This recent renovation consisted of taking two rooms and knocking them into one.
The kitchen was a dark place, dark units, dark worktops and only had a fluorescent strip light in the middle.
The dinning room was a room hardly used and was poorly finished. These two rooms had engineered flooring throughout.
When the client had decided what they wanted from this renovation we asked our kitchen designer to pop by and have a consultation to get some ideas and see what vision they had. He then went about drawing up a kitchen design to accommodate the client’s aspirations.
We knew the dividing wall was a load bearing one so a steel would need to be installed. We then used one of our structural engineers to get a calculation in order to put the correct piece of steel in to support necessary loads. This then meant we also needed to have it inspected by building control to confirm we had put the correct piece of steel in and it was installed correctly.
It’s so important to get these bits of information, as when you come to sell the house you may be asked for proof of what’s been installed. In some cases the steel has had to be uncovered to make sure this has been done. This is costly and very messy, so do it right the first time around.
All the engineered flooring was taken up and put in the skip along with the artex ceiling. Masks and suits were worn just in case it had any traces of asbestos. (Artex ceilings had traces of asbestos during the 70s & 80s). Testing for asbestos isn’t much so worth doing just in case you are unsure.
We noticed that some of the sand & cement on the walls had in fact actually blown and come away from its original sub surface (internal blockwork). In this instance we decided it would be easier in the long run to acquire a better finish so we chopped off all of the plaster back to the block work.
With everything now exposed it was a case of what stays and what goes – Everything went in the skip. There is absolutely no point in covering up works you think is dangerous or a bit suspect as it WILL be an issue in the future.
The electrics were extremely dangerous, and our electrician condemned it immediately.
Once the room was now made safe our two electricians spent a couple of days doing a first fix. The clients needed to make a couple of important decisions like where they wanted lights and if they wanted under pelmet lighting if so then where?.
Amongst this they also had to take out the old consumer unit and install an upgraded one with new 3 phase cable to a new consumer position to support the new load of electrics.
The client has suggested that in the future they was thinking about having an alarm system fitted to the house. This was an amazing time to bring this up as we then ran in the necessary cables for motion sensors and key pads so if and when they decide to have that done all of the cables were in place. This will no doubt save a lot of time, money and mess in the future.
We used our plumber to chase out a bit of the screeded floor in order to hide heating pipes to new radiator. Once the existing plumbing had been made usable, we could start putting the now large room back together.
We made lighting diagram of where the lights sat in the ceiling and started putting up the plasterboard ceiling.
Shortly after our plasterer arrived and started dot and dabbing the bare walls. It’s important in these renovations to have your trades booked in advance to allow a steady pace of work to continue. It can be very easy to be unorganised and allow these jobs to go on for months which is a nightmare for clients living in a building site.
A few days later ceiling, walls were all plastered and coved and just needed to be left to dry before a mist-coat of paint was added. After a couple of days we decorated the walls and ceilings making sure the finish around the coving and ceiling was neat as from this point it should only need touching up. A neutral colour was then chosen by clients to compliment the kitchen units and it was the perfect choice. With finishing decorating the kitchen arrived (excited fist pump)
We, DJReynolds Ltd installed the kitchen leaving all adequate spaces for appliance and range cooker. Fitting a kitchen requires an awful lot of tools & equipment and if you’ve ever had a plumber in your house and seen how they spread their tools around you’ve seen nothing yet.
Panel cutters, battery drills, core drills and extraction, routers, I won’t bore you with listing the hand tools but the list goes on.
It was decided early on from the clients that they wanted a tiled floor which they had picked and we got our floor tilers to come in after we had fixed all our kitchen units and panels. We don’t fit kitchen doors at this point as a minor mistake can cause an awful lot of money being spent to put right. The floor was tiled from the back door all the way through to the downstairs toilet and leaving about a meter at the front door for a mat well to be laid.
They did a super job as always and spent half a day setting out everything and making cuts that would be hidden in order to create a finish the client was happy with before carrying on. Sub floor was sealed and self-levelled before they started to insure a solid sub floor.
Putting a house back together is always a lovely feeling and having these little milestones from plastered walls to new floors laid is always a very pleasing part of
the build for clients & builders. This was then highlighted once the Minerva worktops arrived to be fitted. These worktops are a 25mm resin based material and are a brilliant substitute for granite.
Scratches or imperfections can be polished out in the future to restore them back to the day you took delivery. Not to mention if you get good kitchen fitters like us you won’t even see where they are joined.
The client wanted the same product for up stands & window cill behind the sink. As you can see from the pictures these are a brilliant feature, slightly slimmer at 12mm a perfect size to finish the kitchen in a sleek modern way.
A glass splash back was fitted above the range cooker which I think you’ll agree looks amazing.
Electricians came back to do their second fix and finish off under pelmet lighting. All their work was then tested and certificated safe for ourself/client and his benefit as electricians are responsible for all the work they have carried out.
We then installed new internal doors and fixed new skirtings & architraves to give it a beautiful clean finish. The clients finished the space off with a perfect up cycled kitchen table and stunning farm house chairs to give this country kitchen the most amazing makeover.
If you want or need a renovation like this one please get in touch for a smooth, easy process from design to finish. We want to thank the clients for having a great vision and trusting us to reward them with the most amazing space.
