Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice

[Hugh Conway]

Dear Mr. Gibson,
Hi. I have something you might be interested in. Meet me down by the river, near the bend under the railroad bridge at 10 pm.
Code word "Foggy Goggles."

Yours truly,
Timber

Hugh, I think he said they were alder...not sure if that's gonna be the same.

if foggy's willing to forge the manifest, gibson'd be his friend. hold out for martin.

[skiballs]

hold out for martin.

And go with code name Jesus of Nazareth.

[old goat]

PRB=Paso Robles? If so--in California the contractor is required to bid a fixed price, leaving out materials and fixtures that have not be selected at the time the bid is submitted but including the installation. There are firms that specialize in just this kind of job--kitchen and bathroom remodels, with in house design. That's what we were talking about a few pages back--DesignBuild firms. What you can away with without a permit varies by jurisdiction. In truckee since your removing a wall, adding a wall, changing the floor layout you would definitely "need" a permit. Given that the work is all interior a contractor might be willing to do the job without--depends on the jurisdiction and the contractor. If you do get a permit you will have to bring all the plumbing fixtures in the home down to current code gpm's.

With our bathroom addition the contractor bid the excavation, framing, plumbing and electric and sheetrock. We paid extra for splitting some boulders that we wanted moved. There was a contingency for blasting but we didn't need any. We had a separate firm do the shower, shower door, and vanity top. I ordered and installed the cabinets and doors and did all the finish carpentry One . We had a guy do the tile, separate from the contractor.

[Danno]

PRB = People's Republic of Boulder

[BigDaddy]

Lots of interesting advice and some good points already covered. For whoever you hire to oversee this, preferably you will get names from friends or associates that used and liked them. Good contractors are aware of maintaining positive relations in these networks, so you can usually count on getting someone who cares. We want to keep busy and won't stay in business long if we're making people look bad.

As an architect/contractor, I always strive to keep my clients happy, but especially when I know they are friends with other former customers as well. People love to talk about their renovations... so we always try to make it a good experience, which they will pass on to their friends.

My only added recommendation, would be to get at least three estimates and three references each from whoever you hire.

[Hugh Conway]

isn't that the basic sourcing rule?

[BigDaddy]

You'd be surprised how many people tell me I'm the only estimate they are getting. I encourage them to get more, if anything so they know I am not ripping them off. Recently a repeat client was distraught at my price, rudely telling me how "mad her husband was at me", but called back all apologetic after she got two other quotes. Unfortunately, I was too busy at that point.

[TahoeJ]

My advice: don't do granite countertops or tile floors. Both suck ass.

I don't get what would be wrong with tile floors. If you get good quality tile - and in my opinion go big (say 20x20) so there's less grout - what's the problem?

[hutash]

Go to a big stone yard, the variety is staggering. I just did some 6cm matt black granite with a chiseled edge. Looked pretty sweet. I'm generally not a tile in the kitchen guy but it's far from wrong or stupid.

This...stone yards are fucken cool. It is like a combo art/natural history museum. Go to a big one, not one with 10-12 slabs, but somewhere with hundreds. There are some amazingly beautiful stones out there, but beware, it can be sensory overload and making a choice can be daunting.

Hint: when you have narrowed down a stone choice (assuming you are going stone), take them inside and look at them under the type of light you will use. They can be surprisingly different. We kept coming back to a granite with Garnette stones embedded in it. They were purple in strong sunlight, but showed up brown in indoor light. We mounted halogen lights over the counter, so we can still get the purple highlights when we want.

[4matic]

My advice: don't do granite countertops or tile floors. Both suck ass.
.

I have Corian counter and vinyl floor in kitchen. For functionality I really like both. In this particular house I will replace the floor with high quality vinyl. One of the reason is no need for step up to great room after wall tear out. I just wet sanded the Corian and basically have a new counter top.

[BigDaddy]

I have Corian counter and vinyl floor in kitchen. For functionality I really like both. In this particular house I will replace the floor with high quality vinyl. One of the reason is no need for step up to great room after wall tear out. I just wet sanded the Corian and basically have a new counter top.

