Never owned property before, how much should I expect to pay for these reno works?

[Somethingsgotthagive]

Properties we are considering within our budget often require some work. We won't have a big budget after purchasing (probably 5-8K left in cash but then the ability to save about £1K per month or more), would we be mad to consider a property that needs:

• a new kitchen (small, like 2x2m size or so)
• new floors (2 bed property so quite small, around 70 sqm in total)
• repainting and tripping wallpaper (although we are hoping to do this ourselves)
• a lot of work in the garden + eventually new fencing, although not a priority straight away

I appreciate prices will change massively depending on materials etc; I'd say an ikea type of kitchen and maybe engineered wood flooring + tiles in the kitchen.

What should we expect to pay for all of this?

So variable but £15-30k.

15 if you do your own decorating and most of the garden work yourselves. Cheap kitchen or reuse carcass and don’t get all new appliances. Polypropylene carpet or laminate.
Flooring first. Then decorating. Kitchen last. Garden whenever.

In my mind and based on a bit of research here and there I was thinking:

• £8K for kitchen (units, white goods and fitting)
• £1.5K for kitchen tiling
• £3.5K for flooring
• Paint: we'd like to do it ourselves and just spend a few 100s on paint and tools

Is it unrealistic?

Looks tight. By new floors are you thinking coverings or actual boards/joists. Electric and plumbing?

@LIZS I have no idea of what any of this means, lol! I suppose covering (i.e. stripping away carpet and replacing with wood or similar)

Do you have good tradespeople available? A good one makes all the difference. They can suggest savings and do multiple small jobs that cost a fortune to get separate people in for.
The labour is the biggest variable for me. Am in SE and it’s so hard to get good people. Wait lists of months. People are avoiding renovations more these days because of the increased costs so make sure your offers are cheeky! Good luck.

I think you'll probably use all of your budget doing those items if you get traders in (if you can even find traders
If you learn to do it yourself, nothing there is difficult, you'll save a ton.

Some YouTube channels that are really good are:-
Gosforth Handyman - this will cover kitchen fitting and flooring.
10Minuteworkshop - general cabinet making and fitting.

I don’t think it’s too unrealistic. It will be there or thereabouts. £1.5k to tile a small 2mx2m kitchen sounds high . Suppose it depends on how expensive the tile are I suppose.

Garden alone will take you over your budget

But based on your sums later in the thread those are fairly realistic. I would buy it assuming the kitchen is something you can live with while you save.

How's your boiler and radiators? If your doing reno then I'd factor this in too if they are oldish.
The garden can wait focus on the inside to start with.

Stripping the kitchen out yourself, buying white goods that fit but from AO or similar in a sale will be cheaper than Howdens are wherever you get the kitchen from will save you money.

And rewiring if the property is 25+ years old and has never been done. If you're going into a renovation project, you may as well go all in.

One thing to keep in mind is when you normally start a house reno, there's often unexpected surprises with unexpected costs. I would say this is more often than not

I think if you are looking at properties needing work you need to first focus on whether the work will involve expensive things like re-wiring, new boiler and issues with the plumbing (pipes, drains), not to mention any issues with the roof...

Make sure you get an extensive survey and reduce the price if needed to cover the above.

All my money went on a new boiler, fixing a leaky toilet, drain survey, changing some of the gutters and complete rewiring....very little left after that.

I did the flooring myself (removed all the old carpets and restore the original floorboards in the rooms and the stairs), all the painting and I kept the kitchen as everything works fine and just repainted the tiles and kitchen units myself. I left the garden for last and again tidied everything myself.

Well your not going to get far with 8k.

But it’s a good start and these things take time. So it should be ok. Just take your time.

First of all, a 2m by 2m kitchen is tiny! That’s more like the size of a garden shed. My DD bought a house with a kitchen of a similar size and ended up knocking through from the dining room into the kitchen and opening it all up. That cost her about 3K, plus the cost of the new kitchen, which was 10k including fitting.
We’ve recently had engineered wood floors fitted in 1 room which is 5m x 6m. It cost us 3k in total.
One thing to note, when people start renovating, they always find more things that need doing - new electrics, plumbing, damp proofing, windows. I would say, be prepared for a long wait to save up for all the jobs that will need doing.

Everything you're talking about changing is just the window dressing. You need to be very concerned about the bones of the house. Rewiring, boiler, plumbing issues, roof. It all adds up very, very quickly. You need a very thorough survey.

Fwiw rewire and a new boiler and radiators will come in at £10k. Rewire approx 4-5k, boiler £2,5k, radiators, system flush and labour the rest. And there's no point doing the fluffy stuff until this bit is done, it takes over a week and is MESSY you cannot live in the space while it's being done.

Flooring you're looking at about £700+ per room just for the flooring and underlay, excluding labour.

Roof - pick a number! A small porch cost me £600 recently.

Wallpaper stripping is fine, but have you factored in what it costs to repair what you find under the paper?

In that case perhaps you bedd to find people to quote. Do the floor surfaces under the carpet need work? A new kitchen might need replumbing and sockets moved etc, not just units, sink and tiles. Taps can be surprisingly expensive.

Have you lifted carpets to see what’s underneath? May be lucky and have boards that can just be sanded.

I think your costings look about right for what you've listed. But don't do any of that superficial work until you've checked if you need to replumb and rewire. Otherwise you'll end up ripping it out afterwards to do those.

And to add I would not be rewiring, replumbing or anything like that unless you have 50k minimum!

Because it’s not the cost of those things that are the issue. It’s that all your floors and walls are ripped to shreds in the process. That’s an unliveable house if you don’t have instant funds to put back in order and a full replaster. All new everything!

This is your first property. You want to polish the turd, contribute to the botches and move on.

The first house is fun. It’s not your forever home. You don’t need to worry about it all being perfect. You just get in, do what you can, enjoy and get out. 🤣😊

I disagree. If you get a good sparky in who makes the walls good you can learn how to skim the channels to a good enough standard to live with once decorated. If you've got no DIY skills then yes you'll be adding in a plasterer on top for another £5k.

Why though? OP either needs a rewire or not. If she does then I would want a lot more funds than 8k.

Im talking from experience recent here. We were in our first house for 4 years. We polished the turd, spent 6k on a new bathroom and made 60k. We could have rewired, had a not dissimilar property at the end and made zero if not a loss.

As long as ops house is not going to spontaneously ignite in the next half decade then I wouldn’t bother. Same with the plumbing!

Now we are 2 years into a 10 year home. That we have rewired, replumbed, replastered, the works. It’s not for the faint hearted. I would absolutely not suggest to a ftb to be doing that. At the five year mark we are likely at a loss on the property value. I am sure it will even out by 10 years and it’s my home so I don’t care but for a ftb it’s important to be smart. Get in, don’t be precious, get out.

No property 25 years old needs rewiring, maybe a new consumer unit but the wires will still be fine .

I'm also talking from experience and took it on as a ftb. My rewire was 5k and I taught myself to make good the walls before redecorating. For me the cost of a rewire was only for the electrician. I wouldn't want to take on a property needing a full rewire and replumb with only 8k in the budget either.

Looking at neighbouring properties that have recently sold, if I sold now I'd be making £20k, and that's after taking out the renovation costs. I won't be selling though as I've no need to.