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S1 EP 2 | The £100k Bungalow Renovation - End of week 1
73 Plays3 months ago
Dan and Nick discuss Nick's progress at the end of week 1. Will the £100k budget be enough? How is the fact it belonged to his late Gran for 30 years affecting decisions and what on earth is anaglypta wallpaper?!
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Transcript
Introduction to DIY Guys Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the DIY ah Guys, the podcast where home renovations, power tools and mild panic go hand in hand. I'm Nick Morris. And I'm Dan Doher. And each week we'll be chatting with some property pros, some DIY diehards, and hopefully be able to help you with some tips and tricks along the way. Welcome back to the DIY Guys podcast.
00:00:19
Speaker
This is episode
Nick's Renovation Project Overview
00:00:20
Speaker
two and we've got a slightly different format this week. No guests. So we're going to be catching up with Nick to see how his renovations going. How are you doing mate? All good. All good. I'm excited to talk about the renovation and any progress. Yeah. And what you've been up to.
00:00:35
Speaker
um So let me know, do we have a podcast or not? Yeah, we gave a done condition yeah would been a bit of a downer if i didn't get planning permission paper and no work and stuff. But yeah, planning permission accepted. Amazing news. We have a podcast so our listeners can go up from one to two this week. We've got some listeners in. um But yeah, so basically planning permission accepted like I thought it would because all the neighbours have done the same as i'm basically doing and that is knocking down the garage and putting something there in its place so we're going to put a bedroom at the front with an ensuite connected to that and then a bathroom behind that and then we've got this little back room as well which i can't decide what to do it but i'm thinking a utility roof and that's the architect who's my father-in-law i'm glad to say save some money um let's put it down as like a study maybe for a family room but i just feel like
00:01:27
Speaker
I'm lucky enough to have a utility room. yeah I know you've got a utility room. And even a small utility room is such a bonus. So that's what I'm leaning towards anyway. Yeah, all good to go. Yeah, you took me into the utility room and it's like a game changer in it really. um I remember yours and you were thinking of not having a sink in there. And I was like, the sink is so good for just like pots and pans and Christmas and stuff. I'm launching everything in there. Or, you know, we've both got kids, come in muddy shoes and stuff. Yeah. You throw them in that sink and you don't have to worry about it. and Exactly. don't want to throw muddy shoes into the sink where you're washing your dishes, let's be honest. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, this is I've basically been there for four days this week.
Challenges in Renovation Process
00:02:05
Speaker
Nice. And it's the end of the week, so I've got quite a bit to tell you. Yeah, so first steps, what did you get up to? So started off in in the front right bedroom, which is like the master bedroom, or what was Gran's old bedroom. Yeah, that at first it was a bit brutal because it's just like usually it's fine just ripping stuff out. But when just like Gran was there for 30 years, lived there till she was 99. So it's like her wardrobe with some of her clothes in and things like that. and for some reason like you just hold on to things that aren't even like meaningful there's like a old chair i just can't put in the skip yeah no idea why i'm just moving it from room to room really annoyingly and it weighs a ton but yeah so i'll start in the master bedroom and i'll start stripping wallpaper
00:02:46
Speaker
I removed the wardrobes, which is one of those ones, they're really well built, nice wardrobes. yeah solidly fli Each panel was heavy and a good quality and you're just like, it's such a waste to go and skip. But literally did have to skip them because they where they were was on the biggest wall and that's where i'm going to put the bed.
00:03:05
Speaker
um So I'm flipping the bed from one side to the other. yeah and It just makes sense for the wardrobes to go on the side wall or another wall. So had to rip all those out and the wallpaper came off like a dream. way So jealous. I remember your house, was it three layers? Yeah, three layers and painted on top. and you just like oh It just takes you ages. But I'm glad yours is going smoothly. So basically one steam load, if you fill the thing up and then it runs out, was like two walls.
00:03:31
Speaker
And it's the biggest, but I mean, the blood blow is not big, but it's one of the biggest rooms. So I can't really complain about that. And then the only problem is when the wardrobes were removed, was like, please don't be wallpaper behind And there obviously was. Yeah, of course. um But generally that is all going swimmingly in that room. And then I'm just removing, ah again, I didn't want to necessarily do these things, but everything's money about putting back or DIY me doing it putting back but skirting and architraves so was going to keep the architraves around the door they look nice got little bit of detail but I wanted to remove the skirting as it was literally two inches but really I was going to say old-fashioned old-fashioned is big isn't it big and nice but it's kind
Utility Room and Layout Decisions
00:04:10
Speaker
of that I think the house must have been built in the 50s or 60s so it's just that two inch horrible so I had to remove that didn't look nice but and my car was popped in because he lives down the road just because he knows it. He said, if you put new skirts in, it'll be thicker and the architraiser will stick out.
