Ballpark figure for this list of refurbishments

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Hello all

We're considering a tatty house. Great area, great schools, 4 bed 3 reception (bigger than we actually wanted 'cos nothing smaller currently for sale), shame it's been let go. Structurally and services-wise it seems to be OK, but internally it's tired.

So - would anyone have any idea for a ballpark estimate for this little list? Not looking for a particularly top-end finish, just good enough to live in IYSWIM. Also not looking for 100% accuracy, just an idea of whether we could realistically secure it and then do it up a bit without going bankrupt.

Replace bathroom (highest priority)
Replace ensuite shower room
Replace WC (lower priority)
Recarpet with mid-range stuff
Redecorate - replace wallpaper with wallpaper, probably, unless a reskim is cheaper?
New gas fire/ fireplace
Eventually a new kitchen, but current one is actually not too bad with a big scrub up, I think.

Boiler eventually, but think it's probably only 10ish years old, looking at it.

We can do DIY to a reasonable standard, but would prefer someone else to do the trickiest stuff.

I think I might need PigletJohn for this one?

As ever, TIA.

A lot of it is very variable. You can spend as much or as little as you want on bathrooms and wallpapers, depending on your tastes and your budget.

For example, I think some people on here have spent about £500 on a bathroom, while other people have spent £20,000.

Again, you can buy wallpaper for £5 a roll, or £40, or £80, or no doubt far more or less.

However, some rough ideas, for a fairly cheap but not doing lots of work yourself, sourcing everything very thriftily, etc.

Bathroom - £5000
En-suite - £2000
Carpet - depends on the square footage of your house, the carpet you choose, and the awkwardness of fitting. - £3000
Redecorate - depends on how large your house is, what's currently on the walls - £2500
New kitchen - £8,000

Hmm. Is there any chance of doing this for £10,000?

I did our bathroom for £1600 fitted, admittedly cheapish toilet and sink but better bath, shower and taps. Ensuite would prob be a bit less. Carpet agree in the range of £3k, we spent £2k on half decent carpet/wood for a much smaller house. I would guess £2k for skimming and obviously much cheaper if you redecorate yourselves with wallpaper. New fire I would guess around £1k depending on your taste.

I could do that list for £10k and prob get some new kitchen doors as well but the quality may not be what you're after!

There you are, you see! It's as long as a piece of string...

Don't forget to leave some money aside for contingency as well.

Ooh, that gives me hope!

Looking for "good enough", TBH. Not planning on inviting Hello! in anytime soon, we want a family home not a palace.

It's more the underneath things to worry about (dh is a chartered surveyor and has done a lot of refurbishing projects) if everything is looking tired you need to check electrics are ok often they need replacing too which is expensive plus all the extra sorting out the redecoration in every room. Same with boiler need to see if pipe work needs changing again this is a big job. No point in starting on the cosmetic stuff before checking electrics and piping all ok otherwise you will have to do undo all your hardwork redecorating getting these things in.

Bathroom £3k en suite £1.5K NEW wc £500 - Carpet 2-3K Fireplace £800 Decorate £2k ish. I think you could do it for £10k JUST but it would be very tight! And you would have to do the decorating yourself 80% of it anyway. Also depends where you live and who you know.

Florin, as your DH is a surveyor - would a homebuyer's survey tell us all that?

Homebuyers will tell you about the efficiency of the boiler but not Muh else. It is all very visual they don't move things etc if electrics looks a bit dodgy you made want an electrical survey

Agree with the posts so far. You could do the above list for 10k (although you will be choosing everything based on cost rather than quality/style) but a new boiler/replacement piping/replacement radiators/rewiring will blow that out of the water.

Windows all fine?

Thanks for the tip, i'll bear that in mind.

After an utterly horrendous experience with sewer flooding into the last house we owned we did plan to get a drainage survey, guess might be sensible to get gas/ electrical ones too. Do the relevant trades do these?

Half Upvc, half wooden DG. All look reasonable but would like to replace them eventually.

How old is the house?

Electrics - look at the consumer unit - that will give you a clue, also the light and sockets. We purchased an old house and the consumer unit needed to be replaced was about £1500, the main impact has been the lack of sockets in rooms so we had to get additional and we paid about £100 per socket
but we're in the expensive south.

Boiler - you could ask for details of when it was last serviced. I think with boilers you can be lucky or not. We moved into a house and the boiler broke in the first few weeks.Another house the boiler was ancient but lasted until we could afford to replace it.

I've been looking at replacing a gas fire recently, and one cost you might have to look into on top of the fireplace you choose is checking that the chimney flue etc is all fit for purpose and cleared out.

As Teeb says, a gas fire replacement can vary massivly in cost - you can budget £1k, and then find it doubling or trebling because of necessary changes to the flue/surrounding brickwork etc.

You could do it for 10k if experienced in managing the builders v efficiently and buying all the materials yourself otherwise no I think it would be very cheaply done and not last

Thanks for your input all.

The house is, at a guess, 1990s build (I think - certainly not a great deal earlier).

The consumer unit is on breakers, rather than fuses.

Hi This sounds exactly like the house we bought just over a year ago! We have spent much more than we initially planned so far doing the bathroom, family room, electrics and hall. But, we love it and are v slowly getting there - dining kitchen & formal sitting room this summer. We had always outgrown our previous homes very quickly and so bought something much bigger but in need of cosmetic work. Don't regret it one bit! Goodluck!

I have a 4 bed house & I got a kitchen for £2800, dishwasher/hob/double oven & hood for £775 & fitter for £800 (cash in hand cos I'm fed up of paying VAT) & tiles for £200.

Bathroom & ensuite for about £1500 & about £400 for tiles for both.

Now ready for parting with about £2500 for the flooring for the whole house

Yanke - my kind of budgeting! Thank you for sharing your costs.