Home refurbishment budget - are we being unrealistic

[EllieFredrickson]

House is 15 years old. We are looking to update kitchen (about 3.5 metres square), small utility, ensuite and family bathroom. No major building work or moving of services but want a door blocking up between kitchen and dining room.
Looking for new floors, cabinets, tiling, showers (one for each of ensuite and bathroom) etc and new oven, hob and extractor. Would also like to include decorating these rooms and the hall and landing.

I know that we are very fortunate as mortgage is flexible (and nearly paid off) to be able to release some of the overpayments we've made to do this work.

In my head I set a budget of £40k to do all this, which I felt should be more than enough. We've had a builder round and we're at £30k already with no kitchen, floors, plumbing, decorating etc... He has cabinet quite from Howdens including appliances and laminate work top around £9k.

Obviously getting some more quotes but wondered if anyone had had this sort of work done and could advise if we need to rethink?

I agree with Mary - if you're clear about what you want & the level of finish, the builder can give you a fairly accurate quote.

It also pays to get more than one quote - we found variances of up to 150% for the same work/finish...

Definitely get multiple quotes. as Moonlight said, they can vary considerably. I would have thought 40K was more than enough, so the 30K you've been quoted seems steep if it doesn't include some items. But you could do this lot more cheaply by hiring the individual trades yourself and just relying on a kitchen fitter and bathroom fitter for those rooms. They do more than just fir - they also do the building work that is required. I've done similar for just over 20K

I've just done, kitchen, utility, wetroom, family bathroom, ensuite inc flooring and decoration for all (not kitchen appliances) for £25k. About £15k on materials and £10k on labour.

We sourced everything ourselves, all high quality stuff but half the price by shopping around. Didnt do any of it ourselves, paid tradesmen £130 per day.

Thanks for the comments - really useful. Another builder coming on Saturday so will do a 'what we want' list to give them.

Should be excited but finding even getting people to quote for stuff quite difficult. A local company is taking ages to do kitchen and bathrooms plans and other builders, Howdens etc not coming back to us either. And don't get me started on kitchen prices and 'discounts'...

As we both work fulltime had wanted someone to do the whole lot (effectively project managing) but maybe we need to rethink this.

I would've thought that would be more than enough, especially if you don't need replastering or anything, and don't want high-end finishes (e.g,. if you're happy with standard laminate flooring).

30k not including kitchen, flooring, plumbing or decorating (so just bathroom hardware, tiles and tiling, putting a door in) is daft. How on earth did he get to that figure?

You can definitely get this work done to a good standard with good quality equipment for £40,000 or less.
Size of the rooms are less relevant to price, more important is the cost of what you are putting in and how much work might be involved there.

I should admit that this is exactly the sort of work we do so if you are in Kent or an accessible part of London you could consider my company to give you a quote (many of our clients would be happy to show you the same sort of work that we have done in their homes).
Even if not you might find some of the info. on my website useful - this link is to a page about the price of a replacement bathroom. taraplumbing.co.uk/bathrooms/price

Most complete bathroom refurbs cost between £8-£10k. You would expect to spend more on a kitchen.