It's another...how much will it cost

[movingmovinghouse]

I know these questions can never be answered categorically but asking to give myself some perspective!

We are in process of selling/buying with offers accepted just waiting for chain to complete- fingers crossed.

The house we are buying we want to do work straight away. This work would be- knock through kitchen diner (load bearing wall), replace flooring from hall to kitchen diner (laminate) new kitchen, new boiler, bifolds (bricking up old back door and replacing patio doors).
I know that kitchen finish and appliances vary so much. For reference we would be likely looking at mid range- I guess depends honestly how much the work costs.

What is a rough estimate for the buildings work and installation from recent experience please? Budget is strict as upsizing...

50k

We've recently knocked through from the kitchen to the utility (load bearing wall) and built a small extension to square the room off.

We had underfloor heating installed in the new room and down the hallway, and had porcelain tiles laid.

Then had a large kitchen installed with an island.

The building work was meant to take 6-8 weeks. It took six months. It was quoted as £60,000 but has cost nearer to £85,000, not including the heating, floor tiles or the kitchen.

The kitchen is from DIY-Kitchens (cannot praise them highly enough), and including 8 AEG appliances, cost £16,500. Fitting was £2,500 and the Quartz worktops were a further £3,500.

I would say, whatever you think your costs are going to be, allow at least another 50%.

With all the upheaval and stress of the work, despite having a lovely kitchen now, I can honestly say I wish we'd never undertaken it. It would have been cheaper and easier to just move house.

I'd estimate around £40K

I would guess 50-100K depending on where you are in the country, difficulty etc.

These days I think it is difficult to make your money back on modifications, and a major element of this would be altering the room format but not actually adding any square footage or extra living space.so you are incurring a lot of cost but not adding in objective extra value.

I think these days it is cheaper, a lot less risky and a lot less hassle/inconvenient to buy the house you want rather than one that needs extensive modifications.

£75k-100k

I had feared we were being optimistic with hoping for the £40k mark! Aware that cost of supplies have increased so much!

Interesting point about changing without increasing square footage and this wouldn't be increasing the value of the property.

The house we are buying we hope to be our forever home, we got at a good price as it does require modernisation.

I was leaning towards not opening up the space but husband thinks if we don't we will regret it.

We couldn't afford for cost to spiral 2 fold so I think we need to be realistic!

Going against the grain, I think 40k would do it, provided you don’t go for a really expensive kitchen and don’t need extensive rewiring/plumbing. You’re realistically talking about a 2-3 weeks’ work for 2 workmen. I find on here people quote massive prices but they don’t always reflect my experience in the real world.

Also bear in mind that the cost of work varies wildly depending on the spec and any little additions, eg underfloor heating, fancy worktops etc

£40k seems very low if I'm honest but it to a large extent depends on the size of the finished space you are trying to do? A 3m run of kitchen cabinets top and bottom with granite worktops is going to be distinctly different to 6m with Miele appliances.

I think there's a standard calc these days oft trotted out on Grand Designs about the average cost per sq metre. Do you know the size of the space you are trying to redo?

Worth having a look at other threads. There was a lengthy discussion last week on the cost of bifold, versus French doors in various materials. That might be food for thought.
Steels [whacking cost per m] is also easy to benchmark.
Kitchens - a quick calc on an online kitchen design platform or a visit to Howdens or similar will give you an idea of whether you're looking at £3k or £15k
So if you can work out what the big ticket items will cost you, MN might be able to give you a ratio as to the average additional cost in materials and labour?

Around £50k with a mid range kitchen

Please share the details of your builder 😂

Anywhere between 70-100k for everything, depending on labour costs

"Going against the grain, I think 40k would do it, provided you don’t go for a really expensive kitchen and don’t need extensive rewiring/plumbing. You’re realistically talking about a 2-3 weeks’ work for 2 workmen. I find on here people quote massive prices but they don’t always reflect my experience in the real world."

Agreed. Where I live 40k would be doable and I'm with your DH. Do it now or you'll regret it

I would have thought this. Genuinely cannot believe you'd be able to get all that done for anywhere near 40k

We've just had work done similar to what you describe but with a higher end kitchen.

It came in at 85k

"You’re realistically talking about a 2-3 weeks’ work for 2 workmen"

On what planet???

I believe it will cost you £50k+. We are looking to do the same; my figures are coming in at 56k. Not all have been quoted for mind I now already know the landscaping at my estimate of 10k will possibly come in double that following what I have since seen on what others have paid for. We aren't extending but we are moving the kitchen to another part of the bungalow so a few metres of new drains will be required. I had a chat with my electrician and he agreed with me that on average , each new electrical point - light, plug socket, etc works out at about £75 to £100 per point. Don't forget BR drawings/calcs and having it inspected for removing the structural wall.

