Building Your Dream Apartment

Building Your Dream Apartment

2 tips to remember when revamping an old house

Julian Caldwell

If you plan to revamp an old house, here are some tips that you should keep in mind during this process.

1. Get your contractor to put reinforced door frames in areas where fire doors are being installed 

Most old houses do not have fire doors. If your project will include replacing some or all of the doors in your property with fire doors, then it is important to also tell the contractor you have hired to remove the old frames that surround these doors and replace them with reinforced ones. The reason for this is that if a fire ever occurs in the property in the future, the fire doors that you fit in the building will swell up (this design feature is what makes this type of door effective at containing smoke). If this happens and the frame that surrounds one of the doors is made from a weak, old piece of timber, the pressure that the swollen door places on this frame could cause it to crack.

This could cause two problems. Firstly, smoke could travel through the broken door frame, which could defeat the purpose of having had the fire door itself installed. Secondly, after the fire has been dealt with, you would have to replace the damaged door frame. As such, if you want to fit doors like this in the house, you must ensure that the existing door frames are replaced with ones that are made from strong materials that will be able to withstand the pressured placed upon them by the doors when they expand during a fire.

2. Utilise any old fireplaces instead of blocking them up

Due to the fact that many older properties were built during a time when central heating systems were not commonly used, a lot of these properties have fireplaces, as these features were the main source of heat in residential buildings. However, in modern homes, fireplaces are not as much of a necessity as they once were.

If the building that you are modernising features several fireplaces that you do not need (or which are no longer functional), then you might be considering using bricks or concrete blocks to seal them up. However, it might be better to utilise these small spaces. You could, for instance, get your contractor to hang some shelves in the empty fireplace so that you can use it as a bookshelf.

Alternatively, you could tell your contractor to add decorative tiles to the visible parts of the fireplace's interior so that you can then place a few ornaments or candles in this area and turn into the focal point of the room in which it is located.


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About Me
Building Your Dream Apartment

Hi! My name is Robert. I live in Brisbane with my wife and our two kids. For many years, I have been saving up money so I could build our dream home. I first saw my dream home when I was aged 21. I was on a holiday to the USA and was staying with friends in California. While down on the beach one day, I spotted a lovely mansion house which was high up on the cliffs. I decided that one day, I would like a house like that. Last year, I instructed a team on house builders to begin construction of our new home and I couldn't be happier. I have learnt so much from the experience, I decided to start this blog.