Renovation case study 2

Mike and Paula looked long and hard before they found their potential ideal home in Christchurch. They had a secret weapon though - an architect friend who lent his design and building expertise to the search.

“It was invaluable having our architect on board at the beginning” says Mike. “He knew what we were looking for and gave us professional advice on achievable renovations.”

The couple settled on a modest 120 square metre, 1950s bungalow. The two major attractions were the flat, generous 1000 square metre section and the neighbourhood.

The original house

The house had three poky bedrooms, bathroom, combined living/kitchen/laundry area and a single garage.

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars later, this has been turned into a spacious, 220 square metre home with four large bedrooms, two living spaces, two bathrooms, separate kitchen and laundry and a much larger detached garage.

Mike is a strong advocate for using an architect. He says the ability to translate ideas into concept plans and then to follow through the project, right down to the colour scheme sets an architect apart from less well trained designers. “We did the rounds of the specialist kitchen shops but weren’t very impressed. In the end we sat down with our architect and came up with better solutions”, says Mike.

Starting renovations

The architect not only produced the drawings but also managed local authority consent process, calling tenders from five builders and assessing the three quotes when they came in.

Mike and Paula were old hands at renovations so had a good idea of what building products were available. Their selection criteria were quality, availability and price. The only area where they had trouble was with the glazing.

Here’s Mike’s story. “The glazing company seemed to have a monopoly on glass supply in our area. They had a take it or leave it attitude.

The driveway

Then, to make matters worse, they broke a section of a stained glass pane Paula had provided. They had no interest in repairing the break or for paying to have the work done. In the end the builder footed the bill to repair the damage even though it was not his responsibility.”

A condition in the contract said the sections of the existing house had to remain habitable while the work went on around the family. Mike says this worked reasonably well except the job took six months instead of the estimated three-and-a-half. The major cause for the delay was the weather. It snowed the day work started and the mud, over a particularly long and wet winter, became a nightmare. If he were starting again, Mike says he would have shifted the family out for the duration of the work.

The main contractor supplied a project manager but he was inexperienced and, while very willing, was not really up to the job. Mike and his architect filled the gap.

Building materials

Mike suggests looking into the experience and skills of a builder before awarding a contract. Paula and Mike’s builder was used to building new houses and so found the unfamiliar renovation work a challenge. Mike also recommends not being too influenced by price. The lowest tender was accepted and that seemed to lead to the use of unqualified workers which meant Mike had to spend more time than he might otherwise, overseeing the work. He makes the point that he could do this because of his building experience but many owners would not have the same skills.

One of the disappointments of the job was the theft of household goods stored in the garage. The police couldn’t find the offenders but Mike makes the very good point that security needs to be a real consideration when there are casual workers on a building site. “Never make keys available to workers and make sure the main contractor is responsible for locking the site at night and unlocking it in the morning. Also check you and the builder have adequate insurance cover,” says Mike.

As a security precaution, door locks have been changed and the installation of a burglar alarm is likely.

Halfway through

Mike and Paula did some of the painting.  “You need to know what you are doing with painting,” says Mike. “A lot of people do their own painting but if they don’t know what they are doing it can really destroy the look of the entire project.”  They employed a professional painter who sealed the Gib wall and ceiling linings and the door frames.  Mike recommends this; “You would never roll walls again.”  It cost $700 to have this done and Mike and Paula finished the job, spending around $3,000 on paint.  This was a huge saving as they had been quoted $12,000 for the entire job to be done professionally. 

The house is in Christchurch which can be cold in winter. During construction, they took the opportunity to insulate under the older part of the house which had wooden floors.  Mike rolled out black polythene over the ground as a moisture barrier.  This immediately resolved the problem.  The ground water under the house was coming up through the floorboards and condensing on cool surfaces. Using a dehumidifier only disguised the problem. The polythene sheet was inexpensive and easy to install.  Mike said there are companies who will do this if you don’t want to crawl around under the house yourself. 

The completed house

Because of good experiences previously, they felt the added cost of the double-glazing throughout for further insulation and moisture control was well justified.

The existing roof was re-ridged and re-flashed to match the new roof and to ensure a weather tight house.

Mike and Paula love their renovated home and give due credit to the architect for good planning and design and the project manager for being so willing to meet their needs.  Both Mike and Paula agree that you can quickly forget the negatives of renovating and love the new environment.