How much did you spend on renovations?

[wherethecityis]

I know there so many variables but I’m just after an idea of what you spent if you recently renovated a property.
For context - this is a 6 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. 3 reception rooms, large hallway and landings, big kitchen and utility. It needs new flooring and decoration throughout, new bathrooms and fitting, same with kitchen and utility. New boiler, new radiators, then a lot of smaller things like new internal doors (15 of them), new front door, staircase needs redoing (maybe replacing completely), new fence/gate.
Wiring seems to be ok. But I have no idea of the condition of the walls underneath the thick old paper, so there might be a huge chunk of plastering needed too.
Just trying to figure out roughly how much I might need and if it’s even affordable.

Kitchen and utility stands out. If this is a 6 bed house and has a separate utility I’m presuming it’s a decent sized kitchen. 20k for both sounds low, even for mid range.

A lot will depend on where the house is. Decorating a house in London of around that size would be circa £20,000.

Unless you are moving the big fittings around, I think your bathroom budget is high, but tiles and tiling are expensive. @CountryMiles thinks you are underestimating kitchen/utility, but I did both, including appliances, for under 25k, and my kitchen/day room is almost 30 feet long, with 10 m of work surface, although only tiny above counter cupboards in corners because the rest is window.

I would say don't underestimate cost of waste removal, quite likely to find some damp/ mould. A contingency is recommended. It is hard to break the build down into individual end finishes. Trades and materials will take up more money than you think. Renovation is expensive now and done thoroughly on a property just purchased will spend more than most property is worth on the open market at first. If planning on staying there a while it becomes worth it and if there is no other way to get the size and style of house you want. Also massively time consuming. Once the build begins a window of risk opens up that things go wrong/ jobs turn up/ prices change that doesn't end until it is over. That's not to say don't do it but unless doing it yourself as a tradesmen it will be expensive in my experience

So much depends on what you want, what you think mid-range means and what the space is like!

Don't forget to add VAT on top.
Building control costs for some things as likely to need something inspected (staircase maybe?) so check council website for that.

To me that seems a lot for the kitchen and utility. Ours was £6k and £2k for mid-range Howdens (units, worktops, sink, taps, splashbacks, extractor) not including labour and appliances. Kitchen probably a little smaller than yours but we didn't need any corner units and don't have an island. That was in their Sept/Oct sale and we then stored it.

Small bathroom about £5k. Downstairs loo about £2k.

Replacement stairs and banister was almost £10k but probably depends on space and material used and whether something different needs to be designed. Ours is bog standard wooden.

Flooring - looks like yours would average out at £75 PSM? You could have a look around and see what you'd get for that as £15k total you have is less than we paid for a smaller area. We were quoted for floor tiles at £35PSM but found it was really difficult to keep it below that level - we just managed it with using sales and buying then storing for a while. Carpet and underlay probably came to about £75 PSM but we weren't going for the thick luxury carpet. LVT was a lot more than £75 PSM.

Random other costs like buildings insurance if the house is empty is much more expensive.

We allowed a 15% contingency for unexpected things that crop up - we ended up using 9%.

I was basing the kitchen price on what we paid here, though it’s been a couple of years since I had mine done here and I’m sure prices have gone up a bit.
But current kitchen is pretty much the same size and we needed plumbing moving, gas work, new electric circuit, and spent a bit more than we needed to on some features. That cost ~17k and we could have cut back quite a bit. We’d go for cheaper options in the utility as well and already have some appliances (though most are built in so we’d need to replace those).
Maybe that would be a bit higher and bathroom a bit lower maybe?
I’ve tiled a kitchen before in a previous house, and it went pretty well. My husband’s done plenty of tiling too so I think that’s something we’d do ourselves.

@CountryCob The house is currently completely empty and there was no trace of mould or damp that we saw anywhere so I don’t think that would be an issue but you can never tell. Hopefully a survey world highlight that. You’re completely right - it’s likely you wouldn’t even make your money back if selling in the short term. I know I could make this house exactly as I want it and it’s huge compared to anywhere else we could get, but it would be so time consuming and I don’t know if it’s worth it when kids are so young.