We will install complete the decorating ourselves. We will also complete the skirting and architrave ourselves.

We wanted to extend but that was going to be £100k+ for not much more space.

We are in the SE.

We have just done very similar. Including flooring and decorating it has cost just under £60k with a Howdens mid-range kitchen. I didn’t have bifolds or new boiler but did have a cloakroom created under the stairs. Also had the floors insulated and kitchen taken back to brick, replastered etc. The building work was about £40k, kitchen £10k and then flooring, blinds, decorating etc.

We did exactly this for £30k in 2019 using an independent builder (not VAT registered) separate trades. We live in a very expensive place in the South East. We paid for building inspector - essential for resale but also peace of mind. Did painting ourselves.

I used a designer- Karen from OnePlan to design it all - she cost £700 and was best money we spent as the detailed plans were used by all trades, had some bespoke carpentry and rewiring in our plans. Used DIY kitchens for units and laminate from IKea. New flooring tiles from Mandarin Stone and lights from Tom Dixon. Just to give you an idea of finishing.

We built a new wall and hallway too. But no extension- just a reconfiguration of the existing floor space. 3 bed bog standard semi.

It’s all about being clever with your cash and asking people to quote for each bit. I only asked builder to knock down/ create walls. Then got electrician in. The I got my own plasterer to do the second fix. Then painted it myself.

Basically this is how you get a good finish for less - break it down and project manage yourself. The builders were only here for 3 days cause reconfig is usually pretty simple. It’s the project management of other trades that costs time and money!

We've done similar as part of a much bigger project. I think your list, minus the bifolds (we didn't do those) would be about £40k.

A lot would depend on how much you're going to spend on each bit. One person's mid-range isn't
the same as another's! Laminate flooring is fairly cheap, depending on quality. We went for mid-range LVT which was a bit more expensive. Mid-range Howdens kitchen was £6k plus installation. That's for units, laminate worktops, sink, tap, upstands. Utility was £2k. Kitchen costs very much depend on what you choose. Straight runs of units aren't that expensive. As soon as you go into corner units or "storage solutions" the cost mounts up. Things like number of sockets or expensive light fittings soon add up too. We used existing appliances so only needed to buy a kitchen extractor unit. Including appliances would add up again.

Oh and by the way I knew nothing about building work! I learnt it all mainly on the mumsnet property board and Karen from OnePlan (who came highly recommended on mumsnet for reconfiguration and kitchen planning).

I would be amazed if 40k covered it but we are London.
70k give or take 20k…mostly give 😵‍💫

70-90k end cost would be my guess

Oh and we had underfloor heating (top one) new window and French doors (not bi fold)

you could get it done between £30-40. Depending on how much you are willing to do/ mange trades yourself…… but it all depends on the finish and kitchen you want ?

i dont see how people can give any accurate price for something like this because prices change all the time …..builders know this so usually put a lower price in to get the work and make it look more attractive….then once started the price starts to rise….( in most cases)

the bigger the job the more it’s likely to out.

We've done similar earlier this year in the North (plus garage conversion and other bits like new double glazed windows so I will try to give you an estimate just for the specific work you have asked for)

For everything you are doing we spent around £45k. We didn't have bifolds but did have a window converted into a upvc patio door. I expect bi folds would a couple of.thousand more.

We were very careful, negotiated a lot and went for low-mid range finishes e.g. laminate kitchen worktops, LVT flooring but not Amtico brand, DIY Kitchens mid range units. I think you will struggle to do it for £40k but it's doable within £50k if you are careful. A few cost breakdowns that I remember, the majority of the cost is the labour, plastering, joinery like new skirting and door architraves, skips, removal of old kitchen, it's a lot of seemingly small jobs but the costs really add up:

Boiler £4200 (needed a big one as we may add another bathroom in future)
New radiators x 3 £800 (splurged on tall designer ones)
Tiles £550 (another area we went for a better quality finish
LVT 30sqm £2500
Patio door £1200
Worktops £700
15 units plus necessary panels and trims from DIY Kitchens Stanbury range £4600
Decorating £650
Building regs £200
Structural engineer £435
Electrical work about £2.5k but included new fuse box and other work around the house
Light fittings £100
Hob £350
Oven £400
Sink £150
Tap £120
Fridge £430
Dishwasher £350
New internal half glazed room divider (where an arch was previously into the lounge) £700
Three interior single half glazed doors £450
Door handles £30 each
Blind and curtains £70

We kept all our old furniture, kettle and toaster, freezer.