Period property full house renovation - who wants to place a bet?

[Labraradabrador]

meeting with builders this week to discuss budgets, and I promise to update once we get the quotes. Trying to mentally prepare myself- what would you expect this to cost:

Grade 2 listed 6 bed detached stone house in the SouthWest, approx. 4,000 sqft. We have received planning permission, and have had full structural review by an engineer that confirms everything in good shape (as much as possible to tell). We have not yet had electrics fully tested - we think they were updated early 90s, but not sure and this is a bit of an unknown.

on the list:

• full decorative refurb of whole house (remove carpets and refinish underlying wood floors, remove wallpaper, paint, new doorknobs, light fixtures, etc.)
• new cast iron radiators in most rooms - this might get reduced depending on budget
• add wall lighting to two rooms (so presumably also replastering)
• Full refit of kitchen and 3 bathrooms - aiming for higher level of finish without going bonkers on brand name fittings
• some minor internal changes - combining a couple of small rooms and removing a staircase, moving location of one bathroom.
• open up 2 fireplaces and install log burners
• some windows could use a light refurb - debating whether to get fancy secondary glazing that will fit the existing frames, but depends on budgets.

so how much will this hurt? Obviously we had discussed budgets before we bought, but in the 2 years since everything has gone bonkers. I’m also not sure how much I trust the architect’s budget sense anyways.

would also warmly welcome any recommendations on suppliers if anyone has refurbed a period property recently.

excited but terrified to hear responses…

You're basically buying another house all over again, just in bits and pieces. I'd expect the cost to match. I wish you luck, there's no way I would be happy to take on such a project myself but I'm sure it'll be lovely when done!

Don’t think you’ll get much change from £200k OP. I’ve just done similar. Was £30k just for painting! £50k for kitchen inc appliances. Three bathrooms at £10k each. £30-£50k for flooring. Lights, plaster, door furniture etc adds up fast as does having doors reconditioned to meet fire regs.

Whatever the highest quote comes in at?

your final spend will be about 30% more

I’d say £250k plus
everything is so, so expensive
had my kitchen done last year - £25k and was done really nicely but nothing fancy! It’s lovely but if you want an island and more bells and whistles you can hit £50k without even trying hard

I’m afraid my £200k guess doesn’t include cast iron rads or the windows! Together I think you’d easily hit another £100k with good quality throughout.

£200k plus.
If it's listed are you using breathable materials? Lime plaster, clay paint/distemper etc? To avoid damp issues in the long term.

I think the issue here @Labraradabrador is the listed status. You can get an idea of the cost of fixtures, fittings etc by just googling what you want. Ask the builder to separate fitting costs. However the listed status and the amount you might need to sink into infrastructure is the great unknown. I’d start there. Offering to supply the fixtures and fittings will reduce your costs. In terms of heating, I’d look at overfloor underfloor heating. I have a similar sized house (period not listed) but used a retrofit wunderfloor system upstairs and downstairs stairs and it massively reduced the cost of heating it.

how is the roof?

good luck!

I just spent £80k and I am 3 months over schedule finishing on a 2 bed period renovation and that was keeping the costs low. Plasterers are in short supply at the moment and getting anyone good is a nightmare right now.

I’d be surprised if it was anywhere near £200k.

I'm an architect and I'm refusing to give budget figures atm as frankly they are out of date within a week or so. It's making jobs an absolute nightmare and so I'm being a lot more conservative with designs than I was 2 years ago.
Went out for tender for a job the other week and 2 builders said their returns would only be valid for material costs for 7 days, labour the more standard 28days
Basically budget for a decent amount and then add a whole lot more to it.
Make sure you allow for improving the insulation, draughtproofing and appropriate ventilation - may seem like a waste of money to some (as it doesn't do anything you can really see) but thinking about the building fabric has big returns on energy efficiency. Only thing that's frustrating atm is that insulation is one of the materials that's massively gone up in price. Still worth it though.

Have you already got listed building consent to do the structural changes and put in new windows? Our house is similar and listed in Hampshire and even small changes can be problematic with much depending on the conservation officer. Everything takes longer and historically correct materials are often specified which will bump up the costs too.

I'm going for £300k at least (sorry). I agree with wonkylegs though - do take the opportunity to insulate the house. We did a back to the bare bones renovation (much smaller house) and the insulation has been fab, sound wise and heat wise.

I think they will quote 250k but it will end up costing much more.

I disagree, most of that sounds cosmetic. Though I admit I am out of date. Things like if you’re willing to keep plumbing in the original place makes a big difference to cost - eg the kitchen, full remodel of where everything is vs rip out and replace what’s there.

Are you willing to do anything yourself? Our last house we took back to brick. New boiler, wiring, everything. Never again with living in it at the same time but we saved a fortune. DH is pretty handy though so he did loads himself then we just got trades in for final bits - eg he did all the plumbing then we just got a plumber to check, final bits, connect and certify. Plasterer we paid though - he was a machine that shifted huge amounts and was worth every penny. I was more of a low skill demolition grunt in the whole affair.

floors were something we got crazy quotes on. Bough ex hire sanders off EBay, sold them again at the end. Horrible dirty dusty job but saved £££.

but in terms of a price. 100k. But I’m prepared to be told how out of date I am!

Thanks all for the quick responses - I would have been appalled at the figures suggested 2 years back, but I would be quite pleased if we can do it for £200k now 🙈

@SarahMused @ISeeTheLight we have listed building consent, and are only looking at builders with plenty of experience with old buildings / appropriate materials

400k Inc vat

Oh good Lord I missed that listed

OP £200k? No chance

What listed is it? Grade 2 makes no odds for internal work.

And get the church involved? You might as well save goodbye to 95% of teens

Another one who reckons they'll quote around £200k. But you'll probably come in nearer to £300k once you pick the fittings you want and uncover a few horror.

Don't under estimate the chance of needing a re plaster, especially if you need electrics done and changing floorboards causes some damage.

@wonkylegs it is insane, isn’t it? I can’t imagine being in the building industry at the moment.

@Netaporter thanks for the suggestions on wonderfloor - will take a closer look, as thinking about this for the kitchen which is losing its only heating source when the Aga goes. I have actually been pretty pleased (and pleasantly surprised!) with how comfortable the house has been the last 2 winters. It’s also a dream in summer. Not sure we will mess much with insulation, but are looking at installing a ventilation system

£350k+

Sorry OP if that's not what you want to hear. We have spent/committed 65k on renovations and all we've got for that is:
Repaint four bedroom 30s terrace, including replastering two rooms
New carpets stairs, landings and bedrooms
New wood floor two downstairs rooms
Shutter
Full refurb of master bathroom.

That's it. No fancy additions. No kitchen (sadly we've had to forget that for a couple of years).

It's madness at the moment.

I was going to say 100k but looking at the other replies can see I'm seriously out of touch! It does sound like it's going to be gorgeous though, especially love cast iron radiators. Will you be posting photos to update?

Will you have somewhere else to live? Because there will be prolonged period where you won’t be able to live at the property.

And alternative accom needs to be added to quote

I'm going to say all the money you have plus a bit more

£360k is my guess.