1930s house renovation

[bellamountain]

Has anyone completed a 1930s house renovation recently, with the current huge increases in costs to do so? A house we are looking at would need absolutely everything done (and we have two young children). Loft conversion and downstairs extension. It's been neglected for a long time. Because it has a large garden and space to the side, it has a lot of scope and could be a fantastic house. We have a mortgage agreement in place and could (just) afford a bigger home (that is already extended) however they aren't to our taste and will still need work going forward (although no major building works). Many of these houses don't have decent gardens or are overlooked.

We've been though building works before but our house was always liveable but costs were nowhere near what they are now and it could spiral / be hugely stressful with younger children.

And we have done all the decorating ourselves so far. We did the whole hallway ourselves; apart from the plug sockets and installing the radiator. We couldn't get someone to do the flooring for us so I did that too.

Having lived in a 30s semi which had been neglected, I would factor in the cost of insulation and possible re-rendering the outside (if it is renderd). The outside of ours was lifting off and was wet underneath and the inside of the external walls were cold and damp when it rained. I think the original roof and gutters etc contributed to it as the water was running straight down the walls.

This is a really interesting thread, interested in a 3 bed 1920s bungalow that’s on sale locally. Currently live in a 1020’s extended 4 bed semi.
I was very roughly budgeting £60k for the bungalow- sort some of the roof, damp, rewiring, new kitchen and bathrooms, moving a couple of interior walls. Is that realistic?
happy with IKEA or similar kitchens and bathrooms.
we do have karndean floors in our current house though and I love them, so would like similar.

We're in south east with a 4/5 bed 1920s detached house. So far we've had five quotes, and the one we are going with for the extension is £78k. This is plaster finish only - we have to supply glass, roof lights, kitchen and flooring. The quotes have been so variable though, with some quite a bit more.

We've spent about £70k already on removing walls, new bathroom and ensuite, decorating and flooring the front side of the house to live in, new electrics, plastering, upgrading plumbing, new stairs, new carpets upstairs etc.

We think we will get the money back - close to town, great location, top school's in catchment etc but it's scary

I agree with the 2 years and £300k figs. I would say don't underestimate how much it will take over your life and how difficult living with it would be. I know I sound miserable but once you have started you won't have a financially sensible route out half way through if you can't bear it anymore.....

OP- I only found out the 'empty home 'government scheme I mentioned upthread from someone else on mumsnet. It only covers fixed things in the home to get it livable again- so landscaping or removable things like beds/curtains aren't covered.

Unfortunately, alot of trades people and even building suppliers aren't aware of it. Everyone thinks its the new build scheme, where the home owner claims the tax back. With the empty homes scheme- the tradesperson only changes YOU 5% VAT, then they show the VAT person a copy of your empty home certificate when they do their returns. No good if they aren't VAT registered though! We also set up an account with a builders merchant and local tile/bathroom shop. Generally, once their accounts department had verified its a legit scheme, they were fine with it.

I also wrote to larger suppliers- wickes, B&Q, travis perkins etc and none would accept it. Even B&Q trade wouldn't let us set up an account. Its certainly worth ringing the local council and speaking to their empty homes officer about it. Happy to answer any questions you have.

Our neighbours are 18 months into their renovation and the cost has been incredible. Over £200k last time we spoke to them and there's still loads to do. So many delays with supplies of materials too. They did a complete refurb plus a side and rear ( double height ) extension. No loft conversion as they decided the costs were running away with them.

We did our place up gradually as we never had all the money available at once and have probably spent about £150k over the 16 years we've been here. We haven't even extended - that was just the cost of getting everything modernised and refreshed ( new ceilings in every room , plastering , new kitchen , new bathroom and en suite, new boiler , chimney repaired and lined, internal
Insulation , roof repairs , original 1930's flooring renovated and polished ) plus quite a lot of landscaping in the front and back gardens. It's never ending with these older houses and I sometimes wish we had stayed in our previous place - a 1980's Bovis home ( which I bloody loved but was in the wrong area for schools)

Wow, @Sylviag that seems like quite good value considering the insane costs at the moment. Were you happy with your builder? Did you use one builder/company for all the work? (Just about to move into a 30s house in need of TLC in SE london...)

Ours is a 20s/30s house (was a one-off house and the deeds suggest it took a while to build!). If I'd had a choice, I'd go for 1960s- big windows, big rooms, etc. but more modern building techniques (not necessarily better in all ways but helps with heat loss) and less likely to need as much expensive bottoming out in terms of things like drains and roofs. This house was right for us for other reasons, but though it is very well built of its kind, it will always be expensive to heat no matter what. The biggest problem I found looking for 60s houses is the ones round here were on smaller plots than we wanted (DH is a keen gardener). But not all of them are, it depends where you live.

My husband and I are doing up a 3-bed 1930s terrace in outer zone London. The elderly man who owned it previously did a good job of upkeep - rewired in 90s/early 2000s and relatively modern central heating set-up, which saved us a costly job. But redecorating needed throughout plus removing a wall and a rear extension for kitchen-diner and reception space and small WC. The downstairs extension work is costing around 130k all-in (incl VAT, kitchen, flooring, decor downstairs etc).

On top of that we’ve had a new bathroom suite and decor put in upstairs and decorated main bedroom. Once you factor in these, plus the other bedrooms left to be done, plus the downstairs work, would say we’re probably spending about £160k total. To be fair, we got our house for about 175-200k less than equivalent houses that were “done” in our area - most of which wouldn’t be to our personal taste - and house is in a great location, so it is working out about ok to get a house that’s made for us. But it is time and effort too, we’ve been in the house over 2 years and only recently started the main work. We are not particularly the do-it-yourself types.(apart from really basic stuff) and we have busy jobs that make it hard to dedicate loads of time to doing floors and fitting etc. So maybe some money saved if you can do more of that yourself - but need to be realistic about how much you can or have the time to do.

We will probably eventually do the loft extension, but not for a few years - not needed right now and don’t have the extra cash for it anyway! So definitely believe people saying 300k plus for the work you’ve specified.

So far all seems worth it for us so far, and we’ll have a house designed for us and by us. But do your sums first, for sure. If you can do it in stages, might be worth considering to give you wallet and your sanity a break!

We extended back and side ground floor and a small first floor extension. Full reno of the bones of the house (electrics, plumbing, floors, plaster, windows....the lot). We didn't get any change from £360k and we still haven't got any fitted furniture (wardrobes etc), curtains, the stuff that would fall if you tipped the house upside down.

Things have got more expensive since then (2022).

Rule of thumb, multiple whatever number you have in your head or an architect tells you by pi (3.141) and you will be close to the final number (we set a budget of 100k!)