Very vaguely - how much would it cost to do up this property

[WindUpBird]

3 bed 1960s terrace in an unglamorous bit of Kent. Photo to give an idea of how dated it is. Avocado bathroom, 1960s kitchen and what looks like polystyrene ceiling tiles - so ceilings will need replacing? Is there likely to be asbestos under those tiles?
I think it’s on at far too high a price and the estate agent reckons it needs £20k of work - would you agree?? To me it would seem a lot more. I could potentially live with the terrible kitchen & bathroom for a couple of years but dodgy ceilings and carpets would need to be replaced asap
I just have no idea if all of this would cost £30k or £10k or more?!

Keep the kitchen - it's ace.

B&Q kitchen could be £8k, new bathrooms - basic - about the same maybe a bit less. It's the time to fit you are paying for. Just don't go for bells and whistles. Do the flooring all at the same time same colour and get a discount.

Check the boiler and wiring and roof.

the estate agent reckons it needs £20k of work

My arse. Maybe if you bought budget materials and did it all, absolutely everything yourself. Even then I would add another 20k.

To be done properly by tradesmen to a quality standard nearer £100k, I agree with others. You can spend £20k on a decent kitchen with good appliances, worktops and floor.

This is not a Do-it-upper if you don't have the funds or skills to do it up.

Have a look at switches such as for the cooker, hot water etc. and the fuse box. If they look ancient then you’re probably looking at £10k - £15k rewiring. Ditto for plumbing, a bit more if you’re putting in a new boiler. The cosmetic stuff can be done for less and there are lots of YouTube videos if you know one end of a paintbrush from another. If you do take it on, once plumbing and wiring is sorted, do one room at a time, staring with the living room then bedroom so you have somewhere nice to retreat to when it all gets too much.

That kitchen has a certain charm - the vintage units are very desirable!

With a new work surface, tiles and cooker it could look really lovely.

If you just list what you dream of and ask someone how much it cost to just have it done, then maybe some of these 6 figure quotes are correct. If you do your research, maximise what you buy from what is available in the sales, and do the work yourself, your estate agent is correct.

I am still agog at this thread. We've been renovating, mostly during and post lockdown and we have:

Replaced ceilings, roof joists and re-felted the roof.
Re-plastered.
New combi boiler and 9 radiators.
New bathroom including taking back to brick and moving waste pipes.
New kitchen (back to brick work).
Small shower room extension downstairs.
Knocked down the conservatory and rebuilt as a garden room.
New carpets and decoration.
Moved a wall.
Taken up old flooring and restored the original quarry stone.

We've done the other odd thing as well. It's a 3 bed 1930s semi and work has cost under 50k so far, finished to a high standard and not basic at all. I admit that we are very handy, do a lot ourselves and are willing to take our time researching and shopping around, but it baffles me when people make blasé statements about kitchens costing a minimum of 20k for example. Ours was ex-display so only cost 2.5k and we installed it ourselves.

I think there are certain things you can live with and do up over time. Personally as I have also done you could revamp the kitchen yourself, paint the cupboard doors and add new handles. paint the tiles / walls and pick up some cheap vinyl flooring. Obviously the polysterene tiles are another matter.
You could also paint over any bathroom tiles and purchase a more basic white bathroom suite.
A few years down the line I still detest the embossed and chip wood style wallpaper which is in most rooms. It would be a huge task to strip the walls myself and I live in fear of what conditions the walls will be underneath? My solution has been to paint them all white and attempt to disguise with lots of art work.
There are other jobs that need doing and I am constantly weighing up whether it would be better to move...but that decision could be another thread!
Check the electrics, condition of the windows and the boiler and if there is a garage, check that the garage door opens!

Hahaha 20k... I just had four rooms plastered and wallpaper removed for 15k.
Lets say,minimum. 20k plastering painting
2k new radiators 4k new boiler, 2k carpets, flooring 3k, new kitchen 10k, kitchen install 2k, wall removal of you like 2k, structural beams etc 2k, installation engineering calculations 20k. New bathrooms buy and install 5k each, unless you change configure, then it's more.

Ps, the above are medium quality materials from homebase, b&q

Some of the numbers banded around on here are either by people who do know any decent tradesman or do have solid gold fittings.

