How much to ‘completely renovate’ this house?

[plipplops]

I really love this house but the description says it requires ‘complete renovation’. I’ve got absolutely no idea how much that might cost (is it £200K or £500K, or a million pounds)?

I know it’s a bit of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, but if anyone has any thoughts I’d love to hear them…

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118113164#/media?channel=RES_BUY&id=media0

DD sent me that to look at earlier as we’re going to be looking to move back to Somerset later this year.

I’ve done a few renovations and have a good network of tradesmen I could get out to the area but wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, will be a money pit. Everyone is incredibly busy at the moment and with the cost of materials it’s really hard for people to estimate costs properly as to how much the costs of materials are likely to be at the time they would be available to do the work.

Also I wouldn’t want to live where it is with the airport traffic and noise .

Our house was built in 1986 and so far we've is replaced the roof, furnace and central AC. We had the driveway repaved when we moved in in 2003 and added network cabling and redid the master bath last year. We're on two acres so we've also had five trees taken out that were too close to the house. It's always something.

If you read the blurb it says that it's next door to a business that provides airport parking. I know that some airport parking around Bristol (Lulsgate) aren't legitimate businesses.

I live under the approach and the planes are about 1500 ft when they are overhead. Its noisy enough (and I grew up with aircraft noise from Concorde at Filton ).
It's also just off the A38 which is one of the main routes into Bristol. Traffic can be horrendous if there's a major crash on the M5 as everything diverts.

I can't add anything to what PPs with renovation experience have said but I do know the area and sadly I think that property would have a ceiling value as a family home which would be less than the renovation would cost. The fact that blurb talks about its potential as a guest house is telling. It's still stunning though.

Wow I didn’t expect so many replies - thanks so much!! I don’t have time to read them right now but will respond tomorrow if that’s ok? I sort of expected one or two of you to have thoughts but I’m blown away.

Short answers - it’s near where we live now so aren’t put off by the airport noise, although that will obviously impact future sale price.

Agreed there aren’t many photos which isn’t reassuring!

Bare with me, I’ll be back tomorrow (and thanks loads again) xxxx

We recently viewed a similar sized period house (in London though) with our builder which looked to be in a worse state than this one and were looking at £500-600k including roof/new heating/plumbing/kitchen/utility/bathrooms/ceilings/plastering/windows etc etc. that was labour/building materials only - not the interior finishing like flooring/decoration/fireplaces/bathroom fixtures/kitchen etc (which on almost 4000 sqft is significant). We ended up not going for it as we could see costs spiralling. Hopefully Somerset would be cheaper than London, but materials prices are wild at the moment.

We've recently renovated our current house which needed a total refurb and is smaller than this. The renovation cost just for the interior of the existing house (4 bed, 1600 sqft) (stripping out/heating/plumbing/electrics/labour for 3 bathrooms and a large utility/plastering) was £100k. The roof was covered as part of a loft conversion but say £30k for a much smaller roof than the one you're looking at. Again no interior finishing included so tiling, flooring, decorating, fireplaces, bathroom fixtures, cornice etc etc was not included in that. Decoration for the whole house (ended up with about 2300-2400sqft) was £25k. We did 2 extensions (loft and double storey) and the total (including interiors but not garden) was £700-800k overall. That was pre-pandemic cost increases as well.

Do you have a trusted builder? If not I wouldn't risk it. If you do, take them to view it and get their opinion. But take any rough costs they give you with a pinch of salt. Our rough costs doubled - you just don't know what you'll find when you start stripping it all. You will need a sensible/large contingency. As others have said, given the location will you make your money back (even if not a profit)? If not then it's not worth it.

@lokabrenna

I agree with *@heisawanker*, pay careful attention to the heating. I spot one radiator and that might be wall mounted electric, and I also see plug in heaters in the rooms. Looks to have no central heating and oil powered range. May have no mains gas (you could fit a modern ground source heat pump for heating) so only has electric.

Also I would be careful to check the state of the roof, and how much traffic at unsociable hours the air port car parking creates.

Yes, all this, and I'd also want to know about air traffic noise too.

So it would depend on whether it needs a new roof, whether or not there is dry/wet rot, whether there is a damp course, whether it needs a rewire, the condition of the cellar etc etc.

You'd also need to know whether any access road is shared with other properties, and if there is an associated expense with that.

A lot to think about.

It's quite close to farm buildings, which you can't see in the photos.

I'd wonder if it's freehold too which would affect its value. I think it looks like a fairly large money pit and would only be a lovely home if he surrounding buildings such as the working farm and things like being near airport noise would allow a nice life still.
Nice old house though.

Looks like it's right on the flight path. £400k renovation plus sound proofing

My friend lives about that far away from a busy international runway. Don't do it OP...

I think it is only worthwhile as a business proposition, overnight accommodation and parking for the airport. Any money spent on it as a family home will not be recouped due to its location. You will need to budget at least £70k for triple glazed windows alone and it will still be noisy.

As you have to ask this question I can safely say that you risk getting into deep water with a project such as this.

An experienced developer would have several pages of notes and detailed specifications to obtain costs. The above 'quotes' vary from 50k to 800k and if you don't specify exactly your requirements and create a water tight contract you could find the job you were quoted for suddenly requires additional funding. These extras can in many cases be more than the original quote and you will be left with either unfinished works or serious underfunding.

A nice dream but the reality is full of pitfalls. My only suggestion would be to consult someone in the construction industry that you trust and have used before to look at the property. Bear in mind that s/he will not pluck a figure out of thin air and will probably need to spend 2 days of unpaid work to give you a realistic figure.

Thanks all. We’d have about £150K to spend straight away but would be mortgage free, so would then look to borrow to do the work.

I think it’s probably a non-starter - the lack of photos is definitely a concern! Happy to invest in getting a decent surveyor (I’m not that stupid!) but I’m definitely worried by the difficulty in finding a builder at the moment (I have lots of friends struggling to get extensions done etc).

You’re to the side of the runway so the plane noise is an issue but it’s something we’re used to (we live under the flight path now so although we’re further away I think the noise is similar). Airport parking is a bonus for running an Air BnB there which we’d definitely do.

I suspect part of it is falling down (the second kitchen has scaffolding all over it, not in the photos), it’s a single storey but looks wobbly to me.

And even to my untrained eye the roof looks pretty dodgy in the flesh. I suspect we’re looking at £500K+. We could find that money but it’s probably too big a job.

Still a girl can dream…

I'd also be concerned about investing in a house surrounded by fields - it only takes a little shift in planning policy and you've lost the fields to a housing estate.

You won’t get much change out of £500k if you’d tick to mid range fittings everywhere and there is structural or building work - just a renovations But it will be well worth it. Nice find, OP.

That actually looks fine from the pictures, like you could move straight in and enjoy?
But to answer the question, it depends entirely on your expectations.

Do you want a pristine house, without a hint of decaying wood, perfectly smooth walls and well thought out integrated lighting schemes and other 'wow factor' stuff like you'd expect in a new build grand designs type place?

Or other end of the scale, is a lick of paint over some historical scars, a patched up but solid roof and a refitted mid spec kitchen enough?

Because one will cost ££££, and the other you can do for relative pittance.