Cost of refurbishing house

[Downtonbabby]

We have seen a house we love and ticks almost all our boxes. However it needs a complete refurbishment as it is a probate property that obviously hasn’t been done up in years so is very dated.

It will mainly be cosmetic work, but would need decorating and new flooring through out, a new kitchen and utility room, new bathroom, en-suite and cloakroom.

It is a 4 bedroom house built in the 80s/90s around 1400 square feet in total, based in the East Midlands.

We have estimated around £45k in total made of;
All 3 bathrooms £15k
Kitchen £20k (to include all appliances as ours is fully integrated so won’t be able to take with us)
Flooring £8k
Paint and decoration £2k

We will take on all the decorating ourselves but would need to pay for fitting of bathrooms and kitchens. Does this sound so able? Or could it be less? Our budget is tight so want to make sure it’s within our reach before offering.

Depends on the finish/quality but i would suggest you have underestimated massively for 3 bathrooms and decorating the entire house.

Can’t comment on cost of bathrooms but any work I have had done on my house always costs more than I anticipated. My new kitchen, fitted last month, cost almost £30k with new appliances, flooring, lots of electric changes and plumbing including new radiators. I’ve still got to sort out the decorating. I had hoped to be able to keep the cost down to nearer £20k but there were so many extras that added over £1k each time!

I do have expensive tastes though in that I want good quality products that will wear well and last ie quartz worktops, Karndean flooring etc so I’m sure you can do it cheaper but your budget does not seem enough for all you want to do. You will need a contingency fund, everything associated with renovations and building have gone up a lot in the last couple of years.

I think you are underestimating there, does the wiring need updating, the boiler, replastering?

The costs of renovations has gone up massively over the last few years. Wood, paint, plasterboard have increased in cost. I agree with PP, a project always ends up spending more than you originally budgeted for, as you often find surprises along the way.

Make sure you have a healthy contingency OP, there is nothing more miserable than running out of budget and living somewhere half done.

Good luck with the move.

I would double that and add some. If you need electrical work updated in kitchen for example, most electricians won’t add their work onto a non compliant section of work so you end up with more needed. Plumbers are the same, won’t sign off on a job if connecting to old and dodgy fittings as it compromises their work. Allow about £80 plus each for every plug socket, light fitting, switch, it soon mounts up.

So the house is close to the 50 year age mark and hasn’t been touched it will need the electrics updating to modern standards and I would want a whole new up to date modern heating system and new radiators, the windows will need looking at and probably replacing, I imagine it has artex ceilings so they will need re plastering and checked for asbestos. You need to prioritise the basics of getting your house to modern standards before the cosmetics. The pretty stuff can cost as little or as much as you like depending on if you want a high end or budget finish so that bit is up to you. The bones of the house need sorting first.

We've just had our kitchen redone which included:

• knocking down a few walls
• bifold doors
• new floor
• good quality cupboards and worktop / mid range fittings

There were a few unexpected costs but it came to £65k

I think you’ve really underestimated the costs.

15k for 3 bathrooms? Not likely. Plus there will be unexpected costs, like when my daughter got a new kitchen fitted it turned out she also needed a new fuse board and new electrics. Then the room had to be plastered in places before being painted.

Are you sure you haven’t estimated 45k because that fits your budget rather than because that matches realistic quotes?

I’ve just paid a little over 8k for a new bathroom in the midlands.

Agree you've underestimated about the bathrooms. Depending on size and the quality of the fittings you'll probably be double your estimate.

Also, you need to think about the availability of tradesmen. We can't get any. The either don't turn up to quote, or they turn up and you never hear from them again.

I would honestly think about spending some of your budget learning how to do some of the things yourself. You'll recoup it in savings and have the satisfaction that you did it yourself. There is such a lot of information on the Internet you could learn to fit a kitchen very easily. Beware though that there's a lot of disinformation too.

I did basic a plumbing course, and a plastering course which has been really useful. I was already competent with electrics but they need signing off these days by a qualified electrician so be aware of that.

You could also do a kitchen fitting course and a tiling course over a few weekends.

You'll save enough to by yourself a basic toolkit too which you could sell after or keep for ongoing maintenance tasks.

You haven't factored in clearance. I assume you're ripping out bathrooms and kitchens? How will you dispose? Our last refurb we spent 3k on disposal.

Agree with both of these.
Also I would be specific about age. If 1980s and you are thinking this is a long term house then I would consider a full rewire as once heading towards 50 years it will need doing, and as a PP says, additional sockets etc soon add up so a rewire is better, especially when decorating is already factored in

You’ll need to factor in electrics, plastering. How are the windows and front door ? Sorry OP but I think you’ll need atleast £50 - 60k for those plans.

