House with potential cost to renovate

[Icantfindausername]

We have seen a lovely 4 bed detached which needs completely gutting. Its had nothing done in over 20 years, needs new bathroom, kitchen, ensuite the lot.

My question is approx how much would you say to do it all up?

I appreciate its probably quite hard yo say but wondered if people had experience or ideas to estimate?

Thank you

We are spending about £100k including a nice kitchen. Electrics , roof, 75% of windows aNd boiler are all fine.

Needs new kitchen, megaflo, 2 bathroom, completely redecorating and skimmed or plastered, turning round some stairs, 5 windows, 3 velux, we’re putting in new internal doors, new double front door, getting parquet refurbed, new carpets, new opening between kitchen and din8ng room, new downstairs loo.....

5 bed house.

We are getting people in to do it all. We both work full time and are crap at DIY.

We bought a 4 bed Victorian terraced house that needed everything doing. Including a wall taking out & RSJ and a partial rewire upstairs. Only things already OK were roof and windows.

We have done some work that's massively improved some of it but still the kitchen, bathroom, attic rewire and lots and lots of cosmetic work still to do.

That was 3 years ago and honestly I now feel that I was very naive about the cost and magnitude of the effort required. Also- when we chose it I never dreamed I'd end up full time homeworking, staring at the scummy kitchen and vile wallpaper and resenting the house.

I reckon PP's estimate of £100k is about right. Stupidly, I naively thought we would earn, save and do it up as we went along for a few years. I would never buy a project house again unless I had the cash ready to sort it out quite quickly. Things will change for us financially when dc gets funded nursery but I've learned A LOT about what a total doer upper really means!

I'm renovating a 3 bed semi. Roof, electrics and boiler are fine. Back to brick pretty much everywhere else, new kitchen bathroom and loo, internal porch knocked down, all upstairs walls skimmed, decorated throughout, new flooring, updated electrics, new cylinder and tank. It's coming in at 20k but that's with a skilled mate helping and doing a lot of it myself.

If you can't do any of the work yourselves, it's a total renovation and you are living in it ? Then I'd say don't bother, it won't be a pleasant experience . It could turn out to be a money pit.
Buy a house that needs less work or is finished.

Good luck 👍

I’d also say 100k for a decent standard but without going fancy.

@Misty9 £20k is absolutely brilliant for all that!

We don't have handy friends so have to pay for the major work. DP and MIL do painting at least.

That's where a huge chunk of money can be saved if you can do anything that you would have to pay someone else to do ( everybody can dig ). Or have friends that will help ( and know what they are doing )

YouTube is great for learning how to do things.

We did some messy things straight away (rewire, knocking down a wall + RSJ, sanding all floors) - that was around 5k. Then for 2 years we did a payday renovation - a few hundred each month on one job per month e.g. plaster one room, install radiators, decorating. Did everything ourselves apart from electrics, plastering and the RSJ. Once initial mortgage term was up (2 years) we re-mortgaged and took out approx £20k which allowed for a small kitchen extension and a new bathroom (not including the kitchen itself which we bought from IKEA on finance). All in all probably about £30k but difficult to say due to month to month spends varying wildly! Also we are in the NW where things are generally more affordable.

100k

We spent around £60k on a 4 bed terraced house, but did some stuff ourselves, and there is only one bathroom, and didn't choose a high-end kitchen etc. Agree with the estimate of £100k for a typical full scale reno.

We’ve just bought a detached 1970’s doer-upper as a short term project before our self build. Needs roof looked at, new windows and doors, heating/boiler, rewiring, fireplace knocked out and woodburner put in, full kitchen revamp, flooring, redecoration and 2 bathrooms. We’ve got a £50k pot to cover everything. But we’re experienced renovators, husband is a joiner and we do most of the work ourselves (the only things we won’t touch are electrics and anything other than basic plumbing). So I’m confident we’ll get most if not everything done within budget.

The cheapest way to do this will be to do it all in one go. But that is dependant on cash flow. If you're able to, I'd recommend handing the keys over to a contractor for two to three months and come home to a whole new house!!

Is the house liveable at the moment? If so, live in it for six months and get a feel of what you like and what you don't. Where you might want to move walls, doors, where a cooker and sink would best work in the kitchen. Right down to the "where will my Christmas tree go" so you can make sure there's a plug there for lights or where is the ideal spot for the TV so you can make sure you have your aerial point sited correctly.

I terms of price, if you're doing everything ie:
Roof
Windows
Kitchen
Bathroom/en-suite/downstairs toilet
Full rewrite
Full plaster
Boiler
Central heating
Internal doors, skirting and architraves
Flooring
Knock down a wall or two

I'd say budget 100k and hope you can do it for 75k - 85k.

We are doing the same, a large 4 bed detached that hasn't had much modernisation in the last 40 years, but seems cared for. Approximately 100k budget to do it completely. We think it's livable though around the work that'll take 2 years to finish we think. Location, plot, aspect and footprint all perfect so we were happy to do it. If yours livable in?

Our £100K doesn't include contingency - we've another £30K for that.

We are doing it nicely for us to live in. Well till the point we run out of money.

I'd second the idea, if its for you to live in and is liveable now, spend a bit of time living in it first. We had all sorts of plans as we moved in at the beginning of the year - but lockdown, working from home etc meant we had to delay.

But also got a chance to reevaluate what we wanted - i.e. wfh space and work out what already worked well in the house layout wise and what really doesn't. And also, crucially, where the light fell at different times of the year. It's not the lightest of houses and we want to maximise it where we can.

100 k is a lot of money 😳 If it's cash and it's going to increase the value by the same amount that's ok , but if your borrowing it ( plus the intrest on it ) and it won't increase the value by that much, it might be worth giving some serious thought. It's not just the money it's all the hassle that comes with building work too. 😤

Our 100K probably won't increase the house value by that much. Maybe increase it by £75 K - but it's a good house, in an area we like, on a good plot. And some of what we are doing just needs done - stuff you would do if you live in a house - like replacing rotten windows. Other stuff will make it much more liveable for us and we'll get the value by living there.

@Chumleymouse you can’t just get a loan of 100k. Such big jobs are either paid for from savings or releasing equity from a house. In some areas, it can be done for a lot less as labour costs are lower and things like an Ikea kitchen or £12 tiles won’t look out of place.

I never mentioned a loan ,

Thanks for your replies, I'm not sure its liveable to be honest, the bathrooms weren't good and it is a million miles from what we are used to hahaha.

It's a big decision as a lot of hard work but got so much potential too. Just keep hoping another one comes up on the same estate that isnt as bad!