Realistic Refurbishment Costs?

[South2North18]

Hi All,

Just wanted to know your thoughts on whethere £18k is a reasonable sum for the below works? The other quotes are £28k and £30k.

Works will involve ground floor tile all rooms, fit flooring to 1st floor all the bedrooms, plaster all ceilings over artex downstairs and upstairs, move sockets and new lights, new internal doorway. In 3 bathrooms there will be floor/wall tiling as well as changing toilets and changing a bath to a shower.

We are paying £13.5k for a new kitchen and worktops but not the fitting itself. This would take us to £31.5k including the above listed works. Hoping to keep this under £40k but nervous as we have never undertaken such a project before. We will have to buy lighting, tiles, flooring and bathroom sanitary ware/fittings on top as well but will be deocrating ourselves. Do you think this is achievable?

If anybody has chosen luxury vinyl flooring, any feedback or view would be much appreciated. We were set on tiles but now this is growing on us but have always associated vinyl with low quality.

Thanks in advance for your input.

@South2North18 did you go ahead with quality vinyl? I’m thinking about it for my bedroom. I don’t want a hard/loud floor and I don’t want carpet.

Forgot about this post. We ended up with LVT upstairs and downstairs. If you get it downstairs, consider getting underfloor heating as it can be cold if you are bare foot. If you get it upstairs, it will be noisy. They will screw down plywood first on top of your floorboards to ensure it is all level and then lay down LVT on top. We didnt want carpet either upstairs but can hear every step from downstairs. Hope this helps.

It cements my preference to avoid LVT or laminate!
We have ceramic tile in most of downstairs and are very happy with it. We need the lounge doing, but will probably stick with ceramic.

Bedrooms, the noise and the warmth are an issue. Old fashioned vinyl roll may be the way to go, if I can get it big enough for the room.

I’ve always loved cork, but it’s very expensive these days. It’s warm, soft and quiet though so probably my preferred option.

Carpet was our preference for upstairs but we were concerned about kids spilling things and making a mess and if being hard to clean on carpet, hence why we went for LVT instead. It looks nice but its noisy. Downstairs it was tiles or LVT, went with LVT as never tried it before and it is not an issue downstairs other than a hazard for kids as it is laid on a concrete floor but tiles would pose a similar issue.

Im pretty sure vinyl can be joined if you need more than one roll. Laminate we avoided because it warps if it gets wet when mopping etc. Would never get laminate as far as i can help it.

Our internal refurb is now done. We learnt a lot and made some mistakes too. Garden revamp is this years project.
Happy to share anything which may be useful to you or anyone else.

You’re braver than me! I’ve just had work done on the kitchen and feel like never doing anything again! It’s so stressful!

I’m glad you’re pleased with your downstairs floors, anyway.