Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

Renovation tips

We're going to move our bathroom upstairs and get the kitchen moved.
Any tips as to what not to do.
I'm thinking stuff like taps that give you instant boiling water. Are they worth getting?
Any other tips as to what is a must or a not do.
Thanks.
«1

Comments

  • Our boiling water tap is superb, couldn't recommend enough 
  • Depending on space, keep your main boiler furthest from bedrooms. A tip i have never forgotten
  • edited November 2019
    Pray that no damp gets found behind the current kitchen units

    Had my kitchen removed at the beginning of October - Horrendous damp was found, plaster was removed back to the brickwork

    Still waiting for the damp to dry out (have had a de-Humidifier on every day since) before the walls can be re-plastered and new kitchen can be installed
  • Don’t bother with a boiling water tap and whatever you do, don’t use Benchmarx for the kitchen. We used the Sidcup office for ours and whilst the actual products were good, they were utterly useless throughout the ordering process.

    Ordered the wrong work surfaces (which we luckily spotted), added a boiling tap that we told them we didn’t want, 2 days before delivery they rang to say the sink wasn’t available etc.

    Unfortunately we didn’t spot that they’d added the tap in the quote. We weren’t living there when the kitchen was installed so didn’t notice until we moved back, by which time it was too late. We questioned it as we’d specifically said we didn’t want one but they weren’t interested. 
  • edited November 2019
    Water filter tap (for cold water inlet) is as far as I went. Boiling water taps are expensive.

    Led strip lighting and spot lights. Usb on sockets.

    Same flooring that flows through to the dining room/ lounge if open plan.

    Something I did wrongly was remove a wall, thinking only about kitchen design and without a thought for lounge layout. Without the wall, i had effectively expanded the kitchen but I'd eaten into lounge floor space, which gave me problems with furniture layout in lounge area, that has taken ages to resolve (small flat).

    Mouse proofing as well. Think ahead. During the refurb works some got in and I have since bunged up their access but the new units alone would have left a gap enough for the them above the kick board.
  • Don’t bother with a boiling water tap and whatever you do, don’t use Benchmarx for the kitchen. We used the Sidcup office for ours and whilst the actual products were good, they were utterly useless throughout the ordering process.

    Ordered the wrong work surfaces (which we luckily spotted), added a boiling tap that we told them we didn’t want, 2 days before delivery they rang to say the sink wasn’t available etc.

    Unfortunately we didn’t spot that they’d added the tap in the quote. We weren’t living there when the kitchen was installed so didn’t notice until we moved back, by which time it was too late. We questioned it as we’d specifically said we didn’t want one but they weren’t interested. 
    What was the problem with the tap? I was looking at one . You just didnt want it or its not practical.
  • Don’t bother with a boiling water tap and whatever you do, don’t use Benchmarx for the kitchen. We used the Sidcup office for ours and whilst the actual products were good, they were utterly useless throughout the ordering process.

    Ordered the wrong work surfaces (which we luckily spotted), added a boiling tap that we told them we didn’t want, 2 days before delivery they rang to say the sink wasn’t available etc.

    Unfortunately we didn’t spot that they’d added the tap in the quote. We weren’t living there when the kitchen was installed so didn’t notice until we moved back, by which time it was too late. We questioned it as we’d specifically said we didn’t want one but they weren’t interested. 
    What was the problem with the tap? I was looking at one . You just didnt want it or its not practical.
    Just wasn’t bothered about having one. It is handy but for £450, I’d have rather bought a kettle and waited a few minutes. 
  • My opinion on hot water taps - I own a plumbing company and sell them.....

    Expensive, go wrong, gimmick, not necessary, very expensive.

    For the amount that you use them, I did jest earlier, buy a kettle... 

    If you want a talking point and do not wish to boil water via a kettle and want instant boiling water, buy one.

    From my experience they have not got a great working life - always exceptions to this of course.

    Good luck with the renovation.... Employing the right tradesmen is the priority after you have gone through your design stage.
  • Cheers i know what your saying. I can get the tap for almost nothing and fit myself. Just someone else told me to look into the running cost on energy bills with them taps. So still doing my research before i decide to stick with kettle, bur instant hot water is tempting
  • Sponsored links:


  • Don’t use magnet, use a local firm with a good rep. 

