[Closed] Total house strip/gut. What would you put in?

If it was me I'd fit a new heating system powered by a Tandoor oven - then if you want hot water for a bath you have to make nan breads.

I'd definitely put network points in all rooms.

Tracking lasers hidden in the wall.
Do it,you know you want to.

Under floor heating and some nice tiled floors or polished concrete. An inside to outside kitchen extending into the garden for summer so you can move on and outside. A good gas bbq with wok burner for cooking the smelly stuff outside (even in winter). Despite WiFi being king cat 5 to all rooms. Also plenty of plugs and some USB sockets

rad positions will be the same

Underfloor heating

In a similar position I only ran Ethernet to a couple of points as wifi is so good these days. Having a gigabit switch to plug TV/Blu-ray/sky/other streamer into ensures they work no problem and no need for dongles

i love these threads....

half the stuff that gets suggested ive never had a need for .....

except the tandoor everyone needs a tandoor

Is ALL the plaster knackered ? Seems a bit extreme unless it really is all beyond repair. I imagine some walls could just be skimmed over ?
I'd be going for underfloor heating personally and doing away with radiators altogether. Wiring wise I'd be adding perhaps 25% extra sockets in to what you 'need', they always come in and it saves unsightly 4 socket extentions. Re networking, I know nowt about that, use a wifi hub but only surf the web and don't do any actual work online at home. I'd also go to town on insulation in the loft and look at some sound insulation between party walls and perhaps in the room you're likely to have loud music in ?

MoreCash Mansion is in a similar state of need, so watching this with interest. Wondering what sort of budget it would need on a 4 bed detached including heating. I'm guessing it would fall within the "smaller lottery win"/start another mortgage category.

From an electrical perspective, double sockets in every corner of rooms and the most accessible being the usb type. Lights inside any cupboards or fitted wardrobes. LED downlights so much nicer than a crappy pendant. Mains smoke, heat and CO detectors. Go for a grid switch in the kitchen so that all your appliances are controlled from a central point and there is no need for fused spur units above worktops for isolation purposes.
I reckon I need 3 ethernet cables coming up behind the TV for various things you want to connect to the internet.

Insulation everywhere (kingspan backed plasterboard).
Cat 6 cables and ports in certain locations - wireless is not as good as a wire.

I'd be making secret passages between rooms with concealed doors in bookcases.... and portraits with removable eyes so you can watch the occupants of your house unobserved.

Even if you want wifi it'd be worth putting wiring in place for access points in the places you want them for good coverage and/or having them in less visible/obvious places. Likewise if you're not happy with when things like router, etc currently live then think about relocating them. Cat5 to the fixed things (TVs, games consoles, desktop PCs) is nice. Some people would advocate flood-wiring but I'm not sure I'd bother - just because you can do it fairly cheaply when plaster is off doesn't mean you should if you won't use it.

Kitchen ceiling speakers would be nice just to keep worktops and shelves clear. Still need somewhere to house an amp and other electronics for it though.

Mostly I'd just like enough power sockets everywhere I want them.

Edit: oh, and if you want (or may want) an alarm at some point - wired is better.

A basement. I've always wanted a house with a basement.

i love these threads....

half the stuff that gets suggested ive never had a need for .....

except the tandoor everyone needs a tandoor

I forgot to mention - while we're looking at pipes rather than cables

3 taps in the kitchen - hot, cold and humous.

Network cable all over.. doesn't have to be used for network. Media converters will allow you to run HDMI, speakers or whatever over CAT6.
Network to central ceiling point for decent wifi access point in the centre of the house powered by POE switch.

J

Nobody's suggested sex dungeon yet?

Sex dungeon.
....and a pizza oven.

When talking about cat 5 and 6 cables - do all of these plug into the router or is another box of tricks required?

internal wall insulation? really good time to sort out the draft proofing. Not as exciting as cabling, but will save mega bucks in the future.

I'd also have cat5 to all rooms. I had them added to mine, a couple of years ago, just to two rooms. always want more, just like plug sockets. more more more.

good time to think about swapping the way doors open, i also had that done. so they now open onto the wall, rather than into the room. makes huge difference.