00:04:27
Speaker
So it's one of those things where oh, so then had to now remove the architraiser skirts in the wallpaper and everything from that room. It's just one of those things. But yeah, so eventually as well, because it's freezing at the moment, isn't it? yeah i want to take out all the pipes to surface because we've got concrete floors and nothing's coming up from the floor. Everything's coming down from the loft. It being a semi-detached bungalow, obviously um there's nothing above. yeah just means we've got these ugly pipes. I'm going to end up chasing into the wall and re-plumbing.
00:04:57
Speaker
yeah um But I'm not doing it It's just too cold. to keep some sort heating on. Well, that's the thing. you kind of, some people rush into this and you're like, I'll take all the heating out now. Yeah. You know, some people rip all the electrics out and they're like, well, I can't plug a steamer into a strip wall. You know, if you need to chase walls, you need power from there. So yeah, really well thought out. That used to be my schoolboy when I used to rewire a house. I'd turn off the old electrics, put in a little temporary fuse board and just work off of a socket.
00:05:25
Speaker
and But you're like, oh, you have to take your extension leave now. Every room, all your stuff like this is such a bad idea. You've learned from I think DIY always learn from your mistakes, right? Yeah. And so I've realized just keep the power. And actually in most houses, when you're doing a rewire particularly, when the light in these old houses always like near the window, isn't it? Like they used to do and things like that. And then They used to have the doors give you privacy when you open into rooms, for example, whereas these days we sort flip it against the wall. yeah Actually, you can rewire a house pretty much without affecting anything that's old. yeah Now what I do is I just rewire it and I just do everything new with the old still going and just have like a changeover day.
00:06:03
Speaker
Nice. Basically. but Yeah, so it's going well done. Bedroom one, bedroom two. Bedroom 2, exactly the same bedroom 1, went really well. Living room was a little bit more difficult because it's got coven.
00:06:16
Speaker
And I'll talk a little bit about this because there's Artex on the ceiling. yeah As soon as you see Artex in a house, for anyone that doesn't know, it it might have a special sim. Probably quite likely it has a special sim. It just don't know which like form and how much. yeah And then, so I didn't want to take the coven off because I didn't want to affect anything on the ceiling potentially being special test test.
00:06:38
Speaker
And then it's got an old fireplace as well,
Cost-saving Strategies and DIY Approaches
00:06:40
Speaker
which I started to take out. So yeah, so I've applied to, I'm going to do a DIY kit. thought it was good for this podcast too. Yeah, definitely. So I looked in, I asked a couple of companies to quote me to come out and do a test on the whole house. It was like six or 700 pounds. And my budget for this whole bungalow is a hundred thousand and that's with building work and doing that just weren't, losing percentage.
00:07:03
Speaker
um yeah So went on Amazon and found a DIY asbestos kit. 65 pounds. That's two samples. you' literally They literally send you everything. They literally send you like the suit, the masks, the gloves. the only thing they don't send you, so I think they should, is um boots. You know, little boot boots or Escovia shoes. Yeah, yeah. You might sort of be completely covered. Yeah. And then they give you like the double bags afterwards. So you literally, from the looks of it, just go up to the ceiling and there's a floor tile on the test. Yeah. Under the carpet, pits which I'm pretty...
00:07:34
Speaker
My carpenter and my plumber are in their 60s, and they both say that's in the Specialist Tile. It just looks like a thin black tile, it just looks like it. And then going to test that floor tile and the ceiling, so I'll literally put all my mask on, my stuff on, go up to the ceiling and get to the base as minimalist as possible. So I'm going to probably use...
00:07:54
Speaker
don know maybe not a knife, but something just to claw a little bit off and put it in the bag and get a sample and send it off. So for 65 quid, I've heard the reviews are amazing. um spoken And then you send it off and that's all included in price and you get it back within, I think 48 hours. So next week when we do another episode, just you and I, I can let you know. But my guess is the floor tiles have definitely got it and it's a 50-50 chance on the ceiling.
00:08:18
Speaker
We'll stick a little link in all of our posts just so people will find that easily and yeah ah hopefully I can jump on Amazon amazon if they need to. It's not sponsored post because no one's interested in sponsoring us at this point. Please Amazon sponsor us. It'd be a good first one. but Yeah, it straight to the top. yeah I think it's really good idea so I'm interested to see what comes out. And if there's a specialist in the ceiling, yeah it means two things.