Some really good points there thanks.
I would imagine 8k just in units could be not hugely far off 20k once you add in appliances and labour though!
Looks like I might have to up the flooring budget.
Cant believe a staircase is so much! Maybe the current one would do and we could go on a lovely holiday instead🤔

Yes, I'm by no means a staircase expert but I think it could well depend on whether you're just directly replacing a straight run of stairs or whether they go round a corner and more calculations are involved. It seemed far more complicated than I'd imagined and there are building control regs to comply with about head height and width of stairs. We had to have ours done as they weren't safe/didn't comply with building regs. We are very pleased with them now!

We had to move a doorway to get the new staircase at the right gradient for building regulations! The damp/wood issues I have found have been woodworm and rot in floorboards/ underneath floors. It sounds like an exciting project but before considering putting the new kitchen in etc I think you really need to know about the physical state of the property and be sure the electrical work and plumbing won't need work. It sounds unusual for a property in poor decorative repair to have modern utilities. Hope that doesn't sound too negative. Skips will cost hundreds to thousands if you are stripping it all out. At our peak we spent about £700 a week on waste for a few weeks in a remodelling and extension

We’ve just spent £130k on what sounds like similar to what you have planned.1960s house. We didn’t replace the internal doors as we’ve run out of money, but we took down parts of a couple of load bearing walls, so that would probably equate to your new doors. In a Scottish city so that could equate to Wales cost wise

Could you change bits of the staircase ie. Change spindles, add finials, that sort of thing?

Just looking at my spreadsheet and our shower room is going to come in around 5.6k. Doing carpet quotes at the moment and am just looking for something basic as have a cat and dog but looking at 11mm underlay. 6 rooms plus landing and stair runner is 4k. This is taking some shopping around but £1300 less than another quote for someone I know does a good job.

Rubbish removal when you strip things out. Radiators and boiler goes for free to scrap man. We had a big pile of old carpets and fitted furniture that was going to go in a skip at £320 but local registered waste disposal guy picked up for £130 instead .Then had a skip at £320 for old shower, toilet, sink, garden waste, about 40 bags of stripped wallpaper and various other crap that was lurking. Need another waste pick up for another toilet, sink, rubble from fallen off plaster and garden waste then need to dispose of old kitchen which is in what will be new utility (70s kitchen, am going to try Ebay for 99p and see if someone will remove).

Shop around for light fittings. Find what you like then spend a bit of time seeing if you can get them cheaper and don’t rule out Ebay and Marketplace as people sometimes change their minds and you can get unused lights loads cheaper. I’ve saved a good few hundred shopping around. Decent light switches worth paying for.

Paint, we have been using Screwfix New plaster paint as a base then whatever having on top which has worked out to be pretty cost effective. Woodwork is Benjamin Moore ScuffX which is expensive but goes a long way with good coverage and have converted 3 people to it now.

We’re in a 1980s house ( 3 bed and box room )
So far
Bathroom £5k
Bathroom vinyl floor £300
Carpet in one bedroom £500
Carpet cleaner £520 ( professional , I almost wish he hadn’t let me put on his CSI type glasses 🤢)
Some new windows and 2 doors £6k
New heating / hot water / boiler and radiators £9k
Kitchen Reno ( including knocking a wall , new flooring etc ) £40k
We have painted 3 bedrooms and the hallway ourselves , but have booked a decorator for the dining room as it has a vaulted ceiling and that will be about £1 k including the paint

We budgeted £90k , we’ve a few more windows to be replaced , insulation in the attic , an old fireplace to get out and need some more carpet / hall flooring .. then we move onto the landscaping we need for the garden

Rewired, heating installed, whole house replastered - couple of stud walls removed and replaced, new kitchen , new bathroom, new roof.
Done gradually since 2015, total spend £140k.
The decoration and new bits and bobs not included in this cost.
It has been a slog but so worth it.

We live in South Wales. 4 bed detached - a very solidly built old house so nothing is easy. When we bought it we knew that we needed one new bathroom. That cost £5500 all in (we purposely chose lino rather than tiles on the floor as I’m terrified of kids slipping) and that included a fancy bath, large shower cubicle, new sink and toilet, floor to ceiling tiles.

We then had our kitchen redone and it was quite a major job - window became french doors, we knocked down a few walls (previously it was a square kitchen with a utility room, WC and corridor to the back door and then it became one large kitchen. We blocked up the back door and moved the WC to the pantry. The fuse box had to be moved, radiators had to be moved and we had to upgrade the electrics. All new appliances and kitchen, quartz worktops. LVT which we also extended out into the hallway, and the decorator came and also did the hall stairs and landing and large reception room as well as the kitchen area. We stopped counting towards the end - I didn’t need that sort of stress. But I’d say we were easily up to £25k with everything included!

