Ballpark estimate renovation costs

[cornwallsharon]

I’m really struggling to get a ballpark figure of costs for the renovations on our new house - as we haven’t yet completed I can’t find a builder willing to come and quote (which is understandable) but I need a ballpark figure so I can do some budgets. Has anyone got any ideas on how much the following might cost:

Remove 4m wide end wall on kitchen diner and replace with glazing and French doors
Remove wall between kitchen and dining room (assume it’s structural)
Fit new kitchen - medium size, standard cabinets
Block up one door and reinstate old doorway
Plaster whole room (6x4)
General adjustments to kitchen plumbing / electrics
Lay new flooring throughout

I KNOW I can’t get an accurate figure, and I’ll price the kitchen units and appliances separately, but is this £5k of labour, £10k...more???

Thanks!!

Whereabouts are you? That will have a bearing on costs. Think £20k I'd say - the windows are likely to be costly. You'll probably need a structural engineer and Building Control. If you are having new flooring, will you need to remove and possibly replace the skirtings, etc.?

I would be really careful because our guesstimates were wildly wrong but we’d have still carried on as you can’t expect the sellers to fund your desired improvements.

We've done roughly similar to your list and it's ended up being £40k+

Seems a lot but then it was several people for a few weeks, plus plans, plus steels, skips, plastering, painting. We had higher quotes too. In Kent.

We're getting similar done and it's 40k + VAT (expensive part of the UK though). That includes materials, including the glass which is not as wide as yours would be but excludes flooring and kitchen. Assume £6-800 for building control (might be less - shop around rather than automatically using the council) and anything from £300-800 for an engineer. We had hugely varying quotes!

Depends on the cost of your kitchen for starters.....that could be 10k on its own.
Id say more like 30k

Yikes, I was hoping for £20k all in. The kitchen is Ikea and coming in at c. £4K - only the oven will be integrated, the rest is free standing as we have fairly new appliances already. I was working on £3k for removal of the internal structural wall, £3k for kitchen fitting, given that plumbing and electrics need moving but I’m not planning on having any tiles, £2k for replastering and general making good, £1k to block one door and knock through the other. £1k for flooring and skirting, £1k for fees etc. That’s £15k, so I might need to scale back the glazing on the back wall. It’s got a big window in already, so maybe I just replace that with the French door and leave it there. No idea what the cost will be for that but hopefully not mega ££££’s....
We are in Bristol.

I'd go with nearer £50k than £20k to be honest

We're in the middle of a very similar refurb in London and while costs are probably higher here, I still think what you're describing is closer to 30/35k. Don't forget that alongside the actual building work if you're removing walls you'll have to factor in fees for a structural engineer to draw up the plans/calculations to submit to Building Control, plus there's the BC fee, plus you might need a Party Wall surveyor to do an agreement if you're inserting steels into a neighbour's wall... those fees alone can amount to a few grand. You should also budget 10% for any issues that arise during the build - you might have floor or ceiling joists that need replacing, or need a box steel inserted in the opening where the French doors will go (it's not simply a case of taking out a window and sticking a door in), which can be stupidly expensive. And yes, I'm speaking from experience!

Hmmm I think your estimate is optimistic. We're currently having part of a wall removed, couple of doorways changed, removing one set of French doors & changing for window, replacing other set, electrics moved around, radiators moved etc, then replastering, kitchen fitted, flooring laid & are looking at around £15k for Labour only (plus major building materials e.g. beams, bricks). That's also with mates' rates on some of that, other quotes were closer to 20. Glazing can be pretty pricey too, especially if you're thinking about bifolds or similar.

Ive found (unfortunately) whilst having an extension and lots of work to the current house that literally everything costs more than you initially thought.

Good luck with it all

Yes i find you can double what you expect to pay and add half again and you will be somewhere near !
I am always baffled by these builders on the telly who buy a wreck and gut it and renovate it and claim to have only spent about 10 grand.
I know they do a lot of the work but we can spend that on a single room in our old property.

flapjackfairy glad not just me. We thought 60k would be more than enough but its more like 75k and that's leaving things out too. Heyho such is life!