00:08:42
Speaker
Both are pain in the ass. One, I've got to overbord it myself, which I can do, but obviously i've got to find every joist to overblast the board. Overbording, for people that don't know, just putting plasterboard on the ceiling, and basically. yeah I've got a plasterboard hoist, I can do it myself, but usually what you do is, if you're overbording, the easy way to bash alone a load of holes in the ceiling to expose all the joists and then fix the plasterboard where you can see them. But obviously, you don't want to tamper with an asbestos-lined
Renovation Challenges: Heating, Electrics, and Flooring
00:09:10
Speaker
ceiling. yeah you've probably got go up in the loft measure where they all are from the external wall and get the measurements in and then draw chalk lines and things which is just so time consuming yeah and a lot of hard work like plasterboard and an expense or even worse getting asbestos company in to remove it yeah which is i think they charge like 50 60 pound per square meter wow i'm guessing if it's up there i'm looking at two or three grand yeah minimum just for someone to come and rip it out then i assume
00:09:40
Speaker
You have to leave it for a week or so while all like settles or whatever. don't know how it works. Well, was going to say, do they have to come back and then like clean it specifically, guess? I think they don't. I think they just do it in a way that's less disruptive and get rid of it air out the house. But i don't know how than how. they do it no so that'd be interesting but obviously um if ears are specials up there i'll just have to overboard it i think and just yeah wear all the stuff but yeah that'll be i'll update you on that yeah i'm excited to find out about that but while we're talking about headaches i might as well get into something that everyone of a certain age seems to know and i didn't know so maybe we're not as old as we feel but there's there was something in the hallway called anaglipto wallpaper which is
00:10:22
Speaker
complete nightmare. And as soon as my mum and my car tell my plumber, said, oh, that's going to be a nightmare to get off. And I've realized now there's actually sprays and stuff to help, which I should have bought, but i just persevered. And you know, i said like one steam would get me two walls in the bedroom. yeah One steam would get me like maybe a meter squared or two meters squared. so you're looking at like two hours in just a small section of wall.
00:10:46
Speaker
And it was absolutely Absolutely lead brutal. So I think every other room I did in a day and then the hallway was like a day and a half just on its own, just steaming all day. I've probably got good skin, hopefully, from all the steam. Yeah, you are, yeah, you're looking fresh at that. And also where it's so cold, you know when you're steaming wallpaper, it gets nice and toasted. Yeah, that is the best thing about it, actually. I've genuinely been working on a t-shirt as a roast, but then you do think you're literally running a kettle.
00:11:13
Speaker
Yeah, nine hours a day. So I've had any bills yet. No, yeah. that that Actually, that was one other thing we were going to try and do, weren't we? We're going to try and get a spreadsheet going of just updating every week about what I'm spending. Yes, that's it. and Because at the moment, I've spent very little because we didn't have to buy the house. Obviously, it was my late grand's house. So there's no like starter price. But we should probably value it at something, couldn't we? Yeah. like I mean, it was on for 575, and we dropped it by 100 grand.
Budgeting and Managing Renovation Costs
00:11:40
Speaker
and I still didn't get offer, so maybe like 475. The neighbor's house did sell for 575 in a slightly nasty condition last year. yeah um So we can that could be the starting point. My architect, really fortunate, is my father-in-law, so that's all done. And it was like, don't want to get rid of his hard work, but quite an easy one where it's just like, copy what other people do on the road, dropping down a garage and building up.
00:12:06
Speaker
I'm not doing anything to the roof or anything. And then my other expenses so far as a skip, which I think was £320. Remember how much cheaper they used to an old man like and now ah free turns in i shopped around i got free fifty and free seven five quotes wow and that's it very little but i've got a wall paper steam i've got all that. So we'll try and do that as well through some sort of interactive spreadsheet as well. Yeah, maybe we can set out a spreadsheet that has all the costs that you would think to add for a renovation and then we'll just drop a little link down on our all our socials and that way you can pick up um a nice template if you're thinking of starting a new renovation. It just gives you that
00:12:48
Speaker
little overview of how much you'll need to spend, hopefully, not too much. This could be like the most embarrassing thing I've ever done, but just saying I'm going to spend 100 grand and in two years it's like 200 grand and we only have 50 listeners yeah yeah the year that's taken.
00:13:03
Speaker
Less shame if we have less. Yeah, true. to All our friends and family though. Yeah, exactly. yeah But it was interesting, I'm just going to go back to a point you discussed earlier on because I found it a really interesting tip and something you advised me about on our property. It was just flipping your doors. Yes.
00:13:22
Speaker
So they now like don't open into the room, they open into the wall. um Such a good tip because the amount of space you lose that you don't think about when you've got a door that opens outwards into a room rather than into the wall. Because even if you're leaving a door open, you're kind of having it up against the door, yeah up against the wall, rather than like into your room. And that to me was ah actually a game changer. Yeah, it's funny. They they did that in the old days, apparently, to give you privacy, which does make sense. Yeah.
00:13:52
Speaker
And I'm like, upstairs in my house is generally just us anyway. It's fine just like walking around in your pants or whatever. So I guess actually in a bungalow like my grand's is, probably makes more sense though to have it the other way, like the traditional way. Because you could just be like, have friends
Learning from DIY Mistakes and Decisions
00:14:10
Speaker
over there, but be in the bedroom like quickly changing or something, I don't know. Yeah. Oh, Stephen, that's bit weird. Yeah. Just shut the door. I guess so. You're like, you and your missus over and let it naked. Can you imagine? Yeah. Why are we here? You just stroll out in your pants.
