The Ultimate Guide To Renovation Course - Module 9: Bathrooms, Kitchens & Finishing Works

Back to our case study. The Box at the back Adding an additional structure or extension to a property can be daunting prospect for many, not to mention an expensive one. Extensions and in particular double story extensions where there is a requirement to tie tie in with an existing roof line etc can be extremely time consuming and costly. So here's a simple solution and one that can be finished to lock up stage in less than three weeks for a single level addition. Now this is not appropriate for all properties. However if you can apply it, choose the property that you're looking at buying based on the fact that you can make this fit. The benefits of this type of extension are not only space speed but cost. The box on the back now you may be familiar with a lean to or skillion roof structure and this is technically what this is. Made popular right up until the 1980s. This is a building method where a raked roof falls away from the back of the existing dwelling. You'll often find them on the back of Nana and Pop's houses where the further you walk into the room, the more chance you have of hitting your head on the ceiling. But before you become concerned, let me say this, the technical name is where the similarity ends. These lean tunes that I'm going to show you don't look like that. Using the latest building products such as laminated beams and posse struts, our lean 2 has a ceiling height of 2.7 meters or above. Now this method was used in this case study and created a 60 meter square open plan room. It's typically 7 meters deep and spans the full width of the existing dwelling, typically nine plus metres. This is a large open plan space which also creates a canvas for large proportions in the kitchen. And the best bit is it doesn't look like a lean to at the sides of the structure. Where on an old school lean to you could see the fall of the roof, you construct a parapet wall. These are level at the top creating a modern look and concealing the fall of the roof behind it. The exterior cladding can be rendered weatherboard or any finish you like. On the inside you can typically build an oversized kitchen with that island bench just under 3.2 meters. This creates instant wow factor as soon as soon as you walk into the room. In the lounge room you can use a built in gas log or gas stone fireplace with a LCD or plasma TV set in set above. Built in shelves also add to the luxurious feel an abundance of glass. Glass and the abundance of light provide some of the best bang for buck in the open plan living area. You can use 2.4 meter high industrial stacker and sliding doors in black aluminium frame for that extra. Wow. Many renovators use bi fold doors which are prohibitively expensive. However, by switching to stackers you might find that there's no negative impact as we did in our case study and the buyer doesn't mind. And what you'll find is you're going to halve your window costs by using these at the end of the kitchen space you could use, as we did in this case study, a fixed panel of glass that goes down to the floor level. Now I can tell you when this house was opened to inspection. The number of mothers who walked up to that window and looked out and exclaimed how they could watch the kids in the backyard whilst they were still in the kitchen was amazing. So let's get into construction starting at the bottom before we get into the wonder products that make our modern day lean to possible, let's start at the foundations where I'll show you a method for getting out of the ground quick, quickly. There are two mainstream options for building a concrete slab and timber joists, bearers and stumps. I'll touch on the options for using concrete later in this module, but for now let's stick with timber. Subfloor Construction before work can begin on the subfloor, the set out must take place according to the building plans and specifications. This is a job for an experienced professional, that is a builder or an architect. After the set out is completed and markings are made, the foundations can be prepared. For this exercise, let's assume we are dealing with stump holes only and not footings. This is the sequence. The holes are drilled at the correct spacing to accommodate the stumps. The holes are filled with wet concrete and the stumps placed in the holes and adjusted to the correct position. This is normally done using a laser level string line and several carpenters. The next day or the day after the concrete has set, the carpenters are returned to commence work. The barriers are placed on top of the stumps with ant protection followed by the floor joists and then we're ready for the wall frames. Now the box on the back is made possible by as previously mentioned, there are two modern day products that make our modern day lean to possible. The first LVL or laminated veneer lumber and the second the posse strut, a long spanning webbed beam or rafter lvl. The benefits of using LVL timber is the speed of use, the long spans and the straightness of the timber. Both the bearers and the floor joists in this job are lvls. This means there is only one piece of manufactured timber spanning the entire length of the extension. There is no joining or dovetailing. They are simply put in place and nailed off. The result for our lean to is that two carpenters on a typical working day are usually finished the subfloor and onto the wall framing on day one. Another day typically sees the wall framing erected and ready for the roof. Now onto the posse struts. The posse strut is a long spanning beam or rafter made up of two cords, top and bottom with webbing in between. It is primarily used in the construction of second story floors where long spans are required. So why is it of interest to us? Because it has the capacity to stretch up to nearly 7 metres with a beam depth of under 300 mm. The beam depth is what's crucial for maintaining our ceiling height. This is because we're governed by the ceiling height in the existing house. But more on this shortly. What this means is that a room can be built that is seven meters deep, the full width or more than the existing house without the need for additional supporting walls. One of the best things about this building method is the simplicity with which the extension ties into the existing structure. As I mentioned before, a posse strut has two cords with webbing in between the top cord and the bottom cord. We request that during manufacture that the top cord be extended 150mm past the length of the bottom cord on the rear of our existing house. We remove the back eave to expose the top of the rear wall frame of the house. It is on the top of this frame, known as the top plate, that we sit our extended top cord at the