How long did your renovation take?

[ProjectGainsborough]

I realise this is a little bit 'how long is a piece of string?' but I'm trying to work out whether a particular project is worth taking on.

It has already been extended, but almost every internal wall would need reconfiguring as the layout is bonkers, and it would need new kitchen, bathrooms, windows, flooring, decorating… The list is endless.
So my question to you is, what was your renovation, and how long did it take? Thanks!

Ours took double what we estimated! But we went into it as a 'cosmetic makeover' moving a couple of walls, redo ing floor, bathrooms and kitchen. The issue for us was what was underneath that we hadn't factored in (plus we decided to redo wiring once we realised the plaster had to come off anyway).

I think if you are very certain/clear about what you want you can probably do a plan and get quite a good estimate of the process / timings and therefore cost. But you need to factor in what you will do if you uncover problems on the way (eg rotten joists, water pipes that need re-routing/upgrading, moving meters, sections of wall that have been inadequated patched up, unsupported in the past) Maybe if you are not planning on staying you can cover up and move on. We felt we couldn't do that hence the long extension to our project.

Also it depends on the size of the team you have working on it. We had a very small team as felt it was easier to manage and we knew we were likely to make changes to the plan on the way. Plus we had to live in the house a the same time so things couldn't be done in the most logical way.

So to answer your question, our very thorough renovation (on a 5 bed victorian property), inside and out, top down, took almost 18 months.

You really don't want to know! Longer than you can possibly imagine and its still ongoing...

Oh God...

From the time the builder started to the time it was habitable 7.5 monts. Snagging has taken a few extra months. As we were extending, we needed planning and building regs before work started which also took a few months before the builder started.

Keep in mind though we did a lot of work:

We did a ground and first floor extension, took down internal walls, removed casement windows and replaced them with sash, rewired and replumbed the entire house, laid new flooring throughout, replaced the staircase, installed 3 new bathrooms (all new wastepipes etc) and a downstairs WC, did a two-bedroom loft conversion and installed a new mega-flow heating system, new light fixtures throughout, re-did the back and front gardens including fencing, hard landscaping, turf etc, repainted everything inside and out, new kitchen, replaced most of the internal doors which were not Victorian, created a new manhole connection in the garden, installed under floor heating in the ground floor extension, new bifold doors onto the garden, re-instated chimneys including installing a woodburner in one and a Victorian surround in the bedroom, and converted a bedroom into a walk-in closet / ensuite.

We're living in ours so the works been strung out a bit but the majority should be done by the end of July which will be a year since we moved in and 10months since we started work. (5 bed Victorian semi)
We then start works on the new separate building in the garden which has been so far delayed due to other commitments.

Ours took around eight weeks for the below (original time estimate when the builders were quoting was six-eight weeks).

Full re-wire
Re-plumb, new boiler, new central heating
Resolve damp
Remove four, non-load bearing, walls
Build a couple of other walls (also non-load bearing)
Restore original staircase between second and third return (all spindles and banister pieces were in the attic though)
Custom build various missing architraves/doors
New main bathroom
Remove under-stairs shower room and turn into under-stairs loo
New kitchen
New roof with insulation on the return
Triple-glazed windows (18 of them)

But - we knew what we wanted before-hand and didn't change anything, we'd had a fairly in-depth survey done first and were very lucky that nothing came up that hadn't been mentioned in the survey.

P.S. - I should have mentioned that was just to get the place watertight, safe and liveable in - there are a number of other bits and pieces that mean we'll probably have everything fully complete (i.e. decorated/furnished) by this December...

ProjectG - Have sent you a PM!

Mines still going on, 18 months after we moved in....I'm hating every second of it.

We are nearly 3 years in now, about 70% through the work needed. We are doing most of it ourselves (around full time work).

Thanks all for your honesty! I'm not sure DH will go for it, it has been a stressful few years and I think we would be wise not to add to it. I think a normal amount of renovation work be okay, but the state of this house is truly truly shocking. Such a shame, it's a lovely plot. Good luck to all of you who are undertaking work!