Renovation/Remodel costs - massive quote

[Mem77]

Hi all, just bought a 1960s four bed house that needs some remodeling work. Let me list what's needed then give you our quote from the builder. Would love to hear what you think.

So:

Open up back of house, remove two walls, put in steels
Under floor heating to kitchen/diner
New flat roof on existing extension with roof lantern and sliding doors to garden - 5ft approx
New kitchen - mid range
Create utility room and office space
New windows -8
Log burner
Create new ensuite
Replace existing bathroom
New flooring throughout
Redecoration throughout including plastering
Rewire

House is 184sqm.

Only one quote so far for 110k plus VAT. That's way over the top isn't it?

Thanks for the updates. Creating office utility space would be stud walls within existing building structure so no construction. I'm still surprised that removing a couple of walls is so expensive. Rewire 5k? Plaster/decorate 10k? Windows 5k? Flooring 8k? Kitchen 15k? Lantern/sliding door 15k? Bathroom 5k?

I think that sounds reasonable op, that’s a very extensive list you have there.

Open up back by removing 2 walls, patio doors - £20k
Underfloor heating £10k (depending on plumbing requirements, boiler etc)
New flat roof incl lantern £10k (assuming you dont need to strengthen existing structures)
New kitchen £10k
Create utility/office £5k (assuming no complicated plumbing)
New windows £5k
New bathroom £5k
Replace existing bathroom £2k
New flooring throughout £5-10k
Redecorate throughout £10k
So £110k would be reasonable! Depends on spec and internal work for so many of the above prices though, (eg putting 2 stud walls up for a utility is cheap but if you need to do complicated plumbing to get the washing machine in it will cost a lot more!)

Must be a great kitchen and bathroom! Get at least 2 more quotes. Then you'll know if it's reasonable.

We are midway through buying a similar sounding house. Ours is also 4bed, but in Sth East and 1940's. We are planning very similar to you and have been loosely quoted £100-£150,000 buy 3 different builders/friends. Yours sounds about right.

Sounds about right if not slightly cheaper than I expected

Unless you’re planning a really cheap finish that’s ok. How someone up thread reckoned you could do a bathroom for £2k is unrealistic unless it includes no labour. I’ve had a quote for £38k just for a kitchen diner with no extension. Renovation work is expensive!

I live in the SW and I think it sounds about right. It's a massive amount of work you are asking for, good luck finding anyone to do it for 60/70, our last one cost us 50k and DH is a builder, we do all the work ourselves.

Before I read your price I expected 120-150k
Thought you were going to say 250 tbh
I think that price is on the low side

I am from the north & it sounds a totally ridiculous figure to me. Will your house be worth more after this work? I would her more quotes as I agree with your estimated calculations etc

Definitely get more quotes!

15k for a kitchen? That’s definitely not mid range. I’d say 8k including fitting plumbing and integrated goods depending.

I’m in West Midlands and knocked a wall down in my house and put one up somewhere else and it cost me total - 1k! We build the new one ourselves though but that was all costs included and builder removed wall and placed steel in

I put a bathroom in for just over £2k including labour and a kitchen for less than £3k and its a very good quality one. In one house I put a sale kitchen in for £1k but unfortunately can't repeat that trick!
Ive spent just over £40k on a total renovation of 2 bed cottage including wood burner, new roof, re doing drains, dug up and relaid a floor. Full rewire, new boiler, rads, pipework, re plaster, new doors, some new windows, new internal joinery, moved a couple of walls and put steels in.

Get an account at a builders merchants then you get the discount. They have the bathrooms and kitchens they prefer you to buy and the cheaper versions, that builders buy. Kitchens are cheaper if you don't have pull out racks and lots of drawers. Employ each trade yourself, it takes a little longer but is much cheaper. Shop around for things such as the wood burner, mine came from country kiln and wasn't expensive and Ive bought a few from there over the years. Don't go mad on tiles and taps and other such things.

That sounds about right... but you could significantly reduce those costs by sourcing all the materials like the kitchen yourself (check out the usedkitchenhub for ex display for instance) and bathroom suites (eBay for excellent quality at a fraction of the cost e.g. Roca taps that other people have left over from their builds) and taking a hard look at what you actually want/need. For instance, I only ever put underfloor heating in when you don't have to take up the floor. What can you change to bring the budget down if you really have to?