00:14:25
Speaker
But yeah, so it just means flipping all the doors and um yeah flipping all the electrics over because the switch obviously doesn't want to be blocked and stuff like that. yeah That was another thing with this property that everything's going well so far. And I know why, because Gran has been there 30 years and has never touched anything. It's like, it's all The kitchen looks nice and solid. The bathroom was put in by the council three or four years ago for free when she started to not only have walk and get in the bath and things. And she hasn't touched anything. So you know there's not two layers of wallpaper. You know there's not...
00:15:01
Speaker
did Was it you that had tile upon tile in their bathroom or was it someone I worked with, a free tile? In our kitchen, we had tile on tile on hardboard over tile. Hardboard's worse, isn't I guess it's just is so much ag to get rid of and take out. Yeah, massively. but yeah so Basically, I know it's not been tampered with too much, so it's kind of that's all very well. but So the doors are like not fire doors, what they should be these days. yeah never been painted over or anything. there Sometimes you can't get the screw out. In between steams, I was waiting for the steamer to heat up again, which had whacked off all the doors. which and When I did my house, the doors took me like so long because it was all painted in. I just gave up and i whacked them off of a crowbar. They're really light to get to the skip. Fortunately, at the end of week one, is like everything's like tick, tick, tick. The only thing I gave you up on
00:15:54
Speaker
there was an old fireplace in there. Well, not an old fireplace, it must be like a 70s or an 80s looking thing. yeah And I just had a normal SDS and I was like, I'll whip this out. and the first bit came off the wall really easily. yeah The bottom two blocks are just like solid as a rock and defeated me. It's so annoying when something goes really well and you're oh, I'm to be done in like 20 minutes. And then like the last bit, you're like, why am I spending in so much time just like throwing bricks? And also I thought there'd be like, you know, like block work these days is really light. thought they'd be like that. thought it'd be like imitation thing and they each were really heavy. Like I could only take out three or four at a time to skip so they just weighed a ton. think I was like, I must be like five, six kilograms each, I guess it.
00:16:35
Speaker
But yeah, totally defeated me. I need like a medium SDS drill. okay So I'm basically doing that
DIY Tips and Tricks
00:16:40
Speaker
thing that I hate my brother does, but you like start one thing yeah and fail, so you move on to the next thing and you fail. So I feel like, COVID, I did a little bit, oh, that might be asbestos, so I leave the COVID, yeah I do the fireplace, I'm like, ah, this is too hard, I need a different type drill, moving to the next thing. And then where I haven't quite got like all my tools there and stuff, and you're just figuring out the job, I'm like, damn it. So I just usually like get in a room, stripping all out, moving on. yeah no I can't quite do that so far. It's something quite nice just getting back to a blank canvas. Yeah. Just like right now, like I can see this back to bare bones. I can then go, oh, light switches going here, plugs are going in here and you can kind of start visualizing yeah pieces. So is that what you normally do? You just strip everything back and then just go from there? Exactly. And then when you're stripping back, you can see like, oh, the wall was good enough or they're like blown and got get it all back to brick.
00:17:31
Speaker
But I don't think that would be an issue here because it's like a newer-ish property. And yeah as I say, Grant hasn't tampered with it and stuff like that. And um yeah, I think just the only thing i need to I'm going to leave for now is like the carpet's in. Because everyone always says, keep the carpet in. A, because it warms it up a bit. It's like easier when you're kneeling and stuff to do the rewire.
00:17:50
Speaker
And then at the end, when I've done like a big mess, I don't have to tidy as much. I just roll it up and put it in the skips. It's just quite a good little tip for people. Yeah, definitely. We've got concrete floors in there basically, which is if you're DIYing or renovating it, dear concrete floors is actually a nightmare. yeah Especially if we've got bungalow, so we can run all the cables and all the pipes into the loft, which is nice because there's loads of space out there, yeah but everything has to drop down from the loft. so Instead of a little cable coming up 40, 45 centimeters to a socket, it's coming down like two meters and going back up two meters.
