Best order for refurbishing house
I will most likely be moving and will be redoing the house to make it ready for sale. What's the best order for doing these things... I'm thinking it's the order listed below.
- interior paint
-redo shower/tub
- flooring
- cabinets/counters
I would do the real renovations first. Painting last.
Roof (and windows / caulking) first if required. Make sure it is 100% weathertight before doing any interior work. Then do all required wiring and plumbing modifications so if you need to open walls, cielings, or floors you aren't doing anything twice. Then fix all the walls, and do first coat of paint. Then do floors, then cabinets, then trim and final coat of paint.
Doing it in this order means there is no chance of unpainted wall showing behind cabinets and trim, and the cabinets etc are all accurate hight from finished floor - so things like stoves, dishwashers, etc fit properly - and any damage done to walls when doing floors etc can be touched up with the final coat of paint - while wall repairs and initial painting won't get paint/drywall compound etc on the new flooring.
Of the items given...
At least that's the order I would do them.
Anthony Watson
I might wonder what *sort* of flooring is going in. E.g., with ceramic tile, often want the cabinets to sit on the "subfloor" and not the tile so you'd install them and then tile *to* them (instead of tiling UNDER them).
depends a lot upon other factors, how much you like doing that sort of thing, if you're skilled enough to make it look good, how much time you have, what the local market is like, ask the local realtors (but most likely they will encourage you to do improvements as it is money in their pocket if a house sells for more).
IMO, none of that, if you count your labor and the cost of materials you will rarely recover the expenses. also figure the time to sale. right now is spring, get it on the market and let it go. you want to be moving in the fall or winter?
if i buy a place all of those are things that i would redo for myself to suit my own tastes. why would i want to pay more $ for things i'll replace or redo eventually? if someone repaints with cheap paint it sucks, same for the rest of it...
much better to make sure the roof is done well and that the exterior is sound. take care of anything that would be a problem for the new owner but otherwise get out and move on.
songbird
obviously all those house flippers arent making money, and buyers dont ever buy flipped homes
No the cabinet should sit on the tile not the subfloor. What if the cabinet would need changed out? Then you would need to redo the floor as well.
John
redo shower/tub (if there will be paint above shower tiles, paint there first) interior paint cabinets/counters flooring (unless you want it UNDER the cabinets)
If I ever wanted to change mine I would remove them from the plinth upon which they sit - the face of which is tiled - and put in new ones, sans toe kicks.
Plinths are handy.
Are all those things necessary? Sounds like a lot of work to make a house ready for sale. I'd talk to a couple of realtors first. Often times, that stuff doesn't pay off.
Do the things that need doing, but be careful of the money and time you invest. Sounds like you might not get a lot of that back.
A few years ago, we sold a house and all we did was update the flooring and paint. Sold almost immediately.
Unless they were built in such a way as to make that practical, the plinth would likely break taking out the cabinets, and the plinth comes as part of the new cabinets - again unless you have them custom made to fit your existing plinth. And what if you want to re-arrange and move the fridge or stove or dishwasher???
Not practical in most situations.
If the place is a "dump" just getting someone to look at it, much less buy it, may require all of the above.
An empty chicken coop is hard to sell in any market. So is a house that has had the interior basically destroyed. A little lipstick on the pig CAN go a long way. However, if it is basically in good shape, you are unlikely to get your money back - much-less make a profit.
As for flippers - I wouldn't buy the average "flip" for any price.
In most cases it's a lot of lipstick on a dead pig.
I installed our cabinets on TOP of wood flooring, tile flooring, and vinyl flooring. Makes for a neater job, and much easier than cutting around the cabinets.
The only exception would be carpet, where you would install the cabinets first and fit the carpet around them.
Anthony Watson
Why would you want the cabinets on the subfloor? That is the way a hack does a remodel.
Buying, I agree with you. Selling, I do not. Ever watch any f the TV shows about real estate? Seems there are a lot of unimaginative buyers that just want to move in and do nothing. They reject houses for silly things too, that you or I can change in an hour.
The people that quibble over the appliances are the ones that I don't understand. When dealing with a house that is over $ 200,000 they worry about a thousand or two worth of the appliances.
I bought a house about 12 years ago and to make my wife happy, the master bathroom was stripped to the studs and redone to make it look the way she wanted before we moved in.
The house I sold was turned over to some people I know and I told them to give it a 'fluff and buff'. Just paint, a few minor things,and I did replace some vinal flooring as it was well worn. Hail storm happened about that time , so the insurance paid for a new roof. Sold it myself in about
3 months.
Also the way a majority of "flips" are done. Do it right.
Take your argument to its logical conclusion: if you've already got tiled floor, do you rip out the tile when you install new cabinets?
The top surface of tile is uneven. Setting cabinets ON it leaves you with a potentially unstable base and gaps under the cabinets (unless you want to make your toe kicks out of RUBBER)
Cabinets are standard sizes. It's not like your next set are going to be deeper, front to back, than your old ones. You aren't going to move the walls to squeeze in a cabinet that is 2" wider, etc.
Here, homes where folks installed cabinets *on* tile are the "low rent" variety; the installation looks very amateurish.
Absolutely 100% correct.
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