Renovating my 3 bedroom unit in kangaroo point I have used some building materials I found on the Xsstock web site, so here are some handy tips that may save you some money on your next renovation project.

The first thing that I did was to cut off the electricity supply and then started to remove the kitchen cabinets, then followed the bathroom vanities.

I purchased a jack hammer (some one was selling it on xsstock, and I picked it up really cheap - to be exact) and started to remove all of the floor tiles which took ages since there was about 70 square meters of them. Unfortunately the tiles in the bathroom areas and the toilets had been tiled over in the past so there were 2 layers of tiles to be pulled up, in doing so the bedding in those areas lifted as well, which meant that we were back to the natural concrete slab level.

The next step was to remove the bathtubs and the shower recesses and also the toilets.

The bathtub pulled out fairly easily considering it had been there for the last 32 years. The shower recesses on the other hand were not that easy to remove since they were built in, with rendered brick walls on both sides, and they had those classic wire mesh class shower screens. However my trusty sledge hammer helped and so did the jack hammer that I purchased. The toilets were in good condition considering the age of them, and that the fact they were wall hung, and the systems were in-wall mounted 9 litre systems (the new systems are now 6 litres with dual flush)

Trusty sledge hammer again!!!

Now came the pleasant job of removing all of the wall tiles which were white ceramic tiles. What a mission removing them since they must have been stuck on with a lot more that just tile adhesive. I used a small jack hammer which I borrowed from a friend of mine, to remove the wall tiles, but in doing so the tiles pulled off with the render as well, that’s how well they were stuck on. Behind the render was the brick work.

Onto the built in cupboards in the bedrooms and in the hallway, these had to come out as well which was a fairly easy job considering they were manufactured from timber and were bolted to the floor and ceiling and the walls at either end of the cupboards.

The 32 year carpets were next to be removed including the underlay and I also decided to remove the timber edges which the carpets are fixed to around the edges of the room.

Now comes the real exciting stuff, removing the wall paper, or should I say removing the 3 layers of wall paper. At first I used a steamer which was a waste of time and money since I had to hire it from the local hire shop. Basically I used a paint scraper, and I wet the wall paper and scraped it off that way. There was 1 small problem in doing it like that because the walls had white set (solid plaster) over the render. So this means that the brick has about 10mm of cement render and about 2-3mm of white set plaster over the render to provide the final finish of the walls. Someone decided to glue wall paper over the white set instead of painting the walls, so when we used the paint scraper, it dug into the white set and made gouges in it which I had to patch later on.

Oh the joys of renovating!!

Now that I had stripped out the bathrooms and toilets and the kitchen, and removed all of the floor coverings (did I mention that the kitchen floor was cork, and not tiles which was just as hard to remove as the tiles) it was time to look at removing some of the kitchen walls. I received an engineers report of which wall was structural and which ones were not, and proceeded to remove the pantry and the adjoining wall to the door way of the unit. The wall at the back of the pantry separated the kitchen from the lounge area and also blocked the river views from the kitchen. Remembering all of the walls in this unit are rendered brick walls, I started demolishing the wall with the jack hammer which was a waste of time since all it did was put holes through it. So you guessed it out came the trusty sledge hammer, and brick by brick down came the three walls.

Speaking of removing internal walls I then started in the main bathroom and removed the dividing brick wall between the bath tub and the shower, then the brick wall between the shower and the laundry, which turned the two rooms into one large room, meaning I could start from scratch. In the ensuite I removed the shower wall which opened up what was a rather small room to give me something suitable to rework with. Then I remove 3 of the door ways (ensuite, bathroom and laundry) and opened the door heights up to the ceiling heights, with the intend of installing two glass pivoting doors and one sliding glass door for the for the ensuite.

Now with most of the unit stripped it was time to start installing the plumbing pipes to the new locations where I had decided to move the vanities, bath tub and showers to. And yes I did engage a qualified plumber to do the job, for the exception of the floor chasing and core holes I needed to install the pipes. You see the unit had a 240 litre hot water system which I removed and disposed of and I decided to install the new hot water system into the units garage to give me more space for the new kitchen. The garage is under the main bedroom at the opposite end of the unit (196sq meter unit), so that meant chasing the concrete floor in the kitchen to an adjoining bathroom wall where I could install the pipes and drop down into the garage. My unit covers 3 garages and a studio unit which is under the ensuite, so I had to chase the floors in the main bedroom as well to get the plumbing into the ensuite. I then core holed the floor for the floor wastes and the waste water, and while I was at it I cored holed for the 3 new air-conditioning systems I was intending to install.

