What's the Gantt chart for renovating a shabby room?
October 24, 2022 6:44 PM Subscribe
I'm redoing a bedroom, with a view to ultimately fixing up the whole house. It's shabby in all the predictable ways - peeling wallpaper, threadbare carpet, chipped and flaking door/skirting, etc. What's the proper order to do things in, so that I don't e.g. get paint on the new floor?
Are there things I haven't thought of, like "get an X to look at the room before you do anything else"? (plumber? termite assessor?)
I'm terribly new to all this, and almost any advice would be appreciated, but once I have the ordering down I'll at least know where to start.
Are there things I haven't thought of, like "get an X to look at the room before you do anything else"? (plumber? termite assessor?)
I'm terribly new to all this, and almost any advice would be appreciated, but once I have the ordering down I'll at least know where to start.
DIY, contractors, or a mix of both?
posted by deludingmyself at 7:02 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by deludingmyself at 7:02 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Anything that has to happen inside the walls goes first. One thing you might want to think about is if you want any new or relocated electrical outlets, or if you want to update light fixtures.
Then, if you're removing old molding or baseboards, do that now.
Then if you are stripping any paint, that goes next. You don't need to strip walls to repaint them but if you are for instance uncovering any woodwork you'll want to do this at this point so that you don't get the mess on any newly-painted or finished surfaces. This is also a good time to do the door.
Then do the floor, followed by new molding or trim installation, then paint.
One thing re paint, you may want to look into "skim coating". This is where they put a coat of plaster or joint compound to smooth out the walls before the paint goes on to make them look brand-new. If you have old plaster this is a must, if you have sheetrock it's optional but can still be nice.
Seconding DrGail on buying your materials in advance!
posted by goingonit at 7:17 PM on October 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Then, if you're removing old molding or baseboards, do that now.
Then if you are stripping any paint, that goes next. You don't need to strip walls to repaint them but if you are for instance uncovering any woodwork you'll want to do this at this point so that you don't get the mess on any newly-painted or finished surfaces. This is also a good time to do the door.
Then do the floor, followed by new molding or trim installation, then paint.
One thing re paint, you may want to look into "skim coating". This is where they put a coat of plaster or joint compound to smooth out the walls before the paint goes on to make them look brand-new. If you have old plaster this is a must, if you have sheetrock it's optional but can still be nice.
Seconding DrGail on buying your materials in advance!
posted by goingonit at 7:17 PM on October 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
Thirding what goingonit said.
The supply market is crazy and expensive now. Can this wait until prices of lumber and materials go back down?
It's also hard to get good contractors in to do the work.
We tear everything out that needs removing, do any plumbing, wiring and insulation in the walls and attic, then work from the ceiling down.
If the walls are in a holding pattern, getting an electrician involved to upgrade the wiring and add more outlets is a good move.
Are there any energy upgrade rebates available in your area? We just missed an opportunity by putting in a mini split heating and cooling system this summer.
posted by TrishaU at 8:44 PM on October 24, 2022
The supply market is crazy and expensive now. Can this wait until prices of lumber and materials go back down?
It's also hard to get good contractors in to do the work.
We tear everything out that needs removing, do any plumbing, wiring and insulation in the walls and attic, then work from the ceiling down.
If the walls are in a holding pattern, getting an electrician involved to upgrade the wiring and add more outlets is a good move.
Are there any energy upgrade rebates available in your area? We just missed an opportunity by putting in a mini split heating and cooling system this summer.
posted by TrishaU at 8:44 PM on October 24, 2022
Best answer: We're mostly done with a room-by-room renovation of our house. I'm a big 'one step at a time' person and like to do things in an orderly fashion.
Before you start, cover the floors if you're keeping them. Not just drop sheets, but plastic taped wall to wall and cover the floor completely. if you're not keeping the flooring, go straight to step 1.
1. Empty the room. Don't make the mistake of trying to work around furniture, because it will drive you nuts and take longer. Empty the room completely, including any and all window coverings, tear up the carpet if you're replacing it, pull off any trim you're going to replace. Demolish/remove anything and everything you are going to replace. The idea is to get all that mess out of the way and start from a clear base.
2. Clean the room. I don't mean make it shiny, but get rid of everything you've removed and clean up all the mess.
3. Do any building/electrical etc work. Fit any new trim, repair all the holes in the walls (and don't forget the ceiling), sand everything that needs sanding (or stripping if required). Fit any new lighting, fans etc - I recommend replacing all the light switches, power outlets etc because that will make a big difference in the end, especially if the house has a variety of electrical fittings and old ones will look terrible against your new paint.
