Estimated cost of works in North london

[Moonlight86]

Hi all,

COVID as with everything else has put our housing and space situation into perspective and we have been actively looking for a larger property to move into-a townhouse from our current 2-bedroom apartment. DH and I have found a 4 bed house that we really like but it needs some updating. All the Windows need to be updated to pvc (and there’s quite a few windows and french windows!). Ideally we’d like to brong down a wall between kitchen and living room and redo the entire kitchen and move the cloakroom. We also have to replace flooring and paint the house. However all this said, we’ve never bought a property where we’ve had to do any works on it, so we have no idea where to start and how to estimate costs. Ideally we’d like to offer a price where we can afford the necessary works on the property. Can anyone share any recent rough estimate of how much it costs to replace windows, bringing down a wall (even if it’s in the region of..”? Also if you have any advise on how to find contractors for such a job, that would be amazing! Thanks so much!!

The job that surprised us most in cost terms was taking down load bearing walls. One alone accounted for £20K given steels, props etc. The plasterboard, non load bearing walls cost peanuts in comparison and was just bashed down in an afternoon.

A new kitchen can be 5k-50k depending on budget. The appliances can be thousands if high end.

Can't comment on uPVC windows, sorry!

@newhousenewme thank you so much for your input! That’s very helpful. Any thoughts on moving a cloak room? Do you know how much effort/cost that would be?

A typical knock through of a single internal load bearing wall should be about £3K including plastering etc.
Is it an old house? You might find that moving a cloakroom is next to impossible as every wall is load bearing.

We did a slightly more involved refurb in the same area and with a decent builder I think you're looking at at least 60k to do all that - windows are SO expensive and to replace them all could cost the best part of 20k. Also, it might sound simple knocking down a wall between two rooms but there's labour costs on top of the RSJ cost, plus you'll need to factor in Building Control fees, structural engineer drawings, skip hire, parking permits. If you need electrics and plumbing renewed throughout the house (because you never know how bad they can be until you're in the house and start investigating), add another 10k. And that's me being conservative. We spent 100k for knocking two reception rooms into one, removing wall between diner and kitchen and gutting both to put in new kitchen, new bathroom, new internal doors, French doors and bi-folds and new flooring (including UFH in kitchen) throughout. London builders aren't cheap.

We did a similar amount of work, maybe a little more - took down 2 walls, replaced French doors, replaced a large window with doors, replaced a shower room with a downstairs toilet in slightly different place plus 2 upstairs bathrooms and then new kitchen and decorating etc. Was around £70k for the work plus the cost of kitchen etc so about £100k altogether. This is east London a year ago.

By cloakroom do you mean downstairs loo? Depends a lot on plumbing and access to pipes. Plus then moving the walls depends on supporting or not.
We paid £20k ish to remove a load bearing wall. Huge job, pulling up floors, digging foundations, building supports, making and getting in an almighty RSJ before you even start boarding and plastering.
Windows min £800 each. More for doors etc.
Kitchen anything from £20k upwards for a mid-range mid-sized one.
It's easy to spend a lot very quickly!

@FurierTransform

A typical knock through of a single internal load bearing wall should be about £3K including plastering etc. Is it an old house? You might find that moving a cloakroom is next to impossible as every wall is load bearing.

Thanks for your input! It’s a 20 year old townhouse so not very old. But because we’ve only expressed interest in the house and haven’t yet bought it, we don’t know much about which are the load bearing walls.

@Longwhiskers14

We did a slightly more involved refurb in the same area and with a decent builder I think you're looking at at least 60k to do all that - windows are SO expensive and to replace them all could cost the best part of 20k. Also, it might sound simple knocking down a wall between two rooms but there's labour costs on top of the RSJ cost, plus you'll need to factor in Building Control fees, structural engineer drawings, skip hire, parking permits. If you need electrics and plumbing renewed throughout the house (because you never know how bad they can be until you're in the house and start investigating), add another 10k. And that's me being conservative. We spent 100k for knocking two reception rooms into one, removing wall between diner and kitchen and gutting both to put in new kitchen, new bathroom, new internal doors, French doors and bi-folds and new flooring (including UFH in kitchen) throughout. London builders aren't cheap.

