Refurb - How much will it cost?

[Mooserp]

I have been house hunting for over a year and have discounted quite a few houses that need work done as I'm aware of how expensive this has got, and the asking prices don't seem to reflect that.

However, I'm looking at house today which is more reasonably priced, looking very dated and a bit neglected.

In my previous house I had some work done and had quotes for various things, so I had a bit of an idea how much things cost. However, this was a few years ago and I realise costs have increased quite a lot since.

So, how do I come up with a figure of how much the work I would want to do will cost me?

If you’re serious about the property, see if you can get a builder in for a viewing to give you a rough estimate.

Two friends (one in a large two bedroom flat, the other in a small three bedroom house) have fully renovated this year - rewiring, new kitchen and bathroom, new hardwood / LTV floors throughout, some reskimming of walls, full redecoration, new internal doors, plus gutting the place and rubble disposal beforehand. They both paid around the £80-£90k mark, London. No building work or new windows / external doors.

If you can get familiar with a sledgehammer and a hammer chisel and do the gutting and prep yourself then you’ll save yourself a few thousand there - when DH and I renovated in 2020 even before trades went truly crazy we saved £5,000 by doing it ourselves. Likewise if you can do the decorating yourself.

I would do as much myself as I can but obviously certain things need to be left to the experts.

I don't have any builder friends/family and I'm not currently in the area I want to move to.

Renovation is expensive at the moment. Renovating will cost more than buying a similar house which is already done up. This is not the time to do a first time renovation project

I appreciate it's not ideal, but I just can't get what I want.

I would describe it as refurb rather than renovation. Have done similar before years ago. And mini refurb on my last house.

is there ever a right time to do a refurb project? 🙂.

i don’t think you can ever estimate how much renovations cost as things come up that you wouldn’t know about, prices change and so on …….The bigger the job the more difficult it becomes to price.
Currently renovating our house, no idea how much it will all cost by the time it’s finished, just keep on going . I don’t have enough to finish it at this time but hopefully will have in the future ( working ) .

If you run out of money , you have 2 options. Borrow money to finish or wait and save money then finish . 🙂

@Diyextension I sort of agree, if you are happy to live in whilst renovating and are hands on and can do some work yourself as I assume you are? However there seem to be loads of people who have never even painted a room who are considering a renovation at the mo and I am a bit concerned that they don't know what they are letting themselves in for. I.e. mess everywhere, costs going up, discovering unexpected horrors, poor tradespeople either doing bad work or overcharging, tradespeople not understanding what you want doing and therefore doing it wrong, people telling tradespeople to do it in a way which ends up not working etc... It isn't the easy option and if you have never done it before, then any mistakes will be very pricey to rectify so maybe not the best time to experiment.

I think my real question is (which I know no one can answer, but I'm just thinking out loud) how much would I be prepared to pay for the house.

Seeing some of the quotes for work that people are getting on here, it seems that you can't really estimate how much anything is going to cost at the moment.

Is the house priced with the acknowledgment that work needs doing?
My experience is that even if so, the work (not to mention the total hassle of living there while it's being done) is always more than the discount. The benefit is you get it the way you want it.
So look at the difference in prices between similar houses in the same area, one renovated, one like yours. Do the figures add up? Gone are the days when people could ballpark a loft extension for £30-40k, it's more like £70k minimum, and going up all
the time.
But I redid mine a year ago (mid terrace three bed in London). Bathrooms cost £7-10k each, including expensive tiles. The higher cost was moving the door and all the plumbing around. Kitchen £25k, reusing range cooker and keeping floor - the worktop alone was £5k.
I did other things, like enlarging a first floor hall closet to move the washing machine into, adding bespoke wardrobes to the bedrooms, re carpeting. External woodwork repainted. Bespoke cupboards and shelves in livingroom, blocking up the door. All in all about £120k, including £15k to replace back bifolds and internal doors downstairs with crittal style steel and glass. No structural other than moving one door and blocking up one. It all adds up. I want to replace my uPVC windows but that's another £15-20k.

Those figures are frightening!

The closest comparable is £35k more and on the market since Feb (I decided against that one as it backs on to a road, and I have cats)

But you haven't explained what work needs doing on the house or even how big it is...