4. Clean the room. Get rid of the new mess you've made.
5. Do any final paint preparation,including any final sanding, touching up plaster patches, filling nail holes and cracks around trim etc.
6. Clean the room. Make sure it's dust free and everything is ready for paint.
7. Paint the ceiling. Watch out for drips on the walls (brush them out), because they'll make lumps under the new paint on the walls and they're hard to sand off flat. You may be tempted to skip painting the ceilings (because painting ceilings sucks), but even just a quick coat over the existing paint will freshen the job up enormously.
8. Paint all the trim. Don't worry about cutting-in, just paint over the edges.
9. Paint the walls. You can rely on cutting-in if you want, but I mask everything so I get nice straight, clean lines between the different paints and it goes much quicker once it's all masked (take your time and do the masking right).
10. Lay carpet if that's what you're doing. Carpetlayers are very experienced at doing this around new paint and, while a professional painter may be good at not getting paint where it doesn't belong, that isn't you. Plus, it's much easier to paint the bottom of the skirting boards when there's no carpet up against them.
11. Put the furniture back, hang pictures, curtains etc.
12. Stand back and admire, then start the next room. Rinse. Repeat.
If you're doing click-together flooring or tiles or similar, install that between steps 4 and 5 (obviously, don't install new skirting boards at step 3 if this is the case). Pull the skirting boards off and re-install them rather than using that ugly moulding around the edge.
When painting doors, I remove the door and all the hardware and prep the door. When I paint the trim, I also paint the hinge edge of the door. Then, when the trim is painted, I re-hang the door and paint the rest of it. That way, you can paint the whole thing at once without getting paint on everything and they're less susceptible to getting dust in the paint as they dry. I have replaced all the hinges with identical ones because they had paint all over them and it was easier to just replace them - makes a huge difference generally if you can get rid of any previous sloppy painting.
With painting generally, I try to remove everything possible rather than paint around them. The painting goes much quicker and you get a smoother job overall.
If you're planning to do the whole house and there's anything that needs to be identical throughout (eg tiles, click-together flooring), try and buy it all at once so you can be sure you'll have enough of the same batch, but make sure you buy enough!. We bought all the tiles for our house at the start and only just squeaked in with enough by doing things like not laying tiles under the kitchen cabinets (we had 2.5 tiles left at the end and no way to buy any more).
In general, try and buy the materials you need well in advance, because supply chains ugh. We had to wait 12 weeks to get some laminated timber beams at one stage. Even basic materials can suddenly and inexplicably not be available anywhere these days.
It can be really rewarding doing this yourself - doing it room-by-room lets you finish something on a regular basis and helps keep up the motivation as opposed to living in a construction zone everywhere.
posted by dg at 8:53 PM on October 24, 2022 [29 favorites]
Before you start, cover the floors if you're keeping them. Not just drop sheets, but plastic taped wall to wall and cover the floor completely. if you're not keeping the flooring, go straight to step 1.
1. Empty the room. Don't make the mistake of trying to work around furniture, because it will drive you nuts and take longer. Empty the room completely, including any and all window coverings, tear up the carpet if you're replacing it, pull off any trim you're going to replace. Demolish/remove anything and everything you are going to replace. The idea is to get all that mess out of the way and start from a clear base.
2. Clean the room. I don't mean make it shiny, but get rid of everything you've removed and clean up all the mess.
3. Do any building/electrical etc work. Fit any new trim, repair all the holes in the walls (and don't forget the ceiling), sand everything that needs sanding (or stripping if required). Fit any new lighting, fans etc - I recommend replacing all the light switches, power outlets etc because that will make a big difference in the end, especially if the house has a variety of electrical fittings and old ones will look terrible against your new paint.
4. Clean the room. Get rid of the new mess you've made.
5. Do any final paint preparation,including any final sanding, touching up plaster patches, filling nail holes and cracks around trim etc.
6. Clean the room. Make sure it's dust free and everything is ready for paint.
7. Paint the ceiling. Watch out for drips on the walls (brush them out), because they'll make lumps under the new paint on the walls and they're hard to sand off flat. You may be tempted to skip painting the ceilings (because painting ceilings sucks), but even just a quick coat over the existing paint will freshen the job up enormously.
8. Paint all the trim. Don't worry about cutting-in, just paint over the edges.
9. Paint the walls. You can rely on cutting-in if you want, but I mask everything so I get nice straight, clean lines between the different paints and it goes much quicker once it's all masked (take your time and do the masking right).
