11 Things We Wish We Knew Before Renovating a House in Japan

Name: 11 Things We Wish We Knew Before Renovating a House in Japan
Uploaded: 2026-10-10T12:06:07+00:00
Duration: 29 min 24 s
Channel: Lloyd & Mandy

00:00A couple of months ago we bought this abandoned house in the Japanese Alps for just 22,000 US

00:06dollars and when we first walked through the door we had absolutely no idea what we were getting

00:13ourselves into. We are not builders, we don't have any experience, we've never done anything like

00:18this before but we are now trying to renovate this house into what may be our family holiday home

00:26and while buying the property was actually a relatively straightforward process, renovating

00:32it has been an entirely different story. We've discovered problems we never knew existed, spent

00:38countless hours trying to figure out how things work and learned that renovating an old house in

00:42Japan is very different from what we're used to back home. So in today's video we're going to be

00:47sharing 11 things that we wish we knew before we started renovating our abandoned Japanese home.

00:53So whether you're thinking about buying an IKEA yourself, already own one or you're just curious

00:59about what actually goes into bringing one of these old houses back to life, hopefully this video will

01:04spare you a few headaches and possibly even save you a little bit of money along the way. So we

01:10had a lot

01:10of plans for this house after taking a look at it but the first thing I wish I knew is

01:15that you really

01:17can't even get started planning anything until you rip the place apart and start demolition. So when we

01:23first came to look at this house we walked through it and we thought it was in pretty good condition

01:28but we knew it would need a lot of cosmetic stuff done. It wasn't till we actually got in here

01:33and we

01:34started ripping the floors up, we started looking into the roof, we started looking into all the walls and

01:40we realized how much work actually needed to be done. For example under the living room in the

01:46joists there was a lot of deterioration potentially from water damage but also from termites so we

01:52needed to replace a lot of them. We had the same thing going on in the bathroom and in a

01:57lot of the

01:57wall cavities there was just a lot of old timber that was a little bit rotted and just needed to

02:02be

02:03replaced and that goes for the roof as well. So originally maybe we thought we could get away with leaving

02:08the

02:09same floors and the same structural timber in but we soon realized if we're going to actually redo

02:15the floors and redo the insulation and everything like that we're gonna have to rip a lot of this

02:20old timber out. So there was really no point in planning a lot of the stuff that we wanted to

02:26do

02:26until we got in and started ripping all of it apart and discovering all the problems that were there.

02:31So we came into the house and we knew we wanted to change out the tatami mats because they weren't

02:38in

02:38very good condition and I was hoping that was the only problem like it was just the tatami mats needed

02:43to be replaced but as soon as we ripped them up we realized it was going to be a much

02:48bigger job

02:48and even getting rid of old tatami mats themselves is quite difficult and that's probably been one of the

02:54biggest surprises for us is every time we move on to another job we discover another issue

03:01that needs to be fixed before we can complete that job. So my advice would be to anybody who's

03:08looking at doing this get in there and start tearing the place apart do your demolition and

03:12then you can start planning what needs to be done and obviously if you don't have experience and you're

03:17not confident doing this yourself you can get somebody to come in and help you somebody who has

03:22a bit of experience in building or renovating and they can take a look at some of the structural

03:27things that may need to be done in the house because honestly if we had have just come in

03:31and laid down new flooring without actually taking a look at the structure we would have put all that

03:36in for absolutely no reason and we would have then had to rip it up again in a couple of

03:40years time

03:41which would have been really expensive. So something that we were really excited to learn after we bought

03:46this property was just how much of the stuff you can actually do yourself here in Japan as opposed to

03:53back home in Australia. So you can pretty much do most of the renovation stuff because obviously if we

04:01had to hire a contractor for every little job the budget would get blown out super quick so it's great

04:07knowing that we can actually tackle a lot of this stuff ourselves especially things like replacing the

04:12flooring, painting, sanding, installing interior finishes and doing general renovation work and for us

04:19that's been a major part of making this renovation even possible. So there are definitely certain jobs

04:24you don't want to DIY and that would be anything electrical you're going to want to get a professional

04:29electrician in that's exactly what we did. Plumbing don't really want to mess around with plumbing you

04:34start getting hoses mixed up and pipes mixed up you're going to be in for an absolute nightmare.

