How much do you think house refurbishment would cost?

[Property4141]

I’ve bought a small 900 square metre, 1930’s ex-council 3 bed semi. Before moving in I want to refurbish all the rooms apart from the kitchen and bathroom (need more time to plan those).

The work involves:

Sinking all electric sockets into walls
Light switches changed
One ceiling light moved into centre of room
New skirting and architraves throughout (plus painting)
New door linings and doors throughout (plus painting)
One radiator moving 3m
New radiators replaced throughout
Some exposed radiator pipework tunnelled into the wall in one room
Re-plastering throughout (over artex)
One concrete fire hearth removed from floor
Chimney breast removed from first floor and steel bracket put into attic

Going to paint the walls and ceilings myself.

So far I’ve had one quote for £19,000 which feels extortionate! And another for £13,000 which includes most materials.

Trying to figure out what a good price would be... what would you expect this to cost?

I’m no expert on the price of these things but is there a reason you are not rewiring or replumbing? Whilst you are doing all the rest including plastering it might be false economy not to do the full works.

13k sounds reasonable.

I think you mean 90 sqm!
£13000 sounds good.

13k sounds really sensible I’d maybe think a bit less for a 3 bed semi but a lot of the work we did was a number of years ago now so everything’s gone up! Removing a chimney breast is an absolute b*stard so expect that’s bumping it up - agree re electrics and plumbing. Get someone to come and look, base it on how long you’ll be there, be worthwhile doing anything like that before you re-plaster

£13k is very reasonable OP but as a PP said if you are channelling walls anyway I’d be tempted to rewire. The mess is more than you expect.

@LindemannConstructions - you can’t just advertise your services on Mumsnet.

I would seriously question whether skimming over artex is a wise idea. I renovated my house, while I was in the building trade, and I had some walls hacked off and replastered, some just skimmed. The skimmed ones were a pain around the doors with the architraves.

@C4tastrophe - Artex sometimes has asbestos in. I was advised it is better to seal it and skim over it. You would not be able to tell.

£19K seems reasonable for that level of work tbh... it's lots of fiddly jobs so will take a fair bit of time, and materials have gone up in price enormously in the last year.

I think you’d be better off getting a full rewire. Have the quotes included this? It’s often not as simple as sinking wiring into the walls. Have you looked to see the wiring? Sometimes the council use singles when they are rewiring externally using trunking. Presumably your builders would have checked this out but just in case they haven’t it’s worth considering. Personally I would do new wiring and plumbing as you are already doing so much work. Cost wise I’ve no idea but materials are up by 50 percent compared to pre Brexit.

And 900sq m would be a mansion!

Good point. It’s expensive to remove and needs to be disposed of properly (expensive).
It will depend if the plastering is still sound or has already blown. As it’s 90 years old, I’d suspect it’s blown/hollow when tapped.
Furthermore all the tradesmen need to be informed there is asbestos in the walls as they will be inhaling the dust otherwise.
There are artex testing kits available.

Does artex come up on house surveys as having asbestos? It would certainly be a price negotiation topic.

@C4tastrophe - there is the standard this may have asbestos paragraph normally but I think that’s in any house survey built pre the banning of it. You’d have to pay for a proper test to know.

Zombie thread guys. Obviously Halloween is the night for them.