Small budget, big plans...

[Andy_Wraith]

Hi

I’m new to the forum and hoping to get some advice.
My girlfriend and I have jumped in at the deep end with our first property, a renovation project of a “forever home”. Like many before us we stretched our budget in the purchase and figured everything will be fine, we can just do the work a bit at a time. We soon realised the error in our ways and as wallpaper and fitted units were removed the house revealed the extent of the work we had ahead of us.
Sadly due to financial issues we have a very small budget and are in the middle of everything, all at once. There’s no heating, no bathroom facilities, the rewire isn’t complete and no ground floor. The joists were rotten so we tore them out in favour of backfilling and putting in a kingspan warm floor with ufh.
In desperation and unemployment, I’m doing as much as possible myself. This includes stud walls and ceilings, and ddb’ing. Having never done this before I’ve got many, many questions, but I’ll start with the basics.

The majority of the walls have what appears to be very old plaster, but they’re covered in cracks and in some rooms it just falls away very easily. I think the majority of their strength was in the decades of wallpaper.
Does all of this NEED to come off or can it be skimmed over?

Where it has come away, to reveal bare brick, do I need to prepare the wall in anyway before dot & dabbing plaster boards? That includes the interior of external walls.

The living room doesn’t have too much wrong with it, but the main wall is uneven, and the plan is to put wainscotting/panelling detailing on it with wooden cornicing. The current surface isn’t square or flat enough to look neat, what’s the best solution:
Battening then levelling our and boarding over? Dot and dabbing pb’s over? Just a full skim?

In the bathroom I plan on tiling, so is that best done onto a plaster surface or directly onto the brick (exterior walls)?

So many questions, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I’ll post some pics of the various rooms and issues, in the hope that’s a little clearer.

Thanks in advance.
A.

 

[superspread]

If your planning on dot and dabbing for whatever reason that maybe, I’d be inclined to take everything back to brickwork, use thermal plasterboard

 

[Deleted member 32554]

Have you got cavity walls ?


Pleased your doing it yourself having done many cheap favours for friends who bought their own " forever home " only to be up for sale as soon as the paints dry , older but not necessarily wiser lol

 

[loky11]

Knock loose plaster off, bond, scrim all cracks then skim.

Give brickwork a quick go with pva, then dab.

DON'T tile straight onto brickwork, dab, prime then tile.

 

[Vincey]

Trade it in for a new build mate

 

[zombie]

Not reading all that @John j

 

[Cockney]

Not reading all that @John j

I gave up at the first mention of budget geez! That word makes my skin crawl.

 

[ChrispyUK]

If in doubt, rip it out.

Wouldn't want to be living in that though. Once you've done any 'heavy stuff' like knock throughs an all that, and you're 1st fixed, Id concentrate on getting a room done at a time otherwise you'll be in a bare brick hell hole. If not living in it, gut the lot in one go, your case, a room at a time or so. Get upstairs plastered and mist coated and you'll feel better and can live in your flat while you tackle the rest.

 

[Gilbert75]

If in doubt, rip it out.

Wouldn't want to be living in that though. Once you've done any 'heavy stuff' like knock throughs an all that, and you're 1st fixed, Id concentrate on getting a room done at a time otherwise you'll be in a bare brick hell hole. If not living in it, gut the lot in one go, your case, a room at a time or so. Get upstairs plastered and mist coated and you'll feel better and can live in your flat while you tackle the rest.

Move back in with mum and dad

 

[Deleted member 46546]

Hi

I’m new to the forum and hoping to get some advice.
My girlfriend and I have jumped in at the deep end with our first property, a renovation project of a “forever home”. Like many before us we stretched our budget in the purchase and figured everything will be fine, we can just do the work a bit at a time. We soon realised the error in our ways and as wallpaper and fitted units were removed the house revealed the extent of the work we had ahead of us.
Sadly due to financial issues we have a very small budget and are in the middle of everything, all at once. There’s no heating, no bathroom facilities, the rewire isn’t complete and no ground floor. The joists were rotten so we tore them out in favour of backfilling and putting in a kingspan warm floor with ufh.
In desperation and unemployment, I’m doing as much as possible myself. This includes stud walls and ceilings, and ddb’ing. Having never done this before I’ve got many, many questions, but I’ll start with the basics.

