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…

Not the case actually. I havent put underfloor heating in, I did regret that in one house but generally its a mixture of premium carpets (I can save 30-50% on those by going to small shops not big ones) and solid wood floor - I was tempted to get a lorry load of oak flooring from the baltics once but didnt have any where to store it. I have ordered solid wood triple glazed windows from outside the UK previously and saved on that but anyone can do this. Lead crystal chandeliers can be bought heavily discounted if you bother to look beyond the first page of google. Silk stone baths can be bought cheaply. Column radiators also not expensive if you look for them. Cornicing, ceiling roses, wooden picture rails etc again not expensive but adds a nice finish. Switches and plugs you cant really get discounted if you want something that has a decent finish.

Minus the staircase, I have done more extensive renovations than OP on period houses up to 3500 sq ft and can say that the prices being discussed are mad, even if you buy from places in the UK. This isn't my job this is a hobby and can say in every case, that the finish is higher than any other house on the road and would be disgusted to put in engineered wood.

And how long ago was that?

Doing another one now. Yes its over budget, but every one I have done has gone over budget, thats what happens with old houses. Still massively cheaper than the figures discussed here.

When a building is listed, it is listed to the inside as well as the outside. If you don't believe me, look at Historic England website.

This.

Not necessarily true!

(Says the voice of considerable experience).

We are half way through a 1800ft full refurb non listed.

So far spent 65k and finished the main house bar final decorating.

Full strip - back to brick in some places (did ourselves)
Full rewire
Full replumb and central heating including new cast iron rads and boiler.
Refurb original sashes - 20 2mx 1m - upgrade to slim double glaze, accoya repairs.
New mid range carpet upstairs (want to restore the wood eventually so skimped here for now).
New main bathroom to high spec
Whole house skim
New custom hardwood double doors 3m x 3m and standard glazed external door
New ceiling to utility

Just about to do phase 2. - Budget 40k
Knocking through to garage for living/ dining / kitchen - hoping to do this for less than £1000
Kitchen units ordered for 5k in the Jan sale with Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch (7m run including 1 single and 2 double larders).
New floor in garage (800sqft). No more than 20k I am hoping. 😬 Might have to be creative here!
Additional plumbing here for water needs to be split from mains and new wastes. - 5k?
Patching up my massive crack - many a pot of polyfilla air.

Basically haven’t priced this phase. But going to have to make it work like we did with the previous!

@LemonSwan if you need a steel when you knock through the garage no way will you get that for 1k. The prices have gone through the roof and it will be 2.5 absolute minimum!

£1k

£1k!!!!!!!

Oh dear! It is only the steel for a doorway, as in just slightly bigger than a standard door. It’s not like full opening type thing.

You still think 2.5? 😬

Ah ok, from your post it sounded like you were taking the full wall down. You may be lucky but the prices have sky rocketed and a lot of builders are giving prices only guaranteed for a week or 2 as the prices just keep going up and up.

@LemonSwan if it's just a doorway, depending on the loads / construction and dimensions you may only need an off the shelf lintel rather than a bespoke steel
I've just specified one for a 2850mm wide opening in a cavity wall for a client which currently costs £269.51 inc VAT for the insulated lintel obviously that doesn't include them fitting it but gives you an idea of the actual costs involved.

Apologies for missing this QN earlier. We ripped off an old extension and added a new one to our G2 Georgian townhouse. Our surveyor essentially specified all the structural bits - how deep to dig the foundations, size of steel, design of retaining wall (our house is dug into a hill), what insulation to use etc etc. and ballpark costs as well as dealing with our build-over (sewers) permissions and Building Control inspections.

When are you hoping to get your estimates in, BTW?

No and neither is OP's.

As explained, in our instance, the staircase had been added in the 70s as an external staircase to a room that had been built over a single storey attached garage. At some point, the staircase was enclosed into something like an extension, so it was no longer external. In the end, we were given permission to remove all of that and to return the house to something closer to the original layout. I believe the OP has said their staircase was an 80s addition to their house.

We got 2 steel beams bought and fitted for £1600

Oh fab! Thank you 🤣 had me worried there!

Worth pointing out that all electrics and plumbing was at mates rates

Well they were mates and originally was supposed to be rates mates for the electrics and turned out to be more expensive than we could have got non mates rates. So I left that out as feel they cancel each other out with the mate rate plumbing. Although main cost there was the new rads themselves.

More importantly do you have an excellent memory or are you stalking me lol 😂

Sounds similar to what I did with mine but was 3000 sq ft, ended up spending couple of hundred grand in the end!

Can you give me an example? I would be intrigued to learn! I too have a lot of experience.

I think we are at least 2 weeks away from the OP getting quotes, it’s a lot for the surveyor to work out.
Over the recent ‘20’ years of near zero interest rates and rising house prices, whacking 400k on to the mortgage was nearly a no brainer, and contractors knew this.
But now with falling prices and money getting real again (400k will cost about 700k repaid), people should be looking seriously at these projects and contractors will need to trim their profit.
Will be great when the OP publishes them.

I have found in the past it can be more cost effective (if you find trades you know and trust) to have them on a day rate. Almost all of the work on our house was done this way, and we got lucky - it was early in covid and our builder lost a bunch of work overnight. All of the work on day rates has come out reasonable and fair. Someone asked about our bathrooms, I said £10k for both but was plucking a figure out of the air, it might have been a little more but I don’t think massively. Was about £5k in Labour and the rest in fittings and tiles. Not super cheap, hansgrohe and grohe, composite freestanding bath, good sinks etc.

We shopped around and got some things at very good rates. We used a supplier called QS supplies for some of it, they were very cheap but customer service non existent. Tiles from topps but they had massive sales.

@Peekingovertheparapet we used QS Supplies too and got some great stuff very discounted. But yes pretty rubbish service! Also found Lusso Stone good value for the product for showers, sinks, vanities, wall hung toilet and flush plates etc (baths very expensive however) and looked really good.

@Deviniaursula

Well that’s my karma for celebrating before the fat lady sang lol 😂