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When moving into a new home, or upon deciding to renovate your home, the first decision you need to make about each room is what you wish to keep.
When moving in the situation is ideal because the house will be empty save for a small amount of essential items.
Replicating this situation by emptying each room completely for each stage of the renovation will help you to get to grips with what you really have to work with. Sometimes it is best to completely strip everything back and start from scratch, but just occasionally you will unearth amazing wooden flooring underneath your 1930s carpet, so it really is worth checking before you commit.
Stripping Carpets
When removing carpets it is important to approach the job sensibly and in a planned manner. Trying to rip it out and drag it through the house will merely damage your doorframes and your back. Begin by detaching the carpet from the grips wherever possible. After this you can begin to cut the carpet into strips of around 3 feet in width.
In very large rooms you will need to cut these strips in half in the middle, but for an average room this will enable you to carry the carpet out without too much of a strain. Have a skip prepared to load the unwanted carpet into because if it sits outside in the rain, then you will find it much harder to load into a skip later on.
Removing Skirting
Removing skirting boards is often an important part of the process of stripping a room back because you will often need to in order to put the new floor in. It is worth noting that skirting can be easily rejuvenated so it probably isn’t sensible to throw it out. Remove the skirting carefully and be sure to make note of which pieces fit each wall. If you want to rejuvenate the skirting then begin by sanding it down. The skirting can then either be repainted or the wood can be treated if it looks nice.
Removing Shutters
Many older houses still have shutters and they can actually be hugely influencing on the mood of a room. Removing the shutters may allow you to look at the room objectively and you might find that the benefits of security screens are more obvious once they have been removed.
Removing Fittings
Removing the light fittings may seem unnecessary and it will certainly make it darker, but this will provide you with a completely blank slate to work from. By removing the existing features it will allow your mind to be creative without the restrictions of what is already there.
Repaint
Before deciding on your final renovation plans it is sensible to retouch and repaint the walls. Removing wallpaper, mending cracks and repainting with a base layer of white are all jobs which will need to be done anyway. By completing them before the final plans are drawn up, you will be able to start again with a completely blank canvas for your design. This is a great way to get your creative juices flowing and allow for renovations which will truly change the appearance of your home.