10. Lay carpet if that's what you're doing. Carpetlayers are very experienced at doing this around new paint and, while a professional painter may be good at not getting paint where it doesn't belong, that isn't you. Plus, it's much easier to paint the bottom of the skirting boards when there's no carpet up against them.
11. Put the furniture back, hang pictures, curtains etc.
12. Stand back and admire, then start the next room. Rinse. Repeat.
If you're doing click-together flooring or tiles or similar, install that between steps 4 and 5 (obviously, don't install new skirting boards at step 3 if this is the case). Pull the skirting boards off and re-install them rather than using that ugly moulding around the edge.
When painting doors, I remove the door and all the hardware and prep the door. When I paint the trim, I also paint the hinge edge of the door. Then, when the trim is painted, I re-hang the door and paint the rest of it. That way, you can paint the whole thing at once without getting paint on everything and they're less susceptible to getting dust in the paint as they dry. I have replaced all the hinges with identical ones because they had paint all over them and it was easier to just replace them - makes a huge difference generally if you can get rid of any previous sloppy painting.
With painting generally, I try to remove everything possible rather than paint around them. The painting goes much quicker and you get a smoother job overall.
If you're planning to do the whole house and there's anything that needs to be identical throughout (eg tiles, click-together flooring), try and buy it all at once so you can be sure you'll have enough of the same batch, but make sure you buy enough!. We bought all the tiles for our house at the start and only just squeaked in with enough by doing things like not laying tiles under the kitchen cabinets (we had 2.5 tiles left at the end and no way to buy any more).
In general, try and buy the materials you need well in advance, because supply chains ugh. We had to wait 12 weeks to get some laminated timber beams at one stage. Even basic materials can suddenly and inexplicably not be available anywhere these days.
It can be really rewarding doing this yourself - doing it room-by-room lets you finish something on a regular basis and helps keep up the motivation as opposed to living in a construction zone everywhere.
posted by dg at 8:53 PM on October 24, 2022 [29 favorites]
Best answer: Take a good look at your budget and schedule. Can you let this take a while or are you trying to meet a certain date? Are you paying contractors to do any of the work or are you doing it all yourself? Does your budget have room for expensive flooring and paint, window treatments, fancy bedding, etc. or are you planning to get readily-available materials at the local big box store? Then how do those choices impact schedule?
How will this project impact your life while it's in progress? Are you able to sleep in another room, especially during any stinky/off-gassing parts, like paint and floor adhesive? I agree with dg, starting with an empty room is the way to go if you can do it. Safer, too.
Lots of things produce dust, especially removing paint/wallpaper, drywall repair, sanding, etc. Dust will take weeks to really finish coming out of the air and settling, and you will mop and mop and mop and mop (or vacuum), repeatedly before it stops being noticeable. You might want to wait to paint until the dust-producing activities have settled down.
You shouldn't need a plumber, because it's a bedroom so probably doesn't have any plumbing. Look around the room and notice what comes in and goes out. Electricity, obviously. Heat and maybe cooling, which probably comes from ductwork or electric heaters. Fresh air (windows). Electric light and natural light. Do you want to change anything in terms of electricity, heating/cooling, fresh air, natural light or blocking that light (blackout shades)?
If anything needs to be permitted (adding new electrical fixtures?), keep that in mind to make sure the inspector can see the work before it's all covered up and painted.
If you're removing a popcorn ceiling, get it tested for asbestos first.
Nthing buying supplies in advance, especially if (a) you really know what you want and the ramifications of choosing that material, and (b) if it's returnable for refund. I personally wouldn't order anything before meeting with the contractor to make sure there's nothing about said material that would make it more expensive or time consuming to install. But you may wait a while for product right now.
You might want to consider replacing your overhead light with a ceiling fan (I'm just making assumptions left and right here), to help with cooling and air flow.
This sounds great, I love a redo!
posted by happy_cat at 9:15 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
How will this project impact your life while it's in progress? Are you able to sleep in another room, especially during any stinky/off-gassing parts, like paint and floor adhesive? I agree with dg, starting with an empty room is the way to go if you can do it. Safer, too.
Lots of things produce dust, especially removing paint/wallpaper, drywall repair, sanding, etc. Dust will take weeks to really finish coming out of the air and settling, and you will mop and mop and mop and mop (or vacuum), repeatedly before it stops being noticeable. You might want to wait to paint until the dust-producing activities have settled down.
