing too great here as it was all being tiled.




    Last edited by BigBrand; 11th May 2018 at 12:30 PM.

    Thanks to BigBrand

    CallmeGoose (10th May 2018)  


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