Just finished works on our house. Network cable fitted from office (where the BT master socket was moved to) to behind the TV and into an 8 port network switch. The difference from everything previously being wireless is definitely noticeable.
Wish I'd thought about speaker wires for the surround sides and rears. May have to retrofit when MrsTTP isn't looking 8)
We looked at underfloor heating, but retrofitting would have been prohibitively expensive. Now have double panel/double convector rads driven by an Ideal Standard Vogue combi boiler. Works very well, but we did move some rads after considering placement of furniture.

What I really wanted was a soundproof basement cinema with hot and cold running popcorn 🙂

[Edit] +1 door opening direction. Changed a couple of ours and the flow in the house is so much better.

Ejector seats

motion sensors

200kW jungleist sound system and revolving dancefloor

a butchers block*

*I wouldn't really but I'm married so I have to say that

We did this 3 years ago.

2 x CAT5 outlets in each bedroom, which all run back to the router.
Router moved to underneath main TV, which is plugged in via Ethernet rather than relying on WiFi.

Smoke/heat/carbon monoxide detectors all linked/hard wired, and all controlled via small test/reset panel.

Double plug in the corner of every room - 3 or 4 x double plugs under the TV.

Outside lights switched properly rather than on plugs.

Things I wish we'd done -

Outside power sockets - if you put Christmas lights outside you can hide a socket up near your fascia boards and switch it from inside?
Ethernet up to Shed/Garage
cabling for burglar alarm/CCTV

good time to think about swapping the way doors open, i also had that done.

So that you have to feel around in the dark on the wrong side of the door for the lightswitch 😆 (speaks a man who's currently refurbing his parents house and having to re-re-hang the doors)

Positive pressure ventilation unit in the loft.

Proper wet room instead of a bathroom.
Everything else is covered.

Underfloor heating.
Wired network in every room.
More sockets, sockets with 2.1A USB ports.

Sensible wifi hub locations.
Server cupboard of some description (can keep your ethernet switching/router and suchlike in there if you're not yet running Server/NAS type stuff)

[i]Wish I'd thought about speaker wires for the surround sides and rears. [/i]

At what point did you NOT think about this? 🙄

For speakers I'm going sonos next time. Fixes that

An isolation tank.

You in a suitable location/budget bracket for a thermal store and solar hot water? And do you have space for it.

Might be worth looking into.

I feel like a luddite for asking.... but whats all the cat 5 / 6 cable for?

whats all the cat 5 / 6 cable for?

Maybe he's a cataholic?

The Pope would approve.

Network, most routers have a WiFi channel the speed is split between the devices connected. Wired connections get the full speed.

key safe

priest hole

Orangery.

Will discourage crows.

maccruiskeen : full re-wire, means light switches can be relocated to suit doors 😉

Even wireless AC is marginally slower than ethernet.

So we've got our gravity challenged devices on cables and laptops/phones/tablet on wireless N or AC.

We've just had a a lot of electrical work done and plastering.

In contrast to the majority opinion, we didn't run Cat5 everywhere, it's our house not an office block, what possible need to I have for a router in the bedroom? Just plugged power line adapters in the rooms where wi-fi was an issue.

More plugs than you need though. And ones with USB sockets in the likely places (behind the TV for the chromecast, in the kitchen for charging phones)

And if you want the modern, hidden screws, almost flush fitting sockets, spec them first, because they're a PITA to fit into back boaxs which were intended for cheap plastic sockets unless your electrician took an unreasonable degree of price in his work those white sockets cover a multitude of sins.

Surround speaker cabling would be nice, although after we finished we spun the living room round 90deg, so it requires a degree of commitment to the interior design.

The one thing I regret is not moving the phone socket. It would make more sense to have the router hidden away somewhere, not on the side table in the study where the phone would have been 10 years ago.

One thing to consider from the data point of view is using non-shit wifi gear. A the base Ubiquiti wifi access point can be unobtrusively ceiling mounted and powered over the same ethernet cable that connects it to the router, so if you're gutting the house then all the wiring can be hidden and you just have a 20cm wide white disc on the ceiling somewhere central.

A caravan out back to live in and turn the house into a bike workshop.

You can have this idea free - my wife fails to appreciate its genius so I can't use it.

Fire mans pole and boldering wall.
Hidden safe / security / firebox.

All externals will be insulated board as we suffer badly with damp/mold. Internal walls which are structural will be stripped back also. Internal walls that are stud will be over boarded along with ceilings. All downstairs was over skimmed originally but it's 70 % blown now. Re cat 5/6 does it all need to go back to some kind of patch panel etc?
Underfloor not an option as we have timber floors downstairs.