The unit had vermiculite ceilings, which were in need of repair or removal, you guessed it, I decided to remove the vermiculite ceilings (vermiculite is like a spray on plaster coating that is applied to concrete slab ceilings – an old fashion stipple type coating). I went to a hardware shop and purchased some tile / floor scrapers and also some water spray bottles. If you ever have to remove vermiculite please take some advice and wet it, as It will come off a lot easier. The ceiling is now back to almost bare concrete, leaving some of the old vermiculite base for the new solid set ceiling to stick to.

Next came the decision of installing aluminium bi-fold door in the lounge room and the main bedroom, firstly I had to seek approval from the body corporate and then I ordered the doors from a reputable company who I thought must of under quoted, because they were about k cheaper than everybody else and used the same extrusion as most of them. So I pulled out the 32 year old sliding doors and frames, damn that was a heavy job and needed Mike from next door to help remove and dispose of them. The door openings are all 2.5m high x 3.5m wide so you can imagine how heavy the old glass was.

A friend of mine who is now retired (used to be an artisan renderer) came to help render the walls, where the render had been removed along with the wall tiles. We rendered the door ways where I removed the door frames, and then white set over the render to match the existing walls (white set can also be referred to as solid wall plaster – not commonly used in this day and age) We also white set over all of the marks in the walls and sections where they had been either damaged during demolition or from the 35 years of neglect. Being an old brick unit I also needed to chase the walls to install conduits for power and lighting communications cabling, so we patched them as well.

On the subject of plastering walls, I asked a mate of mine, Frank to help me install new drop down ceilings in the bathroom, toilet, laundry, ensuite and kitchen. Also Frank started on installing some partition walls in the same rooms in the locations I had installed new power cabling and plumbing pipes. Frank was working on a building site where there was left over surplus building materials like Rondo studs, Rondo stud fixings and concrete sheeting, so I managed to buy it from the builder prior to him listing it on the Xsstock web site. Frank ordered Gyprock sheets from CSR and we had them delivered to site ready for installation (imaging lifting 3m long Gyprock sheets up 1 level and over a balastrade.)

None of the walls in this unit were square so we had to square the rooms prior to installing the Rono wall studs. We used metal tapins to hold the Rondo brackets into place and then clipped in the Rondo studs. I have to give it to Frank it was a huge job he took on and really made a sours purse from a pigs ear, since all of the walls and ceilings were out of square there was a lot of levelling and adjusting to be done.

I helped Frank line the kitchen ceiling with 6mm Gyprock which we blue glued and screwed to the ceiling Rondo studs. We also lined all of the waste water pipes in the bathroom, toilet, ensuite and 1 of the bedrooms with sound proofing material which I purchased from CSR building products. We also used a sound proofing lagging around the pipes which looked like a flexible metal sheeting with a foam egg cup material adhered to it. Next we lined the walls in the wet areas with 2 layers of 16mm sound check and 1 layer of 6mm villa board.

In the toilet room and in the ensuite we installed toilets systems that are mounted behind the walls, so all you see is a stainless steel flush panel with two flushing buttons. The toilet bowls are floor mounted and sit back against the tiled walls when they are installed.

I helped Frank install the spa bath in the bathroom, which we had to make a mounting frame and align the spa to fit over the waste pipes. That was a time consuming job on its own. Fit the spa in place then pull it our and make adjustments and put it back in so on and so on, about 8 times I think.

I mixed up a stodgy mixture of concrete and sand in my wheel barrow and shovelled it under the spa between the concrete slab and the fibreglass spa to provide support when people get into the spa.

We then screwed the last piece of villa board onto the frame of the spa and all of the lining was now complete. (did I mention that I installed a 12 volt tube light under the front lip of the spa bath and the front of the villa board, so the tiler can tile up to the light and when you are in the spa you can turn this light on light up the front of the spa)

I then managed to get a plasterer to set all of the joins in the Gyprock and villa board ready to the tiling and painting.

Now for the tiling this ended up being a huge job, so here goes. Firstly I engaged Tony the tiler to install new bedding for both the bathroom and the ensuite (The bedding is a sand and concrete mix which is laid about 50mm over the concrete floor slab so the tiler can set the fall in the floor so water will flow to the drain holes in the floor) We needed new bedding because when we removed the old floor tiles the bedding also lifted at the same time. Prior to installing the bedding he had to water proof the floors and the walls in the wet areas by spraying a water proof adhesive onto the surfaces.

I purchased white ceramic 600mm x 300mm rectified edge tiles for the walls and 300mm x 300mm light brown rectified edge floor tiles for the floor. Also I managed to buy some mosaic marble tiles for the feature wall in the ensuite, and 2 wall inserts I had made to go into the shower, (I installed waterproof lights in these recesses and it looks great) and on front of the spa bath. I also had to tile the balconies and purchased a 500mm x 500mm external no slip sandstone tile.

