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Information on renovations on a budget?

Hi, we are going to be moving into an older house, and want to do some renovating, but we are on a tight budget. We plan on doing most of it ourselves, my husband is quite handy. We will be hiring a "handy man" friend of ours that is quite knowledgable in regards to most things, including electrical , plumbing etc. (he is very afffordable). I was wondering how complicated and (material wise) expensive it would be to plumb a bathroom on the second floor (above the main floor bath)? Also to duct in 2 more registers? Thanks in advance! Hi, thanks for the help! The reason we want to add more registers is that the 3 bedroom upstairs has only 1 register, in the landing. We are going to be changing it to 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, and think that them having only 1 register was crazy! We're thinking of doing a shared wall one between the bathroom and bedroom, and then one in the additional bedroom. That's what the house we're in now has, and it works fine.

Public Comments

1. the ducting in of more registers is as easy as your attic access allows....sometimes a snug fit but its easy and very effective...always go with larger rather than smaller. As for the bathroom....shoot, those are always a pain and not cheap! That one will also require a building permit, it changes the value of the house about 5k, its not impossible, the vent pipe from the downstairs bath is still there, but tying into the water and drain lines is a serious job....not super quick either....that one you are going to have to budget for, just make sure you get several quotes, you might want to talk to your building department yourself too, that way you know if the quotes you are getting are legit. Bathroom additions are pretty notorious for going over budget and taking a lot longer than expected!
2. Just wondering why you are installing two more registers because if you do this you will reduce the velocity of air comming from the existing ones. If you are adding new conditioned space your old fan coil may not be large enough to handle the additional load. As for plumbing the bathroom; you need to consider the location of existing plumbing; especially the drain pipe as it is larger. Also the weight of a bath tub filled with water is heavy and you shouls make sure that its location will be structurally sound. Saving money doing it yourself is good, but, if you do it wrong, you might be inviting a nightmare. Get permits for anything you do so you will have the peace of mind knowing an inspector approaved of your work and if anything bad happens, your insurance company will cover the damage. Good luck.
3. you may want to be careful when messing with your hvac system. adding registers sometimes throws the balance of air flow and will cause back bedrooms or upstairs bedrooms to receive less air or heat. the home was mapped out for the amount of registers it currently has. maybe you could consider electric. None-the-less, be careful when you do these types of renovations. The plumbing should be fairly simple. you may have to open the walls and or ceiling in the lower level bathroom to se ewhat you are working with. Use PEX or something similar...that stuff is amazingly simple...anyone can do it. Take your time and buy stuff on sale, clearance, contractor packs ect. especially lumber, buy low and your money will go so much further. a lesson i learned after about $22000 into our project.