Costs to renovate a three bed?!

[Cabletee]

Hello everyone,

Long time lurker, but I'm so grateful to have learned so much you all! First time buyer but I’m keen to find out what your thoughts are regarding what you feel are reasonable rough costs for a three bed renovation.

I’m looking to almost completely renovate a three bed house (1950’s build I think). This includes

• stripping the walls of previous wall paper
• Ripping all ceilings out
• Replastering the walls and ceilings
• new flooring throughout (mix of carpets, wood and tile.)
• new kitchen (including regular plumbing and electrics) - small (About 3x3) but needs some gas and water pipe rerouting within the room
• complete rewire of electrics including repositioning of sockets and switches (to conform with current safety guidelines), new fuseboard, smoke/carbon monoxide detectors
• removal of a small, non structural concrete/brick (I’m not sure what material it is) cupboard
• Changing the central heating from cylinder/tank to combi boiler with new rads and pipes and repositioning of rads
• New skirting, architraves and doors (doors to be at least wood veneer for longevity), door furniture
• painting/decorating
• minor cosmetic touch ups to bathroom

I wondered what your opinions are regarding how much you think this may cost? It’s always good to get info from those who have done it before or in the trade or have any idea! The house is in north London and I know that things vary slightly depending on quality of trimmings, room sizes etc, but I was looking for a rough figure to work towards at least. All will be done by various professionals in their field, I like to muck in where I can but because of work commitments, I’ll have to sit this one out.

Any ideas/advice would be very very much appreciated!

thank you 🙏

[Purplewithred]

£100k, pure guesswork.. Remember it will take twice as long and cost twice as much as the highest estimate, even if that estimate is made as a joke.

Will be cheaper and quicker if it can all be done at once without you living there, but with you being onsite for part of every single day.

[YellowNotRed]

We did 90% of the work ourselves, £8k and it took 9 months.

-new kitchen, new bathroom, new electrics, new central heating system and decorated throughout.

Never again!! It was hard work. Now I'd rather pay. I think we saved £30k ish.

[Alexalee]

50k+
No way you could even buy materials for 8k

[KoalasandRabbit]

I would also say £50k+ but best to get quotes in - I was in that area before and things like painting / general decorating / laying floors were about £200 per workman per day though always pay per job. More specialist trades can be a lot higher.

[KoalasandRabbit]

Also I would always have a large contigency fund as things tend to come up when completely renovating if its not been done for decades.

[JamieLeeCurtains]

@YellowNotRed

We did 90% of the work ourselves, £8k and it took 9 months.

-new kitchen, new bathroom, new electrics, new central heating system and decorated throughout.

Never again!! It was hard work. Now I'd rather pay. I think we saved £30k ish.

Could you itemise that 8k out of interest?

DP's in the building trade and I doubt he could source the materials for that tbh.

[Cabletee]

Thank you so much for the replies! Any tips to avoid shoddy work?

[ChilliBeanSauce]

Ohhh following as I'm in the same position but adding extension and en-suite attic conversion

[KoalasandRabbit]

I've never had shoddy work - worth asking round for recommendations, we know a plumber so that's fine. Other ones I check out as much as possible online, I sometimes used the government approved list (trustmark) or if specialist go to specialist ones. When I've had to use FindaTrader etc as a last resort I've looked at references and met them first for a quote, normally pretty easy to tell if they know about subject. After having kitchen done by days and taking forever I now only done by job pricing and ask timescales.

[themummyway]

Hi, I'm doing pretty much this - same location too, small world!
My guys are charging just under £50k for labour (exc. VAT, not paying that as I'm doing cash).
Given the slight variation, I'd say this should cost you c. £40-45k for labour.
My house is a 1930s and wasn't in terrible condition but there were things I'd not thought of before that cropped up. Nothing insurmountable though.