04:40And then also some of the removal so there might be some materials that were used in a house that's

04:47dated that can be potentially harmful such as asbestos. So you don't want to be doing all that stuff on

04:53your own you definitely want to pick and choose what you actually do yourself and what you get a

04:57professional in for. One thing that we found to be super difficult was actually getting tradesmen on

05:04quite short notice so we came in and only had a couple of months to get our place livable before

05:09winter hit and we had to get an electrician and a plumber and potentially a tiler. Now we're actually

05:15quite lucky in that there were some expats in the area who had already done renovations and they knew

05:21other people and we got super lucky getting tradesmen in but if you're planning on doing

05:25a renovation and you're crunched for time that would be one thing I would start looking for

05:30right away is qualified tradesmen especially for your electrical and for your plumbing. As much as we

05:35want to do most of the renovation ourselves in this house we understand that we're not experts

05:42at everything and while you can save money cutting some corners and doing stuff yourself it's going

05:46to end up costing you way more down the track when you need to get stuff fixed because you didn't

05:51really know what you were doing. Okay the next thing would be that the renovation costs can go well

05:56beyond just the materials. For example we had to buy all of these tools

06:06before we could even really think about getting started so getting the materials even doing all

06:12the work yourself can save you a lot of money but you still need all the tools and while you

06:18might save

06:19money on labor if you're doing it yourself you're going to be spending thousands of dollars just getting

06:23everything you need to get the job done. So buying the actual timber and the FC sheets and the tiles

06:33and the grout everything that you need to redo your house is only a fraction of the cost. So obviously

06:40one of the main reasons people are interested in buying these abandoned IKEA homes in Japan is the

06:45purchase price. So we paid 3.6 million yen for our house which is roughly 22 000 US dollars and

06:53that's

06:53obviously incredibly cheap like you can't even really get a house deposit for that little money

06:58in Australia or Canada but it's just such a small fraction of the price if you are looking at doing

07:03this and renovating you really need to take into account everything else you're going to have to spend

07:09on in the renovations not just the materials. So we were really surprised at just how many little

07:14things we needed even just to get started like you'd go to the hardware store to buy

07:20a hammer and maybe a screw gun and end up walking out with a ladder and a rake and a

07:26shovel

07:27and cleaning supplies like there's just so many things you need when you're starting from scratch but

07:32I guess the good thing is now that we've bought all of those things and I think we have pretty

07:37much

07:37everything we need now a complete tool set everything to clean everything to do the gardening

07:42we're pretty much set for a few years. So even though we spent I would say a few thousand dollars

07:47up front

07:49at least now we have everything we need to keep moving forward. So as obvious as it might sound

07:55if you are planning on renovating your house in Japan make sure you have some money set aside

08:01just to get you set up for all of your tools and equipment all your cleaning stuff that you're going

08:06to need from day one because if you're only budgeting for the materials you're going to run out

08:09of money pretty quick. All right so we've touched on this briefly before but

08:13the language barrier here has been probably one of the biggest challenges when it comes

08:19to renovating a house. Now we knew the language barrier would be tough because we traveled to Japan

08:25before. We've traveled in a bunch of different countries and there's always going to be that

08:29language barrier if you don't know the language yet. But I honestly think renovating a house in

08:35another country where they don't speak English is a whole nother level of difficulty and it's because

08:42you need to meet tradesmen you need to go and buy materials from the hardware store not knowing what

08:48anything means. So the first time we went to the hardware store Mandy and I went down just to buy

08:54some paint and some like primer and a couple of little things. Ordinarily if we were in an English

09:00speaking country that would have taken us about 15-20 minutes. We were in that store for probably an

09:07hour and a half maybe even more because we had to literally translate every single item because we

09:13didn't know if we were buying the right thing. We didn't even know if we were in the right

09:16area of the hardware store and we had to go and ask the people behind the counter a bunch of

09:23times

09:23if this was the right area or if this was the right item we were buying. And then also being

09:28first-time renovators like there's always going to be a layer of difficulty but the language barrier

09:34just added so much more. So my advice would be if you can if you've got a big window before

09:40you're

09:41coming here to renovate learn as much Japanese as you can and even if you've got the budget

09:46you could hire a translator. There are people in Japan even in rural towns or little cities

09:52that offer translation services so they speak English as well as Japanese and they can go with

09:57you to meet with a tradesman or they can come to your house when a tradesman's coming over

10:02or they could even just go and do some of the shopping for you. The other good thing to have

10:07is

10:07obviously Google Translate. I think most people have that on their phone these days.

