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Hello Scavengers,
I’m going to be renovating my dad’s new condo, which will be used as a rental someday. I thought I would see if anyone wants to offer advice on saving money. We probably won’t have a contractor on this one, so that will help. Moving to a place where labor is not high would help, but that’s not an option for us.
We are going to try out that wood look vinyl flooring. Need to gut bathrooms and possibly will reface kitchen cabinets and get new windows and sliders.
Thanks!
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Lots of different ways to go:
–Are you going to be doing the work, or hiring workmen (but not a contractor?)
–You’ll save money money all the materials yourself. We download Lowes 10% coupon online and pick up so our guys dont charge us for the time it takes to travel and load up.
–You’ll save money buying all the faucets/lights etc yourself. eBay has lots of great deals on high quality finish items.
–Faux Wood vinyl seems much better quality these days than what weimagine from the 1970s. Very popular for rentals. But with any vinyl, just know you’ll need to replace it one day. Once its scuffed/cut, there’s no repair.Overall its just a decision you need to make.
–Make the apartment really nice and quality.
–Or do it down and dirty, using builder grade materials, knowing it’ll all be replaced within a decade like most rentals. -
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Hi and thanks. We are basically worthless when it comes to labor and will be hiring it all out plus we are pretty busy with work and the kids. I’ve found in the past that there is a lot of variance in bids locally because some people will and can pay the crazy price. So, multiple bids is pretty key. Finding the old time locals is usually cheaper because they have a cheaper cost of living to cover for themselves. Our local lumber store or tile stores kind of know who the good guys are and will give referrals, plus the realtor.
I have expensive taste and go all in on my own house, but this is an older (1960s) senior living complex so I don’t want to overdo it. We do want to make it through enough reno that no problems crop up while there are people in it.
Thanks for the Lowes tips. My dad was a doctor in the army during Vietnam and just got his licensed updated. He gets 10% off at a lot of places, including home improvement but won’t be with me when I buy some things as he is still out of town.
Do you buy most of your fixtures online Jay or get chain store stuff?
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Hey ChristineR, welcome to the DIY community. *wink*
We have 4 rental houses and a 4plex and we do a make ready between tenants. When a tenant moves out, my husband goes down and cleans it up, does whatever maintenance is needed (or supervises for contract work) and gets it ready for the next occupation. We don’t do ANY work while a tenant is in the house, it voids our liability protection. We have a property manager to arrange all repairs or deal with any issues while there is a tenant. We only do the make readies between occupancies.
We have been gradually changing ALL the floors to TrafficMaster Allure vinyl plank flooring, that we get from Home Depot. We use the same color (Light Oak) throughout all the houses. It goes down well and lasts fantastically, even in high traffic areas and bathrooms.
We use 3 colors of paint throughout all the houses as well, a light beige for all interior walls, a medium beige for all exterior walls, and a warm ivory/cream color for doors, door frames, windows, and soffits. No matter what house/apartment we’re working on, it’s the same product. We buy Behr interior for inside, and Behr exterior for outside. It’s a high-grade expensive paint product, but dang, does it last! We just had to do a make ready for a house after having tenants in it for just over a year, and the paint barely looked worn. Little extra upfront saved days of labor and cost of having to repaint the house.
Reports back from our tenants are that they love the floors, and they definitely prefer the not-white-rental-walls. The beige is kind of a neutral that goes with anything, so folks who don’t like white walls are happy with it, and folks who do like white walls find that it’s neutral enough that they’re happy with it too. We also use wall corner guards on all walls that have a jutting edge, such as the entryway to passages to the bedrooms. Folks regularly chip the corners when they move furniture, or kids hit edges with skateboards or backpacks. The investment protection and time saved in installing edge protectors is huge. I’m not sure if the linked guards are the ones we use, I think ours are screw in type, but I could be wrong. I don’t actually do the work, just pay for the products! LOL
Kitchen and bathroom counters are painted with Kitchen Counter paint. It’s a bit of a pain to get used to using, but the finish is terrific, and it’s hugely cheaper than replaced counters or even replaced formica. Ikea kitchen cabinets are also great if you need to do a complete remodel.
