To ask about work you've had done on your house?

[Pigface1]

We're looking at buying a house that needs a load of work doing. The first part of the project would involve tearing out the existing kitchen, knocking down a wall between the kitchen and dining room, installing a new kitchen to make an open plan kitchen/dining area, installing a downstairs WC, and reinstating a back door into the garden.

We don't think we're going to extend but we haven't ruled it out.

Obviously I know no one on MN can give me a quote for this work but I'd be really interested to hear about work you've had done on your house, how much you paid, and any tips you'd pass on from the experience - e.g. About choosing builders.

Thanks!

3 years ago. Building work was:

• taking down a wall between tiny kitchen and dining room to make more space. Didn't need RSJ but reinforced the ceiling joist (I think).

• as a result of above, slight rejig of hall including new doorway to kitchen/dining area.

• taking down chimney breasts in 2 rooms downstairs and 2 upstairs.

• New engineered wooden floors downstairs.

• new kitchen, including all appliances.

• New main bathroom, shower, flooring, tiling and painting. Same in small ensuite.

• Plastering kitchen, hall and dining rooms plus 2 bigger bedrooms and 1 box room, upstairs & downstairs hall. New skirting boards, taking down picture rails downstairs, painting all rooms.

• new carpets upstairs.

Basically, a complete refit of house except loft room that we'd built 10 yrs before.

Cost: £55-60k as far as I can remember. We were lucky as had a friend with a building company so he passed on his trade discount for the kitchen/appliances to us.

For about the same, we could have just done an extension with new kitchen/dining area, but we preferred to spend that money on renovating the whole house. So pleased with it but it was a relief when it was finished!

Wow, thanks everyone, reese are really interesting to read.

Follow up question - how did you project manage it? Did you hire an independent PM? Did you PM it yourself? Or did you hire one of those 'complete service' building firms?

*these

New bathroom including wall and floor tiles
Redone kitchen cabinet/drawer fronts and sink, also new floor tiles
Five radiators moved
Rewire of outbuildings
Complete redecoration
New carport roof
New large patio and sleeps installed around flowerbeds and pond

About £21,000 for the lot

The first four were done beautifully by tradesmen already known to me; the rest were new folk I had to source, and that's where the problems started with getting anyone to commit to a job and actually turn up to do it

God, the nightmare

I have extreme nesting we only do work when I'm pregnant!!!
Over last 4 years we have put in new boiler with new radiators in 3 bedrooms and garage extension. £5000.

Put in banisters on stairs as there were none and was expecting DS1. Cost about £1000 as builder forgot to add VAT to quote which he honoured as we had recommended him to friends.

Also during this time had to put in new bathroom £5000 as found out old one had exposed live wires under unsealed enamel bath and DH couldn't fit in the small bath.

New carpets and decoration upstairs. 9new internal doors.

Most recently when 36weeks pregnant with DS2 have spent around £5000 on kitchen makeover- kept cupboards but moved them around to fit range cooker, new sink and work tops and tiling. Also included was finishing off garage extension to make 4th bedroom and utility room with toilet and outside tap. £1800 on new Lino and carpet.

Currently trying to decorate and contemplating whether to replace the downstairs radiators and install fireplace in lounge.

Luckily im very handy with a paintbrush and minor DIY! Probably finish everything in time to move to get closer to schools for DS1 as local schools awful

Have to add I designed the kitchen and downstairs renovation. Poor builders had to deal with obsessive hormonal crazy me but survived somehow

Six figure full renovation of a cottage, i.e. everything up to rebuilding every wall to some extent on every level and being roofless for months. It nearly killed us individually as well as our marriage, has taken far too long, but we're on the home stretch now and it's almost been worth it..

Replaced rickety wooden garage with a brick one, replaced all windows and relaced cracked leaky pebbledash with nice flat render. Ripped out ancient but functional back boiler (but hotwater tank sprung a leak!) and replaced with combi boiler in the kitchen.

All in about 14K. Lots of mates' rates, apart from the boiler, as we have trades in the family - guy who did the windows was old school friend of DH!

Not added significant value to the house, but it no longer leaks like a sieve and we attracted a buyer in record time for the area when we put it on the market.

As most of the work was external, it was minimally invasive, but having a massive migraine on the day that the render was scoured back is not to be recommended!

replaced carpet with laminate,

Not everyone's cup of tea.

In the process of moving and in so many houses it's been a case of how much will it cost us to replace all this fucking rattly laminate with carpet or decent engineered wood?

House we're buying has nasty stained carpet in bedrooms and lovely stained boards downstairs! Also some very battered plasterboard, but we do have decent DIY skills ourselves and know some good plasterers if any job is too ambitious.

New boiler 4K
Conservatory and new front door 21k
New back door and one window 4K
Flat roof leak repair 2k

Now looking at kitchen (quotes between 25k down to 15k, depending on quality and new electrics and replastering)
Getting garage converted, quotes 15k

Need to think do we really need it or not, as other works need doing too

Oh and solar panels lol Other half wanted them 11k

I don't want to add it up now rofl

Bought the most beautiful Victorian bay-windowed stone house. It had wet rot, dry rot, woodworm, rising damp, falling damp (is that a thing? It was WET everywhere) and had had (literally) nothing done to it since the 1970s, apart from a new roof in the early 1990s. However, I stood three paces into this monstrosity on the first viewing and knew I'd live there forever.

We took it back to stone - removed everything that wasn't a supporting wall (and some that were), dried the fabric of the building out, treated the wood, replacing where treatment wasn't suitable, and then started rebuilding. We knocked down the existing kitchen extension it had no fucking foundations and discovered the entire thing was built on sand. We shelved plans for a second storey extension, and bifold doors, and spent the money on concrete and rebar for the foundations of the new kitchen/diner extension (they are suitable for having a second storey, when we get the money to do it!).