I personally don't like the idea of USB sockets.
You've basically got x number of transformers that you can't switch off permanently powered-up.

Agree about cat6 everywhere though. You just need 1 large switch to take all the cables back to the router like this (I didn't research long - so look up some comparisons):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-DGS-1210-28-Gigabit-Smart-Switch/dp/B008R7114W
Make sure every item you buy supports gigbit LAN.

Tripple glazing, underfloor heating, hive thermostat thingy, cables for tv, surround sound etc too,
Sex dungeon/attic with a love swing

I personally don't like the idea of USB sockets.
You've basically got x number of transformers that you can't switch off permanently powered-up.

I'm an electricity ignoramous, but does that mean you're rinsing electricity 24/7, or there is an increased fire risk, or what?

Speakers in the ceiling in pretty much every room would be my top priority.

maccruiskeen : full re-wire, means light switches can be relocated to suit doors

I know - I'm not doing a full rewire, thats why I'm re-re-hanging the doors

This:

Bike storage?, e.g. a rack or a suspended jobbie

A caravan out back to live in [s]and turn the house into a bike workshop.[/s]

The caravan to live in is a good idea. Gutting the house as you are suggesting will be miserable to live with IME

Wired smoke alarms.

Consider lighting circuits for side lamps etc - these can all be switched from the wall socket.

Don't forget TV aerial cables (like I did until about 2 weeks in).

We hadn't lived in our house before we gutted it so weren't sure where stuff was going to go - which meant educated guesses on where to put sockets - we went for a pair in each corner of each room + 6 where the TV goes.

Separate circuit for the fridge so if you ring main goes (but I hear these are on the way out now?), your fridge doesn't.

Also, think about if you want any home-automation stuff like Hive / Hue etc.

Re: USB I'm an electricity ignoramous, but does that mean you're rinsing electricity 24/7, or there is an increased fire risk, or what?

But mostly it just doesn't sit right 🙂

http://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/electrical-professionals/product-safety-unit/usb-socket-outlets/

I'm an electricity ignoramous, but does that mean you're rinsing electricity 24/7, or there is an increased fire risk, or what?

All the ones I've installed have negligible standby current. If you buy from a reputable seller (rather than off Ebay), they will (hopefully) be properly designed and perfectly safe.

A mate did this recently and along with the rewire we put in a wired house alarm, cable for the distribution of audio/video to every room, cable for TV/Sattelite points, 4 network points to every room including the loft and finished it with remote controlled lighting circuits/switches.

Swimming pool in place of living room. 😀

Faraday cage in the dining room? So the kids can't text message during dinner? 🙂

Swimming pool in place of living room.

Nah, you want one of these...

All the ones I've installed have negligible standby current. If you buy from a reputable seller (rather than off Ebay), they will (hopefully) be properly designed and perfectly safe.

+1

Buy them from screwfix not china.

They don't use transformers, I can't remember the last electrical device I bough that used a transformer rather than a switching power supply. And thy replace things like the chromecast power supply, the phone charger by the bed, etc which would otherwise be plugged in 24/7 anyway.

And if it did fail, or catch fire, it's going to be trip the RCBO pretty quickly being part of the plug socket itself!

And they're no more in danger of dating than any other socket design. and if 2.1A USB becomes obsolete, the whole socket cost less than Apple charge for an iPhone charger anyway!

I wouldn't fit them everywhere, they're relatively expensive, but they're great where they're needed.

Agreed about the network points. I put two by the TV in the lounge (long before smart TVs became a thing) and now I wish I had six. A small network switch does the trick but it uses up a mains socket. So I'm also short on those now !

I wanted a home cinema system, so mains power & an HDMI back to the hifi rack was vital for installing a projector. Probably should have put a network point up there too but I've not needed it yet.

And then wiring for the speakers, obvs.

With the room stripped it was also an opportunity to fit a hidden drop-down projector screen behind the coving. Very simple but makes a much cleaner install.

Still on the AV front, a later project to refit the bedroom, we put power + SAT + network points halfway up the wall for mounting a TV with no visible wiring. Definitely worthwhile as it'd look a right mess running trailing wires there now.

PIR activated lighting in the walk-in wardrobe has been a nice touch.

Don't bother re-plastering; just dry-line the outside walls. You will be able to fit a smaller boiler and save money on heating.

