Make sure you have a proper design plan before you start your renovation

Proper design/planning and a good contractor when attempting a renovation

I once was called to a home where the new owners wanted renovations completed on a house that was 150 years old. The previous owners of the home had started renovations two years prior but never finished them.

The previous couple had lived in the home as they attempted to renovate it the older home. The whole first floor of the home was in one state of partly completed renovation or demolition with the upper floors still looking like they did when the house was last renovated 80 years ago.

This all ended when one part of the couple decided they have had enough and left. The home was then sold to my clients who called us in to access the situation.

Renovation contractors have a name for drywall dust (especially when the couple attempts to live in the house as its being renovated) it’s called divorce dust.

This attempted renovation was a perfect example what happens when you don’t bother to have a proper plan/design before you start renovating.

It is also a warning to people who want to take on renovating an older home but won’t budget for a contractor to help them out.

The amount of work in the home would take my company 6 to 10 months to complete working everyday 8 to 5 with at least 3 to 4 employee’s and about a dozen different sub-trades. These people that had attempted to do this renovation had been working at it for two years and by the look of it they had about 10 years left.

A prime example in the home of how the planning/design was short sited was they created a master bedroom on the first floor that was large and had an ensuite bathroom beside it. Then it looked like the wife asked for a large closet to be installed. The husband proceeded to remove the main set of stairs to the second floor of the home and relocate them two feet over to give his wife a closet. This meant relocating not only the stairs but all the barring walls around the stairs and the railings up stairs. It also required them to rebuild a new set of stairs that were reversed to the old ones. This idea was thousands of dollars to do and could have easily been avoided if they would have taken some time to draw up a properly planned out master bedroom and main floor layout.

There were many other issues throughout the home that the former owner had attempted and had either failed at completing or had done incorrectly.

The new owners and I worked together came up with a proper plan, design, budget and a schedule. Then we proceeded with the work.

When the home was finished it was unrecognizable compared to the start that it was procured when we first walked in to access the situation.

The moral of the story is that you should take the time to plan out what you want to do before you attempt to do any kind of renovation either on your own or with a qualified professional.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders

I’m renovating an older home, can I install radiant heating on the first and second floors of the home?

Q:

I’m renovating an older home, can I install radiant heating on the first and second floors of the home?

A:

Yes you can install radiant in-floor heating on the first and second floors of your home when you are renovating it. There are many things that you will have to do before you can do this though, to do this you should be doing a very large renovation to the home. Radiant heating is basically water lines that are placed on top of your sub-floor and then covered in a “gypcrete” which is a type of concrete.
Usually the gypcrete is about 1.5 inches thick. There is a brief list of the things that you will have to do to the home so that you can install radiant in-floor heating in it;

• You will have to completely remove the existing flooring regardless if it’s wood, tile or carpet from anywhere the radiant heat is going to be placed.

• You are going to have to make sure that the floor joist are strong enough to take the extra weight that comes with installing a inch and a half of gypcrete over the heat lines.

• You will have to remove all the trim that is near the floor. Baseboards and door trim will have to be removed to get a smooth finish.

• You will have to remove all interior doors that will be in the way. When they are reinstalled they will either have to be cut down by 1.5 inches or the whole framing of the door will have to be moved up and re-installed.

• You will have to remove drywall in certain areas of the home to install manifolds in the walls and also to install the thermostats.

• There will have to be holes made in walls and wall plates so that the piping can come from the basement (usually where the boiler is placed) to feed the upper floors with heat.

• Any hole in the sub-floor from anything like old wiring or old plumbing that was moved must be plugged or the gypcrete will leak through.

• You will have to install wood barriers at certain area’s like at the top of stairs to create an edge where the gypcrete will stop.

The installation of the piping and the gypcrete should be installed by qualified professionals that are experienced in this field of work, if this isn’t done right it can cost you a lot of money and a lot of wasted time.

After the in-floor has been installed and the gypcrete as well then you will be able to install your flooring and all your trim. You will probably have to repaint as well because gypcreting can be a messy business and your walls will be a little dirty from workers touching it or leaning on it while they were working.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.

We are renovating a 100 year old house; can we use the old existing doors?

Q:

We are renovating a 100 year old house; can we use the old existing doors?

A:

Yes you can use the existing doors from the house. There are a couple of things that you should realize through about using the existing doors;

• Re-using existing doors will save you money because you don’t have to buy new doors, but it will cost you money in the labour end. It takes a lot longer to hang an old door instead of hanging a new door.

• Older doors are not usually square or straight. You need to be prepared that the door will not look perfect when it is re-hung.

• Prepare to see gaps around the door. This is because these doors have been cut and planed and trimmed over there long life and getting the jambs tight to them might be impossible.

• Re-painting or re-staining these doors will cost more than painting a new door and it will not look as good either.

• The locking mechanisms might have to be replaced as well. Eventually they fail or have pieces missing from them.

• Sometimes a door can look like its in good shape and then when the carpenter starts to work on it the door falls apart. This means that you wasted money on labour for a door that you aren’t able to use.

• If you end up not being able to re-use all the doors and you end up short a couple of doors you are going to have a hard time finding replacement doors that will match. Not only will you have a hard to time finding old doors that will match and work in the door frames that are waiting for a door but it is extremely hard to find new doors that will look appropriate along side the older existing doors.

Remember that it’s a wonderful idea to re-use things like doors but everything comes at a cost, everything that you are usually able to save and re-use will cost you more money in the labour it takes to re-install it so that it looks proper.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.