    In the past I have been touted as quoting for kitchens but this is fake news 
  • Thanks all.
    Regarding design I am thinking of using Resi. Anyone know anything about them?
  • I would say, think about how you will use your kitchen but don't rule out how potential purchasers of your house will view your design.

    Fit more sockets than you think is currently necessary.

    Fit a high volume extractor fan in both rooms that are controlled by a humidistat. 
  • as above if you are planning on selling at some point needs to be mouldable to others

    a cousin has just lost a room and got a kitchen in - costing around 60k and looks great - but had devalued her house as lost a room. 
  • Made the mistake of getting the builders to do the bathroom plumbing. They cocked it up (narrow pipes) which killed the water pressure and also screwed up our drainage. I also thought it would be a good idea to get my kitchen fitters to do the tiling. It was comically bad, slow and expensive. The professional tiler cost half as much, did a great job and was finished in a couple of hours.
  • instead of getting a builder to do the lot. 

    where you can use tradesman to do what they are experienced in

    for example a bathroom and kitchen company rather than a builder. 
  • Three top tips 

    3. If you're getting an island within the kitchen, think about what services you will need (water, power). 

    2. You need light switches next to every entrance to the kitchen, especially if you have an outside door. 

    1. Plinth heaters. 
  • We have a Quooker tap https://www.quooker.co.uk/ had it about 4/5 years now. hasn't ever gone wrong, we drink a stupid amount of tea though so i guess it depends on your need for boiling water. Its also great for filling up saucepans etc. Hardly a necessity but I love it
  • What we're doing to our 3 bed Victorian end of terrace is turning a bedroom into a bathroom and moving the kitchen into the old bathroom space.
    Then opening up the groundfloor into one through room.
    Although this loses a bedroom we're not bothered currently. But we are getting plans for a loft room as well just in case we want to get another bedroom later.
  • iainment said:
    We're going to move our bathroom upstairs and get the kitchen moved.
    Any tips as to what not to do.
    I'm thinking stuff like taps that give you instant boiling water. Are they worth getting?
    Any other tips as to what is a must or a not do.
    Thanks.
    The boiling water taps aren’t great as far is I’ve heard. 
    If you’re going to get one then avoid a cheap one and take that advice along with the whole project really, buy cheap you buy twice.

    also make sure your tradesmen you use ie gas engineers electricians etc can certify all the work 👍🏻
  • Sponsored links:


  • Also if, as I read, you’re planning on doing the loft then whilst you’re running new cables pipes etc and the mess is happening then it may be worth running it that but further to the loft area so when the conversion happens, there’s a tad less disruption To the rest of the property 
  • Also if, as I read, you’re planning on doing the loft then whilst you’re running new cables pipes etc and the mess is happening then it may be worth running it that but further to the loft area so when the conversion happens, there’s a tad less disruption To the rest of the property 
    Like what you've done there, plant the seed, then bounce in with a price to do the electrical work in the future and hey boomba, no chasing out to do ;-)
  • We got our new kitchen from ikea and are very happy with it. Saved ourselves some money by assembling the cabinets ourselves. 
  • Thanks all.
  • If you certain have expectations about what you want, get it agreed and documented up front. For example, lots of builders will look to cut corners by not tiling behind cupboards, bath units and the like. If your'e happy with that, that's fine, but if you want a pukka job specify a pukka job.

    Consider the flooring under the bath. Too much weight on traditional floorboards can be problematic. I'm not suggesting that you're likely to have a cartoon-style bath falling through the ceiling incident, but the bending and flexing of traditional floorboards will cause the bath to move when it is filled - if it does this too much you'll get problems maintaining a water tight seal around the edge.

    Never, never, never, and I really can't stress this enough, NEVER, get those taps with a built in plug that's controlled by a lever. Never in human history was so much hassle caused by inappropriate over-engineering. Always ask for a good old fashioned plug on a chain.
  • Our hot water tap has just gone wrong, only a fraction over 2 years after purchase.
    Have since discovered that if you live in a hard water area, you're always likely to get a calcium building up inside the tank, despite having a carbon filter on the tap.
    We've got a big water filter in our utility room which services the radiators and bathrooms but the drinking tap cant be plumbed into that as you cant drink that water.

    Pain in the harris.
  • No builder would tile behind cabinets, you fit your units then worktops then tile down flush to the worktop
  • Don't go near hardwood worktops. Ours looked great when I put them in but they are totally impractical in my experience. They scratch and dent if you drop a mug at the right angle and bleaching/cleaning the sink has become an exercise akin to handling nuclear material. The slightest splash of the wrong type of cleaning product strips the colour out of them.