We renovated our late 60s house 2 years ago. We removed 2 walls put up steels, repositioned the kitchen and put a new one. New flooring all downstairs, new patio doors, basically rewired the whole downstairs and a new patio for 35k and that was because we had mates rates and free labour! For what we did I think it should have been closer to 60k and we didn’t extend either. So your 110k is quite reasonable for the amount of work. I was able to source everything and get every discount rather than the trade charging retail price and skimming the difference which helped.

I agree with the other posters, that sounds reasonable if not cheap to me. I do sympathise though, I hoped to get work done for around £100k and it's coming in closer to £150k, with some of my ideas scaled back too. Unfortunately it's just an expensive thing to do. The amount of behind the scenes work and prep that goes into house refurb is crazy.

We're in the southwest. We had a large extension with BIG window, utility room, steels, underfloor heating, bi-folds, new windows and doors. There was a lot of earth moving to be done too. Plus a large mid - top range kitchen with new ovens etc. Came to around £110k. More than we anticipated, but a lot done.
Your quote seems on the high side seeing as you're not actually getting an extension built.

@howsicklyarsekissy

I am from the north & it sounds a totally ridiculous figure to me. Will your house be worth more after this work? I would her more quotes as I agree with your estimated calculations etc

Exactly - you don’t want to over capitalise!

Get separate quotes for all parts of the work - for example our joiner is charging £1100 to put up two stud walls with insulation - one to create an en-suite and the other to partition a long through sitting room. Plastering is roughly £5000 for 1200 sq ft. Decorating is roughly £1100 a room but I’m talking large rooms with 10ft ceilings. Total rewiring with Ethernet cabling and new fuse board which has to be resited £5000. Our new windows are expensive as they are bespoke wooden sashes - ring around some local window fitters to see how much a new window would be. These are London prices. No VAT to smaller tradesmen.

We are also doing a kitchen extension which is separate - the £1500 - 2000 quoted above are London prices.

Having done a rough tally (based on prices we were quoted for similar work) it seems like a reasonable enough quote. None of us can account for local pricing though, there is a fair bit of variation across the U.K.

I’m assuming that’s an all in quote, and the builder will coordinate the other trades, which you will pay for? You could do it cheaper by project managing yourself, and pay each trade separately, but it’s a lot of work, and if anyone lets you down, it can lead to delays and more £££. And added stress if you are living in the house while work is ongoing, as really, it’s worth the money to get builders in and out as quickly as possible. Our friends have spent lockdown without a kitchen, cooking on a portable stove and washing all the dishes in the cloakroom sink.

We were looking at between 60-70k as the place is already in reasonable condition. A lot of the work would be cosmetic

Other than the redecorating, flooring and plastering there is absolutely nothing in there cosmetic, you’re removing walls, creating new rooms, installing new kitchen and bathrooms, rewiring, adding a new roof, installing a wood burner etc, it’s a major remodel with a huge amount of work, and I’d be concerned it’s too low.

You can do things to reduce the price though, Ie go for the cheapest kitchen bathroom and flooring you can find, forget the wood burner, paint it yourself, forget The under floor heating, cheapest windows etc, but if anyone was wanting to do all this work for sixty or seventy grand I’d run a mile if I was you.

Other than the redecorating, flooring and plastering there is absolutely nothing in there cosmetic, you’re removing walls, creating new rooms, installing new kitchen and bathrooms, rewiring, adding a new roof, installing a wood burner etc, it’s a major remodel with a huge amount of work, and I’d be concerned it’s too low.

This is my impression too.

OP, you have a strange idea of what cosmetic means.

Sounds like a good price to me.

On the contrary I think your kitchen and window estimates are too low. A mid range kitchen is about £20k especially once you’ve done work tops and appliances. Windows are far more than £5k for a house that size. Front door alone is about £1500.

I think your quote is quite cheap

It sounds a reasonable price....I’m NW

No not over the top for the extensive work you want done