Thanks longwhiskers! That’s so useful to know. I think we grossly underestimated how much the works would cost-so we need to think which jobs are essentials vs what we can do later. We did ask a builder for a rough estimation and we did hear that windows are really expensive. Reality has kicked in. 😕

Also just a word of warning that when you mention "updating the windows to pvc" you might mean that the current windows are timber - is that right? In which case you need to find out if the townhouse is required by the council to maintain its original features... Had a friend who bought a lovely run-down north london townhouse 15 years ago and spent a fortune replacing the rotten sash windows with double-glazing only to find there were conservation area rules she hadn't been informed of - she had to rip the whole lot out and re-do in double-glazed wood frames. I still remember her pain!

@Crabbo

We did a similar amount of work, maybe a little more - took down 2 walls, replaced French doors, replaced a large window with doors, replaced a shower room with a downstairs toilet in slightly different place plus 2 upstairs bathrooms and then new kitchen and decorating etc. Was around £70k for the work plus the cost of kitchen etc so about £100k altogether. This is east London a year ago.

Thanks a crabbo. The quote we got wasn’t too far from that. Sounds very similar to the work you did. But we’re not doing the bathrooms just as yet as they aren’t in too bad condition. We figure we can do them later.

@TangaHewlettPackard

By cloakroom do you mean downstairs loo? Depends a lot on plumbing and access to pipes. Plus then moving the walls depends on supporting or not. We paid £20k ish to remove a load bearing wall. Huge job, pulling up floors, digging foundations, building supports, making and getting in an almighty RSJ before you even start boarding and plastering. Windows min £800 each. More for doors etc. Kitchen anything from £20k upwards for a mid-range mid-sized one. It's easy to spend a lot very quickly!

Yes I meant downstairs loo. I was trying to see if other houses in the same development have made changes (it’s a large development of town houses and flats) and looks like they have. So I’m guessing this might be possible. Also really hoping it’s not a load bearing wall that we’re hoping to bring down as I know how difficult that can be. 😬 Thanks a lot for input.

All the Windows need to be updated to pvc (and there’s quite a few windows and french windows!).

Plenty of areas in London are in Conservation areas so you can't easily do anything to the outside of the building like replace windows.

How to find this out? Sometimes like in my area you can see a sign on a road nearby if you walk around the area telling you that you are entering a Conservation area. Other times like where one of my siblings' live, you have to look on the council website. (Though this website is often down outside working hours.)

Also if you have any advise on how to find contractors for such a job
Make friends with people in the neighbourhood whether this is because they live near you, you meet them at school or doing a hobby locally. Then ask them if you can see the work the contractor has done on their home or someone else's home if they are in the trade. If the contractor is any good expect to have to wait for them to be available and this can be over a year.

@WoolyMammoth55

Also just a word of warning that when you mention "updating the windows to pvc" you might mean that the current windows are timber - is that right? In which case you need to find out if the townhouse is required by the council to maintain its original features... Had a friend who bought a lovely run-down north london townhouse 15 years ago and spent a fortune replacing the rotten sash windows with double-glazing only to find there were conservation area rules she hadn't been informed of - she had to rip the whole lot out and re-do in double-glazed wood frames. I still remember her pain!

Great point. We’ve checked and it’s not a conservation area. It’s a large development of relatively new townhouses (20 yrs) and many people have replaced the windows, so we know it’s possible. I’ve attached a photo of the window. I think you’re right they are timber casement windows with stays. They look a bit tired and I’m not sure how secure they are. It’s the same style on the french windows and windows throughout the house. Maybe they don’t need replacing? We thought replacing them would give a bit to a facelift ( the property is 20 years old and the current owners haven’t done any work on it.)

I’m not a window expert by any means but that window looks fine to me? Could you just have them repaired if broken and decorated?

Also just a word of warning re doing stuff a bit at a time - it can definitely work but think very carefully about what order you would do stuff. We did that with our previous house and found that each new tradesperson you get in basically makes a total mess of what the person before did if they go anywhere near it so you need to decide carefully!

That window looks fine. Unless the seals have gone and there are now huge draughts coming in them all, have them sanded down and repainted and that will sort them looking a bit tired.