£16,500 to redecorate - am I being ripped off? How much were you charged?

[themummyway]

Being quoted the following:

£2.5k for stripping old wallpaper + carpets and clear.
£7k for "complete decorating" (assuming this is painting 3 bedroom, living room, hallway + a installing flooring in said bedrooms)
£7k to plaster all rooms

Based in London. Average 3bed 1930s house. Is this reasonable? Anyone done similar? How much were you charged?

My Mum is in Hertfordshire and is having her 3 bed semi completely decorated. No wall paper stripping as it's all paint/ emulsion but that is £3K

I recently had my tiny kitchen and bathroom done including materials floors and redecorating for £22k. But I found our cooker and hob myself at John Lewis in the sale which was a third cheaper than what the kitchen company was going to charge. . I also found out I was charged almost double for an extractor fan in the kitchen. If I had shopped around more, I wouldn't have been taken so much for a mug.

We are planning to redecorate the other rooms ourselves (we have a two bed flat) for under £3k, and expect to pay another £5k on flooring.

I think from the description OP could get the walls stripped and plastered but it's easy enough to paint yourself. Shop around more. I wish I had.

Also, if you need a roofer, my neighbour is one and does a very good job. DM me for a quote. £15.5k is obscene.

You need a detailed quote with specifications. Ideally you need to prepare that and send it out. You might want to get one company to do it all for ease, it will likely be more expensive but they will deal with scheduling and delays, which can be a massive problem (tho not if you left the house). Some of the costs might be entirely justified depending on the final fit. They can also be negotiated because you might go for a different quality, but you can't compare apples and pears - get the spec nailed down!

Having said all that, for a rough comparison I got 3 bedroom semi redecorated, recarpeted, knocked through kitchen and diner, kitchen units and hard wood counter, appliances, parquet floor kitchen and hallway, bifold doors and new window, bathroom knocked to toilet room and new windows, fitted wardrobes in big bedroom, new bolier and radiators throughout, garden turfed... yep I think that's it - for £40k.

I spilt the work to the appropriate trades and did a lot of sourcing materials. If I'd been charging for my time you could add £10k, don't underestimate the level of effort!

Also, if you need a roofer, my neighbour is one and does a very good job. DM me for a quote. £15.5k is obscene

Sorry, I misunderstood. That includes clearing the kitchen etc. But still. .

Does this include materials? Ie replacement flooring?

Does the price includes the supply of goods as well as the fitting?

Bathrooms/Kitchens carpets and flooring could eat up a lot your figure depending on the quality. if you are prepared to pay someone that sort of sum, I cant imagine its a Homebase kitchen that you are having fitted

Break those jobs down and project manage this yourself. It's fine for other posters to say that quotes ridiculous but you can't compare individual jobs to and entire renovation. Get quotes from plumbers electricians and independent kitchen fitters. The biggest job you can yourself is project manage a renovation.

It does seem quite expensive, depending on the size of your rooms but prices for plastering etc. do vary based on where you are in the country.

We are renovating a 3 bed in Suffolk and plastering the entire thing will have cost us around 4K (around 500-600 per room) so not as cheap as some people have managed to get it elsewhere.

The removal or wallpaper and carpets is quite costly - is this something you might be able to do yourself (or get a friend to help with if lockdown rules change)?. It cost us £30 for a wallpaper stripper and about £200 for a Hippobag (including collection) to put all of the old carpets in. Skip hire may have been cheaper but we liked that we could keep it as long as we liked whilst filling it.

We fully renovated a 1930s two bedroom bungalow: completely replumbed, rewired, new floors throughout (woodworm & rot), CH, new kitchen & bathroom, carpets & curtains. Total material cost & cost of gas fitter was £13.5k. All work done (bar gas fitting) by DH.

DH was an electrician and would charge approx £2.5k-£3k for a full house rewire.

Stripping out costs labour plus skip hire. Top tip: dont put metal work in the skip, put it next to the skip. That way you dont come back and find your skip having been ravaged by people searching for tasty morcels! Local scrap merchants can smell potential pickings on the wind and will be round without you needing to phone anyone!

Renovation is far easier done in an empty house but do keep it secure. Make sure your insurers know what is going on. They will amend cover. We got in the habit of switching off electricity and water when we werent working to avoid risk of flood etc.

Find your local Facebook page and ask for some recommendations for people in your area. These are usually good to gage who's good and honest etc

@Handsoffisback

Are you my SIL OP? She lives in London and is constantly being ripped off by tradespeople. She was charged £15k for a bathroom that’s no bigger than a box bedroom. Do not entertain going with this conman

Haha no, I'm not!

@Mumof1I

Does this include materials? Ie replacement flooring?

Yes, includes all materials

I just can't get over £3k for 3 bedroom doors + fit 😱

@Fattyboom

I just can't get over £3k for 3 bedroom doors + fit 😱

And also widening/adjusting the doorways slightly so the doors close better?

Would that help to explain the price?

I think a pp has it right - what you’re being charged for here is essentially project management by your builder (to do it in his own sweet time in 6 months). If he’s actually costed it properly rather than pulling these numbers out of his arse, he’s added a percentage to the cost of the individual trades he’ll hire in for you.

There are two ways you can go about getting further quotes - either another builder who will project manage (and get them to quote with a proper breakdown of materials and labour costs), or source the individual trades yourself.

The latter will be the cheaper option, but involves much more work from you. Either way you should be able to get much cheaper quotes.

