Carlton Supporters Club

Just wondering if there are any DIY renovation aficionados on the forum?

I've just bought my first house and will be moving in probably around April and starting to plan a few renovations that need to be done.

Has anyone here ever installed their own timber laminate or vinyl plank flooring? If so, is it the kind of thing a reno novice can do? I have never done any reno style projects, but am conscious of my dwindling budget, so trying to prioritise what I should get a professional for and what I might be able to do myself.

Three biggest jobs are:

Painting - Interior only, but basically every room needs to be done
Carpet - To bedrooms (3) and lounge
Flooring - Kitchen, family room and hallways. Tossing up between timber laminate and vinyl planks

I definitely will have to get the carpets done professionally, so mainly it's going to be whether I do the painting myself, or do the flooring myself. So to anyone with some experience, which would be the easiest for someone with absolutely no experience in either?

Re laminate flooring, whatever you buy, make sure it's at least 12mm thick.  The 8mm stuff is like walking on cheap plywood.  If you can find the dough, spend a little extra and get 14mm bamboo - best thing I ever did, much tougher and looks better.  Also, 6ft boards look much better than the 4ft ones.  If you are going to do it yourself, you need a good table saw and a multi-tool to cut out the door jambs (there will be lots of cutting....). If you are mad keen, you could remove the skirts and put the flooring underneath, but most people just use the pre-finished quad and leave a gap between flooring and skirts.

Do you really need carpets?  Floorboards with rugs in appropriate spots can be a better result.  But if you carpet, that is something for someone who knows what they are doing.

Painting - piece of cake.  And if it doesn't look good the first time, you can always just go over it.  Make sure you do the appropriate prep work. And do the painting work before you do any of the flooring!  And, the difference between a $20 brush and a $5 brush is worth every cent.

Best of luck

Done my share , owner built a couple of extensions to homes and generally do most of the work myself.....Mrs Elwood though has put a stop to my major reno activities although she relents enough for me to help my children.

1. Timber Laminate flooring or Vinyl....yep been there done that... dont buy the real cheap thin boards, they dont lock together properly and the grooved edges will break when you tap them into place especially with a floor that aint too level. Use decent underlay too, dont be tempted to put the new boards straight over any other flooring and dont cheat by putting the boards flush against the skirting, leave the gaps for movement as suggested. My daughter has a new home and the installers decided to cheat because it saved them having to rip cut some boards and when the heat came last Xmas she woke up and the boards had all buckled and she had a mountain peak in her family room...

2. Carpet...forget the DIY, get it installed, you can feck up the laminate boards but if you cut the carpet wrong you are out of pocket big time.
Get a company who sell and install but have their own installers, not subbies....

Good luck....

I've done quite a bit of house reno etc. in my time NM. From my experience the easiest job on your list would be painting out rooms but there a a few tricky points to it and I find it to be a very boring occupation.

If you are a novice then I would approach laying carpet cautiously - getting it flat and smooth needs a bit of experience and a knee kicker tool.

I've only done floor tiling, many moons ago, and the cutting for the tricky edges, corners and around door frames etc was the hardest part I find. You need to invest in the right tools.

Have a look on Youtube and you will find plenty of good instructional videos, Also the Bunnings site has a good range of these too.

My advise is youtube everything you are going to attempt, and watch as many different videos showing techniques as possible.

Then factor in that these people will have had a lifetime of work experience and instruction behind what they do, and decide whether or not you can do it well enough.

The other alternative, is simply to wait and do the projects in dribs and drabs.

We used taxi boxes to store the entire interior of our home whilst we got our timber overlay flooring done.

We had saved and done the majority of those renovations after a few years, but I painted the house when we moved in, and having been in there 4 years and doing a major renovation, I re painted the house knowing that they start to look tired after about 8 years and could use a re coat.

There are more factors to consider.  Even if you do a good job, what will take a pro 1 day will likely take you about 3 (or more) depending on skill level.

I would always paint, irrespective.  Pros go that quickly that they tend to do as bad a job as an amateur who is trying really hard to get it right.

What great advice!

Mrs Baggers and I have also just bought a home down on the island. And it requires repainting inside and out which I am happy to do, having done it many times before. The advice of getting quality brushes/rollers and paint is spot on. We're lucky as our new home is not the typical holiday home but rather architect designed and properly built (no asbestos/double bedrooms/big kitchen etc).

Love the advice re tiling - thank you. I've never done that before. Mrs Baggers suggested just spraying directly over the tiles, something she saw on one of the 5,388 home improvement shows she watches. Any thoughts on spraying vs tiling over the oldies - as suggestion I really like, thank you, EB1.

The existing carpet is in pretty good nick but we will eventually pull it up and do floorboards so, again, great advice above. Under the carpet is chipboard.

NM, very best of luck with your reno. The only humble advice I can offer is to echo the above, take your time and use quality products, plus the 3 p's... preparation, preparation and preparation!