Maisonette Renovation

We began our renovation work in the maisonette whilst we were waiting for planning permission. The maisonette was visually in good condition when we purchased it, so our ideal option was to just upgrade the bathroom and redecorate before renting it out. However, as soon as we took vacant possession it quickly became clear that the best option would be to do a complete refurbishment. We wanted to ensure high quality accommodation for our tenants that would be safe and require low maintenance going forward. We also wanted to add as much capital value to the maisonette as possible.

So, with the decision made to do a substantial refurbishment we set about the work and the first job was stripping all of the lovely wood chip wallpaper… This was used to cover a multitude of issues with the wall condition in every single room and in the bedrooms the ceilings too!

A pet hate of ours is wall mounted pipework and conduit for wiring. Unfortunately this property had some very ‘special’ wiring as a result of the property once being combined with the maisonette next door as a 6 bed HMO. Each room had it’s own distribution board and coin meter! While the coin meters were removed, the separate distribution boards remained. So, with the previous electrical installation not being removed the wiring was a complete ‘mine field’ and there was lots of surface mounted conduit as well.

The central heating system was also a legacy from the HMO days and again there was lots of surface mounted 10mm pipework, which not only looks terrible, but also is also not very efficient for the boiler.

Due to these issues we made the decision to completely re-wire and re-plumb the property, removing of all the surface mounted cables and pipework in the process.

On the positive side, the kitchen is fairly new and needed very little work. All that was required was a little tidying up of the walls following removal of the surface mounted cables and pipes.