10:11that definitely works well too. We actually had a couple of tradesmen refuse to work with us because

10:18we couldn't speak Japanese which I do totally understand because it would be difficult showing

10:22up to somebody's house and having to go through everything through Google Translate like it just

10:27takes way longer. So we've been really fortunate as the tradesmen we have found have spoken English.

10:33There's been a couple where we've had to use Google Translate with but we've been super lucky but that's

10:38something you need to do and plan ahead. So make sure you have Google Translate if you can get a

10:43translator great. If you can learn Japanese even greater but it is very difficult. I will say though

10:49even though the language barrier has been really difficult the locals have been amazing like they

10:54don't seem to judge you for not being able to speak the language and I think when you actually show

11:00that you're trying they seem to really appreciate that. Everyone's been super helpful like even at the

11:05hardware store when we have no idea what we're looking for and we go and ask in Japanese very

11:10broken Japanese they're super super helpful. Okay so another big thing you need to think about before

11:15renovating a house in Japan is insulation. So when we first came to Japan we came in March and it

11:21was

11:22quite cold so we're looking at IKEA homes when we're here and I just naturally assumed that every

11:28house in Japan would have insulation because it got below freezing very often and that was in March not

11:33even in the middle of winter. What we came to realize pretty fast was that all of the old homes

11:38we

11:38were looking at were not insulated. So that pretty much became priority number one for us we wanted

11:44to get every room insulated as soon as we could. Unfortunately because we have to tear the walls out and

11:51rip the floors up and redo everything we're really only doing one room at a time. So at the moment

11:57we've

11:57started with the living room we've insulated all of the floor we still have the flooring to go down

12:03and then the bathroom which we're redoing the whole bathroom we've insulated all the walls

12:07the floor and even the ceiling. And so the reason there is an insulation in Japan is they have quite

12:13a different approach to heating their house well at least they did back in the day I think things have

12:18changed now but what they usually do is they just have doors separating rooms so every room is quite small

12:26and they'll just heat up one room at a time rather than spending too much money on electricity or kerosene

12:31heating up a whole house. They do have single pane windows for whatever reason maybe it was a

12:37cheaper option back then I'm not too sure but basically I've been told by some people who have

12:43done winters here that it's so cold that when you walk into the house it can often be colder than

12:48outside the house. So having individual rooms heated up is totally fine unless you're trying

12:53to turn your place into a big open plan family home exactly like we are. So we're now in the

13:00process of

13:01insulating one room at a time and this winter we're probably going to find out just how cold it's really

13:07going to get. But there's also some downsides to insulating and you probably need to speak to locals

13:12about this because another reason they don't have very good insulation in these old IKEA homes is that

13:19they're usually made to optimize ventilation so there's a lot of breathing in the house and that's

13:25because during summer it gets incredibly moist and incredibly humid so they're pretty much optimizing to

13:32not have mold in the home. So when you're insulating you need to make sure that you're still

13:37letting the house breathe and what we'll suggest is talking to locals, local builders or people who

13:43have renovated in the area to give you some tips and tricks on that. Otherwise you're going to end

13:48up completely insulating your entire house and then you're going to end up with a ventilation issue.

13:53Okay one thing that I really wish for you before renovating a house here in Japan is just how much

13:59stuff we would end up moving around and especially traveling full-time you really need good reliable

14:05luggage which is why we've partnered with Level 8 on today's video. We've been traveling with Level 8

14:09bags for a while now and they're designed to handle exactly the kind of abuse we put our luggage through.

14:15Airports, trains, cars and now basically being dragged through a Japanese renovation site.