other end. The posse strut sits on a stud wall of the exact same height as the rear wall of the existing dwelling. With the addition of some nails, roof battens and a bit of bracing, this is our structure entirely completed. It is now that we are ready for roof sheeting, windows and doors and cladding. And we reach lock up in super fast time. I love this. The only variation that I would use on this is a concrete subfloor. While this is not my preferred method because it does increase the cost sometimes, if faced with energy compliance headaches, it is the lesser of two evils. Because of the ever changing energy rating specification in each state. If you have a large amount of glass, particularly south facing glass, you may run into problems. By using a waffle pod slab in particular, you can increase your overall energy rating that thus reducing the need to sacrifice windows and that wow factor. Submit your plans prior to doing detailed building drawings to a registered energy assessor for the best advice on this subject. Some of these laws are open to interpretation, so if you are finding a particular energy assessor difficult, it may be worth shopping around. Floorboards come in all shapes and sizes, but typically fall into two categories, softwood and hardwood. For the purposes of this section, we're only concerned with structural floorboards as opposed to overlay floorboards or floating floors. It's all about perceived value. Softwood floorboards such as Baltic pine have a lower perceived value than hardwood floorboards and in particular red species such as jarrah. In Australia, Baltic pine has been widely used in public buildings and in local halls. A darker red hardwood timber, on the other hand, is more typically seen in luxury homes. The availability of different species changes from state to state, but as a rule red rocks like not the other alternative color, normally stained is popular in contemporary homes is dark, typically a dark chocolate colour. As you will see in this case study, it is possible to stain a timber like Baltic pine to add perceived value in high end structural renovations always aim to have a seamless transition between the floorboards in the old house and in the new extension. It's a common sight in DIY renovations to see the floorboards in the hallway come to an abrupt end and completely different kinds of floorboards continue in the new area. Having a uniform floor which runs between new and old is preferable if not expected in high end renovations. The exception may be where there is a natural break such as Steps to achieve this. On a high end renovation, it's often just easier to remove the old floorboards in the hall completely, sometimes they're even in good condition and replace them with new boards throughout the adjoining areas. Reclaimed floorboards are a sought after building product, so along with everything else that comes out of your house, they go straight onto ebay. In our case study we were trying to avoid the extra expense of ripping up existing floorboards in the halls as they were in really good condition. The first thing that was needed to be done was to create a staggered join between the old and the new. To do this, remove selected existing boards to their nearest joist in order to form a staggered pattern. In other words, I want as few of them as possible to end in line with each other. You then insert the new boards one by one into these spaces. This is not always straightforward due to the different widths and may involve the new boards having to be cut called ripping and shaved to make fit. Assuming that we manage this perfectly. The problem we still have is that if we sand and polish in the normal way, the join between the old and the new is still clearly visible because of the difference in colour. Typically the older timber will look darker than the newer timber. To counter this, we're going to have to stain both timbers in our case study because we're dealing with a softer timber such as Baltic pine. Using a red stain such as a Jarrah, will likely not be enough to disguise the difference between the old and the new. Therefore, I've decided to use a dark walnut color here or a dark chocolate, because we're creating a modern contemporary home that is more suitable. So when you're choosing a stain, I ask my floor sander to supply me with several samples made onto off cuts or small pieces or of my new and old flooring. As we discussed earlier, it is possible to have stain put in with the first coat of polyurethane. However, in a higher end renovation such as this one, it's better practice to have the floor stain applied separately. As with all my finishes, I'll be going with a high gloss finish. So there you have it. We've been through our box at the back structural renovation case study. We've gone through the kitchen, the bathroom, we've looked at how to rough things in, we've gone through how to actually build the box at the back, which is really innovative, quick and cheap. We've looked at the bang for the buck, the glass, you know, the beautiful finishes, and we're adding more perceived value than actual cost. This structural renovation is a powerhouse of adding money and adding to your wealth. And after all, as renovators, that's why we're doing this, to create wealth. Now, it sounds like a lot of hard work, doesn't it? But then again, this is the numbers game and we're here to make the money. So you need to know what needs to be done and that's the importance of this module. Even if you're not going to actually do any of this work yourself, you need to understand the process and you need to understand what needs to be done. And importantly, you need to understand the language of renovation. The example of a structural renovation here showed you what a renovation might look like. And we're looking at the high end in this process that might not suit you. You might be doing a lower end structural renovation, but now you know what a high end structural renovation looks like. You understand the cost, you understand the works, you understand the process that needs to be done and you can modify this to fit your own needs. Now, once again, every state has different requirements, and you need to understand what they are. We're not recommending here that you go out and put a box on the back of every property that you look at. This is just a case study to give you an idea of how one such renovation has been done. Sa. In the next module, we're going to look at the mistakes that many renovators make so you don't have to. Now, once again, I've gone out and I've grabbed some of the big mistakes that I've made, and I've canvassed a few experts who've made their own mistakes, and I'm going to share with you those mistakes so you can learn from them and make your renovation a winner.