Rough cost for renovating whole house?

[Pepperama]

Looking at a 4 bed semi in the Glasgow area. Old 1920s house. It’s a lovely house in a good location BUT it’d need a lot of work. Structurally ok but basically seems that people lived there for 30+ years and have not done anything with it for many years. Old electrics, outdated fire places, faded carpets, cracked 1960s coloured tiles, structured paint, storage heaters and so on.

If we assume we need to do all the walls, ceilings, floors, electrics, kitchen and bathroom suites, and heating, how much do you reckon that might cost? Only need a rough guess as I know it depends on design choices and sizes and local tradespeople but just wondering if it’s more likely to be 20k, 50k, 100k if we go for medium-high spec options?

[nomdeguerrrr]

£500 per m2?

[Alexalee]

100k+
Our dds 2/3 b terrace zone 6 London has cost over 50k with dh doing pretty much 95% of labour for free

[MillieEpple]

4 years ago we refurbished a house (new electrics, plumbing, bathrooms, kitchen, roof, carpets, replastered all walls and ceilings) anyway it came to a out 35-40k. Obviously stuff like tiles, worktops, carpets etc depend how expensive your taste is. Our friend spent more on her worktop than our entire kitchen. Our house is 3 bed not 4.

[NotMaryWhitehouse]

When you say 'do the walls' do you mean strip and paint or take it back to the brick and replanted the entire house? If it's tarting you and redoing kitchen/bathroom/electrics, I'd say guess at £50k, plan for £70k. If it's the latter, I should think over £100k, based on what we're spending.

[TeddyIsaHe]

I’m in the midst of renovating a 2 bed, 2 bath terrace. Everything electric/plumbing/structure wise is all sound, so it’s basically cosmetic and having the front and back gardens landscaped.

It’ll cost £40k for the house, gardens will be around £15k. I have had to have things like boiler moved, plastering, new doors put in, a back door moved, window changed etc which does increase the price.

I’d think depending on the spec you choose, you’re probably looking at upwards of £60k for a 4 bed. With contingency (it ALWAYS goes over budget, without fail!) probably nearer £80k

[AutumnLeavesStart]

I think you can do it for £50k, if you project manage it yourself and get separate trades. That’s about what it cost us last year.

[Onetwothree456]

If you paint the walls yourself and find some affordable tradesmen for tiling and carpentry and use Ikea kitchen units and bathroom sinks etc then it doesn't need to cost a lot initially. I completely renovated my London flat for only around £4000 when I first moved in and that includes new built in wardrobes.
You can sand floors yourself pretty easily and use vinyl flooring in the bathroom etc initially. So it's possible to make it look quite high spec without actually spending a lot. Rewiring possibly £2000 for a house i think ( I was quoted £1000 for a flat). You can also do more at your own pace after you move in. Sounds like my kind of house! :)
I prefer those types of homes because they are cheaper as they look like a big project. But in reality you'd probably want to do the same work to a more recently decorated house too to make it your own anyway.

[JumpingJamboree]

I have a 3 bed cottage that needed new electrics, new plumbing, new kitchen, two new bathrooms, a 3ft thick wall knocking through with custom steels to hold everything up, new flooring throughout, new fireplace, every room needed stripping of wallpaper and repainted, new porch, garden landscaping, concrete yard poured. I would say so far it has cost about £30k but we have had a lot of help from family and friends who are tradesmen/very handy and either do labour free or at mates rates.
It will need a new roof in the not too distant future. Not looking forward to that bill!

[Sophoa]

Medium to high spec and not doing any yourself you'll need £100k if that's to include kitchens bathrooms doors and flooring. More if it needs any building work. A mid spec kitchen, Schmidt or Hacker level so not Howdens or Ikea with decent brand appliances e.g Bosch / Neff not Miele will be £20-25k alone.

[movingonup20]

I would say £50k is adequate but spec of bathroom and kitchen can vary price dramatically. The materials aren't that expensive other than those fittings so finding a good general builder/decorator is key then hire in specific trades. A self employed builder/decorator comes in around £150 a day around here then I hired plasterers, electrician, plumber (though builder put in pipes etc, the plumber just did the gas connections), and the builders apprentice painted throughout.

[Alexalee]

Onetwothree.... 2k for a rewire, doubt you could buy the materials for that, rewire for around 100 outlets and new fuse board was 6k

[Onetwothree456]

On the other hand I recently converted the loft and spent around the same amount on just my ensuite. But it's very possible to make it look lovely on a shoestring if needed.

[Daftasabroom]

Upgrade insulation £1000
Heating £10k - £15k
Kitchen £10k - 20k
Bathrooms £3k - £5k
Skim plaster £300 - £1000 per room
Doors £200 - £300 fitted
Floors - £50 pm2 +++
Windows £300 to £500 fitted
External doors £750 +++ fitted
Electrics £25 per white fitting fitted
Rewire £2000 +++
DIY decorating £500
DIY preparation £250
Skip if needed £300 for a mixed load

You could spend less or more but would get you started.

[Ranunculi]

Mine cost approx £100k. We had to spread it over several years and in the meantime we could only use half of the house. We also had to do a lot of the work ourselves otherwise it would have cost even more. You may not need all of this work doing to your house. The price we paid reflected the amount of work than needed doing.

-Windows and doors £15k
-New roof £15k
-Structural repairs £25k
-Two bathrooms £10k
-Kitchen £12k
-Plastering £2k
-Rewiring £5k
-New boiler £5k
-Carpets £2k
-New drive and garden update £7k
-Built in wardrobes and cupboards £2k

[Pepperama]

Thanks so much everyone! That’s hugely useful to us in defining how much to offer in the house

[willitbetonight]

50k if you just get trades to do the stuff you can't yourself. £100 for a turnkey.

[willitbetonight]

You will probably be eligible for some of the new green deal offer.

[FAQs]

@JumpingJamboree how much did your custom steel beams cost out of interest?

[ChristinaRussell]

It always makes me laugh when watching Homes Under the Hammer & they ask the owners of a once damp-ridden ruin how much they spent doing it up and they say "Oh, 3k"

[JoJoSM2]

Based on our previous costs, I’d say 100k. Are the windows, roof, guttering and the drive ok? That should get you mid-range kitchen etc

[Pepperama]

Windows roof drive ok, guttering probably needs doing.

Unsure about state of floors - carpets very worn and unsure if what’s underneath is sound or needs prep.

Walls hopefully just painting/wallpaper.

Some alterations required to kitchen/utility walls - will need to see what can be done there. It just looks like it’s been very gradually extended but by bit creating some rather odd shaped rooms.

[JoJoSM2]

Our 20’s house was a bit of a maze following a number of extensions. Some of it was pretty simple to knock through but we ended up having to re-build a bit too. Might be worth taking an architect or a builder around to confirm the extent of works.

[Chocolate1984]

We renovated a 3 bedroom house in Edinburgh.

New boiler & 7 new radiators £3400
Rewrite £2200
Carpets, wooden floor tiles £5000
New kitchen including appliances £9000
Bathroom & tiles £3200
3 rooms skimmed £450
New fireplace £1000
Paint £800

We did a lot of the easy stuff our self so we ripped out the kitchen, removed tiles, took layer and layers of wall paper off in every room.

[OffForARun]

DH and I did a complete refurb of a 3 bed, cost £7000 total but did 90% of it ourselves, and it took us 9 months of blood, sweat, stress and many tears.

If I did it again, I'd rather pay £50k for someone else to do it! Glad to have the experience and new skills but oh my god, never again!