Settlement house 1954 - complete renovation possible?

how did your initial calculation turn out over time?

So house with interior finishing: estimated 160,000 + 90,000 and ended up with 160,000 + 65,000. A few things solved differently + super, super much own work. We did the plastering ourselves (walls + ceiling) and saved about 12,000 easily. Electrical work also all done by ourselves except the house connection. Water and sanitation were done by others = biggest items.

Insulation (roof+facade) and heating (ground-source heat pump) except for the basement insulation (only 1,000€ costs + own work) and laying of the heating pipes all done by others. Estimated by the energy consultant: 140,000. Ended up at 185,000. KfW + Bafa we will probably get 62,000 back.

Biggest risks:

- Family + job: With two small children, who you can’t take to the construction site, an absolute nightmare. Sometimes you just can’t make progress and can only plan very conservatively. There’s always something going on and grandparents live > 700 km away – too far for babysitting. Then Corona and quarantine here and there. Job: No short-time work, but work without end because we participate in digitalization.

- Encumbrances: The facade panels on gables and dormers were asbestos as suspected. So we had an issue with the sellers, who were sure that couldn’t be asbestos. But TÜV Süd saw it differently: 500€ analysis costs and another 2,500 on top for disposal. --> Always have everything checked

- Electrical work: Everything went fine for us, but I know my way around well. Would not normally recommend it to anyone. If something happens, very bad..

- Laying the heating: I unrolled the coiled pipes myself from a 500m roll, carefully bent and connected them. All tight and went well. My heating engineer only had to fill and connect the remaining domestic water lines to the sanitation fittings. There were 3 water damages we had to claim. So apparently it’s unimaginably difficult to connect faucets and waste pipes, and I happened to get the many pipe connections at the heating distributors right by chance.

So, the floor is finally glued down. Now the kitchen will be assembled and then the move will take place. On the ground floor, larch glued and oiled, and from the upper floor cork panels laid floating.

: Your floors are very beautiful.

How satisfied are you with the cork? It's from Corklife, right? (We're planning to get that one too :-) )

Yes, corklife studio style. It has light cork veneer. It has at least survived the first days of rampaging children without any problems. ;)

Otherwise, it makes a good impression. No tongue/groove has broken significantly during installation, and the packages with damaged corners (every 3rd package) can still be hidden somewhere at the edge.

We also have rubber mats underneath as impact sound insulation. With the wooden beam ceiling, that doesn't help much when the kids jump around, but that was already clear beforehand.

But it certainly makes the walking feeling much better, doesn’t it? That’s why I only have floating floors, no matter what the underfloor heating installer says.

Cork is also relatively soft itself. It feels very good barefoot accordingly. However, it is not so great for underfloor heating because it insulates well. The glued wooden floor underneath is of course harder, but with the heating underneath it is still comfortable for the feet. No comparison to vinyl on concrete in the old building rental apartment so far.