How to Renovate a House in Manchester: Guide for Homeowners

Before starting the renovation process for a house in Manchester it is important to ask the following questions:

What do I need from this renovation?

It is important to have a plan and a goal in mind for your renovation, otherwise it will start to spiral out of control with budget, time and effort.

name one or two things that you need from your renovation project and break it up from there.

How much am I willing to spend?

Knowing your budget is important and will allow you to think twice when doing your DIY shopping.

How much am I willing to do?

DIY and renovation work take a considerable amount of time and effort. It can be easy to be optimistic at the beginning so be sure to give yourself less to do than you think. Be aware also that parts of the work can always be carried out by others.

With these questions answered, you will have the basis of your plan for a renovation project.

Image credit @Schemata Studio

1. Your Plan

This is probably the most important thing that you'll need when renovating a house in Manchester. Expanding on the plan based on the questions above, make sure to sketch out your ideas, take measurements, and write down everything that you want to change about the home. Being specific will allow you to nail down costs and jobs needed to make the renovation a reality.

2. Budget breakdown

Breakdown your budget according to the items and work that is needed. This can include the materials needed to do the work yourself but can also include other trades people to do any specialist / extra work.

3. Timeframe

Renovating your house in Manchester can take up quite a bit of time and this time can take away from other parts of your life. The best way to counteract this is by setting up timeframes and keeping organised, that way you can achieve smaller goals step by step.

4. Tools

Depending on what sort of renovations need to be done for your house, there may or may not be a need for special tools. For example, if you're planning on doing some painting, you'll need a good set of brushes and rollers. Make sure to do your research beforehand and use your sketches and break down of jobs to help you.

When tools look expensive or unattractive to purchase, you can consider tool hire or just getting a specialist tradesperson to do the work on your behalf.

5. Consent and Approval

In some cases, you may need permits in order to complete certain renovations on your house. Make sure to check the status of your property before doing any work, if your property has listed status, stop immediately and make sure that you have all of your permits!

6. Make allowances for the plan to change

If you're planning on doing some renovations yourself, it's always a good idea to know what your limits are, but if things do get too complicated or difficult for you to complete by yourself, make allowances to have someone else take over, take a break or scale back your plans.

Image credit @Tomomi Kito architect & associates

How to renovate a house: an example timeline

Below is a basic plan of action for a renovaton project to a house in Manchester, this is intended to give you some structure and ideas about putting our own plan together prior to starting work.

Step 1

Clear out and remove all loose items, decorative items and strip back plasterboard

This will likely be done on a room-by-room basis so that the other rooms can still be used during the renovation.

This will take 2-3 days in the evenings after work, tools will be needed to pry plasterboard and decorations from the walls, a van hire will be needed to take the refuse to the garbage collection.

Step 2

Clean and prepare the room ready for renovation

Once cleared, make sure the room has been cleaned down and dust removed. Check there is no structural or other damage that is visible.

This will take 1-2 days.

Step 3

Apply new foil taped insulation to the corners of the room and any gaps to the outside

Plug any holes where the cold is entering the room with foil taped insulation and apply along corners in the walls and junctions.

This would take roughly 2-3 days in the evenings and would have the cost of the foil insulation.

Step 4

Apply new insulation backed plasterboard to walls and new wooden floor.

Tacking the insulation backed plasterboard to the walls and adding the new wooden floor with an acoustic mat to make the room warmer and sound proof.

This take roughly 3-4 weeks in the evenings and may require extra help. The purchase of the wooden floor, acoustic matting, plasterboard and taccer would be need.

Step 5

Have a plasterer plaster the plasterboard

Given that it is a messy job, hire someone to do the plastering for the room.

This would likely be done over 2 days while at work, the hiring and paying of the plasterer would be needed.

Step 6

Sanding down and painting the walls

By sanding the walls down, wetting them and applying 2-3 coats of paint, the room will be almost ready.

This would take 3-4 evenings for the room and would require an electric sander, paint rags for the floor, paint rollers, brushes and tubs of paint, primer may also be needed for any imperfections in the plaster.

Step 7

Finishing touches

With the room renovated and ready to be used, new furniture and fittings can be provided, the room is intended to be a bedroom.

This could be done informally over the course of a couple of months, buying a bed and any cupboard and furniture that suits the room.