I think you could do it for close to that but there will be unexpected costs
Bathrooms is you buy the fittings for no more than £1500 that leaves you £3500 for fitting flooring and tiling. You will be buying the bog in a box and the basic hand basin (nothing wrong with these I bought them for many houses). You’ll be asking for good quality taps that aren’t expensive at the builders merchants. Do buy the 10mm premier finish bath though. Tiles choices will be limited to no more than £15 per sq m
Kitchen is totally doable for £20k in fact you could probably save on that.
New rads will be needed but shop around. Screwfix we’re the cheapest but it varies.

Plumber costs vary where I live from £35 ph to over £70 per ph as do electrian costs

There will be unexpected costs

45K is not enough. My kitchen and utility cost around 30K mostly due to unexpected things that were found once the work started. Kitchen units, work tops, floor etc all mid range.
15K for 3 bathrooms is not enough, plumbing, tiling, plastering etc the fitting alone will be around 3K per bathroom.

If you want the house, then if you can live in it do things as you go. I’ve spent about 50K in total on mine but over 7 years. If you had told me when I moved in it would have cost that much I wouldn’t have bought it but doing work as and when you can afford it makes it more realistic.

Have you checked electrics, windows, heating, insulation and the roof? (Some roof tiles only have a lige of around 30 years)
Because therea little point making a place look pretty if the rest needs doing.

And, I agree with others, 45k is unlikely to get anywhere near what you need doing. Around me (North west) plumbers and electricians are charging a minimum of £50 per hour.

Does everything 'need' to be done in one go? Could you redo the kitchen and decorate the main areas downstairs first, and fix the inevitable things you discover/haven't yet thought of. Then bathrooms, one by one if need be. Or the other way round. Do it over a few years? I do think you'll end up spending more than that as you find things needing doing/the little extras add up. Good luck!

I'm south east (not London) and we can't get bathroom quotes less than £15k each.

If it is dated but usable, do it slowly. If you can save anything such as bathroom suite, if it’s not plastic, you’ll save money. I did a bathroom for about £5k including labour by retaining the existing bath, getting the cheapest loo, tiles and taps (Armitage Shanks, they are really good quality and very cheap) and doing the floor (sanding and painting) myself. A good quality loo seat goes a long way to making a bathroom look more expensive!

you could get all the electrics and plumbing done and work round it. I had a kitchen with freestanding cooker, old tables instead of work surfaces, and strange old sink (I just replaced the silicone) for about six years while saving to do the main work. It will give you time to look closely at what’s out there that can really save money. If you are a bit unorthodox and don’t go for everything from the same shop/range you can get better value.

I think your budget is low but if you are creative, patient, and willing to learn to do stuff yourself you can make it work.

Thanks for the replies.

In terms of 3 bathrooms, one is just a cloakroom so would just be toilet sink and minimal tiling, other two are bathroom and and ensuite (so would be bath toilet sink, shower cubicle, toilet sink). That is why we had estimated less. It has been a long time since we did bathrooms though, but we had asked friends how much there’s was.

in terms of the house, no artex, this has been removed, windows are upvc already and it has a combi boiler, and hot water tanks has been removed.

It seems like a loved house and this also shows in the well maintained gardens, it’s just that they obviously haven’t updated things for quite a while!

I think the bathrooms would be liveable for a while with a proper good clean. Just as it’s an old pink suite, definitely not our taste at all!

It’s tricky, we are swayed by the space we could get, but definitely don’t want to bite off more than we can manage financially. I guess that’s the problem, just don’t know what else we could find that needs money spent on it.

It's a fairly modern house, just get a survey and go from there. Decorative stuff can be done gradually over time as others have said.

We had an en suite completely replaced earlier this year, including adding a towel radiator (room was unheated before), tiled throughout and a fair bit of electrical work to add new lighting and extractor. Total cost was a smidge over £5k with mid range fittings and tiles. I'd originally had quotes from "bathroom fitters" for around £11k but a local plumber did a great job much more cheaply. We're in the south in an expensive area.

I would go hard on your offer price to try and get you another 15-30k free for renovations.

Please don't forget to insulate if it's got less than 30cm between rafters - I'd make it the first job as removing grotty rotten insulation from an attic is a messy job and you don't want that trapsing over new floors. There's no point in having a good boiler and efficient radiators if you're going to pump out heat into the night....

I don't think your estimate is far off. A lot of people way over pay for things like bathroom as they just go to chain stores. If you're savvy you can do them much more cheaply especially with a build team in.

Things like the cloakroom you could probably do yourself as the plumbing and drainage should be already there so just buy a new toilet and sink, check the plumbing looks ok, change any that isn't and fit yourself. Tiling you can do yourself as you say it isn't much. DH did ours easily in our downstairs toilet.

If it's cosmetic then you won't be spending all that right away. You will live there and do work as you go.