14:20They've got really well designed compartments, plenty of space and the wheels are super smooth which is

14:25something you definitely appreciate when you're hauling luggage around Japan. And because we're always

14:30moving between countries having luggage that's super durable but actually also looks good is really

14:36important to us. So if you're traveling moving around or just need to upgrade your luggage definitely

14:41check out Level 8. We'll put a link in the description so you can take a look for yourself.

14:45Bathrooms can become a major major renovation project here in Japan and one of the big reasons is

14:53obviously there's insulation issues that bathroom was not insulated at all. But the bigger issue was when we

14:59got here there was just a single bathtub which was quite small like it was probably one meter by one

15:06meter. I could barely fit in it and it had an old boiler which is used to heat up the

15:11bath. Obviously the

15:12boiler was quite outdated and didn't work so we had to get rid of that but we were looking at

15:16the setup and

15:17just thinking this isn't going to work for our family especially if we have other people here as well.

15:22There's just not enough room and how they used to do it here in Japan was that one family would

15:27use the

15:28same bathtub full of water. They would just rinse themselves off in the wet area in the bathroom

15:34first to clean himself off and then they would get in the bath without draining it. The next family

15:39member would then do the same thing so that doesn't really work for a modern family. We need a shower,

15:44we need to be able to have our own shower and heating system that can heat up a shower for

15:4930 minutes

15:50regularly. So we basically tore the whole bathroom out, we ripped that bathtub out, we had to put in

15:57all new concreting. We're in the middle now of insulating, we framed up all the walls, we even

16:02knocked a couple of walls down, put a little area in there for our washing machine because there wasn't

16:07really a dedicated washing machine area here and completely redone the bathroom. That wasn't really our

16:13intention when we moved in but we quickly decided like if we were going to actually be able to stay

16:18and live in this house over winter we needed a functioning bathroom and we needed one that had

16:23a hot shower on demand as well. And honestly almost everybody that I've spoken to who has renovated a

16:29house here in Japan has said the same thing that they had an old boiler with a tiny little bathtub

16:34and

16:35everyone just does the same thing, gets rid of it. There is a faster and easier option than gutting your

16:41whole bathroom and redoing it like what we've done. We've met a lot of people who have just put these

16:46bathroom pods into their bathroom so it gets measured up. You don't really have to demolish

16:51anything, you just chuck this brand new bathroom pod in your existing bathroom and it's a lot faster,

16:59it's a lot easier but it is pretty expensive and you don't really have the option to customize your

17:04bathroom. So we had a look at that and decided we actually wanted a bathroom that would work for

17:10us that was a bit more spacious and had everything that we wanted even though it was going to take

17:15a

17:15lot longer and be way more work. But the good thing about that is we've probably saved ourselves a few

17:20thousand dollars from our budget from actually doing the bathroom ourself. One thing that has been

17:25difficult about renovating the bathroom ourself not only finding a plumber and electrician on short

17:30notice has been getting a lot of the materials. For some reason getting waterproofing materials in Japan

17:37is quite difficult but we have figured out that rather than going to the hardware store for every

17:44little thing we need just ordering stuff on Amazon Japan has actually been really easy and really

17:50efficient. It usually comes within two days and you can see the reviews and make sure that you're

17:56actually buying the right thing rather than going to the hardware store coming home with the wrong item.

18:01Okay so this is probably one of the most practical tips I can give anybody before renovating a place

18:07in Japan. Get familiar with your local hardware stores. So Komari and Musashi Pro. Write those down.

18:15They're going to become your best friends. You're going to go there almost every single day.

18:21There's a Komari pretty much in every town. In fact we have one about five minutes drive from our house.

18:28There's another one that's only 10 minutes. Another one 15 minutes. There's probably four

18:32all within 15 minutes drive of our house. So if they're out of stock of anything we just go to

18:38the other Komari. Musashi Pro is actually a bit bigger than Komari. So if you need things like

18:45insulation and flooring and actually proper timbers to buy go to Musashi Pro. They're everywhere as well

18:53in major cities. And the good thing about Musashi is they let you borrow one of their trucks if you

19:00buy

19:00too many materials to be able to fit in your own car. So they're just like these little they call

19:05them

19:05key trucks which are these tiny little two-seater four-cylinder trucks and they'll actually let you