You shouldn't need a plumber, because it's a bedroom so probably doesn't have any plumbing. Look around the room and notice what comes in and goes out. Electricity, obviously. Heat and maybe cooling, which probably comes from ductwork or electric heaters. Fresh air (windows). Electric light and natural light. Do you want to change anything in terms of electricity, heating/cooling, fresh air, natural light or blocking that light (blackout shades)?
If anything needs to be permitted (adding new electrical fixtures?), keep that in mind to make sure the inspector can see the work before it's all covered up and painted.
If you're removing a popcorn ceiling, get it tested for asbestos first.
Nthing buying supplies in advance, especially if (a) you really know what you want and the ramifications of choosing that material, and (b) if it's returnable for refund. I personally wouldn't order anything before meeting with the contractor to make sure there's nothing about said material that would make it more expensive or time consuming to install. But you may wait a while for product right now.
You might want to consider replacing your overhead light with a ceiling fan (I'm just making assumptions left and right here), to help with cooling and air flow.
This sounds great, I love a redo!
posted by happy_cat at 9:15 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh, one more thing regarding 'freshening up' - we had things like motion sensors (for security system) and vent panels that were originally white plastic but had gone all yellow and ugly. We could have bought new ones, but a clean and disassemble as required and quick spray with white rattle can paint made them all look just like new ones for next to no cost.
posted by dg at 9:30 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by dg at 9:30 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
Do them in the order they need to be done, worse to best. The order honestly doesn't matter. Paint is pretty cheap and drop cloths are practically free, so if you have to redo some spots, it's ok.
Also depending on your flooring (carpet is the worst for cleanup) of course, paint wipes off tile and most wood flooring that has a lacquer coat on it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:25 AM on October 25, 2022
Also depending on your flooring (carpet is the worst for cleanup) of course, paint wipes off tile and most wood flooring that has a lacquer coat on it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:25 AM on October 25, 2022
Best answer: Someone mentioned asbestos already, but you should also figure out whether you need to worry about lead paint BEFORE you start sanding anything. In my area, lead paint was banned in 1960 and if your building was constructed prior to that, you assume that lead paint is present and take the appropriate precautions.
You can get test swabs at the hardware store to check the specific areas you want to work on. If they test positive, look into ways of removing paint that don't generate dust (chemical strippers, heat, etc), sealing off the lead paint with a lead-specific encapsulating paint, or calling a professional.
posted by yeahlikethat at 7:34 AM on October 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
You can get test swabs at the hardware store to check the specific areas you want to work on. If they test positive, look into ways of removing paint that don't generate dust (chemical strippers, heat, etc), sealing off the lead paint with a lead-specific encapsulating paint, or calling a professional.
posted by yeahlikethat at 7:34 AM on October 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Paint is getting more expensive! Sherwin Williams is $80+ for a gallon of exterior paint, though we managed to hit a sale last weekend for 40% off. If you are painting a large space and need multiple gallons, it makes a difference if you can time your purchase.
(Also, pick up a roll of Glad Press N' Seal to wrap up your brushes and rollers between painting sessions and keep them from drying out. You can also line your rolling tray with it. It works wonderfully!)
posted by mochapickle at 7:43 AM on October 25, 2022
(Also, pick up a roll of Glad Press N' Seal to wrap up your brushes and rollers between painting sessions and keep them from drying out. You can also line your rolling tray with it. It works wonderfully!)
posted by mochapickle at 7:43 AM on October 25, 2022
Sherwin Williams is $80+ for a gallon of exterior paint, though we managed to hit a sale last weekend for 40% off.
Yes, but modern paint generally contains a pretty high quality primer, so you don't have to but a 5gallon bucket of Killz2 and a can of paint anymore.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:02 AM on October 25, 2022
Yes, but modern paint generally contains a pretty high quality primer, so you don't have to but a 5gallon bucket of Killz2 and a can of paint anymore.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:02 AM on October 25, 2022
Ha, unfortunately you still do if you have weather exposed, south-facing woodwork in a high altitude city with 240+ days of sunshine! :)
But my point is, paint in general is expensive and a little planning can save money if you can hit the sales.
posted by mochapickle at 8:12 AM on October 25, 2022
But my point is, paint in general is expensive and a little planning can save money if you can hit the sales.
posted by mochapickle at 8:12 AM on October 25, 2022
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If you really are certain that you will be replacing the trim and doors throughout the house, though, you might want to see if purchasing and finishing everything you'll need at one time makes financial sense. You'd at least be protected if your chosen trim or stain gets discontinued midstream.
posted by DrGail at 7:01 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]