The majority of the walls have what appears to be very old plaster, but they’re covered in cracks and in some rooms it just falls away very easily. I think the majority of their strength was in the decades of wallpaper.
Does all of this NEED to come off or can it be skimmed over?

Where it has come away, to reveal bare brick, do I need to prepare the wall in anyway before dot & dabbing plaster boards? That includes the interior of external walls.

The living room doesn’t have too much wrong with it, but the main wall is uneven, and the plan is to put wainscotting/panelling detailing on it with wooden cornicing. The current surface isn’t square or flat enough to look neat, what’s the best solution:
Battening then levelling our and boarding over? Dot and dabbing pb’s over? Just a full skim?

In the bathroom I plan on tiling, so is that best done onto a plaster surface or directly onto the brick (exterior walls)?

So many questions, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I’ll post some pics of the various rooms and issues, in the hope that’s a little clearer.

Thanks in advance.
A.

You're going to bodge your forever home and regret it forever. Pay a plasterer to do one room and get it looking spot on, then do the next room as you save and so on. Don't be a wally

 

[John j]

Not reading all that @John j

Just finished . Can you tell @Vincey

 

[Nicm]

Hi

I’m new to the forum and hoping to get some advice.
My girlfriend and I have jumped in at the deep end with our first property, a renovation project of a “forever home”. Like many before us we stretched our budget in the purchase and figured everything will be fine, we can just do the work a bit at a time. We soon realised the error in our ways and as wallpaper and fitted units were removed the house revealed the extent of the work we had ahead of us.
Sadly due to financial issues we have a very small budget and are in the middle of everything, all at once. There’s no heating, no bathroom facilities, the rewire isn’t complete and no ground floor. The joists were rotten so we tore them out in favour of backfilling and putting in a kingspan warm floor with ufh.
In desperation and unemployment, I’m doing as much as possible myself. This includes stud walls and ceilings, and ddb’ing. Having never done this before I’ve got many, many questions, but I’ll start with the basics.

The majority of the walls have what appears to be very old plaster, but they’re covered in cracks and in some rooms it just falls away very easily. I think the majority of their strength was in the decades of wallpaper.
Does all of this NEED to come off or can it be skimmed over?

Where it has come away, to reveal bare brick, do I need to prepare the wall in anyway before dot & dabbing plaster boards? That includes the interior of external walls.

The living room doesn’t have too much wrong with it, but the main wall is uneven, and the plan is to put wainscotting/panelling detailing on it with wooden cornicing. The current surface isn’t square or flat enough to look neat, what’s the best solution:
Battening then levelling our and boarding over? Dot and dabbing pb’s over? Just a full skim?

In the bathroom I plan on tiling, so is that best done onto a plaster surface or directly onto the brick (exterior walls)?

So many questions, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I’ll post some pics of the various rooms and issues, in the hope that’s a little clearer.

Thanks in advance.
A.

 

[algeeman]

Hi

I’m new to the forum and hoping to get some advice.
My girlfriend and I have jumped in at the deep end with our first property, a renovation project of a “forever home”. Like many before us we stretched our budget in the purchase and figured everything will be fine, we can just do the work a bit at a time. We soon realised the error in our ways and as wallpaper and fitted units were removed the house revealed the extent of the work we had ahead of us.
Sadly due to financial issues we have a very small budget and are in the middle of everything, all at once. There’s no heating, no bathroom facilities, the rewire isn’t complete and no ground floor. The joists were rotten so we tore them out in favour of backfilling and putting in a kingspan warm floor with ufh.
In desperation and unemployment, I’m doing as much as possible myself. This includes stud walls and ceilings, and ddb’ing. Having never done this before I’ve got many, many questions, but I’ll start with the basics.

The majority of the walls have what appears to be very old plaster, but they’re covered in cracks and in some rooms it just falls away very easily. I think the majority of their strength was in the decades of wallpaper.
Does all of this NEED to come off or can it be skimmed over?

Where it has come away, to reveal bare brick, do I need to prepare the wall in anyway before dot & dabbing plaster boards? That includes the interior of external walls.

The living room doesn’t have too much wrong with it, but the main wall is uneven, and the plan is to put wainscotting/panelling detailing on it with wooden cornicing. The current surface isn’t square or flat enough to look neat, what’s the best solution:
Battening then levelling our and boarding over? Dot and dabbing pb’s over? Just a full skim?

In the bathroom I plan on tiling, so is that best done onto a plaster surface or directly onto the brick (exterior walls)?

