This is probably the most in-depth and honest overview of a typical house renovation in the UK. A small 2 bed semi-detached house in the North East of England in need of a full renovation from top to bottom. From a new water supply through to fixing various cold-bridging problems, flooring repairs, full re-plumbing and much more. Over 35 hours of video content in total covering the vast majority of the 143 day renovation. If you’re looking for something to binge-watch this should keep you busy for a while. Enjoy!
1930’s renovation project – Day 0!
We’re so excited to be taking on this new project. It’s a 1930’s two bedroom semi-detached house in need of …
Removing nightmare flooring – 1930’s Renovation Day 1
It’s time to start actual work on our 1930’s renovation project and that means removing a lot of old flooring! …
De-plumbing the house – 1930’s Renovation Day 2
Before we can start any serious demolition work we need to remove all the redundant plumbing. That means removing a …
De-cladding the bathroom – 1930’s Renovation Day 3
It’s time to reveal what’s behind the cladding in the bathroom. I’m also explaining more of the plumbing and having …
Preparing for back boiler removal – 1930’s Renovation Day 4
As work continues on our 1930’s renovation project today it’s time to prepare for our gas engineer decommissioning the old …
Removing the kitchen – 1930’s Renovation Day 5
It’s time to remove that old kitchen and I’m also attempting to dismantle a Potterton Housewarmer back boiler! …
What’s in that nook? – 1930’s Renovation Day 6
It’s finally time to fill our first skip and dismantle the old stone fireplace. I’m also discovering what was hidden …
Demolishing walls – 1930’s Renovation Day 7
In the world of renovations there are always a few unexpected jobs. Demolishing an external wall wasn’t on my to-do …
Plans Required – 1930’s Renovation Day 9
We need to actually start putting some thought in to this project. That means spending a bit of time on …
Wall Cutting Behind the Scenes – 1930’s Renovation Day 11
It’s time to remove the brick nook! Here’s some behind-the-scenes footage of how that day actually panned out …
Removing the Back Boiler – 1930’s Renovation Day 12
Today we have some behind-the-scenes footage from the brick nook demolition. We’re also finally removing that old back boiler …
Plaster is Falling Off Our Walls! – 1930’s Renovation Day 14
It’s time to move all the rubble from the study room and I also discovered a lot of plaster is …
This was a low point – 1930’s Renovation Day 17
Today was a bit of a low point, lots of behind the scenes stuff and getting wet cutting out the …
More destruction! – 1930’s Renovation Day 20
Yet more demolition and general destruction! I removed a curtain rail and the entire wall came with it …
Clearing under floors – 1930’s Renovation Day 21
We’re discovering more and more hidden joys in this house including huge amounts of hidden rubbish under the floors! …
Brickwork in-depth overview – 1930’s Renovation Day 22
A bit of a Q&A about bricking up the side wall. I answer some of the questions from YouTube and …
Another day in the office! – 1930’s Renovation Day 23
Another typical day on a UK renovation – lots of preparation jobs for future work, priming, clean-up, buying stock and …
Removing redundant electrics – 1930’s Renovation Day 24
Sometimes it’s best to adjust the schedule to suit our wonderful British weather. Blockwork is postponed until the rain passes …
Internal blockwork – 1930’s Renovation Day 26
It’s time to tackle the internal blockwork and I’ve finally bought a mortar pointing gun… but I broke it! …
Preparing for plasterers – 1930’s Renovation Day 28
The plasterers are coming to do the kitchen at very short notice – so it’s time to get everything ready …
We nearly had a gas explosion! – 1930’s Renovation Day 29-30
Our kitchen is now plastered, I removed a radiator, fixed a leaky tap and we nearly had a gas explosion! …
We’ve got boiler problems – 1930’s Renovation Day 31
We’ve got weird boiler problems! The pressure gauge doesn’t seem to be working properly. Loads of other stuff going on …
Building a new floor – 1930’s Renovation Day 32
Welcome back to day 32 of our 1930’s renovation. Lots going on today as per usual! The main task is …
Insane mess under floors – 1930’s Renovation Day 33
Day 33 on this renovation and we have lots of pre-Christmas planning to do. Our main water stop tap is …
Fitting a new stop cock – 1930’s Renovation Day 35
It’s time to fix our internal stop tap and strip out a whole load of redundant old plumbing …
What’s in the loft? – 1930’s Renovation Day 36
It’s time to remove even more redundant plumbing and that means heading up in to the loft – wish me …
Almost flooded the house! – 1930’s Renovation Day 37-40
It’s time to flush the central heating system and install a whole load of new TRVs. Nothing is ever simple! …
Boiler move preparation – 1930’s Renovation Day 41