Could be anywhere from £1000 to £200,000. You need to get quotes from the appropriate trades or a builders firm or make a list of things that need doing and post on here

I think we’ve spent about £50-£55k (NW) for our major renovations (inc rewire and new heating system, roof, kitchen & bathroom) but I stopped adding it up until we reach the end, it’s too depressing.

After our offer was accepted we had a RCIS survey and a structural survey then got tradespeople to quote which we thought gave us a good idea of what we needed to budget for…then we had £12k of unexpected structural work which set the tone for everything being way more complicated (and expensive) than we expected.

We’re pretty handy so we’ve done a fair bit ourselves and I’m also pretty ruthless with our budget and shop around, sticking mainly to sales and outlets (our bathroom fixtures, fittings and tiles were £2k all in). We’ve basically run out of money now and live in a building site still.

I would offer what you think it’s worth then get the best survey you can and negotiate down based on quotes. If the survey shows it’s unaffordable you’ve paid £500 to save thousands and a world of pain!

It can be as cheap or expensive as you like. I’m having a new kitchen done and literally I could spend less than £1000 on units and worktops. But instead I’m having the whole thing knocked through extra walls built beautiful work surfaces top of the range cupboards, roof lights and it will probably be nearly 30 grand by the time it’s done. And that’s one room.

We spent 200k on ours…over covid period. 2x new bathrooms and new heating sysytem…about £70k, extension, internal remodelling and plastering. Bought house for 485K it’s now worth probably 625k. Won’t get all money back any time soon….but much better for us to live in. Could probably have spent 50k less….but that 50k was the nice to haves.

it’s a big period semi.

we went in with eyes wide open, had a builder and experienced architectual technician round first before buying, fully costed it out, had a healthy contingency …..etc etc.

friend bought house same year, knew it needed work, only just got mortgage, took plaster off walls, realised how bad it was, no contingency, he’s still not able to move in…..

We are doing a fairly big period semi and at 19k so far. That’s all carpets etc stripped and old bedroom furniture (plus false wall) removed, new boiler and 16 radiators, 5 bedrooms plus one downstairs room stripped of wallpaper, walls made good and decorated plus one downstairs room.

Hall, stairs and landing being decorated and living room currently. 2 bathrooms and a new kitchen in other room to be done and some doors and windows on order for 7.5k.

Very useful to hear about projects and prices.
I viewed a 3 bed 1970s house today which looks like it needs completely gutting, rewire, heating etc.

Asking price was about £35k less than a done up equivalent. Bonkers!!

My best advice is to take a builder with you to a viewing - without seeing the property no one can really advise how much the work will cost.
It is worth noting though whilst you may see the obvious that needs replacing. There will probably be more issues highlighted when the work actually begins so always have a contingency budget. If it is a complete refurb then expect as a ballpark figure to be around the region of £50k-£75k.

Make sure also that you have a survey completed on the property as that will also highlight particular issues - and you can then reduce your offer based on the work required….

The thing is, it’s not as bonkers as it might seem because at least if you do it from scratch, you know it’s been done properly. We moved into a bungalow 10 years ago that was immaculate, but as we lived in the place Wham! by one everything started to fail, and it had literally just been glitter on a turd, lipstick on a pig 🐽

Fair point.

Sorry you're having to deal with shoddy work

Unless you take a trusted builder with you to a viewing or get a full structural survey, you really won’t have any idea on what costs you are looking at. If you have a limited budget for refurbishment, I’d advise not to get a property that requires one. Costs will spiral out of control and you need deep pockets of cash. You will always find something that you didn’t know needed repairing. We’ve just finished a hip to gable roof extension (no stairs and just enlarged existing rooms), moved 3 stud walls, replaced 5 internal doors, dug up 1200sq ft of flooring to replace, built in storage placed in 3 downstairs rooms. Total cost £140k for high end finish.

Renovations at the moment are not worthy if not buying at absolutely discount price.
consider also All the other professionals around building worry like architects, party wall surveyors, structural engineers, building control.., they have gone up in price aswell. Think architects often work on percentages 9-12% of building contract.

I did a big renovation on a very small cottage - builders did everything. It was eyewateringly expensive, but included new central heating, rewiring, new windows, removal of a chimney and decking outside. As I am sitting in my cosy, snug house in the middle of Storm Babet ( in the red bit) I am so pleased I did it. But I don’t expect to ever make back what we spent, and our over optimistic contingency went out the window early on.