Slightly different as we’re NW, have done most ourselves - and still some years to go. Have spent 70k so far. Probably same to go again.

we had our staircase restored not replaced and it was closer to 10k.

Woodburner was slightly more than that - think it was 4K in the end.

if an older house consider modern plastering will potentially cause damp issues.

Is the house well insulated and is the roof and guttering ok? No point making it all look nice if the house is leaky and freezing. Don't forget to add in some money to your budget for that.

This is what I've spent recently:

• Small bathroom completely renovated (no change to layout): £7k

Electrical (about 10 new sockets or chasing in existing sockets): £1,300

• Plastering (2 double bedrooms): £1k
• Floors (engineered wood for 3 bedrooms and upstairs hallway, inc supply and fit): £4k
• Internal doors (4 doors inc supply and fit): £1,200
• Radiators (3 inc supply and fit): £670

Just done a full refurb. Don't forget any replacement skirtings or architraves, new matching plug sockets and light switches. Lighting - interior and exterior. Paint costs too. In a kitchen and utility don't forget splash backs and upstands. We had quartz so the worktops and upstands for both rooms were 5K before we added in cupboards and appliances! This is more interiors but blinds/curtains and poles really rack up the cost and if everything looks so lovely you may want to replace some of the soft furnishings too. Don't forget the finishing touches as it's so hard to do all the hard work and have no cash left to finish it!

Hi OP... I recently completed full on renovations on a 4 bed property. few points for you:

1. when was the house rewired? if it is not recent, it might be a good idea to rewire as you will be doing the work anyway. my property hadn't been rewired since the 1970s when it was built and I was told it is best to rewire (I had a family friend in the construction business advising me)
2. security system maybe also to be included in your budget? wired systems are better so you could potentially do the wiring during the construction?
3. are you changing the pipes as well as the radiators? if you have narrow bore copper pipes, the heating is not as efficient. might be worth changing

I spent roughly 200k+. but that included a full replaster, rewire, changing the pipes/boiler/radiators, new windows and doors (with toughened glass), paint job, new carpets, 2 x new bathrooms, new kitchen, new flooring throughout, plaster coving etc. and things are more expensive now... but I'm not handy at all and outsourced every little thing. and slightly splurged on the kitchen. but given your house is much bigger, think you might need a bit more than 100k especially if plastering is involved...

Ha ha… and me… I want them too.

I'm not sure about full rewiring but the fuseboard has an installation date of 2018 on it - so that's not old and I'm (possibly stupidly) assuming the electrics are therefore ok.

Waste removal is another big chunk I'd need to add seemingly. Luckily the garden is beautiful so at least there'd be no waste from there.

I hadn't even consider security systems - if it did need rewiring we'd possibly work that in then, but I'm hoping not.

The staircase doesn't absolutely need replacing, but it's one of these types and I'm not even sure how easy/costly it would be to add risers and replace the balustrade. And it's got a stairlift screwed into pretty much every step. Though if we filled in that backs and recarpeted you wouldn't know that...
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/before-and-after-60s-staircase--336995984595924569/

if your fuseboard is 2018, you are probably OK. security system wiring will go in as a seperate thing and will be nowhere as extensive so that won't be too costly. but better to do it now if you want it, then drill holes later and have the patch up annoyance (I did this lol).
staircase - maybe get a few quotes in... they are fairly expensive, so if you can avoid doing it will be a big saver. but it will dramatically change the look to might be worth it.

I don't envy you. I was so relieved when mine was done. the stress was ridiculous.

Wow eye watering numbers.
we expect ours to come in at 50k. Just had utility done for 5k. Large room
and plumbing fitted for bathroom there too. But my dh will be doing all the rest of the work in there. We are only paying for electricians and plumbers and joiners where necessary and they do things like putting in the plumbing, we then do the bathroom fit.

@tt9 we haven’t bought the place and I’m not sure we will now! Or not at the current price.
The stress is a huge factor as well as cost to be honest. If we can’t factor enough money into the budget to allow other people to do a chunk of the work, we wouldn’t consider it. At the current price it seems that wouldn’t be possible so I’ll just hope for a substantial price reduction