Sliding double doors are always replaced with French double doors. Sliders are massively problematic and also a security threat. We’ve found that all the houses that have new French doors are much less of an issue going forwards.
We find a lot of plumbing materials at our local dump. You can’t imagine the expensive stuff folks throw away! Basin is cracked? Remove the basin with the complete plumbing still installed, throw it away. We take the basin, remove the plumbing, and then take the basin back to the dump. Paying the $6 dump fee for the basin is nothing when we have a $200 faucet set for free! I kid you not! Check out our awesome freebie!
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Amatino the countertop paint- tell me more…I’ve watched the youtube videos it looks tough. Can you post a pic? I need to do this on our rentals counters to get us by for a couple more years. Bullnose laminate 1990 forest green counter, with green tile cooktop island and green vinyl floor.terrible.
Has anyone ever painted a vinyl floor? A nice charcoal grey would be amazing….
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For faucets, we’ve always bought Delta or Moen. When I was a teen I worked in a hardware store, and learned that both Delta and Moen will replace anything on their faucets for free.
I’m sure they hate me as I’ve basically replaced every piece I could on every faucet I’ve had – sometimes a few times – and every time they ship me the parts for free.
Amatino – your paint colors sound the same as mine – we have a light beige, dark beige, and white for doors/trim in our house. I buy recycled paint in 5 gallon buckets and it’s dirt cheap.
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BigSally, it’s a 4-day process for the counter top paint. There are those multi-finish kit options out there and they look like a serious hassle. The hubs went for the one-can approach using Rust-Oleum Countertop Coating. Comes in 16 colors. Scroll down to the customer reviews section and there are a bunch of photos.
Day 1: clean and wash the counter as best as possible. Sand it down with 120 grit sandpaper to create a rough surface. Then the hubs used Acetone for the next wash to ensure all crud was gone. Not a necessary step, but he’s very particular. Allow to dry. Ensure the area is VERY well ventilated, the stuff is super strong smelling! Apply the solution generously. He used a 4″ roller. You need a very thick coat.
Day 2: Apply a 2nd coat. Very generous coat using a 4″ roller again.
Day 3 & 4: Allow to cure for a minimum of 48 hours. The longer you leave it, the better the result. A bit like a nail varnish, it might be touch dry, but it’s easy to damage if it isn’t totally cured. He didn’t go near it for 48 hours and then avoided it as much as possible for the rest of the week. He did the counter first then worked on the rest of the place, so it had a good week before anyone really went near it.For a rental, this is great, easy, and quick. Although we can’t attest to the durability of the product yet as we only did it at the end of last year. However, a problem might be easily fixed with another coat of it. It’s very nice, smooth, self-levelling and has a great texture. The hubs says it’s perfect for a rental, for your own home you may want to do something better.
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On the vinyl floor, we did it but years and years ago and paint has changed so much, I don’t think I can recommend a product. However, there are a ton of blogs and vlogs that document a successful job. That being said, ours lasted ages with very little wear at all. If I remember correctly, we used an exterior grade paint that is used for concrete porch floors (could be wrong, but I think I remember it was called porch paint back then.) It washed using hot water and a mop and lasted ages!
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Thanks Amatino, sounds like a typical painting project. No shortcuts and lots of time and patience required…Gonna have to wait till the fall when I can dedicate a full week. We just keep chipping away at it. I already replaced a small countertop with leftover 70 year old reclaimed oak flooring to make a butcher block counter scavenger style.
Last summer I painted a shiplap floor in the baby room a barn red porch paint and its holding up nicely. It would be so cool to paint this kitchen floor a concrete grey color- Thanks for the link 🙂
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