Our gas engineer will be moving our boiler very soon so it’s time to get everything ready for him… and …
Boiler move done! – 1930’s Renovation Day 42-44
It’s time for our boiler move! Loads going on in this one but as usual it’s not all plain sailing …
Preparing for plasterers – 1930’s Renovation Day 47-49
Another feature length episode for you! Now that the boiler has been moved it’s time to get everything else ready …
State of UK trades – 1930’s Renovation Day 50-59
Another extra long episode. Final preparations for plastering, plastering completed and then the big clean-up. I’m also having a rant …
Downlights and cable fishing – 1930’s Renovation Day 60
We’re cutting downlight holes and doing some awkward cable fishing. I’m on a mission to get messy jobs finished! …
Core drilling for wastes – 1930’s Renovation Day 64
The patio doors are in and the plastering is complete. It’s time for core drilling a various other final messy …
We have hot water! – 1930’s Renovation Day 65
Before we can fix all the floorboards down we need to finish all the under-floor services. That means getting our …
Re-building the soil stack – 1930’s Renovation Day 66
I was hoping I wouldn’t need to do this but in the end there was no real option. I had …
Plastering and new pants! – 1930’s Renovation Day 68-71
It’s time to finish off the plastering with a bit of bonding coat in a few areas. Also putting a …
Floorboards and electrics – 1930’s Renovation Day 73-77
Another multi-day video covering remaining floorboard repairs, bathroom sub-floor, various electrics, loft work, downlights and we’ve had our lead water …
Preparing for water! – 1930’s Renovation Day 79-83
Loads going on in this episode! The filler is all ready for sanding, I’ve got garden clean-up work to do …
The In’s and Out’s of Moling a new Water Supply
It’s time for our new water supply. No trenches to dig for this one. We’re having the new supply moled …
Porch repairs and prep – 1930’s Renovation Day 84
It’s day 84 on our 1930’s renovation and it’s time to start on the porch! That means lots of sanding …
Bathroom prep and mortar repairs – 1930’s Renovation Day 85-87
The new water supply is done. It’s now time to prepare for final electrical work and the fitting of the …
Fitting the bathroom – 1930’s Renovation Day 88-92
It’s bathroom fitting time and as per usual I’m having problems with my nemesis – basin wastes! …
Skirtings and smaller jobs – 1930’s Renovation Day 93-94
It’s time to get everything ready for flooring. That means making a start on skirting boards and ticking a few …
Boxing and Cabinet Making – 1930’s Renovation Day 96-97
Mrs Mac is ploughing on with the decorating and we’re up to the fun jobs for me – boxing and …
Kitchen Problems! – 1930’s Renovation Day 99
It’s day 99 of the 1930’s renovation and we’ve hit a small problem with the kitchen! Also finishing off more …
Sanding Tips and Pre-Flooring Jobs – 1930’s Renovation Day 100
Day 100 of our 1930’s renovation and today we’re sanding, caulking and cleaning everything ready for flooring to be installed …
Kitchen ordering process – 1930’s Renovation Day 104
It’s time to buy the kitchen. That means finalising the design and putting a shopping list together! …
Skirting boards – 1930’s Renovation Day 105
It’s day 105 of our 1930’s renovation and now that the flooring is all complete it’s time to fit the …
Fitting the kitchen – 1930’s Renovation Day 106-109
It’s time to fit the kitchen – this is a 90 minute video about kitchen fitting with more detail than …
Deliveries and worktops – 1930’s Renovation Day 112-113
As we approach the end of this renovation it’s time for lots of deliveries and lots of little jobs. Worktops, …
Lots of smaller jobs – 1930’s Renovation Day 115-119
Today we’re doing loads of smaller jobs – from kitchen worktop through to router details on cupboard doors …
We have a sink! – 1930’s Renovation Day 123
It’s finally time to plumb in our kitchen sink! A monumental moment to have hot and cold running water available …
We have doors! – 1930’s Renovation Day 126
It’s time to sort the doors as part of this renovation. We’ve got some old ones to refurbish and new …
Kitchen tiles – 1930’s Renovation Day 127
Day 127 and it’s time to tile the kitchen. I’m no expert with tiling but hopefully you can pick up …
Grouting and window sills – 1930’s Renovation Day 128-129
Another multi-tasking couple of days – grouting the kitchen tiles, window sills and door hardware …
One last mistake! – 1930’s Renovation Day 130
Not everything goes smoothly in the world of renovations. In this penultimate episode I’m breaking things again! …
The Reveal! – 1930’s Renovation Day 132-143
A final mammoth episode – all those final little jobs add up! Here’s the reveal of how the property turned …
Full cost breakdown of the 1930’s renovation
In this video and attached spreadsheet I’m giving you a full cost breakdown of the 1930’s renovation. Are projects like …