00:18:24
Speaker
I'm going burn through cable, I'm going to burn through pipe. I'm already thinking, oh God, this is going to be more expensive. It's the time it takes you to chase. built in like the 50 so it's probably really well made so you're gonna be like spending all your time like chasing out all the different exactly so instead of a little 30 40 centimeter chase i've got to do like two meter chase and then go of course it's gonna be that's definitely like gonna be ag and something i thinking about starting this week and was like no let's just rip back first yeah that's it yeah
00:18:56
Speaker
So then do you think you'll go room by room or you just going to be like, right, I'm going to do all the chases for all the electrics and just go straight for it? Yeah. So next week, I'm going to start on the kitchen and the bathroom. think kitchen um will be fairly tough to come out. Luckily, being an electrician,
00:19:15
Speaker
it really helps because there's always sockets like under s sinks or in cupboards that people have put into like do i don't know like a gas ignition or an extractor fan yeah so i can ripple that out it's just whether if there's a gas hole so if there's a gas shut off valve like a good one and a new one yeah comfortable like turning that off and um capping the end of the gas Yeah. And I always ask my plumber just to check on it as well, because we've had jobs in the past where we've renovated a kitchen and um there is like a my my new gasoline that has been here presently the whole time. Wow. So always cap it off and ask him to check and when he's coming around. So I will do that myself as well, but that's the sort of thing that could just hold you up. If there's no like good shuttle valve or it's to be blocked or locked,
Plumbing and Electrical Considerations
00:20:00
Speaker
It's just not worth the risk and you need like a specialist. and and I would advise obviously everyone at home to with gas and obviously just don't mess with it.
00:20:08
Speaker
yeah but Yeah. So the kitchen i think will take maybe like a day or a day and a half to come out properly. um I'm going to leave in the sink. The boiler's in there which I'm obviously going leave. That's still working as well. I'm going to talk about amazing amazing. I wish I wrote down the brand. i put it I'm going to put it on my Instagram. Yeah. But it's like a brand i've never heard of. but My plumber said they used to be amazing. So you wonder what happens. Yeah. This is at least 30 years old. This could be 35 years old.
00:20:33
Speaker
Still going strong. It's freezing at the moment. Yeah. um It's still going amazingly well. You think boilers these days, it's like 10 years, yeah I might just go. Why did you make it like that? Well, that's probably why they didn't make enough money, right? Because all this stuff just lasted for years. They've gone past the body. So the boilers in there and the sinks in there. So ill obviously keep those two things. And then I'm going to stop going to rip out the sink in the bathroom. Because the bathroom was put in by the council. I don't know how available this is, but three or four years ago, gra had a bath.
00:21:04
Speaker
and couldn't get in and out of it. Obviously, she was 90, she must have been 94, 95 at that point. Yeah. Couldn't get in and out of it. So we applied to the council to get a grant. I don't know if it's like something you can only get if you don't have a certain amount of money or something. Yeah. Because you didn't ever have like tons of cash. No. So the council ripped out the old bathroom and put in a brand new spanking bathroom. Yeah. I think that oil will get so easy to rip out. Yeah. Because there'd be like new pipes, shut off valves. You could just see by looking at it, the shower's going to take seconds. It's an electric shower, so I can take the o that out. If you turn it off, whip it out. Yeah. um And then again, just leave the toilet for obvious his reasons. Yeah. We always try and leave like a running toilet these days because, again, in the old days, we'd be like, you knock off the feed to it.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, and then you can do with a bucket, but it's just so crass. You don't have to. Yeah, exactly. You know what I would tell you about the story? Oh, it's this house where my carpenter, we got rid of the toilet because we had to. He found a used toilet on the street we put it in here. That's such a low point. It was actually an amazing condition. just like, this toilet had been sat on like 10,000 times and we were just having it in there. But he was like, it's free. What do you want to do? To be fair, that's not bad.
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah. That little tip, isn't it? got like Go around Skips and find a toilet. Yeah. Because realistically, if you've got tradesmen in, you can get a port-a-loo, but how much is that going to cost you? And if the renovation is going to take six months, you've got to have that out the front for six months. don't know much they are. i think I think they might be like 50 a week or something or maybe slightly more.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah, as you say, that would top if you're doing a year of a sudden. Exactly. A couple of grand it'll be, wouldn't it? Yeah. That's a little tip day. Skip for old toilets. Tip of the day, take someone's old toilet and use it. You can't get this anywhere else. Never cares for any other toilet. What everyone's tuned in for. Second-hand toilets. But yeah, so lots of progress and lots will be happening next week. So I think the bathroom will be easy. The kitchen is doable by me. So think they'll be fine. And then in the next few weeks and months, there's loads for me to do, basically. So potentially, well, it's an R-tex ceiling. So I'm going to be overboarding it probably
Finding Reliable Builders
00:23:20
Speaker
anyway.
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah. um Because you can't really plaster over R-tex. No, just whether it's got asbestos in or not. Yeah. So I've got overborder ceiling, rewire the house. um and then obviously finish all the stripling out, and then I'm going to just try and save as much money as I can by doing stuff work and things like that.
00:23:40
Speaker
So I've had a builder's quote yeah for the extension and structural stuff over me, so I'm going to be as transparent as I can because I know that my builder's done or maybe. 10 jobs to me now and he's amazing. He did your house. I hope your house is fine. Yeah, he's still staying. Exactly. He did the house we're filming this in now.
