first home owner

[newbie56]

I have just bought my first house! While there are about 500 renovation projects involved, I wonder if anyone has any advice about;

Concrete Polishing (what specs are needed to make this a success?)

Roof Restoration (are any of the 'secret' formulas advertised any better than the others?)

Gutter Replacement. Are the fascia boards only for decoration?

Any replies most welcome. House is in Adelaide, in a suburb called Hove.

[Bluegum]

Newbie,

Welcome to the forum mate. If you do a search through the BB then you should find plenty of info. As well as that there are quite a few tradies in here as well that will more than likely know how to help. For your reno maybe you could post a few pics in here to show us exactly what your looking for. Its a good feeling having your own place to tackle things as you go. We bought 3 years ago and haven't stopped trying to put our touch on it.

Facias from the way i see it are there to block roof off from vermin and to support your gutters. If their rusted out then new ones are the way to go. I think the best thing I could suggest as I am no tradie, is to finish one job then start the next one or you will have 50 things on the go at once and nothing will be finished.

[newbie56]

Thanks Bluegum,

Have had a look around and found lots of good info already!
Will be taking my time as $$ are tight, and a wife surrounded in chaos is not a good thing! Makes sense not to have bald gutters i suppose.

Will be hiring some scaffold and a spray gun to do the roof, looks like a nice way to save a few bob!

[Ashore]

Newbie , what sort of roof is it , and before you spray paint ie coat you will need to prepear the surface first , high pressure water blaster springs to mind,

Have been there with new homes and as bluegum says one job and finish it, nothing wives hate more than 4-5 jobs at once , they just don't have the logic or understanding so for peace and quiet , one job at a time

Rgds

Russell

[Sir Stinkalot]

My suggestion would be to start the 500 project but just don't get round to finishing.

I would suggest leaving off the skirting, powerpoints hanging off the wall after painting, half painted architraves and a garden that hasn;t seen a new plant for 3 years.

After all of that then it will be a great place to live.

[workgoose]

Hello Newbie56, before you paint anything, prepare it properly, and that goes for a roof as well. All mould and lichen (moss) has to removed from tiles, as Ashore said, use a pressure cleaner ($99 GMC) which for me lasted to do the roof and a couple of other jobs, then it died. Return to Bunnings and got money back = roof cleaned for free. I then sprayed the tiles with two coats of Solagard paint (or any other top quality paint), came up very nice at a fraction of the cost that restorers like to charge. I have it on good authority that they also use acrylic paint. cheers Peter

[newbie56]

Cheers muchly Ashore and Workgoose. I will be finally (8 wk settlement) getting access to house next Thursday.

The tiles are cement and look a bit crumbly, any way of testing them to see if suitable to paint? I guess stepping on them will be one way of finding out if they are still any good....

Believe it or not, I spent two years as a roofer and never saw a tile. The co. I worked for was specialist copper and zinc so I was known more as a
Handing man than a Handy man.....

Thanks once again, will keep you posted,

Ralph