Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with renovations

Contractor estimate and accounting for cost overruns?

pakoothefakoo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:43:02 -0800

My friend is buying an old brownstone in Brooklyn that needs to be gut renovated. The question is how accurate the contractor estimate is and should he account for cost overruns, if so, by how much? My friend is about to purchase an old brownstone in Brooklyn that needs a lot of work. It's a 5 story building, with approximately 16,000 square feet of space. The buildings needs its pipes replaced, a new heating system, electrical work, and the foundations (or more specifically the supporting columns in the cellar needs to be replaced, along with some wood replacements due to termite infestation.

Two contractors gave him an estimate in the 120-150k range for all the above. Is this reasonable? Should he expect cost overruns and if so, by how much?

Help me not burn my house down.

missuswayne — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:29:50 -0800

Can I put a piece of furniture - sofa? bookcase? - in front of a 5 foot installed electric baseboard heater without burning my house down? The guy who did our renovations, who we like and trust a lot, insisted when he installed it that it would be perfectly safe to put a sofa right in front of the heater, which would prevent our kids from sticking their hands in it and possibly burning themselves. But now that I see how hot it gets, I'm afraid our house will go up in flames. That would not be good. What say you, electric-baseboard-heater-owning-Mefites?

Quality craftspeople in toronto?

Kololo — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:14:54 -0800

Hey there, Torontonian-on-a-budget remodelers and refurbishers! I want to reglaze/refinish and re-tile my bathtub (and install new hardware), and I also want to refinish a dining table and chairs, and also reupholster the chairs' seats. Please refer to me your non-scammer budget-priced reasonably-proficient craftspeople. (Random refinishers from the yellow pages or with those displays in malls all seem pretty sketchy, so i'm looking for referrals for people you've had previous experience with.) If you know the approximate price range for the services i'm looking for, I'd love to know that too!

Builders to renovate a flat in central London?

sueinnyc — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 14:16:16 -0800

After what has felt like months of waiting, it now looks as though I may very soon have a new flat (yay!) and need builders to carry out renovations in that flat. Although several friends of mine have made recommendations, I am having trouble finding recommended builders who work in (very) central London, WC1 to be precise. Any suggestions? I am looking to have remodelling, plumbing and possibly electrical work done, primarily in a kitchen and a bathroom.

Real kitchen renos!

phoenixc — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 19:13:25 -0800

What do I need to know about renovating a kitchen? We're planning a complete renovation of our kitchen and not having had any experience in this area, what do I need to know? I've flipped through various kitchen design magazines and have an idea of what I'd like the new kitchen to look like but I don't know where to go from here. Do I go visit kitchen showrooms to pick out the cabinets and tiles, etc and then contact a contractor to make my dream kitchen a reality? Or do I talk to a contractor first who will have access to various supplier samples?

Also, any advice on what to look out for or to avoid would be greatly appreciated.

Fixer-Upper

amandaudoff — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 20:54:10 -0800

This December, I'm moving into a house to begin remodeling and cleaning it out. I can do pretty much whatever I want with it...so what should I do? {specifics inside} The house has three levels. The first has a living, dining room, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Downstairs is a moderately finished basement. I'm pretty sure it has plumbing, but I'm not sure about anything else. Upstairs is a loft-like bedroom, a master bedroom and a bathroom. I'm thinking of expanding the upstairs bathroom to make room for a nice tub and a shower. There's a backyard, so any ideas for that would be helpful.

For the sake of argument, let's say that price is no object. I just want ideas of things that you've done/would love to do and some ideas on how to accomplish them. If they're cheap, all the better. It's located in Baltimore, MD if that makes a difference.

The reason I'm getting the house is to try and increase the value of it. My great-uncle lived in it for 40+ years and really let it go downhill....anything that would make it more sellable as well as make my life more interesting is wanted.

Hardwood Floor Question

RustyBrooks — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 18:25:42 -0800

I just installed floating engineered floors downstairs. There is apparently a fairly substantial but narrow depression in the middle of the room, which I missed when checking the floor. How can I fix this now that the floor is laid? [more inside] There are a few soft creaky spots in the room but most of them are very minor. This one probably goes doe 3/16-1/4" (I'm estimating, it may be less, unlikely that it's more). The area that moves down is perhaps 3 or 4 boards wide (8-12") and only a foot long or so. I think that under regular traffic it's going to break or something bad is going to happen.

I know that for a glue-down installation a possible fix for this is to drill a tiny hole, inject some glue stuff into the hole and fill up the gap. Is there something like this for a floating floor? Maybe some kind of epoxy or foam or caulk or something?

The floor, as I mentioned, is floating and this means there's a layer of thin foam under it. It can't be adhered to the floor, nor am I really wanting to try, I'm just wondering what I can do to fill the gap.

Are there any other solutions?

The money trap!

five fresh fish — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 11:16:26 -0800

Home renovation: quick road to profits, or a disaster-in-waiting? If you have experience or advice, please come inside.. I've got a lead on an old heritage home. It looks like the frame is in good shape, though the roof looks like it may need replacing (it seems to be saggin). The inside is in pretty lousy condition, with shabby cupboards, shabby finish, shabby flooring, etcetera. The house is large, and appears to have been a two-parter, a substantial addition being added some time after the orginal building. Swimming pool out back looks to be in good shape, though, the yard is a large corner lot, and the neighbourhood is quite and appears to be headed towards revitalization. House cost will be < $140k, recently reno'd home a block away is>$260k.

So I'm thinking that with a year or two of mainly self-done work (I do believe I'll prove to be a competent craftsman) the place could be reselling for around $300k.

My first guesstimate of reno costs gets up $50k-75k. The place will need a roof repairs, new appliances, new counters & cupboards, flooring work, possibily new pipes & wires, all new windows, walls knocked out, etc. I'd have to contract out the roof & cabinets, most other stuff I can do the majority of the gruntwork myself (I've laid tile, laminate floors, done basic wiring, hammered studs, etc.)

So with any luck, this place could turn us a $300-$140-$75 = $85k profit. And IIRC, capital gains on a primary home (ie. we'd have to live in it for a while) are tax-free in Canada.

Could this work? Could I actually make money doing renos? Would I learn enough that I'd save boodles of money when I build my own home after fixing up this one? Would life be a living hell for the time we're doing renos? Should I be running, running away from this idea? Will it pay off nicely?

Of course, none of you can answer those with any sort of guarantees. So I'll take the next best thing: your experiences and thoughts!

Thanks in advance...

mold in the shower

tr33hggr — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 06:45:20 -0800

For you home improvement types - we moved into our first house last July, and since then I've been battling some mold in the shower. It's not bad, but despite my attempts to banish it, the critters keep coming back - right at the seam where the shower wall meets the tub.

Will simply recaulking the seam fix it, or will it eventually come back through the new caulk as well? Any, ahem, natural remedies for ridding our shower of the stuff?