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…

We did a 3000 sq ft renovation including some structural alterations, 2x wood burners, kitchen, 2x bathrooms, 2x WC, full rewire and replumb, full decorative renovation throughout for £120k.

it wasn’t listed though. We have since spent a further £40k on the outside.

I do think you will need to rewire, mostly because you will find there aren’t enough sockets and they are in silly places.

wide range of estimates here - will be interested to get the actual figures 😜

I wouldn’t blink if the estimate comes within £300k (which would also leave us with really healthy contingency fund), but much over that we would have to break into stages / delay some elements in order to raise additional capital. That would be disappointing but maybe for the best from a risk mitigation perspective.

There have been some good suggestions here on managing costs. Unfortunately I don’t see us doing much ourselves, and in reality our time would be more effectively used working our day jobs. I admire anyone who has whatever combination of skill, confidence and perseverance to take on major diy.

some have asked about building consent - it was actually a really smooth process with no major objections to our proposals. What we are removing in terms of walls and staircase are all modern additions. It probably helped that we engaged a specialist architect to do all the applications.

I think at least £250….and that’s if you keep your bathrooms simple. More likely £300. We did a similar project 10years ago and it came in at £180 ish (& that was keeping kitchen & bathrooms basic with wood worktops etc). If you can definitely try and get some secondary glazing in there - the design these days is so subtle and it makes a HUGE difference to heating costs.

I'd guess not much change from 500k, but we're in London. So outside London maybe £350 to £400k? I'd agree with the pp that it'll probably be the same as the purchase price all over again.

Interested to know the response!

Not true- depends on the listing.

We didn't do anything ourselves as our time was much better used in working to fund it than the inevitable bodge we'd have done, or tool hire etc.

I've done my fair share of painting etc in my time - but the finish from the professionals has been very good, much quicker than any of my attempts

It also meant, as we were living in it while it was being done, that we actually had time away from it - I don't my sanity would have managed otherwise.

Will you be PM-ing?

Have you factored in alternative accommodation? With a family around where I live…. Short term let’s would add up. Bloody quickly!

Intrigued that you have got this far and not had electrics checked out, especially if you’ve been living there?!

350 starting and when they start peeling layers back due to grade 2 listing, will end nearer 420.

As an aside…. Brace yourself for lots and lots of chats with your partner about sometimes the most trivial of detail!

and I hope your relationship strong now because it does put pressure on it, especially with young children

What's the ceiling price for the area? You'll spend a lot but not adding square footage? We're about to spend £250-300k on an extension, but it will add much more in value as we're dramatically increasing square footage.

This terrifies me. Have started renovation of a 5 bed period house, that needs everything done, including a small extension to replace an old conservatory and outbuildings, and replacing the stairs. We're waiting for planning permission, but we're working to a budget of £150k plus contingencies 😬. Architect and builders said that sounded okay (South East) 2-3 months ago when we started this process. Getting seriously worried now that we won't have anywhere near enough money, reading some of this. Especially given we need quite a bit of steel work

@C4tastrophe Maybe you should. Although you’ll be coming back to highly inflated material prices, lengthy supply chain delays, massive skill shortages, record labour rates and the few subcontractors who can do a specialist job are booked up 6 months in advance.

Interested in this one, we did similar (not listed, not SE & had to scale back on some of the finishes) completed 2020 and it cost £200k. I think you’ll hit £400k easily

Also, you will definitely need to get it rewired, but compared to the rest of things that will be a relatively smaller outlay!

We did exactly this except the stairs ten years ago and it cost us £130k back then, so brace yourself...

If it isn’t absolutely necessary, don’t do it. Just do the essentials eg electrics if required, windows, roof insulation, the rest don’t rip out, just improve cleverly. Live there first to figure out how to improve intelligently without wasting money

£500k.

Also erring into the £350-400k mark inc VAT

We are doing similar, not in London, not listed, work already started though ours includes a 2 storey extension & full heating & plumbing & new windows

Good luck!

Out of interest how much did you think when you had your discussions before?

£500k if you are careful with choice of finishing and fittings. Otherwise closer to £750k

Not necessarily @Whatislove82. We lived in ours for 15 months before works started principally to gauge the light through the seasons and “feel” the house. The majority of the renovation took 6 months and was faster than if we had been there and builders had had to keep things working, tidy in parts. It was much less stressful.

I forgot to mention that we used a chartered surveyor to make sure that any builders wouldn't be fibbing with any "it will be fine" approach.

Admittedly we were excavating between party walls but he helped with the spec of what we needed.

@Madcats what exactly did the chartered surveyor offer? Sounds like you found it useful?

our architect suggested engaging one, but it wasn’t immediately clear to me what the value add was?

Bonkers, don't believe you quite honestly, think you need to do your figures again

Completely deluded. Not a chance in hell this will happen.