Cost of work to do up a house that's had no work done on it in years + a bit if remodelling or extending

[Aaaghbuying]

So as per my previous query, we're looking at a Victorian 3-4 bed semi, appears structurally sound, no obvious damp, which is good. Has central heating. But looks like nothing changed in 60 years, so assume electrics etc may need looking at.

It clearly needs complete top to bottom redecoration, new flooring throughout, new kitchen and bathroom, kitchen probably knocking through/extending as has what look like random storerooms or something at the end of the kitchen, which have no windows.

Upstairs, bedroom 4 is off bedroom 3 but could possibly squeeze a corridor round the outside of bedroom 3 to get to bedroom 4? Or could extend bedroom 4 and put an extra room in there, or put in a loft extension to get a proper bedroom 4.

We could do the repainting but have no other skills.

In the SE, any idea what the minimum cost of getting this done would be? To create a house with 4 bedrooms and redorated throughout, new kitchen and bathroom and at least a bit of sorting out the weird storerooms at the end of the kitchen?

Have absolutely zero idea of this kind of thing and no experience, so not sure if this is all going to be very expensive and too difficult without any prior knowledge or experience of getting building work done?

Thanks for all advice.

£50k - £60k as a rough guide

@ginoginellizzz

£50k - £60k as a rough guide

Thanks, that's really helpful.

Depends on what quality you want and how big the extensions are and where in country you are. If kitchen extension, loft extension, new windows, floors, electrics rewiring and full redecoration- average £150k but you could probably do it a bit cheaper or far more expensive for a High quality finish. Materials have gone up in price SO much recently

I would say £50-£60k was very optimistic. Obviously depends on quality you want, but I'd expect £100k plus for what you've outlined!

I’d also say 50-60 is hugely optimistic I think you’re looking at 100-150 depending on finish and if you extend or not.

I think both these numbers are insanely modest. You could easily spend 100k plus on an extension alone, and if your extension is upstairs, that may add to the complexity and cost. Our rewiring and re plumbing of our five-bedroom Victorian, happening this summer, on three floors is being quoted as just under 70 k euros.

Added to the supply line issues for builders’ materials caused by Covid and Brexit which mean costs are spiralling.

We have bought a fixer upper in SE London. We are doing a loft conversion (with master bed, bath), giving the first floor a face lift, and extending the ground floor to put in a new kitchen and utility. Also hoping to put in a summer house for a gym. We have budgeted £400k.

I am in the north east with a cracking builder who reuses materials and my 2 bed house still cost £40k. But I did go for a full eco refit, meaning it now costs £50pcm for all fuel. About to embark on another, 4 beds but better nick and expecting £30k cost. Doing a little labouring, waste clearance, decorating etc yourself will bring costs down. Get plenty of quotes for each thing and remember the time/cost/quality triangle in project management. Good luck!

No WAY 50-60k!

100k if you don’t move any walls about, don’t go into the loft and don’t spend too much on the kitchen.

50k if just redecorating and moving walls. 150k-200k if extending the kitchen and loft room.

We're in the middle of a 1930's 3 bed semi detached house renovation, planned to go room by room but essentially ceilings all needed or were close to needing to be repaired / replaced so as one of the messiest jobs you can do that has lead to a full ceiling replacement throughout, all walls stripped back and replastered, whilst doing that you may as well rewire throughout then you may as well replace the radiators, why not relocate them as well, that means the flooring comes up so why not replace and repair the flooring, flooring is up so why not add some insulation... It goes on and on, always way more than you expect with this type of project. Whilst doing all that we may just as well bite the bullet and have a wall removed...

We have spent about £35k on total BUT my DH has done everything expect the wall removal/RSJ himself. Well actually he relaid all of the electrics, added new sockets etc then paid a sparky to come and connect it all - saved a fortune that way.

I reckon we'd be looking at £60k had we paid trades and it's not a massive house so I totally agree with other that £50-£60k is optimistic, I would have thought you would need to budget £100k

The hardest bit for us has been to work in the 'right' order and not just get carried away with finish....

It is also backbreaking work doing it around a demanding full time job with kids in the mix...