We obviously did a full rewire, a full overhaul of the heating system, insulated properly, replaced the guttering (which was a mishmash of original cast iron, 1950s and 1970s, none of which met properly), tanked the cellar, replaced all the windows.

We got the house for 20% less than it was on the market for (against a full market offer from a developer, because we said we wanted to live here and raise DC here, and it was a probate sale), and spent the same again refurbishing and fitting out.

Would I do it again? Fuck no, I'd buy the house up the road that someone else had spent a year arguing with builders over. We used an all-in-one firm and he subcontracted the bits he couldn't do (tanking the cellar etc).

I do love my house though, and I was so glad we could stay in our rented flat while this one was being done up. There is NO WAY we could have done it while living here.

PickAChew when we moved in we had to immediately rip up all the carpets as seller had moved overseas and left her son looking after the house who left his dog there with free reign to shit all over the house. Grim.

New kitchen
New bathroom
Decorated every room
New carpet in two bedrooms and tiles/vinyl laid in kitchen, utility and bathrooms
Two fireplaces removed, one bricked up and the other replaced with a woodburner/new flue/new chimney caps etc
New flatroof/insulation over dormers
New doors and windows (15 large windows plus side panels beside front door)
New internal doors
New door frames and skirtings
Wiring and faceplates replaced
New boiler, hot water tank, pipes and radiators including bridge system removed and underground pipes laid as boiler is in garage
Utility room fitted out including pulley and ventilation
New ventilation in attic
Roof leaks in peaked roof sealed
Boatloads of insulation
Various other bits and bobs plus completely overhauling the garden.
We still need to replace most of the carpets, replace the other bathroom, finish the garden and do various other things.

At this point it's cost us the best part of £100k on top of what we paid for the house. And I project managed all of it while looking after two kids/working part time. The plumber is a good friend of ours so gave us a good rate and we did all the decorating ourselves, plus FIL is a joiner so fitted the kitchen for us.

Just coming to the end of a second renovation in five years. Never doing it again!

My husband is an ex builder and now architect so was able to do a lot of the BC stuff himself and somehow git planning permission turned around within 24 hours!!

We did move in after five weeks with a finished upstairs but no kitchen installed. It cost a fortune and was very stressful but our house looks great now! Good luck

Hmm, let's see - in terms of tips:

Ideally have builders that are recommended by someone who thinks in a similar way to you
Obviously consider cost of quotes but, I would say more important than cost is to pick people you'll feel comfortable discussing problems with - no matter how clear the communication, something will go wrong/be mis-understood at some point and you will have to be comfortable with having a 'frank' discussion to resolve.
Take your time in planning and try not to deviate from this once agreed - that's where the budget overruns are likely to creep in
Get a really comprehensive survey so you can flag possible issues with the builders so they can ensure to consider for the quote
Remember the 'invisible' items (insulation / wiring / socket placement / plastering etc.,) can really add value / comfort so pay for them up-front and worry about decor later after you've lived there a while.

In terms of what we've done:
First house :
Re-decorated straight off, then over the next five years:
Added downstairs loo
Moved kitchen / put in new kitchen
Knocked conservatory
Added extension (was storey-and-a-half in height, should have made it two-storey in retrospect).
New bathroom
New windows
Solar panels
Planned and managed changes ourselves, made sure everything was in writing and that plan dimensions / materials agreed with the builders in advance - spent about £50k (20% of original cost) for all changes and made 35% pure profit when selling.

Current house also a doer-upper - Edwardian terrace in three flats with concrete back and front gardens. Overall spend closer to £90k and in four years have:

1. Before moving:

Re-wired Re-plumbed Restored most of the original layout Added downstairs loo New kitchen (including moving back-door) New bathrooms New central heating system Re-roofed Added solar panels New windows

1. Over the four years from moving in:

Added skylights to top-floor rooms Re-plastered Insulated Decorated Had concrete 'gardens' dug up (it has taken three years to get the design on the back right mind, and I'm still working on the front - might have been faster if we'd paid a landscaper...)

Again, planned ahead, did own Project Management. Worked with builders / tradesmen we trusted and agreed everything in writing ahead of time. Also had a short call with them each morning to go through previous day's work/current day's work which helped to catch any potential misunderstandings before they became actual problems. Came in under budget on the main build. Have come in on budget for subsequent work.

We had an architect redesign our home. Totally gutted, walls moved, floors up, ceilings down, roof etc. The kitchen and bathrooms were planned and fitted by a local firm towards the end of the project which worked well for us as I don't think the builder had the finesse to fit them to the standard of the kitchen/bathroom firm.
We learnt that most things are possible, or can be adapted but may come at a cost!
We took photos of everything at every stage, which has proved its worth when we have needed to refer back to what was done.
Make sure the builder does what's best for you and not easier for him.
We had extremely detailed plans of the work and materials to be used, keep an eye on the builder sticking to it.
This was a major project and it taught me that things can be done and it was not such the big deal that I thought it was going to be. Good luck x

New central heating system and entire house repiped with new radiators
Replaced all windows
Moved some doors and windows.
4 new bathrooms
Knocking walls out
New kitchen
Replastering throughout
New ceilings throughout
Carpets out and floorboards sanded
Skirting and picture rails out and new ones in
Roof fixed up.
Extension planned.

There's only some of the brick walls we haven't messed with.

It's been more expensive than we thought, and hard work. Learned a lot, and not finished it all yet.

Take your time choosing tradesmen.