Estimated costs of renovation/refurbishment – 1930s three-bed detached house

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We have been searching for a house in the North West and have found a 1930s three-bed detached house in a great location with lots of potential as our long-term family home. Although currently in a livable condition, modernising work is needed throughout. As this would be our first refurbishment/renovation, we have limited practical experience and few local contacts in the trades.

In terms of what’s needed, we think the worst-case scenario would be: a knock-through between the kitchen and dining room, new kitchen, new bathroom, full electrical rewire, new windows and external doors, rendering on the gable end, repointing to the front, replastering, decorating and new carpets/flooring throughout.

Could anyone give a ballpark estimate of the expected costs and a rough timescale to complete?

Given the scale of work that might be needed, we are thinking about ‘hiring’ a local builder to accompany us on our second viewing, to help decide whether to make an offer.

If it is going to be a long term family home for you then I would suggest spending a bit more? For all the work you have mentioned, I would set aside at least £75k-£100k.
This includes contigencies too.

Renovation costs have gone up massively in the last few years.

This guide might be helpful, though with no contacts in the trades you may well end up paying more.

If a lot needs doing you may also want to consider a project manager (who would be another cost on top)

https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/cost-guides/cost-renovating-house/

I don’t know how big the house is or what kind of quality finish you want. But if it’s an average size 3 bed of around 1800sq ft, with 1 bathroom and you want a medium quality finish, I don’t think you’d get much change from around £150K. Probably closer to £200k

A bit more than? OP didn't specify anthing.
OP at least 200k. Please look at this thread and several others
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4755691-extension

We have just done this exact thing OP. 1930's, 4 bed detached. It had been empty 10yrs though and we are Sth East- 80 miles from London.

New roof, rewiring, new pipework and ground work, all new windows and doors, insulation, new bathrooms and opened up kitchen/diner. The cost of steels rose weekly! Initial estimates were £150,000, but its more than double that so far! We are 2yrs on and its livable now- but we were living in a caravan in the garden all that time!

If you have the skills, you can save by doing things yourself- but you'd need to weigh up the money you'd earn from your regular job vs the cost of getting a professional trades person in- who could likely do the job quicker and would have the correct tools. Finding reliable trades can be tricky. We were fortunate to have some recommended, who then recommended others.

I'd agree with others, £150k-£200k. can you live elsewhere whilst the work is done?

I did similar in 2000 near Blackpool, but also added a downstairs WC, new roof, extension and en-suite attic conversion. Cost me in total £130 K.

However mine was a 3 bed semi. I also added a hitherto non existent hallway and the finishings were all quite high end (wooden in frame kitchen, wood floors etc).

Hi, have you bought it already?
I wanted a reno project so badly, but realise in today's market it is not worth it.

Example: I found a 1970s family house that needed major updating. The retired couple that own it wanted it for the same price as the other houses in the area but those houses were already done up and much nicer. Despite they were done up, they were over priced anyway. We tried negotiating with them to include our reno costs which we had been given estimates for: £150k in total for a 3 bed family home, including creating a nice green garden and sorting the front drive. Still, the retired couple wouldn't drop the price. Obvs we told them to get lost then, and it happened with other houses too that needed reno. So this is my conclusion from those experiences:

Calculate what you think a nicely done up house should be in the area (I took the nicest house and subtracted 15% off the asking price - this is it's corrected price in 2023). If the house you want to reno will cost £100k to do up, you don't just subtract 100k off the value of the house. Nope, never. Otherwise, you're just bringing the house up to the current Sep 2023 value and that doesn't account for your work, planning and hidden costs you didn't think about. It also doesn't account for the current depreciating market. So You need to subtract a further 25% of the reno cost off the home value. The end after those subtractions is what you should be buying the reno house for.

Or, you could follow what seller's say: "a home is worth as much as someone is wiling to pay" lol 😂. with this country's financial illiteracy, I wouldn't take that advice. I'd actually do the math work.

Otherwise, personally I wouldn't bother. Renos are meant to be cheaper houses with a good return keeping you in positive equity for your family. and that's what the home is for at the end of the day. making a home for your family not profit for a stubborn retired couple.

Rough figures given of 150k to 200k sound about right to me.

The floorspace is approx. 105 m², so potentially smaller than some of the other 3- or 4-bed properties being discussed here.

Ok that sounds similar to the space at my semi, pre Reno 87m2 afterwards 130m2.

In lockdown a house near me was renovated like this by developers. They told me it cost them 85k to do the work they were a family firm of builders so did everything apart from the double glazing themselves. Is there anyway you can do any of the work yourselves? For instance DH with assistance from me fitted our kitchen, that saved us 3k. I appreciate that’s quite a skill and our builder mate said he would employ him if he ever wanted to change professions.

Whereabouts in North West - Cheshire/South Manc or Bolton/Blackpool - this will probably be 25k difference between those two type of loc l.

It will also depend on how far you want to go with flooring quality, window and door quality, and kitchen spec they’re the really big variables.

We are just about to start same size property, You are going to be looking at 150k as an absolute minimum up to 200-220k. Depending on spec. For a property that age you need an okay contingency of at around 10k too, always more surprises with a period property.

I find it difficult to reconcile "livable condition" with a property that needs the extent of work done that you describe.

Is your plan to live in the property and have the work done around you, or live elsewhere while all the work is done in one go? Do you plan to do any of the labour yourself? All of this is going to impinge on costs and timescale. If you plan to live there, you could do the works in smaller stages and spread the costs over a longer period though that could mean a higher total cost overall.

If you haven't yet had any input from builders or trades, on what are you basing your opinion of the work that needs doing? Things like decoration are obviously a matter of taste, but why, for example, do you think it might need a full electrical rewire? (Assuming it's not the original 1930s wiring!) It's important to consider whether work is actually necessary, as a job like that could easily be a five-figure sum on its own depending on the size of the property.

Good point. We are just basing the potential work needed on impressions from a 15-minute first viewing... Hopefully, it's not the worst-case scenario and things like the full rewire won't be needed.

We've arranged a 2nd viewing over the weekend with additional family members - we're hoping to arrange for a builder to come along to carry out a visual inspection too.

Without the knock-through, and not doing much yourself, I'd say up to 100K up here in the NW if you plan not to do much yourselves, want a good job doing, and to allow for contingencies (there always are things that turn up as you do work). I think the best thing is to suggest you poke around sites like this one https://www.priceyourjob.co.uk and do the sums. It's not the site I generally use, that gives prices per region, but I can't find my bookmark for that one. 😡 I'd not go for their lowest estimates, I suggest 2x the lowest estimates if you want a really good job done and to allow for those contingencies. I usually 2x up estimates, and though I have had nice surprises at times, I've had no nasty ones.

We were in a similar position with a 1930s three bed and the costs do add up.
As a very rough guide, a full modernisation like this often lands around £50k to £90k, depending on finishes and any surprises once work starts. Timescales are usually 3 to 6 months if managed well.
Before committing, we used renocost.co.uk to sense check the numbers. It lets you input the house type, age and work needed and gives a quick, realistic estimate, which helped us decide whether it stacked up.
Taking a builder to a second viewing is a sensible move. Also build in a 10 to 15 percent contingency, older houses nearly always throw something up.