The tiler had to load 3 m3 of sand and 15 bags of concrete from the driveway where the delivery truck off loaded it, to the lounge room of the unit. He had to wheel barrow the lot via the lobby of the units and then use the lift to level 1 and barrow it into the lounge room, this took a day on its own.

The tiling job took about 2 weeks for 2 tradesmen since I tiled from the floor to the ceiling in the bathroom, toilet, ensuite and the laundry. The tiler installed chrome edging strips on the external corners where the tiles meet, this looks great so if oyu are going to tile your rooms please look into this product. He also installed new floor wastes in the shower and the bathroom and the ensuite.

Now that all of the tiling has been completed it was time to start with the vanity units for the bathroom and ensuite. I had to custom build these units since the rooms are unusual sizes. I ordered 2 pack vanity units with stone bench tops. The vanity for the bathroom was made as a double bowl vanity and the ensuite was made as a single bowl vanity. I designed them so the double vanity had 4 doors and 4 draws and I fixed 2 porcelain surface mounted square bowls to the osprey Cesar stone bench tops. The vanity in the ensuite has 2 doors and 3 open glass shelves on the right hand side under the Cesar stone top. I mounted a 900mm long x 150mm high rectangle porcelain bowl on top of the osprey Cesar stone bench top.

In the laundry I designed a 2 pack cabinet about 1600mm long which has 2 doors and room for the front loader washing machine. This unit also has osprey cesar stone bench tops which accommodate a stainless steel laundry sink (this sink is a square shape which I purchased from 1 of the suppliers on Xsstock). I also designed an overhead linen cabinet and allowed space for the wall mounted clothes dryer.

The taps and fittings for the bathrooms I ordered from a company on the Gold Coast that are soon to be selling their stock on Xsstock. I ordered stainless steel spouts for the spa bath and ensuite vanity and used flip mixers over the spa bath and in the shower in the ensuits. I installed a 2 person shower in the ensuite and installed an over head rain maker as well as a wall mounted hand shower. For the bathroom taps I ordered a waterfall flow tap, and for the laundry sink I ordered a square set tap with a combo mixer. Whilst I was ordering these taps I decided to order the kitchen tap as well which is an Italian designed tap (square base with a thin right angle flow stem and 1 joystick lever to turn the water on and off.

At the same time I ordered the vanity units I ordered the kitchen as well. I had a company design the kitchen around my ideas, so we installed mainly draws instead of cupboards as that makes it easier to access the all of the itmes in the draws. We installed an island bench with 6 large draws and fitted osprey cesar stone bench top to it with a waterfall edge down one side. This island bench has a breakfast bar on one side of it since we extended the stone over the bench about 300mm. WE designed the kitchen so the microwave is mounted under bench as well as the oven. We installed a pull out pantry and allowed for a double door fridge.

As far as the kitchen appliances go I ordered a new dishwasher, oven, electric hot plates and a 600mm canopy range hood.

I installed Glass splash backs on the wall behind the hotplates and wall behind the sink, which I installed a Cesar stone ledge, you see the sink is mounted under a window opening and there splash back there is only 150mm high so I finished the top of the window ceil with the osprey Cesar stone.

Prior to the kitchen being installed I had to level the concrete slab floor so I could install bamboo flooring in the kitchen, lounge, dining and hall ways. I engaged a floor preparation company to level the floor since it was more cost effective to get them to supply and install the Ardit K18 self levelling floor compound (the cost of me buying the Ardit was more than what this company quoted me to do the whole job) So they ground back the high parts of the concrete floor with masonry grinders and vacuumed the concrete dust up, and then painted a bond Crete solution to the concrete slab, this helps the old surface bond to the new Ardit self levelling compound. They installed about 40 bags of the self levelling compound which dries overnight. They returned to site the next day to check the levels and found they only had to grind about 2mm in  very small area, now the concrete floor is ready for the bamboo timber floor to be installed. I will tell you about that later since it was about the last thing that was done to finish off the renovation.

As I mentioned to your earlier the vermiculite ceiling was removed and was ready for a new ceiling to be fitted. I employed the services of 2 tradesmen who specialise in solid set ceilings, and they gave me the choice of either tippling the ceilings or flat set plaster, so I chose the flat set plaster which I think looks more modern that the stipple ceilings. They applied a base coat of wet plaster to the concrete ceiling and left that dry for 2 days then returned to apply the final top coat of plaster which the applied with a trowled on, note thes guys worked on stilts for the whole job

Next was the painting of the inside of the unit and painting the veranda walls and veranda ceilings. This was a pretty big job and since I do not like painting I contracted a painting form to do the painting. Mind you I did do all of the patching on the white set walls prior to the undercoating

Now all that was left to do to finish off the renovation was to do the

The rest of this renovation story will be updated soon

Scott