How Should I Rehab This Property?
I may be purchasing a rehab, but I am not sure how to approach it. It needs a new kitchen and bathroom, and has a lot of old wood paneling in the house. I would like to hire a plumber to do the pluming work in the kitchen and bathroom. I don't have any experience rehabbing, but I am a little handy. Would I be able to rip out the old kitchen cabinets, counter and sink, and the bathroom vanity and toilet myself? If you think I could, should I shut off all the water and power in the house? Should I do anything else? Also, should I rip off the wood paneling myself, and put up sheetrock/plasterboard, or is the sheetrocking more of a difficult task I should hire a pro for? Could sheetrock go over the wood paneling?
i'm not sure if anyone on here would recommend you try this yourself, but i will. if you say you're handy, maybe you could get it at least close enough to correct, that someone tightening up your work later would be a lot cheaper than them doing it from start. maybe but maybe not. but i'm a fan of diy'ers (do it yourself)!
the plumber is a good idea - tho i attempted this too. ripping out cabinets, counter, sink and bathroom stuff is easier said than done - without messing up something further - but by all means, do it constructively and you could be on to something. cabinets are easy to put up, if you have a ledge to help support them as you drill them into place. measurement is the key there to buying correctly. counters are awkward, all else is fairly doable for a first timer.
shutting off the water is easy, it's one valve - just find the right one! then if you have a laundry sink in the basement, open that, so the water in the pipes has a place to drain out. the power is easy too if you have a panel box - move them all off including the big one that controls everything, then test each outlet to see if it's off with a $10 little current checker thingy from home depot.
removing paneling will most likely bring to surface many cool hidden surprises! haha. if you have a strong stomach, go for it. usually just a bunch of holes in the wall that need patched. sheetrocking is easy to put up, but hard to line up good and the cuts can get tricky. to me, the part that needs the most precision is the taping, compounding and sanding. this is a repetitive process until the wall is smooth - feathering the compound flat with the wall and not showing lines is the key. if you get that far, go ahead and primer it up and paint to your liking.
rocking over the paneling is highly debatable. most of my quick fixes i rock right over it and move out the outlets and remove moldings. generally it's quicker. but if i have time/money, i rip it down and finish the wall beneath.
good luck. let me know how you do!
Paint the paneling. Assuming cabinets aren't worth painting, turn off the main water supply and start swinging a heavy sledge. It's not only amazing what a sledge can do, it's fun and a great stress releaser! Plumbing is easy as long as you don't overwhelm yourself by looking at the whole system. Start at one place such as the kitchen sink and simply replace one section at a time with flexible pex, or a combination of pvc and cpvc. If you can't figure out what to do with a section, you just leave it alone or leave it for a plumber. I replumbed an entire house on the first rehab I did and even after I lived in it for 5 years I never had any leaks, problems, etc. which to tell you the truth, was better than the experience I have had with most plumbers.
As far as the demolition this is easy. You will probably find that you will save time and money using licensed professionals for plumbing and electrical service. I prefer to use professional sheet rock crews. You will get a much more professional looking job. Check your local fire hall you can find many firemen who are licensed contractors who will work cheaper than most FT contractors.
Painting white on top of paneling looks fantastic and only takes a couple of hours for the room to be ready. Like to make your life difficult? Go ahead and put up drywall either over or instead of paneling.
I had old brown paneling in my living room. I used primer on it and then painted. You need the primer so that the brown of the panel doesn't bleed through the white. As far as plumbing and etc, you can read books and get videos on how to do specific jobs. I've done it, it's valuable because I learned while doing it. If you're going to be doing this in the future, why not learn now so it will be easier down the road. Practice is the mother of Mastery!
Hello Stapler,
First of all I want to say " Go for it"! It is alot of work but worht it in the end. Jackman and all the rest of the folks that posted are very right in their statements. The only questrion I want to pose to you is, "Are you going to kepp this property as a rental or just turn it"? because if you are doing the latter then hiring the pros to doit will allow you to do more of the investing side of the work versus spending your time working on the house. I did a major renovation on my personal house with my family and we only paid pros to put the trusses and the roof on then we did all the rest ourselves and it took us two years to finish and we should have paid the pros to do it. We learned so much you just can't imagine. I would do it again because in reality it was alot of fun, hard work yes! but alot of fun. so I say go for it but be careful. plot out your steps first then move in for the fun, you will gain alot of knowledge from doing the work yourself but time is of the essence here I think and maybe you have it but I would talk to the pros for quotes on cost and time to finish the job. Maybe your time is better spent looking for another rehab to buy and that is the way I see it. You aren't making a living rehabbing houses you are making a living buying and selling. correct me if I'm wrong. Anyhow Good Luck!
Bigging
Quote:
On 2004-02-29 21:49, MichaelChandler wrote:
As far as the demolition this is easy. <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_lol.gif"> <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_razz.gif"> You will probably find that you will save time and money using licensed professionals for plumbing and electrical service. <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_smile.gif"> I prefer to use professional sheet rock crews. You will get a much more professional looking job. <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_smile.gif"> Check your local fire hall you can find many firemen who are licensed contractors who will work cheaper than most FT contractors. <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_wink.gif">
This may seem like a silly question, but isn't the fire hall the fire station? Or is it another name for a local trade union hall?