£3k new bedroom doors + fit

My joiner does what they call in these parts 'foreigners'. He charges £30 to fit a door. He also redid all my worktop with new, rehung all the kitchen cupboard doors, fitted a new sink and actually fitted the cupboards to the wall (cowboys before) for £150.

"We're NW but paid £1100 to get all that done!"

Bullshit. No way did you have a whole house stripped, plastered and fully redecorated, including flooring for just over a grand.

@WinterAndRoughWeather

Unless your kitchen spans a river, the materials cost of the RSJ will be a few hundred quid.

I had a 3.5 metre supporting wall removed and replaced with an RSJ strong enough to support a future attic conversion for £1500 or thereabouts. In the northwest, but still.

I am in an expensive part of the UK. I had a wall knocked through, RSJ in, all made good for about that.

He saw you coming!

If he's a family friend you might be in a that awkward situation where he thinks you are loaded, lazy and maybe "undeserving" of your money.

@bubbleup

"We're NW but paid £1100 to get all that done!"

Bullshit. No way did you have a whole house stripped, plastered and fully redecorated, including flooring for just over a grand.

Agreed. Unless the person is a relative, that's incredibly cheap!

Especially for North West London. (Assuming you're in Zone 2/3)

Total is c. £70k sans kitchen.
Context: house is old 1930s. Not much has been done in over 40 years.

£2.5k for stripping old wallpaper + carpets and clear. ABOUT RIGHT
£7k for "complete decorating" (assuming this is painting 3 bedroom, living room, hallway + a installing flooring in said bedrooms) BY THE TIME YOU'VE MADE GOOD THE WALLS, ADDED NEW SKIRTING I PRESUME, DONE ALL THE WOODWORK IT'S EXPENSIVE BUT NOT CRAZY. I WOULD THINK THAT 5K IS ABOUT RIGHT

£7k to plaster all room UNFORTUNATELY PROBABLY AS THE WALLS ARE GOING TO BE A PROPER STATE ONCE YOU'VE REWIRED AND STRIPPED

£6.5k rewire house (inc. new meter box) YES AFRAID DO AND ASSUMING THIS INCLUDES ALL THE WIRES FOR TV / NETWORKS ETC

£6.5k new combi boiler and plumbing (replace hot water cylinder) YES. YOU MAY WELL NEED NEW PIPES TOO

£15.5k clear old kitchen, fit new. new roof, re
move wall, install rsj YES, THIS INCLUDES RSJ's, ROOF, WALLS ETC NEVER GOING TO BE CHEAPER

£4k kitchen worktop YOU CAN DEF SHOP AROUND FOR THIS

£4k new window in kitchen + bifold door PROBABLY RIGHT. THERE WILL BE MAKING GOOD OF OUDSIDE WALLS AND BUILDING STRUCTURE AROUND THIS. IT MAY NEED SOME SUPPORT TOO AND WILL DEPEND ON THE SIZE OF THE BIFOLD PLUS QUALITY

£3.5k new lights in lounge, remove back boiler, new flooring, new lights, remove french doors YES

£4.5k downstairs loo - tiling walls, floor, install new fan, new sink, loo, shower (+ clear existing) POSSIBLY A BIT MUCH BUT DEPENDS ON THE SPEC YOU ARE GOING FOR. YOU CAN CUT COSTS BY JUST PAINTING AND HAVING TILES ABOVE THE SINK. DEPENDS TOO IF YOU ARE HAVING THE TOILET BOXED IN AS THIS COSTS MORE

£6.5k upstairs loo - new bath, toilet, sink, flooring, walls (+clear existing) YES, GOOD PRICE

£3k new bedroom doors + fit YES, DOORS ARE INSANELY EXPENSIVE ESPECIALLY IF YOU NEED ANY FIRE DOORS WHICH YOU WILL IF YOU ARE OPEN PLAN. THEY TAKE FOREVER TO HANG PROPERLY AND YOU NEED HANDLES / LOCKS ETC

I think that this looks pretty much spot on. The bathrooms are perhaps slightly expensive but not if you include all the sanitaryware. The rest looks more or less right. I think that the worktop can be done cheaper. your biggest cost is on the kitchen. The knocking through and the RSJ is going to be expensive and costly. The plastering of the walls is likely to include the making good and that kitchen area is a big old job.

If you're renovating a house which hasn't been touched forever you will very likely need new pipes too and therefore your plumbing price is more than reasonable. I don't even want to tell you what ours ended up costing.

@WinterAndRoughWeather

I think a pp has it right - what you’re being charged for here is essentially project management by your builder (to do it in his own sweet time in 6 months). If he’s actually costed it properly rather than pulling these numbers out of his arse, he’s added a percentage to the cost of the individual trades he’ll hire in for you.

There are two ways you can go about getting further quotes - either another builder who will project manage (and get them to quote with a proper breakdown of materials and labour costs), or source the individual trades yourself.

The latter will be the cheaper option, but involves much more work from you. Either way you should be able to get much cheaper quotes.

This makes sense. Thank you.

Project managing myself will not be an issue for me at all.

My work is very flexible, so I can oversee everything without it being too taxing. Clearly I need to do my research!

Oh just realised the doors are just for bedrooms, no that's too much. I assumed all the doors in the house

My hallway, stairs and landing was 1500 (including 10 doors) then 300-400 per room. He hasn’t had to strip walls though. I know there are cheaper decorators but he’s so good and I trust him.