So many questions, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I’ll post some pics of the various rooms and issues, in the hope that’s a little clearer.

Thanks in advance.
A.

you've got your hands full my friend.

 

[Vincey]

You know it’s only in more recent times that plaster on walls is the “in thing” there’s no shame in having bare brick or stone walls tbf I think when a nice floors down bare brick looks s**t hot

 

[Deleted member 14228]

Facebook do some good plasterers mate!!
You get what you pay for!! Drive round in a cheap car and put your money in your house! Or drive round in an expensive car on the knock and sit in a shithole, listen to your mom there always right in the end!!

 

[smoother09]

Put what you got on lightning roulette I suggest red Double ya money on one spin then come back and we can talk

 

[TonyM]

You know it’s only in more recent times that plaster on walls is the “in thing” there’s no shame in having bare brick or stone walls tbf I think when a nice floors down bare brick looks s**t hot

Yeah. Just clean the bricks up and varnish them. Any really bad areas can be enhanced with flying ducks and large ‘Love Life Laugh’ words. I’d be inclined to get some ‘f**k This s**t’ words made up.

 

[Andy_Wraith]

If your planning on dot and dabbing for whatever reason that maybe, I’d be inclined to take everything back to brickwork, use thermal plasterboard

Thanks for the advice. The reason for dot and dabbing was so I can do the bulk myself, I would pay a plasterer to do a full layered job if I could afford.

 

[Andy_Wraith]

Have you got cavity walls ?


Pleased your doing it yourself having done many cheap favours for friends who bought their own " forever home " only to be up for sale as soon as the paints dry , older but not necessarily wiser lol

Yes, cavity walls. The house and brickwork are solid, it’s just the crumbling internals I’m dealing with. We plan to stay here for the foreseeable, or atleast until she leaves me for the milkman.
Cheers.

 

[Andy_Wraith]

Knock loose plaster off, bond, scrim all cracks then skim.

Give brickwork a quick go with pva, then dab.

DON'T tile straight onto brickwork, dab, prime then tile.

Thanks very much for your advice - that’s a good help.

 

[Andy_Wraith]

Trade it in for a new build mate

thanks mate, I would if the new builds around our way weren’t a bag of sh^t. At least I know the skeleton of this is sound, and we prefer the high ceilings and proportions. It’s not often people advise to get new builds - is that what you’ve done?

 

[Andy_Wraith]

If in doubt, rip it out.

Wouldn't want to be living in that though. Once you've done any 'heavy stuff' like knock throughs an all that, and you're 1st fixed, Id concentrate on getting a room done at a time otherwise you'll be in a bare brick hell hole. If not living in it, gut the lot in one go, your case, a room at a time or so. Get upstairs plastered and mist coated and you'll feel better and can live in your flat while you tackle the rest.

Great advice thanks. To a point that’s what I’ve been doing, but trying to juggle various tasks throughout has blurred the edges a bit. Once these walls are cleaned up it will feel completely different. I’ll keep posting progress. Cheers

 

[Andy_Wraith]

Move back in with mum and dad

Not an option pal, this will be worth the hassle once it’s done, and to be fair it’s mainly cosmetic now. Cheers

 

[Andy_Wraith]

You're going to bodge your forever home and regret it forever. Pay a plasterer to do one room and get it looking spot on, then do the next room as you save and so on. Don't be a wally

Thanks mate, I’m under no illusion that it takes a high level of skill to do right, which is why I wouldn’t dare attempt to plaster myself. If I had the cash I’d get it all done at once, but there’s an issue with the tradesmen I’ve tried so far - none of them are bothered to come for small jobs, a room at a time. For whatever reason (the good ones) only seem to return calls or bother getting back with quotes when it’s for big jobs, so instead of using a less skilled worker who is willing to do small jobs, I’m trying to do as much myself, then pay a pro for a perfect finish.

 

[Andy_Wraith]

you've got your hands full my friend.

Haha I know mate, but if it’s not hard work, it’s not worth doing in my opinion.

 

[Andy_Wraith]

Facebook do some good plasterers mate!!
You get what you pay for!! Drive round in a cheap car and put your money in your house! Or drive round in an expensive car on the knock and sit in a shithole, listen to your mom there always right in the end!!

Thanks mate, you’re right there. Isn’t it always the ones in the shitty cars that have the most cash???

