£70K to rewire, £110K to replumb

[MamaPumpkin21]

We are purchasing an old home in Dumfries + Galloway that is currently occupied but does need upgrading.

It's a large property (around 6,000 square feet) and purchased for £400k. According to the home report, the property will be worth £200K more than we paid for it when renovations are complete (£600K).

There are 5 bedrooms, 4 reception rooms, 1 bathroom, 1 cloakroom. Property isn't listed.

We requested quotes from local tradesmen. Today we got some quotes back:

To replumb the property + install central heating: £110,000 including VAT (of which £70,000 is labour)
To rewire the property: £70,000 including VAT (of which £44,000 is labour)
Estimated time to complete work: 6 weeks

We haven't received the roofing and decorating quotes yet, but we are seriously considering dropping out of if the quotes are considered reasonable (we're floored!). The area is v. rural and the tradesmen are local to the property.

The vendors are currently living in the property (it's not a total wreck), and though there are some issues (roof could do with replacing, damp etc), we cannot understand the rates. At all.

Are we missing something? The tradesmen all know each other (we found a joiner via Google and he recommended his friends). They joked about "Southerners with deep pockets" (certainly not us!).

Any insight? Prior to making an offer we googled average prices and multiplied several-fold to take into account the square footage. Didn't expect this.
TIA

DH is a plumber and I read this to him .... his response “wow is the new piping made of gold”! And we’re in London.

@senua I agree! Def the trades are interested parties!

Have you gone to a large company for the quotes? Smaller companies charge less (particularly independents).

I had quotes in Kent last year for a total rewire on a 4000 sq ft house with commercial electricity supply at £8k-£10k from an independent electrician that I trust.

With plumbing I wasn't look at anything as extensive as you but recently had a large commercial boil fitted and substantial amount of pipe work refitted in another large house for less than £10k again by an independent plumber that I trust.

My first thought was : they don’t want the job

Your house seems massive, never the less the quotes do appear to be ridiculous. Given that you probably don’t have any Gas provision the CH might be very specific.
In your position I’d employ a professional such Chartered Surveyor or Chartered Architect to make sure my requirements economically matched the quotes from the trades.

Big 5 bedroom house,we got 2 new bathrooms, megaflo, 3 replacement radiators with a lot of new pipes...£23k.

It sounds high.

I wouldn’t pull out though. It might be what you specified.

Wanted to add that a local professional ( bound by their professional conduct rules) would have worked with the trades before and therefore would know where ‘ inaccuracies’ were being made.

Or could they know/be friends with a rival buyer who you outbid?

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!

Good god those quotes are mad!

Those quotes are insane... but am I right that you are paying 400K and hoping it will be worth 600K? As I think 200K for a house that big for a full renovation including roof etc. is pretty tight from my experience (obvs depending on finish)... which is fine if it's going to be your home but less so if you are trying to make a profit...

Those prices are INSANE!!!! We have a slightly but not much smaller property and we had a re-plumb, new boiler and some new radiators and I think it was about 11k all in all - the boiler is a commercial condensing boiler as well which is better for large properties and they’re pricey.

I’ve also always thought a standard re-wire is around 5-10k depending on size of property. Although never done it.

Do you have any local fb groups you’re members of? If so maybe post asking if anyone has had this done and if so how big their house is if they don’t mind sharing, and explain you’ve never done this before and just want to get an idea of how much it might cost.

I want to say the above was 7 years ago but still.....

@Mintjulia

I had a Victorian, four bed 2500 sq ft house in Hampshire rewired in 2015 and it cost £6,000. So multiply that up and an equivalent price would be about £15k.

Prices may have risen in 6 years but not by 400%. Unless you've specified gold plated light switches and your own generator in the grounds.

Mine was 12k for similar size last year in London (rewire) and 30k for full replumb including top of range heating system

@Saltyslug

Op go on the all local Facebook pages for the area and ask for recommendations for roofing and plumbing. Don't give other details. It’s likely the same names will be put forward. Then get three separate quotes.

However stalk those pages for a while - then you will spot genuine recommendations, as well as family "nominations" hidden as supposedly indep. Ask for "recommendations from people where you have paid for the work as a third party. Please dont recommend family or friends".

My OH is an electrician. 2 Electricians charging £3600 labour EACH per WEEK is absolutely insane. Get some other quotes. Please.

I think trades are in pretty high demand at the moment, if they are giving very high quotes it’s usually an indication that they don’t really want the job.

This ^ wot @Losttheequipment said.

They may also be friends or in line to do it up for someone locally who was outbid by you for the house.

Not a great start in a new location.

Our total budget is £300K. We're not so fussed about the resale value and are/were planning to make it a family home but wouldn't be able to with the quotes initially received.

Hoping to find trades via Facebook groups, and anyone further afield. Unfortunately, a few tradespeople I contacted (based in Glasglow and Ayr) said it's too far for them to travel.

We wouldn't want to destroy the chain, but have to be realistic and would hate to be stuck with a property we cannot afford to do up.

Is there a particular website or company that specialises in potential live-in tradesmen or those who would travel? There are beautiful holiday lets in the area.

Thanks again

There was a thread on here about a month or two from someone who had moved from England to Scotland asking about hiring builders from Europe directly - I can’t remember if they found anyone. I did search for the thread for you but you might find it.
I’m not suggesting you do that but they may have found another solution.
Those quotes are insane - we have just finished the refurbishment of about 1200 sq ft property in an expensive part of London. The electrics including cat cabling and new fuse board etc was about £5k and the plumbing - no boiler yet and only 1 en suite a similar amount.

You might find they are pricing high because of the hassle factor.

We did a full re-wire and re-plumb on an older property, initial quotes were very high, although not as high as yours.

We stripped the property back; removed ceilings, removed flooring, stripped the old plaster, etc. Which we intended to replace anyway. Then asked for prices again, the quotes went HUGELY down.

I got the impression that both the plumber and electrician had factored having to strip back and replace into their quotes. Plus were charging plumber/electrician rates to do so when it doesn't really require the expertise.

All in we did the whole house for around £350k, including a large 2 storey extension and replacing everything including; windows, walls, floor, roof, plaster, all carpentry, kitchen, and 4 bathrooms. We did the strip back and decorating ourselves which saved us a big chunk of the budget.

For those of you who had rewiring done in Victorian houses - how do you know when your house should be rewired?

@HollowTalk

For those of you who had rewiring done in Victorian houses - how do you know when your house should be rewired?

The fizzing in the walls was a clue (not joking)

Definitely look further afield even if that means renting accommodation for a month for a live in crew. It can save you tens of thousands as rural contractors often have a monopoly of sorts.

@hollowtalk I had an extension built and the electrician who came to add the new circuits took one look and wanted to switch the whole house off.

He suggested I got a second opinion which I did, with the same reaction. Seems a previous owner was a DIY sparky with no training. Lights and sockets hanging off shower/cooker circuits, unterminated live wiring, lack of earthing, random spurs etc. Switches were mostly 1960s.

All sorted now

Those quotes are a piss take. I would shop around. My house (a little smaller than yours) needed all that. My husband took an electrician's course it cost around 3k for 12 weeks then hired a professional to help. We bought all materials and came out about 20k. The plumbing I think was about 30k with 6k materials.