Fit a parallel 12v wiring loom for lighting. Fit a discrete home urinal in the workshop or downstairs loo. Fit heated mirrors. Separate circuits with 5 amp sockets for table lamps controlled by one switch.

How about a keysafe near the front door?

I love the USB points in my mains sockets, so handy

More sockets than you think you need

What do you consider as dry lining? Metal stud then board? Still needs skimming and won't have the thermal properties of an insulated board.

having done this recently;

A lot of sockets in sensible locations, you will still end up using extension cords though.

Underfloor heating is something I regret not doing but was beyond the cash availability at the time.

Ethernet is a waste with Wifi faster than most internet connections. The main concern should be getting BT to put the phone line into the house in a sensible location, so no under the bedroom window, nowhere near a power socket or anywhere to stand the BT router, grrr. Im getting it moved to an alcove so I can just keep it out the way (of sight) without trailing wires everywhere and connect my NAS without it needing to be whirring away in the middle of a room.

BT fitted me a combination phone/ethernet socket previously so that's already sorted. Never had a house alarm but think it's probably worth it. However killer dog does a pretty good job at the moment 😆

If I were building a house from scratch I'd aim to have an access panel to allow me to isolate individual radiators, water supply to boiler, taps etc. It might be overkill but would be very handy and give peace of mind with regards to isolating leaks.

Other things which make a house easier to live in... Proper cloakroom to store coats, shoes, bags etc. Utility room etc.

I'm surprised at how much people are bothered about cabling and not proper house 'features'

I'm surprised at how much people are bothered about cabling and not proper house 'features'

The OP also mentions putting in an en suite so the question clearly isn't related entirely to cabling thoughts.

Anyway, I don't want to derail the thread as some interesting suggestions may pop up, it was just an observation

Everyone had one of these when I was growing up.

[img] [/img]

SR - That is the neatest woodpile I have ever seen 😉

Full, high quality sound insulation in every wall and every floor hat isn't solid.

Panic room. When you buy a new bike and the wife panics over how you can afford it, lock her in until she calms down. Possibly combine with previously mentioned co2 alarms to avoid awkward conversations with her friends and relatives.

Not read everything above, one aspect to think about in main living rooms is 3-5amp [u]light [/u]sockets switched from wall point by door, so table lamps etc can be switched off as you leave the room by one local light switch and not walking round he whole room turning the lights out!
3-5amp sockets are the round pin type just for lighting as I understand it...1st world problem but it's a joy when you can turn all the lights out by the door at night , (confession) our family room has over 24 bulbs, I wanted choice with lighting and it was before LED dimmers controls!

Next choice look up Philips LED digital lighting controllers if you are going for new lights...
With respect to wall [u]plaster[/u], insulation is key AND how to detail the window reveal junction, i.e. use barrier tape to seal joints, so when mastic and plaster shrinks away you don't get draughts at the windows.

Good luck can't wait for the update photos:)

I'd buy a top end Traeger and live off Pork ribs and Beer.

Not read everything above, one aspect to think about in main living rooms is 3-5amp light sockets switched from wall point by door,

Got those in my place - took me five years to actually get round to putting some 5amp plug on the lamps around the house and wish I'd gotten round to it sooner - a) because they're ace - b) because its difficult to break the habit of switching the lamps off individually at the end of the night so the next day when I switch them on at the lightswitch they don't come on 🙂

Doing the same,

Cat 6 for Internet to every room, and to the back of all TVs. Then run a spare two to the back of each TV point and all back to a central area. Can then not only have wired Internet for devices in every room, but can use the dual Cat6 to put HDMI signal over. Means you can then have a centralised Sky/Audio/NAS etc to every TV

The idea of having al this wired for me anyway, was that the wifi is then free to just be used as personal Internet use and possibly SONOS, also means you are permenantly connected for devices and not reliant on your wifi strength

A 40% bigger budget than you think and a char grill. That's all.

Are the insulated wall panels the ones with a metal layer? That will kill your wifi... so a decent bit of wiring around the house is essential! 🙂

Also something I'm actually quite impressed with in this house from the previous owner. The hot water tank is wisely in the attic space (get it out of the way) so the nice spacious cupboards in the utility room have small radiator in.

Gimp cage.

Panic room incase the gimp escapes.

Current boiler is in the loft. That's going to be replaced with a newer one that will hopefully pay for itself in 4 years in gas and insurance savings.