19:10borrow it for a total of 90 minutes absolutely free of charge which blew us away because they didn't

19:15even charge us for petrol or anything like that. We just took it, brought all the materials home,

19:21went straight back and dropped the truck off. All we had to do was give over our passports

19:26and our driver's license. So if you're going to be renovating a place in Japan get familiar with your

19:31local hardware stores. As I said they're pretty much everywhere you don't really have to drive too

19:36far to find a decent hardware store in Japan. All of the tools like Makita and everything are readily

19:43available in most hardware stores but anything you can't find at the hardware store like fixings or

19:49anything like that you're going to be able to get on Amazon Japan. Okay this is probably no surprise but

19:54things are done very differently in Japan than in some other countries. So we're not even builders so

20:03we don't really have that much experience but speaking to a lot of locals and expats who have built houses

20:10here and renovated houses they've told us how there's just a lot of different processes even when it

20:16comes to like framing insulation which we covered earlier and heating everything is completely

20:22different here. So the best thing to do or our advice would be get to speaking with locals. If you

20:30can speak to local builders local contractors they're going to be able to give you advice on how things are

20:35done here because you don't want to go to the hardware store and get the wrong size timber or the

20:41wrong

20:41type of insulation or whatever it is and then that's going to end up costing you a lot of money

20:45down the

20:46track. We're super lucky because we've been sharing our process on YouTube and we've had a lot of people

20:52email us send us DMs giving us advice on how things are done here so we're super grateful for everybody

20:58who's reached out. If you are serious about renovating a house in Japan and you don't know where to start

21:05we

21:05actually put together a complete ebook guide which took us months to do. We keep updating it pretty

21:12much every week as soon as something comes up and we figure out the next challenge we add it to

21:17the

21:18ebook so it's always always evolving. You can get that ebook by simply scanning the QR code on the screen

21:24or go to our website lloydandmandy.com where you'll find the IKEA blueprint. It's a great place to get

21:30started if you're serious about buying an IKEA in Japan. So yeah don't be afraid to ask questions.

21:36If you meet any locals that have experience in building or contractors or anything like that

21:42ask them questions. Even the locals at the hardware store have been really helpful. If you're not sure

21:47the process of anything go ahead and ask. Also there's a bunch of YouTube videos out there of people

21:54that are renovating in Japan. There's some Japanese channels of people who have built houses from scratch here.

21:59There's a ton of stuff you can do but don't expect everything to be exactly like it is back home

22:05whether that's Australia or Canada or the United States wherever you're from. Don't come in thinking

22:09everything's going to be done the same way as it is in your home country. We were really lucky in

22:14that

22:14we had ripped our floors up and sprayed everything for termites and we're about to start insulating and

22:21putting the floorboards down when we actually met up with a couple of expats who have been renovating

22:26houses here for like decades. And they told us a completely different system than what we were

22:31going to use. So we're able to go and buy those materials and do it the right way because it

22:35would

22:35have ended up costing us a lot of money in a few years having to rip up the floors. So

22:40that's why

22:41I say like just try and meet people if you can and ask a lot of questions. Okay so let's

22:46say you've

22:47already bought a property in Japan and you're thinking about coming and renovating it and you're

22:52wondering what's the best time to do it. To be completely honest we've been here in Japan through

22:58winter, spring and summer and it's now autumn. I would have to say if it were me I would avoid

23:06winter because it's freezing cold obviously you get a lot of snow it's just a challenge you don't

23:11need. I also would probably avoid summer too because Japan can get just remarkably hot and humid like

23:19actually blew us away just how humid it was the day we stepped off the plane and this was like

23:24late July this year and it was so hot and humid as soon as you walk out of the house

23:30like you're

23:31dripping wet and because none of these houses really have air conditioning or any insulation

23:37it's just as hot inside the house as it is out. But even aside from just the pure heat and

23:43the weather

23:43the bugs in summer are absolutely next level like I thought Australia was bad but the bugs here in the

23:51middle of summer were some of the biggest bugs I've ever seen some of the largest wasps and hornets

23:58and spiders absolutely everywhere plus you got mosquitoes it's just like not a great time to be

24:05renovating an old house. The ideal time I would suggest would be anywhere between end of September to