My old man kind of helped get Corian going... Du Pont was going to drop it, so he said "give it him" and he'd take over sales. He was sick of engineering and wanted to get into sales.

Stuff is super easy to work with, but I can't tell you how much Corian dust I inhaled as a kid cutting up samples for him. And our house was probably 90% Corian... showers, vanities, counters, speaker stands, kitchen table, screened porch table, etc.! (Ironically, the radial arm saw I used to cut them just went to the dump this morning.... sort of sad about that.)

For the record, I have honed black granite counters, and love them. Soapstone in the cabin and love that, too, but it scratches easily.

[Snow Dog]

One thing not mentioned is liability. Here, any GC should provide proof of WorkSafeBC registration/insurance and they're responsible for job site safety for all the subs. If you act as your own GC then -- surprise -- you may have to be registered/insured. (In some cases you need to be registered if you hire a baby-sitter or gardener more than X hours per week.)

The first time homeowners found out they were responsible for safety was when the Premier of BC was doing a reno and a worker fell off the roof and died.

[whipski]

I'd say get a 6-pack, a pizza, roll a fatty and watch the dvd the Money Pit before you do any thing

[Danno]

Questions for the experts:

We have popcorn ceilings, and while we haven't gotten it tested, the age of the house points to the likelihood that they contain asbestos. We'd like to get rid of them, but as I understand it, the cost of professional mitigation is obscene. Another option is to do it ourselves on the sly, but as it's been painted, I gather that makes a messy job even harder?

One option we've heard about is just covering it up, drywalling over it. Anyone have experience with that? I gather we'd lose maybe 1/2" which doesn't seem like much. And while it wouldn't be cheap, it'd be a lot cheaper than the mitigation work, and a lot better than remodeling the house and leaving the popcorn.

Thoughts?

[riser4]

WTF is a popcorn ceiling?

[adrenalated]

Questions for the experts:

We have popcorn ceilings, and while we haven't gotten it tested, the age of the house points to the likelihood that they contain asbestos. We'd like to get rid of them, but as I understand it, the cost of professional mitigation is obscene. Another option is to do it ourselves on the sly, but as it's been painted, I gather that makes a messy job even harder?

One option we've heard about is just covering it up, drywalling over it. Anyone have experience with that? I gather we'd lose maybe 1/2" which doesn't seem like much. And while it wouldn't be cheap, it'd be a lot cheaper than the mitigation work, and a lot better than remodeling the house and leaving the popcorn.

Thoughts?

1/4" drywall over the old drywall. Easy, and you won't even notice it's there. Less messy than scraping the popcorn off, too (though still messy when you mud and sand the seams).
I'm doing this in my house.

[Bromontana]

I'd say get a 6-pack, a pizza, roll a fatty and watch the dvd the Money Pit before you do any thing

Great movie and advice

[Danno]

WTF is a popcorn ceiling?

[::: :::]

What adrenalated said...

[riser4]

Oh, stucco/textured ceiling.

[hatchgreenchile]

Keep it. You know it's coming back right?

[jamesp]

Why do you want to get rid of it? The texture covers up your shitty uneven ceilings.

[Pegleg]

Scrape it off and put it in the crockpot with some salsa. 8 hours on low and you have dinner.

[babybear]

we have popcorn ceilings too- yuck
It always looks sweet when they scrape it off, but probably not quite as easy as they make it look...


It's insane how many things we've done to the house just by watching youtube videos haha

[boarddad]

Didn't read all the posts but this can't be stressed enough; NEVER run out of money before the project is finished! Reduce scope, get a bigger mortgage, whatever it takes, but it can ruin your life if you go broke during construction.

Other less important advice;
Don't compromise. It will bug you every day after the project is done. I know this from experience.

Plan how it's all going to work during construction. This is mostly if you are not moving out. If you are tearing apart your kitchen, how will you cook? Do dishes? Store food, etc. Be realistic about how long you will be putting up with the inconvenience.

Don't put up with lousy anybody. From the architect, to the GC, to every last one of his subs, EVERYONE is expendable. It really helps to do a lot of research before the project on this one. It's much easier to never have them on the project than it is to get rid of them.