Buying a house that needs a ton of rennivation.

[SylvanianFrenemies]

Have been house hunting for some time without success. There just isn't a lot coming to market in the area.

We have a viewing booked for a lovely looking house that ticks a lot of boxes. But... it has barely been touched in decades. Looks like it needs new boiler and central heating system, rewiring, new flooring, new windows, roof repairs, new bathroom... Weirdly enough the kitchen appears modern and fine!

Would it be madness to consider with 2 kids? I guess we could move out for 3-4 weeks to get main jobs done.

Any tips/advice welcome.

I’d aim to get the work done before you move in but 3-4 weeks sounds ambitious and getting all those trades in will require some planning. I did it with a small property but I had somewhere to live in the meantime. Short term rents can be hard to find and are expensive.

If it needs all that doing it will take more than 3/4 weeks - more like 3/4 months!

3-4 weeks? It will be 3-4 months absolute minimum, and that's assuming you'll be happy to live in a building site, with ongoing works.

Also for that level of renovation, it will be at least in the tens of thousands, often heading beyond £100k depending on size and scope, unless you have the skills or contacts to do it yourself or with mates (I'll assume you don't, or you would be a lot more pessimistic on work required).

I've had doer uppers and fully done houses, my experience is that often the saving doesn't look anywhere near as large once the renovation is priced in. That's still ok if you can live in it for a while first, but not if you need to start right away.

We did this with just one baby 4 years ago.
I'll be honest- it's been a nightmare.
We didn't have enough money as the renovations turned up some unforseen issues (and my husband is a surveyor! Both he and 2 colleagues checked the house over ). We also did the vast majority ourselves, except plumbing and electrical works.
I would never ever do this again!
However if you are fairly certain over what you need to prioritise, and have some spare cash just incase it needn't be so bad.
It would also help if you are having workmen in.

That's 3 or more months work in my experience, not 3-4 weeks... assuming you could even find all the trades ready to go right now on completion. It will also cost 10's of thousands (at least and depending on finish etc.). Unless you can live in it as is for a while (always good to do as you can see how you live in the space) and then move out for as long as it takes when you have a builder ready to go.

OverTheRubicon we are of one mind!

@Grimbelina

OverTheRubicon we are of one mind!

Absolutely! Also for OP I should clarify that I (and probably @Grimbelina) mean 3-4 months work before moving in... followed by many many more months while you're living there.

@SylvanianFrenemies your big problem at the moment is the availability of workmen. It does depend on where you are but for example, even getting a roofer out here to look at our roof took months! So don't factor in being able to do the work immediately!

We did this with 2 children aged 8 and 11 - the children moved out for only 1 night when the boiler was replaced and we had no heating or hot water but we stayed with the dog! It was hard and messy but we managed so it is possible - I wouldn’t do it again and when I look back on the photos I can’t imagine how we did it!!!

Thanks everyone.

I know 3-4 weeks wouldn't be the full job! I just meant for rewiring and maybe the heating. We have some contacts (family) but not all trades.

I would imagine budget will be around £70,000, but that's Scottish prices, not London.

We aren't contemplating this to save money, and don't expect it to work out cheaper. It's just to actually get a house that even vaguely meets our needs.

Interested to hear if people would recommend renting and living off site, or just living with chaos? We would be stretching the budget so separate rental isnt likely to be very nice.

Could you get a static caravan on site? I'm doing that currently and it works, you're close enough to keep things moving but not living in a building site which is a total pain and super stressful (even without kids, more so with)

Good point. That's definitely an issue round here. We would be wanting to try to book someone in asap.

The house is habitable and was occupied and well kept til owner passed away.. clean, watertight, has heating. Just no shower and electrics look about 80yo.

@SylvanianFrenemies currently doing it right now we are 6 months in the upstairs is done and we are mainly living upstairs, the fact the kitchen is fine is a big plus!

It nearly broke us but now we are nearly at the other end we are happy we did it!

We bought a static and will sell it at the end and the cost of that will be a lot less than another rent would be.

Mariell.. you are almost certainly right.

@Randomactofkindness - thank you. You sound brave!!

@CleopatrasBeautifulNose there's no driveway or parking so probably not. Would probably rather rent a flat nearby if we could get one.

Can you do it in stages and is it liveable if not comfortable?

I moved into a house with damp, woodwork, roof work needed, no central heating, all carpets needing replaced and complete decorating needed, also needs reharled on most walls and other big jobs, we were lucky in that electrics, windows, kitchen and bathroom were fine (if not what we would choose)

Damp, woodworm got dealt with first along with the roof that caused the damp issues, we lived in other rooms
Then the Boiler - there wasn't one just and electric heated tank
Heating waited till spring and we used the coal fire and blankets (also north Scotland!)

Decorating is getting done on an ongoing basis - we are a few years in and still not there but the important jobs are done

We bought a house which needed a new roof (including joists, upstairs ceilings etc), a complete rewire, had no central heating, bathroom needed replacing, new flooring required throughout, plus plastering each room and a conservatory that was completely rotten and that was just for starters. The only room which looked good was the kitchen. Don't be fooled though, we're about to rip it out! It's not remotely fit for purpose. It's taken us a few years rather than a few months.

We've done everything ourselves where possible but bear in mind...

Tradesmen are hard to pin down, they nearly all have work for at least a year. Plus, supplies are near impossible. We've been waiting for a small bathroom extension for over a year. This is normal. Lead in for bricks was 40 weeks during lockdown.

With that amount of work, you WILL uncover more stuff. We've found countless issues we couldn't have foreseen and we've had to strip entire rooms back to brickwork and replace the floors. Water ingress causes huge damage and a neglected house is usually damaged in ways you can't see even with a survey.

Costs of renovations are astronomical right now. Supplies, labour etc are more expensive than I've ever seen them.

We've lived here throughout and it's fine but you need the right mentality to bear that level of work.

Thanks again everyone. A lot of food for thought. We know how hard it is even getting small jobs done due to the issues described above.

@SylvanianFrenemies

Good point. That's definitely an issue round here. We would be wanting to try to book someone in asap.

The house is habitable and was occupied and well kept til owner passed away.. clean, watertight, has heating. Just no shower and electrics look about 80yo.

Trouble is that redoing electrics is often going to mean replastering, similar with no shower which might mean a lot more plumbing and wiring than you expect, plus installation of a megaflow. Potentially party wall surveys, or more. You'll be surprised what you'll uncover.

We lived in through a lot, and in hindsight the issue was that us being there with small kids slowed down the work quite a bit. If I did it again (which I definitely wouldn't, even though I love our place now), I'd stay out for another month. The extra rent would have been covered by saving money through getting work done faster and more goodwill. However, if you're living out the biggest challenge is staying on top of things and visiting often - they'll have loads of small questions and often if you're not there, they'll make a guess and you'll come back to find something either a bit annoying or completely unworkable.