 

[Andy_Wraith]

Put what you got on lightning roulette I suggest red Double ya money on one spin then come back and we can talk

That’s too high risk for me, I prefer to go with a safe bet. I’m starting to sell my organs next week if you know anyone needing a kidney?

 

[choppa]

Hi

I’m new to the forum and hoping to get some advice.
My girlfriend and I have jumped in at the deep end with our first property, a renovation project of a “forever home”. Like many before us we stretched our budget in the purchase and figured everything will be fine, we can just do the work a bit at a time. We soon realised the error in our ways and as wallpaper and fitted units were removed the house revealed the extent of the work we had ahead of us.
Sadly due to financial issues we have a very small budget and are in the middle of everything, all at once. There’s no heating, no bathroom facilities, the rewire isn’t complete and no ground floor. The joists were rotten so we tore them out in favour of backfilling and putting in a kingspan warm floor with ufh.
In desperation and unemployment, I’m doing as much as possible myself. This includes stud walls and ceilings, and ddb’ing. Having never done this before I’ve got many, many questions, but I’ll start with the basics.

The majority of the walls have what appears to be very old plaster, but they’re covered in cracks and in some rooms it just falls away very easily. I think the majority of their strength was in the decades of wallpaper.
Does all of this NEED to come off or can it be skimmed over?

Where it has come away, to reveal bare brick, do I need to prepare the wall in anyway before dot & dabbing plaster boards? That includes the interior of external walls.

The living room doesn’t have too much wrong with it, but the main wall is uneven, and the plan is to put wainscotting/panelling detailing on it with wooden cornicing. The current surface isn’t square or flat enough to look neat, what’s the best solution:
Battening then levelling our and boarding over? Dot and dabbing pb’s over? Just a full skim?

In the bathroom I plan on tiling, so is that best done onto a plaster surface or directly onto the brick (exterior walls)?

So many questions, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I’ll post some pics of the various rooms and issues, in the hope that’s a little clearer.

Thanks in advance.
A.

Are you doing all the plumbing and electrics yourself to then,

 

[Monkey Boy]

Thanks mate, I’m under no illusion that it takes a high level of skill to do right, which is why I wouldn’t dare attempt to plaster myself. If I had the cash I’d get it all done at once, but there’s an issue with the tradesmen I’ve tried so far - none of them are bothered to come for small jobs, a room at a time. For whatever reason (the good ones) only seem to return calls or bother getting back with quotes when it’s for big jobs, so instead of using a less skilled worker who is willing to do small jobs, I’m trying to do as much myself, then pay a pro for a perfect finish.

A pro can’t get perfect finish on top of diy preparation
if you built a car would it look any good after it been to the body shop for a professional paint finish? Doubt it?
Plastering is easier than all that Dot dab boarding battening etc. People ain’t walking away from little jobs I doubt but Walking away from you and your job. Do it all yourself and live with the mistakes

 

[Deleted member 32554]

People ain’t walking away from little jobs I doubt but Walking away from you and your job. Do it all yourself and live with the mistakes

Rather harsh but true

 

[Stevieo]

Yes, cavity walls. The house and brickwork are solid, it’s just the crumbling internals I’m dealing with. We plan to stay here for the foreseeable, or atleast until she leaves me for the milkman.
Cheers.

Any pics of her?

 

[Stevieo]

, I’m trying to do as much myself, then pay a pro for a perfect finish.

 

[loky11]

It could cost you alot more In the long run if you do the prep work yourself, the amount of people I've come across that say oh I've got it all ready for you for me to turn up and be an absolute mess, which in turn cost them more as I have to spend more time putting it all right.

 

[zombie]

Thanks for the advice. The reason for dot and dabbing was so I can do the bulk myself, I would pay a plasterer to do a full layered job if I could afford.

Did you do all the 1st fix for the electrician or plumber?

 

[Andy_Wraith]

People ain’t walking away from little jobs I doubt but Walking away from you and your job. Do it all yourself and live with the mistakes

I take your point, and am not trying to get anyone’s back up. This is simply a request for advice. I’m not trying to take any work away from anyone, just attempting to learn myself for the exact reason that a few have pointed out. I’m not about to make mistakes or do a crap job on my own house. And it’s surely a generalisation to assume you know the reasons why every tradesmen would fail to see a quote through? If this isn’t a place to ask for advice, then what is it for?