    Also, when you tell your colleagues you spent your morning off (re)oiling your worktops they, rightly, rip the piss out of you. Just not worth the effort! 
  • Tiling can be a funny one, in kitchens you should absolutely tile underneath the units. Bathrooms less so, the bath holds a lot of weight and underneath tiles you have to prepare the floor with this concrete screed which can flex. So fill a bathtub with water you have say 100 kilos plus whatever whoever gets in it weighs and you can have the best part of 200 kilos pressing on one area of the floor so it could move the tiles that are not under the bath. Horses for courses there and if you are doing a downstairs bathroom on a concrete floor it probably won't make any difference. 

    Spend as much as you can on fixtures and fittings, there are so many options for cheap, mass produced absolute shit in terms of kitchen units, baths, taps, sinks that you will curse, go for decent stuff. 

    And also get someone decent in to do the work, again there are a lot of toshers out there so go on personal recommendations rather than the geezer down the pub, those people generally want to be in the boozer by 3pm and will cut a lot of corners to get there, the days they put in will get progressively shorter too. Go for someone whose work you have seen, who you like the impression they make on you and who is reliable. I've been stung by mates supposedly doing me a favour, by blokes from the pub, by mates of mates and the truth is the best people don't hawk for work, they have a waiting list and are honest about what is going to be a problem. 

    Get prices and timescales agreed up front both for work and for payment. Always be polite and respectful but clear about what you want, don't be afraid to question things but don't be an arsehole about it, if you dont know what something means then ask. A lot of builders will look at things from a best case scenario and will not want to commit to putting things right after they finish. 

    For anything where payment changes hands by way of cash keep receipts and write down when they want paying. You might want to pay them at the end but they still need cashflow to pay suppliers and their workforce even if it is a just a labourer and some timber. 

    And let them have a toilet. Even if they are refurbishing your only toilet in the house make them aware you need somewhere to piss and drop anchor so they should be re-plumbing it in at the end of every day. Even if they have to piss in a bucket dont be getting the hump if you see them having a gauge in your back garden if you have not given them some welfare facilities.


  • Carter said:
    Tiling can be a funny one, in kitchens you should absolutely tile underneath the units. Bathrooms less so, the bath holds a lot of weight and underneath tiles you have to prepare the floor with this concrete screed which can flex. So fill a bathtub with water you have say 100 kilos plus whatever whoever gets in it weighs and you can have the best part of 200 kilos pressing on one area of the floor so it could move the tiles that are not under the bath. Horses for courses there and if you are doing a downstairs bathroom on a concrete floor it probably won't make any difference. 

    Spend as much as you can on fixtures and fittings, there are so many options for cheap, mass produced absolute shit in terms of kitchen units, baths, taps, sinks that you will curse, go for decent stuff. 

    And also get someone decent in to do the work, again there are a lot of toshers out there so go on personal recommendations rather than the geezer down the pub, those people generally want to be in the boozer by 3pm and will cut a lot of corners to get there, the days they put in will get progressively shorter too. Go for someone whose work you have seen, who you like the impression they make on you and who is reliable. I've been stung by mates supposedly doing me a favour, by blokes from the pub, by mates of mates and the truth is the best people don't hawk for work, they have a waiting list and are honest about what is going to be a problem. 

    Get prices and timescales agreed up front both for work and for payment. Always be polite and respectful but clear about what you want, don't be afraid to question things but don't be an arsehole about it, if you dont know what something means then ask. A lot of builders will look at things from a best case scenario and will not want to commit to putting things right after they finish. 

    For anything where payment changes hands by way of cash keep receipts and write down when they want paying. You might want to pay them at the end but they still need cashflow to pay suppliers and their workforce even if it is a just a labourer and some timber. 

    And let them have a toilet. Even if they are refurbishing your only toilet in the house make them aware you need somewhere to piss and drop anchor so they should be re-plumbing it in at the end of every day. Even if they have to piss in a bucket dont be getting the hump if you see them having a gauge in your back garden if you have not given them some welfare facilities.


    Couldn’t agree more about the toilet. Drives me absolutely mental, especially on extension/renovation sites when there’s no toilet facilities. 
Sign In or Register to comment.

Roland Out Forever!