Realistic costs for a full renovation in the SE

[vanillafudgecake]

We are purchasing a 2,000 sq ft detached house built in the 1920s.

Ideally want to add around 500 sq ft, if not more, with a double side extension and single rear extension. Full redesign both inside and outside (roof, windows, guttering etc) and not to mention updating electrics, boiler, plumbing and any unforeseen hidden issues.

Are the costs going to be ridiculous!?

This petty much echo's what we would like to do.

Can I ask, did the budget get eaten up having builders/architect/contract manager run the show so to speak?

From research I'm seeing their fees can be anywhere between 10-30% of the project cost but I'm guessing totally worth it for their knowledge, contacts and to remove all the stress.

This is my worry.

I'm hoping their will be some good solutions around overall design, materials we choose etc which can save on costs and still achieve the same result.

Absolutely no way will 200k do it. Double that.

That surprises me. I remember friends having a double extension done about 15 years ago and it was 150k. It seemed a lot at the time but it was the going rate.

Around our area of SE it would be more like 250-300k for a full reno with extension.

Not really down to PM/architect costs as luckily for us, our architect is our best mate, so he did it for a nominal fee and my DH is an engineer so one of his staff did our structural calcs, again for a fee, but not full cost. It's just the cost of everything has gone up so much. Our neighbours had a similar extension to ours put on pre Covid, probably about 10 years ago, and it cost literally about a third of what we paid. I think our kitchen alone cost what their actual full extension and handmade kitchen cost! Which makes me feel slightly ill if I really think about it, but we shopped around and just everything is ridiculous.

@vanillafudgecake feel free to pm me if helpful and I can give you more details. We've been planning this for 5 years and costs are not improving. Forewarned is forearmed etc.

Does anyone think the costs will ever come back down again for extensions, renovations?

my figure does not include a full reno.

According to all the builders we've spoken to recently, no. Brexit and Covid stuffed everything up, their raw material costs just aren't coming down. We had 6 quotes for our works and three of them were almost exactly the same (2 slightly higher, one lower) and you could see from the detail how consistent the materials costing was across them all. It just costs so much to buy building materials now. We've been hedging our bets for a few years but have decided to get on with it, it's only getting more expensive the longer we wait.

We have a similar sized 1920s house and have almost completed a full renovation and a single storey extension. We are at about £220k and still have to replace a bathroom, replace two bay windows and a couple of normal ones and the back landscaping. Our garden was absolutely destroyed after the builders. We project managed it ourselves, sourced materials ourselves, but used a building company for the main works on the extension (ground work, steels, roof etc).

Nope I’m in the building industry materials and labour costs are only going one way and it isn’t down.

Yep agree. We got a number of quotes and the builder we went with was in the middle.
Other problem we had was actually getting builders to turn up and then commit to quoting. That might just be an 'us' issue though!

What are peoples experiences with removing load baring walls? and does anyone have experience in removing a wall that supports a chimney stack (ie adding in gallows etc) - are the fees just astronomical?

I have just spent 300000 in London on loft extension, single storey extension out the back, full remodelling and rewiring, new kitchen and bathrooms, new doors and windows throughout, new carpets, all new appliances etc.

That's the final price that includes everything like eg garden landscaping, party wall agreement costs etc.

We’re doing our loft and renovating the first floor atm (new windows etc) and new boiler in London and it’s costing £250k without touching the downstairs/no side return/no new kitchen. You will need £400k minimum for what you’re planning and the sky is the limit really. £500k sounds like a good budget to do what you want to a good but not luxury standard.

That is a very good price.

Which part of London are you and would you recommend your builder 😂

Near Wimbledon and happy to recommend them if that area is where you are looking. They have been exceptional.

I need these friends!

I'm really dreading the costs, just hoping we have some change to do a decent interior finish.

Sadly I don't think we have the knowledge levels or patience to project manage so I know we will have to use a good chunk of the budget having someone do this for us.

Probably worth it though as we'd most like have to pay more for mistakes made which would equal the difference between having someone or not.

Thank you, this gives me some hope.

It's going to depend on many factors but I feel like we have a decent budget so I'm hoping it's realistic for what we would like to achieve.

I think some of these estimates are very low. We've already spent £80k doing a cosmetic only reno (all floors, 2 bathrooms, full decoration, front garden design, some plumbing work and a new hot water cylinder) and we haven't touched the kitchen yet! Zero structural work.

You probably need £500k available including the contingency fund.

This is what I would do. It's what we tried to do! But then had to move very quickly and ended up taking on work....

If you do go ahead I would love to see before and after photos please. Just ignore me if you think I’m cheeky.

In the SE and a friend of a friend is building a 4000 sq ft house over three floors. Sloping site so basement/ground level huge kitchen family diner, ground/first floor living room, massive balcony, office, kids playroom, then top floor 5 bedrooms, one of which has its own sitting room/bathroom. They also have a lift as partner is disabled so the bedroom which is more of a suite is for a live in career. They set a budget of £500k and have been quoted 1M. I expect there will be compromises! They are also keen environmentalists with science background and using every new building technique for energy efficiency it will have solar panels, ground source heating, be passive, special insulation and windows and one log burner which will apparently heat the thing. (Learned through gossiping with an architect)

How do they magic up an extra £500k?!

I can’t understand how rich some people must be where hundreds of thousands of pounds overspend is just absorbed?