Renovation Case Study – VK Hair Salon, Barkway

Project details

Developer – Owner-managed project
Property Detail – Retail unit and Hair Salon
Location – Barkway (between Buntingford and Royston)
Duration – 4 Months

Overview

The following case study shows how Owner Giles Sadler took a run-down old shop, of wooden construction in a village location between Buntingford and Royston, and turned it into a chic boutique hair salon.

Proposed Layout

3D renders of the proposed layout and final look and feel were created after much deliberation to try and help visualise and maximise the space available. We were trying to squeeze alot of hair dressing stations into a tight space and include reception and waiting areas along with the WC and kitchen area plus storage solutions for all the hairdressing product into what amounted to a not very big space.

Now the hard work starts…

Although this looked like a simple project of renovating an old shed it turned out to be more involved than we could have imagined. There were many hurdles that we had to overcome renovating a 130 year old wooden building of non-standard construction (massive understatement) throws up.

The shape of the shop and lean-to extension are more like that of a parallelogram than a rectangle and the walls are so far away from perpendicular that we have had to strip the old dry lining out (which revealed more issues, missing membrane and insulation, rotten studs, mouse nests, wasp nests etc, etc) and add studwork to create a true vertical face to the wall.

We had to install completely new plumbing that included installing a hot water cylinder, capable of meeting the salon requirements, in the loft and moving the waste and water around in the shop and kitchen to meet the needs of the proposed layout.

First job was to pull out the old stud wall in the kitchen and build the new WC area in the shop.

This is the frame for the Eclisse Pocket Door that we are installing. Not only is the Eclisse system gorgeous to look at and incredibly efficient in its operation but it does a superb job of creating a door in a very tight space, amazing!

Flooring

At this point, a gorgeous new engineered oak wooden floor (supplied by www.floorchoice.co.uk) was laid and then instantly covered up to protect the oak-smoked oiled finish that had been applied.

Drylining

Laying out the salon

Electrics

At this point the electricians (Linco Electrical based in Hertford and Suffolk) were bought in to undertake the not too insignificant job of re-wiring all the electrics. This involved ripping up the overboarding in the loft, which had been nailed down, and then being confined up there for a not inconsiderable amount of time (very hot and dusty) in order to run the miles of cable and fish it down through the voids. Colin and Wayne have done a grand job of putting in a new consumer unit and wiring up all the sockets, lights and hot water cylinder. They have also installed emergency lighting and smoke and heat detectors as required by building control.

Kitchen

The kitchen has arrived. I sourced this from www.diy-kitchens.co.uk and now takes up the lion share of the shop floor. The carcass is in a lovely Graphite colour with beautiful shiney high gloss doors in Altino Graphite.

Dry lining almost complete now. Here we are offering up the back wash basins to get the position of the services for the plumber.

Tiling

Here is the kitchen and WC being I tiled in a light coloured tile (Replica Ivory in 330mm ceramic tiles) from Wickes. First of all the trench, left over from the old stud wall, and the holes for the soil pipe had to be filled with rapid set cement. Then a self leveler was poured in the WC and kitchen area.

Rotten sole plate and studwork

While removing the dry lining in the kitchen I found that the sole plate and studs had rotted away. This meant I had to dig a new trench and pour a concrete foundation so I could lay a new sole plate. I then cut back the old studs to good wood and inserted new studs with coach bolts. Then I removed the weather boarding and replaced rotten boards on the outside with a felt backing and damp proofing sheet applied on the inside with insulation and then the new dry lining.

Back to dry lining…

Painting and decorating

Lots of painting and decorating going on with dry line joints being skimmed and dry wall screw holes being filled. Skirting boards have been glossed and then the walls primed and finally coated with matt white.