Complete renovation

[FrodisCapering]

I have seen our dream forever family house.

The issue it, it would need a complete renovation.
I know this is a bit " how long is piece of string" but could anyone who has done this give me some idea of the costs?

It would be a four bed, need new kitchen, new bathroom, en suite added, new windows, possible re-wire, maybe new floors, possibly convert cellars.
It seems structurally sound and no new roof needed.
We would not do any work ourselves apart from easy painting etc.

Any ball park ideas would be gratefully received.

Wait for the sucking through the teeth 😬.

i have no idea 🙁

How much can you do yourself and how much help would you need ? Are you going for super high spec or howdens ? Based on what you’ve listed, with a builder your looking at easily gbp 150 - 175 K.

Yes I would say definitely north of 150,000. Highly highly unlikely to be anything under that.
Could be much more, of course.

The problem at the moment is both cost of labour is high and materials even higher - I can’t see you getting all of that for under £150k, but think it could be up to £225k depending on where you are / how high spec you would want to go.

A lot more than you think it will!

Where are you?

As a very basic figure I’d say 150k without the cellar outside London. That would be with a medium spec, like a decent kitchen. In London add on about 30k.

Also be aware that you may find that the decent builders/ trades may not want the work (many are still busy post-brexit so you could be looking at 3 plus contacts to get one quote) and the good ones will probably have a bit of a wait.

Thanks everyone. I am in the north west.

NW, provided you're a bit handy in DIY terms for at least the simple things like decorating, & if you're not the type who insists on the most expensive of everything, you might get away with about 100K.

I’m in the Northwest, the north / south thing is becoming a bit of a fallacy. Good Tradesmen aren’t that much cheaper in the North ! Without the basement you won’t get much change from £ 120 k.

In my recent experience, you would be lucky to get change out of £200,000 and could easily spend more, especially if a period property. This is for mid-range finish.

£100,000 for middle range bathrooms kitchen etc - remember you can pay £10,000 for a gold plated bath!

I've done total renovations for less than £100k I've not done a cellar. However DH can do quite a few jobs himself. He's working on a house ATM and just replaced floor joists in sitting room of a Victorian terrace. There is no point in putting in nice flooring if the joists are in poor condition. This is a common problem in Victorian terraces because of how long they've been there. People don't always think to check them. He can fit a kitchen, laminate or carpet a floor including stairs, paint and decorate and tile. He can do the jobs but works more slowly than a tradesman because he's an accountant who builds financial models and coding by trade.

@caringcarer that's super impressive. Unfortunately, neither of us are handy at all!

The house in question is a beautiful old rectory, in its own grounds.

Unless I win the lottery on Friday, it's a no go!

Costs have risen a lot in last couple of years or so. If average size and average quality builder or similar doing maybe £10k per bathroom/ensuite if all new, £15kish for kitchen, wooden flooring maybe £2k per room, covert cellar don't know but would expect pricey.

Worth getting quotes though and it doesn't all need doing at once if that helps. A complete renovation you may have to factor in living elsewhere costs if uninhabitable. There's always unexpected costs as well unless a full survey.

I’d say based on that - you probably wouldn’t get much change from £200k - and you’ve got to be careful especially up north that you don’t spend too much money on the property that when you come to sell that you aren’t selling at a loss - although you do say it is a forever home - you don’t know what your circumstances will be in years to come.

Also - have you budgeted in for possible rental property costs and storage whilst this work is being completed as you won’t really be able to live at the property as it will be a building site.

If it was me, I’d hang fire and wait to see if there are other properties that don’t need extensive refurbishment.

We found wait times have improved a lot recently - a year or two ago struggling to get anyone to do anything. Now we had good kitchen people in at around a three week wait and painters and decorators in at around a 2 month wait. Boiler was quick too. Our kitchen is small and cost £13k excluding flooring but including appliances. Wooden flooring 1 room was £2k ish with fitting and materials. Boiler was c £5k.

Yes that's true about getting money back - we were previously in London and always got money back and more when renovating but other areas its much more variable especially if you will be the highest priced in area. Surveyor may be able to advise a bit over phone.

It would have been 100k but throw in the cellar and I can imagine 150k to 200k.

You don't have to do the whole rectory all at once. Pick a room and always do one room at a time otherwise you end up living in a building site. We never used to be handy either but over the years we watched the trades very carefully, asking lots of questions and DH asked a few tradesmen to show him how to do it too. Also there are many really useful YouTube clips to show you step by step how to do something. At the very least you can make jobs cheaper by for example ripping up old laminate checking the joist and floorboards to check they are all secure and removing skirting boards or ripping off old wallpaper with a steamer, filling in any little holes, then sanding it smooth. Also decorators caulk along the skirtings if they are not being replaced. Then call in decorators and carpenters and get quotes. Try to get 3 for each job. By doing the prep yourself it will make the quote much cheaper because for example ripping off old wallpaper takes ages but you don't have to be skilled to do it. You might be able to find a handyman or recently retired tradesman who will do it for a cheaper price but can only work certain days. Ask to see some of their previous work. Most will have photos of before and after projects they have worked on. I learned how to plaster and point and I was a school secondary teacher. I'm very slow and I can't do ceilings but I can do walls albeit I can only do maybe one wall in an afternoon and I know a proper plasterer can do the whole room in a day. It's mainly because my arm aches a lot if I try to do it for too long. Also in an old Victorian house I'm not keen on heights so I do the bottom half and DH comes to do the top half. The trick is making sure the plaster is the correct consistency.

We are currently up to £150k and only half way done, we haven’t gone for high end finishes either…

I flipped a three bedroom bungalow a couple of months ago (I was left it in a will). Totally gutted it, installed gas central heating, total rewire, new basic double glazing throughout, new kitchen, two new bathrooms, decorating, carpeting etc and that was £120k. The stuff I did was decent quality but on the cheaper end of the range.

Bungalows are much cheaper to renovate though. I would say you are realistically looking closer to £200k without the cellar works.

A lot depends on how liveable it is though. Can you cope with the kitchen or bathrooms as they are for a while? Would ripping out the existing flooring and a lick of paint make it decent for a few years?

Some people simply want everything doing all at once and couldn’t cope doing it piecemeal. Others are quite happy to live with it, take it step by step and take their time so they can afford what they want. Work out which sort of people you are first.

Had a 3 bed semi. Now a 5. Went out back, side and top.
£120 for first fix then another £100k for second... then furniture.