00:23:57
Speaker
He's done loads of client work for me as well. So he's always been good. So I got quote from him and it's basically about around 45 grand plus VAT. So 54 all in. Yeah. slightly higher than I wanted. i always feel like the structural work and thing needs to be about like 40, 45%. Yeah. Because the other stuff just adds up so much. Like a kitchen can be Well, in like a big house, it could be like 30. But in like house this size, it could be 15. In the bathroom, I've no idea what that could be. That could be like seven or eight ensuite, maybe like three or four. So I was like, 45 grand plus piece. And I'm not going to get any other quotes because we've tried with other builders in the last few years for clients. And it's always started off well when they're doing like foundations and stuff like that. And as it's gone on and the finishing touch, there's always been something like, oh, the other builders are better. They're really nice guys and stuff. We'll try and get them a bit on camera as well. I don't know if they'll be up for it. But they're definitely Instagram. When I follow people doing renovation reels, they sometimes put the builders in. I think they're funny guys. Yeah, they're totally good. It's funny being a DIY podcast and of saying that
00:25:09
Speaker
tradesmen, like good tradesmen, are just worth their weight and goals. And how many people will come unstuck by going, oh, this one's like five grand cheaper and stuff. When you've got a good tradesman, just stick with them. they just They're just so good and the advice they give you and and everything they do is always top-notch, you know what you're getting. Exactly, yeah. I mean, there must be other... There's loads and loads and loads of good tradesmen, but we just had a few where they were literally... They're not like bad tradesmen. yeah It just wasn't as good as them. and' like We had a client where just like the flat roof just leaked for like a year or two on and off.
00:25:44
Speaker
try to fix it they try to fix it they try to fix it and just other issues of like plumbing and things not quite right like the soil stacking the wrong positions and tiny things that because that side of things is i'm kind of hands off because they're so and that's another good thing as well yeah i'm so hands off i'm going to try and do ah stud work and insulating and plasterboard and things like that, but actually building it, but knocking it down the garage.
00:26:07
Speaker
I was tempted to do, yeah but it's I said in the preview of the ah first episode we did, it's basically a shared wall with the neighbor's garage and then a shared wall with Gran's bungalow. so i can't really take down the grand bungalow one obviously because you'd expose the inside the house and need to just take off the roof and the back wall really and it's actually not much work yeah um i don't think it would save me much they're doing it half a day yeah and i'm too scared to touch shared wall or major magic i made a mistake and exposed like the neighbor's
DIY vs Professional Help
00:26:40
Speaker
garage and like a yeah helpful i don't even know how they do that they must use some sort of aqua or something to prop
00:26:46
Speaker
I guess they keep the stacks. They must use acros in some way in order to like prop it in so nothing falls that way or something. So that sort of thing, I'm keeping hands off. because i'm just going to leave as the expert whereas If I completely DIYed the house, would just be so hard digging the foundation. The drains are in the garage as well, which are complete pain in the ass. I'll get the drains out to the back garden or the front garden. That's a another job but don't know what I'm doing. It's so complex. and I don't want to mess with it. it's where You've got to pay some people right at some time yeah some point to skilled work.
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Well, that's the thing. It is so skilled, isn't it? And they've probably dealt with this like a million times. So they'll go, oh, we'll just do this, this and this. Whereas you would be like sitting there like, oh, if I move it here, is that fine? And yeah there's probably other external factors that you've got to think of.
00:27:33
Speaker
Exactly. So I'm just trying to find where I can save money and where I can't. And definitely i can't save money on the building stuff. ah I've got my build. I want to use him. don't want to mess around with anyone else, especially as we're doing a bloody podcast. I'd be like, oh, we hate Martin. in the new guy or John or something. So sticking with the team I know. Yeah, exactly. It's funny.
00:27:53
Speaker
um So this is where I am lucky. So I'd recommend tradesmen is either you go and look in the road and speak to neighbors about, oh, you've had an extension. Who did you use? yeah And were they good? That's a really good tip or get him recommendations really. Cause it's so hard just to find someone random. Yeah. But where I'm lucky is I've got the team.
00:28:13
Speaker
I say a team, we've got like a couple of plumbers, a couple of carpenters and they're all ready to go and they're all keen. I've already got a little lockbox there and my plumber was like, oh, I'll just start. And i like, we haven't even agreed a price. What are you doing? i've don't know where any radiators are going. yeah He's like, I could just start ripping out everything. And I was like, ah, I did say, hold on.
00:28:31
Speaker
Yeah, because you mentioned we should do a video about scrap prices. yeah Yeah, I think that'll be really interesting for for everyone to see how much you can actually make through keeping all your scrap and then selling it back because it's something that people don't really speak about much, right? Yeah, and it's a little little hidden gem, especially plumbing. Electrics is hard to rip out. um It's just more time consuming stuff. But if you've got an immersion tank, like ah it'll be copper colored and it literally is minimum 60 pounds, but I think I've got maybe a hundred, 110 pounds on the bigger ones before by itself. And then obviously we've got all surface pipes across yeah all the rooms.
