All Topics / Value Adding / Where to start??
G'day all..
I have 3 IP's, a house, townhouse and unit… I'm looking to do a few little jobs soon but would like to get to the kitcens of the unit and house in the next 12 months… I'm em,barassed to say I'm 29 and have no idea where to start looking, what to measure, whether you buy the whole kitchen from somewhere like IKEA, what a flatpack involves.. etc. So I suppose my question is, what steps do I need to take to transfer my crappy looking kitchens into new ones? cheers
tuggerYou could do a Bunnings kitchen, or ring a few kitchen companies.
Either way, they will all have to come and measure.
My brother did his own flat pack (not Ikea though) and it looks great, but he is pretty handy and has good tools. It took him a while – w'ends only.
Thanks Aussie…
Would love to have a hand in pulling down or putting up a kitchen but would rather see how its done first time and maybe give it a crack second time around. Cheers
tuggerWe pulled out a kitchen in one of our IP's.
Left only the floor and the walls.
Generally, everything is attached to the walls, so a small crow bar, grinder, screwdrivers saws etc.
Try not to put holes in the plaster if you can avoid it.
Depending on your budget and the look you want you could check out the local paper's for people ripping out their kitchens to update. A few years ago I bought 2 solid jarrah kitchens for $250 each (I bought one of them just for the benchtops) and put them together to make a large, flash looking kitchen. The house style was older with wooden floors etc so the kitchen fitted in well. I also used a pine dresser in the bathroom, changed the top doors to mirrors, put the sink unit in the top and the bottom cupboards hid the towels etc. We knocked a wall out in the lounge and used railway sleepers as the rsj and they framed the sides of the wall and top which was very effective. You can tile on top of old mosaic floor tiles. Lots you can do if you have an eye for a bargain and good renovation skills. Hope this helps, it's all about looking outside the square. So saying that the flatpacks these days are great.
A place like Bunnings can also organise a plumber and/or electrician if you want. Personally, I found it easier for them to do that as well. Or you can organise your own trades.
Pulling out the old kitchen is a good way to save money and get involved first time round, but be wary of asbestos and take appropriate precautions.Thanks for all the great info…when knocking out your own kitchen how much of the plumbing do you have to retain? Can you pretty much go hell for leather with the crowbar as long as you dont damage the plumbing and electrical? cheers
tuggerHi tugga
By the sounds of it you are planning to basically re do the kitchens but you can make a big improvement without doing too much damage.
By simply redoing doing the
– cupboard doors (you can normally sand and paint these – you can even get laminex paint these days)
– stove, dishwasher etc
– Bench tops (these are very easy to put on top of the existing structures)
– tiles (if you use white knight tile paint you don't even need to replace them)anyway just an idea if you wanted to do a cheap and quick renovation
Cheers
Banjo Smyth
good onya banjo…that sound like a much easier way to add a bit of value to my rental return on the property… with some cupboard handle changes, new coat of paint and a new benchtop that would make a nice change…cheers
tugger
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