24:12mid to late November before it gets too cold and then probably from around late March to early June

24:19would be the best time. It does rain a lot in June although it's not quite as hot but I

24:25really don't

24:26think you want to be here renovating your house right in the wettest month of the year so that would

24:31be my advice. Okay so we had some really really bold plans about living in this IKEA home while we're

24:39renovating it. We figured we could just rough it we could fix the bathroom fix the kitchen do everything we

24:47needed and just sleep in one of the other rooms. Now we lasted about three weeks of doing that before

24:54it just got way too uncomfortable. We moved in we kind of just got to cleaning we got one room

25:00looking

25:01really nice that we actually slept in and we used what was available in the kitchen and the bathroom but

25:07the bathroom was probably the hardest part because we weren't able to have hot showers we were pretty much

25:14having cold baths and just warming water up on the stove which took forever and in the middle of summer

25:20it just wasn't a good feeling not being able to clean ourselves at the end of the day. Although I'm

25:24sure maybe if we had done it a couple of years earlier before having our daughter and also if like

25:31Mandy wasn't pregnant it would probably have been a lot easier to be able to rough it and stay in

25:37the house

25:37while we're renovating it but for us it just was too hard once we started ripping the floors up

25:43and getting into everything and we had like all of the soil and everything underneath exposed and it

25:49was just a lot of like obstacles in the way plus not having a bathroom it became a little bit

25:55too much

25:55for us so I think if we were to do it again we probably wouldn't even think about living in

26:01one of

26:02these houses while we're renovating it we'll probably just get an airbnb down the road at least while we do

26:07the

26:07bathroom and the floors and stuff like that so if you're looking at renovating a place and you want

26:12to be living in it while you're renovating it just take that into account that it can get really

26:17challenging especially if you've got a young family if you're just a single person on your own

26:22I mean you could take showers at one of the health clubs or something like that or one of the

26:26onsens

26:27so you might be able to get away with it but we definitely were too cocky coming into this thinking

26:33that we could live here and renovate it at the same time and the final thing that I wish we'd

26:37known

26:37before starting this renovation was just how much patience we would need we had some huge plans about

26:44what we were going to do to this house before we moved in I think the issue with renovating is

26:48you

26:48don't always get to work in the order that you want to so maybe you want to paint one of

26:55your walls but

26:56you need to actually fix the wall first or maybe you want to put new floors down but you need

27:01to fix the

27:01timber that's underneath or maybe when redoing the walls you need to put insulation in first

27:07and especially if you're working on a budget like you just can't do everything all at the same time

27:13for example we're replacing the bathroom window with like triple pane windows that are really

27:19heavily insulated and they look really nice but it's quite expensive and we can't replace all the

27:24windows in the house just yet which would make a huge difference as far as heating goes so we're just

27:29working in steps so for the moment we're doing what we can with the time and the budget that we

27:35have and then when we get a bit more budget behind us and a little bit more time we'll move

27:41on to the

27:42next thing and it's going to be a long long process but that's why I think we just need to

27:48have patience

27:48and if you've got a big budget to renovate a house here in Japan you might not have to work

27:53as slowly and have as much patience but chances are if you're watching this you're probably looking

27:59at buying a house because it is affordable and you probably don't have a massive budget which means

28:05you do need to be quite patient but in the end this is going to be our house forever so

28:10there's no real

28:11rush to get everything done as long as we just keep progressing and keep making it a little more

28:17livable every single day I think we're happy with that having known everything that we know now

28:22would we try and renovate a house ourselves again in Japan yes I think we definitely would because

28:30we've learned so much already it's been such a great experience doing this together as a family

28:36and knowing that we're actually renovating something that belongs to us and that we can use for the rest of

28:42our lives and our kids can use it's definitely worth it it's been a lot of ups and downs a

28:47lot of

28:47headaches so far we're only about a quarter of the way through already but we're really excited to see

28:52what this place is going to look like in a couple of years and if you want to follow along

28:57our journey

28:57we've got a whole playlist of videos for this Japan renovation series go ahead and click the subscribe

29:02button like this video if you found it helpful at all and we'll see you next week cheers

11 Things We Wish We Knew Before Renovating a House in Japan

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