Barn conversion cost

[IrrelevantPeasant]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking into buying an old stone barn, in Scotland and we want to convert it into a house. I’ve looked into finance and it seems we’ll be able to borrow 100k to do the work. Does this seem realistic for a 100m2 barn? It’s connected to water and electricity already. Tia

No. That sounds nowhere near enough. You could be in for almost a total rebuild. Even if you do all the work yourself that’s not enough.

15 years ago the calculation was thought to be a minimum £1000/m2 if you did some work yourself. We managed it then but with a lot of compromise. Not sure I could now though. What state is the roof in? That can eat up a lot of your budget. It has water but does it have mains drainage? Another big budget item.

Having done both I think it is cheaper to new build rather than convert a barn.

At least with new build you claim all the vat back.

£100,000 is too low I suspect.

Aah, I thought that might be the case. We might be able to push the budget to130k but I’m guessing that would probably be too low too?

The latest estimate is £1500 per m2. It is very difficult to tell because listing, conservation area, and all sorts of structural issues dictate cost. I would have thought £150,000 was too low as well!

Whatever you think it will cost, double it.

Before you start you have:

Planning costs
Architect costs
Legal costs (e.g access, bat/owl issues)

Then there's the basic structural stuff:
Roof
Foundations
All the timbers
Insulation
Drainage
Sewerage
Plumbing
Windows
Plastering
Electrics

Then there's the stuff to make it into a functional house:
Kitchen
Bathroom x 2 (or more?)
Heating
Carpentry (shelves, staircases, cupboards)

Then you have to furnish it...

£2k /m2 and upwards id suggest. But really depends how much you do yourself and whereabouts the building is located as if very rural the costs can spiral

On a similar type of renovation that was part done and on edge of town we recently got £1550/m2 and felt lucky with that

I’m also king of buying stuff in bulk, on trade deals and for two projects at a time etc etc.

Last week I waited an hour around town doing errands when looking to buy an expensive tap as I know the manager will give me his staff discount verses a straight trade discount I can get off the general staff!.......that saved an additional £30

Yes I’m that bad! But the way I see it it’s £30 in my pocket

If you have £130,000 then decide whether you could get so far with it and stop. Where would you live in the meantime? Would that be ok while you raise the extra? What would the finished value be? Is it worth it? To me, I don’t think you have enough money and no wriggle room if it goes wrong. Also, are you working and what are your future income expectations? Can you raise more money if you need to?

Scowry forgot the staircase!

And the repointing of the Stone!

Yes, the extra 30k I would like to keep as a contingency fund just in case (for when) we need it. That really would be everything we’ve got. I hadn’t factored in bat and owl issues and I know there are both as I know the building quite well. It has a good bit of land with it so it would be worth a lot when finished (upwards of 600k) but not if we don’t have any money to finish it. Thanks for your input everyone

The staircase is under 'carpentry' and I was kind of including pointing in with plastering (but actually did just forget to write it )

I also forgot the costs to put the outside area right once the building work has finished. Even just re-seeding, putting in paths, garden walls, driveways etc (because whatever is there now will get trashed by cement, heavy vehicles etc) can add quite a few thousands on before you even start thinking about gardens and planting.

I've been involved in two barn conversions and one very old stone house renovation and a brick cottage renovation. It doesn't matter how carefully you plan it, how much you think you have worked out your sums, how much experience you have there will always be something you haven't factored in and it will be expensive.

A lot of people also make the mistake of thinking they will be able to do a lot of it themselves or get friends with trades in to do stuff to save on costs. I've found that even if that is the case it barely makes a dint in what the overall costs are because invariably it either takes longer because its not a professional doing it or the 'mates rates' aren't actually much cheaper and because they are friends you don't feel you can hurry them up/ make them work to your schedule/ question slightly shoddy work

OP, if there is any hint of barn owls I would pretty much walk away. Bats aren't always as quite an issue but it depends on what type of bats and how they are using it.

Yes it is barn owls! I think we’re going to have to leave it unfortunately, we just don’t have the funds and if anything were to go wrong it could be the end of us!