00:29:10
Speaker
So I think in this house, which was like a detached house. I can't remember, but I got at least 700 pounds of scrap out of it. Because there was pipes running whole way up into the loft, like Gramsys, but obviously Gramsys a fun guy. So you've got probably 40 foot of pipes going up, and I think there was like seven pipes going up into the loft to feed like tanks and gravity-fed stuff. So I ripped it all down and got so much money. but So I don't think it'd be as much as that. by Copper apparently, a according to my plumber, is as high as it's ever been.
00:29:42
Speaker
Okay. And everyone's paying really well. And obviously all of mine is surface. So with every drop, I've probably got like at least six meters of copper just coming straight out there. So it's really good tip. We should play a little game about how probably think it's going to get. I reckon it'd be minimum £500. Yeah.
Future Podcast Plans
00:30:00
Speaker
I don't actually know because it's not a big house.
00:30:04
Speaker
there's maybe like seven radiators and immersion and then all the stuff in the loft which is quite a lot well it's hard isn't it because it's it's not a big property but everything has to come from the loft so everything is a long run yeah so if you can get away with this usually there's like a stock cot coming in and in my house i was really lucky it stock cop coming in and i went to the old kitchen this is not brand's house this is my house and so it just fit the kitchen so i had a kitchen tap and I had the mains coming in. So then I can literally wipe out everything else and take it all out myself. yeah As I say, it's worth it for a couple of days to get 600, 700 pounds do the thing.
00:30:41
Speaker
Hopefully if I do that, I could be up at the moment. The spend are quite low. So yeah, that's one thing to keep an eye on. And then another thing for next week is structural stuff. So often my father-in-law just does um there drawings. yeah I've got to get structural works in. And again, I'm trying to save money on things outside the box because I don't think 100 grand budget is going to do it. yeah is I'm going to look my company's online platform before. Oh, interesting. So if I got a quote from, I didn't get a quote, I think if I got a quote from a a guy or a company, it would probably be
00:31:18
Speaker
at least a grand I would have thought maybe a little bit over. I know it's a small extension, but I'd say 800 minimum. So yeah, I've looked at a couple online things and it's more like three, 400 pounds. So you just send them your plans, which I've got through my architect. yeah You'd have to have that in place. yeah Tell them what you're doing.
00:31:36
Speaker
um And they literally can calculate that they don't need to come to site apparently, apart from really rare occasions. yeah And I think because it's a bungalow, and I'm not doing anything to the roof, surely it's doable. right yeah Literally, the extension is going to be a flat roof, the roof to the house is staying exactly the same. yeah So I don't even think there's going to be a lot of steel work. and In my head, I think there'll be maybe two. yeah I don't know. you So I'm i'm thinking it'll be really easy for a structural engineer. yeah And they're all certified, obviously, it's just for your website. I'm happy you can get it, i think it's seven days to get back. You'll pay more to get it quicker. yeah There's no rush for us. no There's another thing I'm going to do try and save money. So that might save four or five hundred pounds, hopefully. Yeah, and that's it. and I know it sounds mental say it's only four five hundred pounds, but in the grand scheme of things, those little savings like selling all your your ah pipes and stuff back and also saving money on your structural engineers, like
00:32:32
Speaker
you know It all adds up at the end, doesn't it? Exactly. Even phoning skit companies, again, it wasn't much money, if but i saved like 50 quid or like 30 to 50 pounds and other quotes I got. So why wouldn't you just spend like 10 minutes just doing it? It's quite a lot, isn't it really? When it all tops up. Yeah. I will try and do a savings run as well, but a spreadsheet. This podcast has got a lot of admin. A hundred spreadsheets.
00:32:57
Speaker
But yeah, so basically looking forward to next week and it's going well and excited to share. I'm looking forward to hearing about it next week. and Next week we've got another guest. yeah We've got JR, one of your favorites, over at the Tokyo Llama.
00:33:12
Speaker
ah He bought an abandoned house in Japan and he's renovated it. So we've talk through how that went and you know the difference in culture and how things are built. so It's a really good one, actually. It's going to be good because I've followed him on YouTube for years. He's got 250,000 followers on YouTube, I think. So my measly 50-odd. But actually, a Japanese house is so much cooler and stuff like that. I'm looking forward to chatting with him. We'll do a little intro and outro before every episode. yeah catch up a little bit but we'll keep doing these four episodes to update you on what i'm getting on with an that you and actually need find you're going to be doing i know yeah you're always doing yeah i'm sure what you've got in the pipeline you must have something but i don't know if you saw i did a post the other day but we are now about to change our our stairs that are kind of
00:33:59
Speaker
ah There's no spindles, it's just flat bits wood, so we're going to rip those out and put spindles in. oh nice So that's time consuming. Yeah, it's time consuming and yeah the angles of everything and cutting everything correctly is going to be interesting. Also, you have a two year old. yeah Presumably you have to phase this in and out so he doesn't like fall through a hole. So this is what I was trying to think of, how would you do i suppose I sort of said to my wife, Christy, like, oh, you're going have to take Dylan out for the day and i'm just going to have to go like hell for leather and try and get everything in play. You're doing a day as a DIY. I know, right?