Definitely not more than £50k though, no way. Don't accept any quotes above 50k x

[themummyway]

@themummyway

Hi, I'm doing pretty much this - same location too, small world!
My guys are charging just under £50k for labour (exc. VAT, not paying that as I'm doing cash).
Given the slight variation, I'd say this should cost you c. £40-45k for labour.
My house is a 1930s and wasn't in terrible condition but there were things I'd not thought of before that cropped up. Nothing insurmountable though.

Definitely not more than £50k though, no way. Don't accept any quotes above 50k x

Adding to say that this figure should include painting too.
My guys threw in painting the whole house for 2k in colours of my choice (they'd painted the walls white after plastering) - 2k is a steal!!

[themummyway]

Sorry, I'm half asleep!
The prices I mentioned were for labour and materials (plaster, basic white paint, wiring, fuseboard etc.)

[Robs20]

We are doing the same as you but without the rewire and with 2 new bathrooms, radiators and changing lead pipes to copper, and adding 2 restored fireplaces. 60k all in.

[happytoday73]

Why are you ripping ceilings out? Just concerned about asbestos if you have old artex... It'd be much cheaper to skim it..

About 7 years ago with lots of shopping around and nothing full price ever these are costs I can still find. ... We replastered nearly all walls, new electrics throughout including new switches, more plug sockets 5k, new boiler, got rid of tank and new often repositioned radiators about 4.5k , new double glazing new kitchen 5.2k wickes January sale plus 3k worktop, new roof 4.5, new gutters, garage door 370, pointing £1,100, £1645 fitted wardrobes one room, doors even in sale budget £100 per door l inc handle then £50each to fit.
Carpets for 1 bed and large lounge 1500 fitted with underlay and rods
2 composite doors and a returned stable door composite 1562
Stripping, painting, Tiling, downstairs loo, & skirting we did ourselves so just materials. Tiling was about £350. Needed 2 skips and many trips to tip ourselves to save costs.

[Bluntness100]

I am also curious,,why are you ripping the ceilings out? That seems an unusual thing to do.

[Cabletee]

hi everyone,

Really, really appreciate all the input. We had the (all artex) ceilings tested - no asbestos - but have decided that we would rip them out for two reasons 1) to check the timbers 2) to make the rewire and plumbing new pipework easier (and possibly cheaper as everything would be exposed) - do you think there is any value to doing it this way or would it not make a difference to the overall cost?

@themummyway - small world indeed! I'm seeing reno's all over the place in North London at the moment, I'm thinking it's a good time to dive in!

[Bluntness100]

I’m not sure, but I think removing and then re installing the ceilings will be much more expensive,

[Longwhiskers14]

We're north London too and renovated a 3-bed semi, but with some structural work (opening up two reception rooms into one). We went high end on some things (underfloor heating) but budgeted on other stuff and the total cost was around £120k.

[themummyway]

@Cabletee

hi everyone,

Really, really appreciate all the input. We had the (all artex) ceilings tested - no asbestos - but have decided that we would rip them out for two reasons 1) to check the timbers 2) to make the rewire and plumbing new pipework easier (and possibly cheaper as everything would be exposed) - do you think there is any value to doing it this way or would it not make a difference to the overall cost?

*@themummyway* - small world indeed! I'm seeing reno's all over the place in North London at the moment, I'm thinking it's a good time to dive in!

I don't think there's any value in ripping out the ceilings x

I had my artex skimmed over, paper wallpaper on the ceilings take off, straightened where necessary and then in the kitchen, they took it back to the timbers to fit the wiring for my lights.

Other than that, my guys were able to wire and do the pipework without too much fuss x

[Chattercino]

Sounds similar to what we've done and I'd say £45k

[Alexalee]

I think ripping ceilings down for the reasons you gave is worth it. As s minimum if you didn't you should overboard the ceilings with plasterboard, skimming directly over artex is a bit of a bodge snd if there were cracks underneath the artex they will always come through.
So really the only extra cost is ripping them down and chucking the old ceiling, which you can do yourself and hire a skip £300, and you will save more than that by making the plumber and electricians (the 2 most expensive trades) jobs easier, and easier for the plasterer skimming brand new boards rather than bumpy old artex