Q&A

Getting ready to sellAll the advice we read in magazines is about people getting their house ready to sell but we need more than advice about decluttering.

My partner has inherited a house (a 1950s corporation house in Cabra on Dublin's northside) and our plan is to do it up to sell. An elderly person was living in it and it is in poor condition. He is an electrician and several members of our families are tradespeople so labour is not a problem. We are very keen to make the most out of this opportunity and are prepared to do major work to make the maximum amount of money. Aside from the basics, new windows, replastering, heating and wiring we don't know where to start. For example, a friend suggested that we should convert one of the three bedrooms into an en suite and walk-in wardrobe, as people seem to like that. Any advice would be appreciated?

Get the basics right. Set a realistic budget for the job and ask a local estate agent what price a renovated house, like yours, is likely to get. That should give you a clear idea on what to spend. Your house is likely to appeal to first-timers or buyers trading up from an apartment. In this market, an eat-in kitchen is a must. Shop around for good looking kitchen units. It doesn't have to be wildly expensive - B&Q and the Panelling Centre are two retail outfits with fine ranges and, importantly, good and free advice. To achieve this you may need to build an extension - an extension could have a loo and a small utility area - two things attractive to buyers. If there are two small reception rooms, knock through to make one decent room. Is there any money in your budget for an architect - it's their job to come up with ideas that make the best use of space and light. Then it's down to details. The floorboards in these houses tend not to be great, so put in new wooden floors throughout the downstairs. Redo the bathroom with a white suite and, if there isn't room for a separate shower cubicle, then a shower over the bath will do. Spend as much as your budget will allow to get the fittings and the tiling in the bathroom right. Go for a contemporary style. En suites are all the rage but making a three-bed into a two-bed is a bad idea. If you can squeeze in a downstairs loo, that's enough.

Drying out a wet room

The downstairs loo in our house was converted by the previous owners into a "wet" room - there is a shower but no cubicle, instead the entire room has been tiled. The trouble is that it leaks - we have had to re-grout the floor and part of the wall in places and there is a damp patch on the wall in the hall which we can't seem to get rid of.

Wet rooms are more complicated and expensive than they look. It sounds as though the previous owner put a drainage hole in the ground and tile around it and left it at that. For a wet room to work, it has to be "tanked", that means the floor and up a certain portion of the wall has to be lined with a special fibreglass liner that prevents water from seeping through from the shower into the subfloor or the adjacent walls. Then the tiles are laid on top of the liner. Grouting won't work if the basic tanking hasn't been done, so you're going to have to investigate what is actually underneath the tiles.

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Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.