00:34:33
Speaker
So, yeah, my thought was maybe I could cut the bottom bit of the wood out and then have the new tread in there and run that ready for just spindles and then maybe do it like a section at a time. Is this YouTube videos? Yeah, YouTube videos, yeah.
00:34:49
Speaker
and a couple of YouTube videos. It's a bit of a hard really because I haven't seen many people because we're, you know, where our house is, what oh, the banister's really nice. So we're hoping and we're going to strip that back and it's going to be in nice condition. So we want to keep that as well.
00:35:04
Speaker
So to try and keep that and then put new spins in, I don't know if anyone's done that before. So we've looked at a few different videos, but it's normally like rip everything out. Yeah, exactly. oh It's going to be interesting experience. Also, you've got a nice runner up there and stuff, haven't you? Yeah. have to like protect all that and then call them down there. Jesus. Have you counted how many there are? There's got to be 20-odd, isn't there? Well, you know what? The hardest thing was working out how many we needed to put in there and then how many gaps you need and what size spacing you need. So, yeah, I think going up the stairs, there's like 20-odd. And then we've got a strip across our landing, which is another, think it's 13 or 14. Oh, okay.
00:35:45
Speaker
I'm going to start with that one because it's straight and I'm hoping that's lot easier and then I'll just worry about the angles. and of her stay it so It's rewarding, but like you have to ask your other half to like take your son out for the day, which is kind of like a burden having someone wears out. So then you feel more pressured into blood doing it quickly. yeah when When I'm rushing, I'm useless. Yeah, um I mean, I've got to take my time, but that's why i was thinking if I do it in sections, then it like makes it a little easier. I'm hoping it's one of those jobs when you do a few, you then just like get in the room and just smash through. They must all be slightly different measurements though, would just fall.
00:36:22
Speaker
slightly as it goes up. I don't know. It depends how... You've got a 30s house. It's not going to be the same restaurant every time. It wouldn't be that lovely. No, how can you imagine? I reckon you're in for two or three days. Yeah, but my biggest worry is I can't even think short. I literally have to go back and get another spindle. Yeah. Well, funny story.
00:36:45
Speaker
I was getting all the treads and upstairs is probably just over two and half meters. So had to get like just over three meter long tread and then got it back to the car.
00:36:59
Speaker
Didn't fit. That's a I walked the train back in, get a saw to cut it down and then put it in the car. Yeah, I've done that. Standard B&Q, buy a new saw and cut in the car park job. That's why I always get the 2.4-meter lips, because they fit in. Yeah. Three meters. I've done a few times out the window. Yeah. And I think I did it. Did I do years ago? My dad's old golfing was so bad. i like That was with, I think it was a like a bit of kitchen.
00:37:28
Speaker
Oh, upstand. That was it. Yeah. And I put it into the front of the windscreen from the inside. And then closed the boot, and it was just going to fit, and it popped the front windscreen. No. yeah ah so This thing was probably worth about £30 and I can't remember, I think my dad actually paid for it. yeah so I don't have much a be green screen cost, but it must have been about £300. That's something I learned from that. Because the inside is really weak, so if you're stuck,
00:37:55
Speaker
Oh, you can kick it out. I was going to say with my fist, but sure you've got to do it. Kick it out. So it's really weak and then from the other side it's strong. So yeah, don't do that. I've done it out the window before. Well, I tried it out the window, but was like, oh, just going to like joust someone. Yeah, exactly. Ah, so keep up on your stuff as well as the weeks go on. Looking forward to Jaya and across this series we're speaking to loads cool people. We've got loads cool people lined up, haven't we? We've got people living in a van in America, people of all sorts of different houses, like old Edwardian and Victorian, more modern housing, 70s upside down houses, someone we're going to speak to has. So we're going to do those sort of week-in recats, being to guests, and then
00:38:40
Speaker
see if you're more interested in talking to other people, seeing this. and yeah You can hopefully ask us some questions as well. yeah so We've got an email address, um hello at DIYGuysPodcast.com and you can ask us anything about my renovation, maybe tips for both of us doing our own thing.
00:38:57
Speaker
Or DM us on DIYGuysPodcast, which is DIY underscore guys underscore podcast. And we'll just try and update you as we go. Definitely. And please like and subscribe. how yeah. You can catch us on all your podcast platforms or YouTube or, you know, we're on sc Instagram. So, yeah, if you've five stars, even if you hate it, just five stars i and then never listen them again. It must do something. I don't know what it does. Yeah.
00:39:21
Speaker
It'll help us out, please. But, yeah, so we'll see you on the next one, guys. Yeah. Cheers. See you. Bye. Bye.