Going over budget when renovating - please share your stories!

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Just looking fir dime sympathy and reassurance that I am not alone…. Just completed a long overdue renovation and small extension. It had to be done (house in very bad shape) and I know it was going to be expensive. Had money set aside for it. But there were lots of things my budget did not allow for and some things I had to add to the scope of work when problems were discovered. I have had to borrow more money to get it finished and feel a bit sick thinking how much it all cost….

That should say “for some sympathy”

Oooo I have a cracker.

We renovated our old kitchen extension. The quotes were more than double what we expected. We decided to borrow money against our mortgage (we’d alway paid extra each month, so thought it would be straightforward enough to take out the ‘extra’ money). The builders started the work - ripping out the kitchen and taking down the old extension. We were still in the process of getting the loan. Turns out it was much more complicated than we expected and the only way to get the money was to remortgage the house. Unbeknown to us, you can’t get a mortgage on a property without a kitchen as it is classed as uninhabitable!

we needed to completely do our kitchen and the kitchen units were reasonable but by the time we had added the electrics, the plastering (old house walls fell apart) the fitters, the tiling the flooring and the walls being decorated what started off as £3000 base kitchen ended up more like £6000 in total

I bought the bathroom furniture under budget. Then fell in love with some tiles. Doubled the budget.

(But so worth it!)

Work always (well, almost always) costs more than you think, partly because it's hard to remember everything you might need. I generally think what seems likely (I have some experience) or find a place on the internet that is up to date and gives average prices for different parts of the country, and then double it, for unforseen stuff being uncovered, and the fact that jobs often have little quirks and extras (because they are the things that work out expensive).
Works fairly well, and I usually have a bit left to play with.
Covid and brexit between them have made labour and materials a lot more expensive, though.

We were generally careful and sensible with money when we renovated our home a couple of years ago, but still managed to go over budget, mainly due to unexpected issues with the roof and insulation which bumped everything up. We ended up borrowing some money of dhs dad, not ideal but we were very thankful we were able to do that.

We also ended up spending much more on the kitchen. A pp mentioned tiles, thats what got us too! Also , good light fixtures, massively underestimated how much they would cost (1st time homeowners and renovating )

@ItsSunnyOutside

We were generally careful and sensible with money when we renovated our home a couple of years ago, but still managed to go over budget, mainly due to unexpected issues with the roof and insulation which bumped everything up. We ended up borrowing some money of dhs dad, not ideal but we were very thankful we were able to do that.

We also ended up spending much more on the kitchen. A pp mentioned tiles, thats what got us too! Also , good light fixtures, massively underestimated how much they would cost (1st time homeowners and renovating )

Yep- it's stuff like tiles and light fittings that can bump up the costs. You don't think about them when you're planning and then they hit you like a flung brick at the end. I actually looked at tiles for our current job. Found some fantastic ones that I loved, then saw how much they were. We're having plain white ones.

We've saved a lot on our current kitchen work by doing it ourselves due to people not being available; DH is currently battening out for the plasterer as I type, but a good chunk of the savings has gone on a bespoke sink. Still well under budget overall, though, because I have been here before- and both me and DH used to have to cost jobs in our work, and for me it was a matter of pride that I never went overbudget on a job, and sometimes was underbudget. It's about building in contingencies and managing swings and roundabouts.

Yes, things like light fittings etc can get expensive if you choose anything other than the bare basic versions. For me if was also lots of costs that were outside of my builder’s contract price - the engineer’s fees, the electricity company charging to move the electricity meter, etc.

We are mid way through building an extension to include new kitchen, shower room, pantry, dining room and sunken patio. We have gone quite a bit over budget, partly because of things we just didn't think to consider when planning our budget, partly due to cost of materials going up and partly due to spending more on things like limestone flooring throughout inside and out, removing plaster to reveal original stone work which will also need repointing, a venting hob, plus needing some bespoke joinery.

Also I fell in love with a few big ticket items (light fixtures, sink taps, exposed shower, wall hung traditional style toilet...)

I try not to look at our budget spreadsheet too often as it's pretty scary

We did a house extension and loft conversion 4 years ago with new kitchen and bathroom. Had saved up and remortgaged to get the costed price and we had a contingency fund but it all started to go pear shaped from day 1 when we found the foundations needed underpinning and the contingency fund was immediately wiped. We perhaps should have cancelled the loft conversion at that point.

Then the architect made a mistake in the drawings for the loft conversion and we had to get the stairs redone. He footed the bill for the stairs but not for a lot of other stuff that it impacted on like a bespoke shower screen and doors because off the shelf no longer fitted. We were in too far by then to stop.

Some stuff was our fault too. I let the builders talk us into a few extras that we really couldn't afford. I have to say though that now they are things I really love like upstands on the worktops, heated kitchen floor, better quality patio doors.

We also had to unexpectedly replace all the doors in the whole house at great expense right at the end because they didn't meet fire safety standards now that it was a 3 storey building. I still remember the buildings inspector quoting at us 'in the wake of the Grenfell fire' about a loft conversion in a suburban semi!

All in all it was 20% over budget and I had to get an unsecured loan out which fortunately I was able to do. I was devastated at the time to have that extra expense every month for 5 years but in fact we were able to pay it off early after 3 and I am really happy with how much better the house is. I love my new kitchen and bathroom and having a downstairs loo and every time there is a storm I still have to remind myself that the back door will no longer flood like it used to.

It's an investment. Stuff goes wrong but we haven't regretted our overspend in the end because the extension enhances our use of the house every day. I am glad we went ahead even if it was scary at the time.