Renovation costs for a 3 bed house

[user1479289699]

Hi we've seen a 3 bed semi-detached house in a really good location with a huge garden and scope for extension in the future. It desperately needs modernising but we have no idea how much these things cost to factor into how much we'd offer for the property. We'd like to do a lot of the cosmetic stuff ourselves but would pay for the big things.

The good thing is the property has relatively new central heating, boiler and electrics so I think what we'd need is:

• wall knocked down to make a large open plan kitchen/diner
  
• new kitchen (this would be our biggest cost as kitchen is our most important room)
  
• new bathroom fittings plus a wall knocked down in the bathroom which houses a cupboard we don't need
  
• new staircase
  
• fireplace removed and electric fire fitted
  
• new carpets and flooring throughout
  
• outside decking
  
• convert front lawn into driveway
  
• outside fencing
  
• garage insulated so we can use it as some sort of room
  
• redecorating
  

do you think £40-£50k is feasible for this task on average? I understand it's hard to give an exact figure but if we know it'll be, for example, £100k, we won't put an offer in.

thanks!

[user1479289699]

Oh forgot to add the property is 75.3sq meters

[EssentialHummus]

Where is it, roughly? These things tend to be more expensive in London.

[LumelaMme]

You should be okay on that sort of budget, provided you didn't go for top end kitchen and bathroom units/kit, and did the painting, decorating, decking yourselves.

Don't forget that if you are taking a wall down, you'll want to get a surveyor to take a look at structural implications. If you need an RSJ when you take down the wall, that will add a grand or two to the cost.

You should be able to recarpet/put down new lino etc for under 3k, easily.

Also, are you sure you want an electric fire and not a wood burner?

[flownthecoopkiwi]

Sounds doable on that budget if you plan well and don't over capitalise on kitchen and bathroom fittings.
But I've never seen a cupboard I didn't need, especially in a house that size. Also storage isn't sexy but it's a good selling point later on.

[user1479289699]

Not sure what we want with regards to the fire to be honest!

It's in the North West, so hopefully cheaper than London.

thanks for the advice so far!

[user1479289699]

Good point flownthecoopkiwi re storage thanks :)

[Tfoot75]

It's possible probably but you'll have to budget quite well. We've just had a kitchen diner and utility last year for about £14k including floor, decorating and appliances etc, not the cheapest you could get but still not real wood units and we chose laminate work tops and picked floor tiles based on price etc. The appliances were quite top end though so it depends on what you choose, but you could easily spend £40k just on a kitchen if you wanted! So £20k would perhaps do your kitchen and bathroom. If you do the decorating and decking yourselves it will save a fortune.

[namechangedtoday15]

We've just been through works and these are ball park figures

• wall knocked down to make a large open plan kitchen/diner

Depending on steels etc, and whether you need to move electrics / radiator etc on the wall you knock down, and the length of the steel, I'd say about £3-4k

• new kitchen (this would be our biggest cost as kitchen is our most important room)

How long is a piece of string - depends on finish etc. Bare minimum I'd say is about £5k

• new bathroom fittings plus a wall knocked down in the bathroom which houses a cupboard we don't need

Depends if its a structural wall (am guessing not) but probably £5k for this including fitting of bathroom if you go fairly budget with fittings / tiles etc

• new staircase

No idea about this - sorry - except from property programmes, this is never cheap!

• fireplace removed and electric fire fitted

Do you mean a chimney breast or just the actual fire? Could be about £2k unless its structural

• new carpets and flooring throughout

I'd say £3-4k depending on whether you're having wood downstairs and decent carpet / underlay and fitting

• outside decking

We're paying £2.5k for composite decking (fitting ourselves), but standard decking is cheaper

• convert front lawn into driveway

Just had a quote for this and for a basic tarmac drive, its £7k (this was the biggest shocker!)

• outside fencing

£1-2k depending on perimeter of garden

• garage insulated so we can use it as some sort of room

£1-2K?

• redecorating

Depending where you are, the ball park figure is about £3-400 per room, (we were quoted £1k for hall stairs and landing alone) but you might be able to get a deal for the whole house. Maybe £2k?

So yes, do-able within the budget (depending on cost of stairs) but you'd need to control the spending and shop around for kitchen / bathroom etc.

[user1479289699]

Thank you, really useful that. We'd be happy to budget and shop around, my partner is a tarmaccer so that helps ;) and also knows plumbers/builders. So I think the cost we've budgeted is realistic for a mid-range finish especially with mates rates and a lot of effort ourselves!

thanks!

[selfishcrab]

You need a contingency budget if doing structural work, we allow 20%.
Knocking walls down/moving walls can throw up real issues, these you wont know until you start.

[mrsmortis]

Don't forget the cost of replastering/skimming. Esp. if you are talking about removing wallpaper, you don't know what you are going to find underneath. In our 1930's semi which we've done alot of work on, almost every room has needed skimming once we've got the wallpaper (5 layers of it in one room) off.

[YelloDraw]

Kitchen £5k absolute minimum for total cheapest up to whatever you want! Reckon hard to get it under £10k if you have a decent sized kitchen and want granite etc and appliances.

I'm paying £4.5k fo a small bathroom (3m x 1.7m) fitting inc full tiling and adding in electrics for shaver point and fan. Includes removal of tiles and old suite and building a bit of a wall to hide cistern. And plastering walls and ceiling.

Fittings have come to 2.5k and I haven't even gone posh. Could have gone much cheaper (£1k) but that would have been a real compromise and seemed silly when paying so much for fitting. Tiles were about as cheap as I could get nice ones for at £15/sqm.

I'm paying £1.6k for painting 3 rooms; 3.5m x 3.5m + 3m x 3m and 2.6m x 2.7m. If I had time and less cash I would do this myself as an area to save on.

Carpet is easy to work out if you know your Sqm.