It also depends on how much you can do yourself. We had a 2 storey side and single storey rear extension done in 2004. We did all the interior paintwork and fitted the kitchen and bathroom ourselves.

Thanks everyone - really helpful.

Maybe I should rephrase and say how much of this wishlist do you think I could get for 100K (don't really want to spend more)?

Likely essential:
Probable rewiring
New flooring throughout
Redecorating (but happy to do most of this ourselves - didn't look like it needed replasteri g etc bar one or two rooms)
New bathroom
New kitchen
Knocking through at end of kitchen and putting windows or French windows in at the end as a minimum (ideally extend further but not essential)
Creating workable fourth bedroom - cheapest would be putting in a corridor round third bedroom to access bedroom four that currently comes off it (but would prefer loft bedroom or second-story extension)
Replace a horrible fireplace
Repainting front door and window frames

Other possible work:
Any other unknowns - given age of the house, this could be new boiler, plumbing, guttering, etc but don't know - roof and windows looked solid
Some decorative work to bring out original features would be preferable, as seemed to have boxed in original staircase and half covered over original doors etc.

Can anyone suggest specific or overall prices for these items?

And no, we couldn't do any of the electrics or fitting kitchen or bathroom - all hail to those of you who can do that yourselves!

We can paint walls and if the floors turned out to be solid wood could probably sand and varnish them.

I think for 100k you could achieve everything on your essential list but excluding any kitchen extension. No way to a two story extension. Possible a basic loft extension but no dormer. More likely a corridor to bedroom four. This is assuming you don’t want an expensive kitchen or bathroom.

IKEA type kitchen would be fine. Doesn't need to be expensive at this stage.

I also think you can do it all. Price is really variable as much depends on what you go for.

Sounds like our house, detached Victorian - been here a year and we’re about 60k in without upstairs/ loft.

We’ve had a new roof (9k), rewire (6k), moved the kitchen and new fitted by us (15k possibly more if I totted it up), created an office space by moving a wall (2k), added a utility (4K), new alarm, new doors, patio doors fitted (2.5k), lvt floors fitted - couple of new windows. Decorated throughout just to smarten it up.

And we’ve only done 4 rooms, Dh has done a large amount of work himself in evenings.

We’re now out of cash so saving for the bathroom, upstairs repairs, fixing a bay window and lord knows else what’ll go wrong this year

250k if you go a decent finish (including replacing sash windows, which you will probably need, even if you don’t think so now)

From experience, about twice as much as your hopeful guesstimate.

For £100k, I think you could get your essential list but it would be a corridor not a loft extension. Every room will need replastering after the rewire.

From experience, 200K

You'll need to budget at least £100k for all that work, not including any extensions.

We renovated an Edwardian house where previous owner had been in situ for over 30 years. It needed everything you need doing, rewiring, central heating, plastering, bathroom, downstairs loo etc however the kitchen had been replaced circa 10 years earlier, and we decided we had to live with it couldn't afford to replace.

Our whole renovation was done trade by trade and my then DP (badly) project managed the whole thing. We spent just shy of £70k, and didn't replace the kitchen.

If you are going to do loft conversion or downstairs extension I'd add another £30k, plus a bit of contingency, so £150k should cover all the work you ideally want to do.

Think about ceiling price for the road and how long you want to live there before committing to it all though. Good luck!

This won't be much use to you I'm afraid OP, but we have a hundred year, two bedroom terraced property in the North of England, that needs completely rewiring. Our quotes have just come in as circa £4000 for this.
I think that you really need to get some quotes from the different professional businesses that you will need to employ, guesstamates really are not much help, as each property has so many variables attached to it. I do wish you good luck though.

If you forget about the fourth bedroom alterations and you pick cheap materials you might get most of it done, but that might be false economy.

I would be wary of paying tradesmen to put in a cheap kitchen if you are going to upgrade it later as you will be paying twice for labour.

Get your three quotes for different jobs and then prioritise the work.

You maybe able to save some money by doing the destructive side of the work yourself, although avoiding the gas, water, electric side, but things like skipping the old kitchen units, taking off old tiles etc.

If you need new electrics and a new boiler it might be worth getting that done together and then assess the mess left afterwards in terms of plastering, decoration etc