Yes it can cost £100k but you will be surprised how much you can save by using a local tradesman and buy the fittings from source. Obviously you need to need to know are capable of doing a good job if going down that route.

I know. 15k for plastering and painting four rooms?! Our plasterer charges 1k per room maximum and a tin of decent paint is £30. Rollers and brushes are cheap. 20k budget for plastering and painting?! We knocked down and rebuilt a conservatory as a garden room for 13k two years ago.

I suppose if people simply don't know the true price of things then we have captive audiences.

"Hahaha 20k... I just had four rooms plastered and wallpaper removed for 15k*

Fuck me, they saw you coming!!!

Depends how much you like it and how long you intend to live there, you can pick through it room by room fairly cheaply. Kitchen and bathroom when you have funds.

You can redecorate for as much or as little as possible.

You can get kitchens of freecycle sites, even new ones from DIY kitchen will only be £2-£3k etc...

Carpets start from like £5.99m2 etc...

To get a ceiling boarded and skimmed probs about £1k and then £400-ish for a skip.

Things like if you want to tile or replaster or wallpaper or add 'nice' carpets or have a designer draw up a custom kitchen etc... is where the price comes in.

I think if its just that cosmetic stuff £20k easily done... if theres structural stuff thats where cost really creep up (things like new windows, new roof, rewires, new central heating etc... things that aren't cost point choices).

Wow... just wow.

Unless theres a drip feed that these four rooms where grand halls in your listed mansion restoration or that that included the cost to build the 4 room from scratch etc... then you have been SERIOUSLY ripped off.

Can I possibly ask where your based, when you had your roof done and the cost?

That's the next big job (and most like the most expensive we will have done) to do and its a nightmare getting a full quote. Lots of people give quotes for just retiling/felting but not the purlins/joists.

I have no clue, but I really, really love that kitchen. It hurts to think you're going to rip it out, OP. Can't you keep it?

... oh, and I want to see a photo of the avocado bathroom. Can't you keep that, too? I'd keep it.

15k for four rooms plastered?!!!
Good grief, they saw you coming 😄😄.

We had a 72sqm extension a year ago and the whole lot was plastered for 2.5k!!

I can only imagine people saying £100-£200k live in London right?

Houses themselves aren't even worth anywhere near that much here. You could knock it down and build a new house for that lol.

15k for four rooms plastered?!!!
Good grief, they saw you coming 😄😄.

Not really, we had five completely independent quotes. Four layers of wallpaper and lining underneath. Very bad walls. Op won't know what's underneath. Yes you can always add a fifth layer as some do but I wouldn't 🤣

Oh and Ceilings wallpapered too. That horrible smelly old embossed paper

100% agree! Often see posts on here that quote crazy numbers for a small extension. I know prices have gone up massively in the last couple years but I do think that some people have been seriously ripped off (and we completed a large extension just over a year ago and are still doing internal works so have a lot to do with tradesmen).

Having said that OP, I don't think 20k is achievable for that kind of house. With that age house you'd have to assume that it needs rewiring / new boiler/ windows and then all the cosmetic stuff. I think it would be more like 100k if you can't do anything yourself.

Yeah sorry you've still been ripped off 😀we had a bedroom wallpapered in the past couple of months for a day rate of £250 plus materials and other rooms completely stripped and replastered for approx 1k.

Loads of ludicrous claims about pricing here. In London no trades will work for £250 per day (it’s far more).

Tins of paints are not £30 - even dulux trade is over £40 and f&b & Little greene are £50/£60 for a 2.5l tin.

Also, the poster who claimed howdens/ikea kitchens are the same price point is talking nonsense as well - they are quite different.

also … saying “we did our whole house for 50p but it was five years ago and we did everything ourself” is not a relevant benchmark for the OP who would have to deal with runaway pricing in todays market and they would be paying trades for EVERYTHING unless they develop all trades skills …overnight.

OP, walk away from this house unless there is something uniquely amazing about it. Buy one in better condition and ffs, pay the £1200 for a really detailed surveyors report because you don’t know enough - yet - to instantly see when an estate agent is lying to you.

good luck!