It’s Debbie back again ready to share the next part of the journey. As mentioned before, this renovation is a big job.
I’ll begin to address some of the issues we came across, it may take a few episodes to tell you all about it but stay tuned and we will not disappoint!
Budget & Timeframe
This property was purchased with the strategy to renovate and sell.
Since we settled the property with private funds, the plan was to get the renovation completed within 3 months; market for about 6 weeks and settlement another 6 weeks.
Trouble with renovations, particularly on really old places is that when things go wrong they can go really wrong.
Time has already blown out, firstly with sewer issues, then electricity relocation and lastly the weather!
With any time blow out it is usually associated with costs blowing out.
Our budget for the renovation is $80,000. We set it high so it would cover problems – and we certainly have come across our fair share. So far the budget is not compromised but since it compounds exponentially, we have yet to see where it will end. In saying that though, I have done enough to know we will be pretty close and any blow out will be minor.
Sewer & Power Connections
One of the first major obstacles that faced us was the lack of accurate SA Water/Sewer plans. The house next door (the other duplex) had substantial work completed sometime previously but was not documented and the plans we were working from had the sewer coming through from next door into our yard (under the wet areas) and sharing a connection to the rear of our property. This meant we could not just go and dig it up, new connections were required to the property next door and SA Water was called upon to provide a new connection. That meant agreement from the owner that they would pay for the new connection, also the tenant was going to be inconvenienced by the process.
The major issue with all that was the time frame. SA Water took 2 months to do the new connection. Since we were laying new floors we could not commence preparation on that until the new connection was in place.
The same issue and same time delay came up with the power.
Plans
When we are planning jobs, a lot of attention goes into how the layout will flow after the job is done. That can mean relocating wet areas and kitchens, bedrooms and lounges. When we purchased the property it was sold as a 1 bedroom duplex, but in reality it was easily converted into 2 bedrooms.
Since we work within the existing structure and the wet areas were at the rear, we decided to swap them with the kitchen. Initially we were going to have the house flow (from the front door): Into the hall, bed 1 on left, bed 2 on left, bathroom, laundry, open plan living (kitchen/dining/lounge). The cost of doing this was going to be high so we rearranged the flow to: Bed 1, Bed 2, Lounge, create a small hall into the bathroom, open up into the kitchen/dining and have the laundry in a cupboard in the kitchen area. Best part of this was creating an outdoor living area off the dining – indoor/outdoor area with large patio doors.
This reduced our costs by about $15,000 even after we spent $5,000 on doors.
Salt Damp
On initial inspection the property looked like it had a lot of salt damp, but after consultation we discovered that this issue was old cement. Apparently cement has a life of around 100 years and of course with the property being built in 1880, the 100 year time frame is well and truly up. Since this comment came from a number of different sources, the credibility stands up. When some of the walls were checked they did not appear to be damp either which also supported the theory.
That’s not to say the property didn’t have salt damp because there were places where it was obvious. It’s pretty incredible that sometime in the past the floor boards were probably damaged by white ants so someone filled the whole room with dirt followed by a thin layer of concrete. By the time we purchased the property the concrete layer was damaged substantially and each of the walls in contact with the dirt had massive salt damp issues.
The salt damp was treated by a professional company.
The crumbling cement needed to be replaced so we enlisted the services of a renderer who has experience with restoration. He has been able to build up the stone wall on the front of the building as well as fix up the plaster inside. Usually plasterers charge a large fee as they are in high demand but I managed to find someone who had decided to get out of the business and just works small jobs after hours.
Even though this is not often ideal, it seems to be working out fine. The tradesman works nights and comes to us straight from his other job, usually about 8.30 am and works for a few hours a day (when the weather is fine). I think he has bought a lot of bad weather with him though so work has been rather slow.
I’ll leave the renovation there now, and follow it up again in a week or two. I’d love to hear your feedback.
The information provided in the Talking Property podcast is general in nature and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional advice. Always consult with a professional advisor before making any investment decisions.
