Doer-Upper Budget

[PocketDinosaur]

Considering making an offer on a do-er upper, 3 bed Victorian terrace in South London.

I am very risk averse but we are priced out of being able to buy a turnkey property where we currently live and want to buy.

The house is probate so has been neglected. It needs a full rewire, boiler replacement and new radiators. Windows are original sash with secondary glazing put in. The kitchen needs ripped out and started again. The layout and size of it are good- it's big but ideally needs the wall knocked down between wc and bathroom and wall between kitchen and dining room (unsure if these are load bearing or need a small rsj).

The roof is old and there is water damage on the first floor ceilings and in the front bay (wallpaper peeling off and ceiling very stained). We've asked the estate agent for information about what caused it and if it's been rectified.

Neither DH or I are against something that needs work- it's what we'd prefer to turnkey but this is at the worse end of doer upper that we'd be willing to take on and I'm not sure if we can afford it.

We're very fortunate that we can stay with relatives whilst we have work done and I'm trying to make a reno list and budget- is this horribly naive in terms of immediate work and price?

Roof (and sorting out cause of water damage) 20k
Rewire 8k
Bathroom 10k
Kitchen 20k
Replastering 6k

Are these estimates unrealistic? (Expecting a resounding yes but forever hopeful)

Curious how much did you pay for different trades?

No not being naive at all.

Your list covers the big obvious items and that’s half the battle. Where people usually get caught out isn’t missing whole trades, it’s that a few of the numbers are a bit optimistic once you’re dealing with an older Victorian that’s been neglected.

Roof at £20k could be doable, but it’s very much the lower end if it’s a full strip and re-tile. If there’s timber issues, chimney flashing, or the bay roof needs attention, it can creep up quickly. Until you know what caused the water damage and whether it’s been properly sorted, I’d personally be braced for more than £20k rather than less.

£8k for a rewire can work, but that’s assuming it’s fairly straightforward. Older houses often need more chasing and making good than you expect, so I’d have a bit of wiggle room there.

Bathroom at £10k feels reasonable if you keep it fairly standard and don’t start moving soil stacks around. Knocking the WC and bathroom together is common, but if anything structural is needed it can add a bit.

Kitchen at £20k is achievable, but it’s tight in London once you factor in fitting, electrics, plumbing and finishes. Any structural knock-through will push it up.

Plastering at £6k feels light if the house is being fully rewired and there’s water damage. That’s one area that tends to grow as work starts.

The other thing to bear in mind is all the smaller stuff that adds up - engineer, building control, steel if walls are load bearing, decorating, floors, and just general - we didn’t expect that.

Very rough gut feel, your £70k isn’t miles off in thinking, but I’d want to be comfortable closer to £85–100k so you’re not stressed if things crop up.

If you can get clarity on the roof and water ingress before committing, that would be a big one.

That's about what we spent on this house, 20 years ago.

Obviously it depends what sort of quality you're going for and how big the kitchen etc is.

Nothing for heating or windows?

Maybe they see me coming, but when I see Homes Under the Hammer and they talk about a whole refurb for £10k.....

If there's water damage you need a full structural survey with specialist input re timbers/rot.

If timbers are fine double it. If you need a new roof it makes sense to convert the loft at the same time.

It sounds over ambitious if you have never done it before. Why not consider a smaller flat that needs work? Or shift to zone 4/5 - Whyteleaf, Epsom, Sutton?

There will be expenditure on things you don’t even know are an issue yet! Believe me! Once you go digging there’ll be more found that needs to be done!

if you’re priced out of a better house you’re priced out of the work. For all new bathrooms and kitchen, SOME re wire and SOME plumbing plus a tear down and re-do of a small (30sqm) one story bit (decayed timber) and new windows we’ve been quoted £200k.

Breakdown was:
Windows alone 20-30k.
Kitchen 14k + the actual kitchen
bathrooms 10k for basic redo
Re plaster - 10k+ (just painting was £1k per room).
New front door 5k+

You mentioned the bay having water damage but haven't budgeted anything for repairs. That could be £1000 or £15,000 depending on whether it's surface damage or something structural like the bay coming away from the front wall.

You also mentioned radiators and possible steels but don't budget for them.

You really need a decent list of issues and a priorty order, before addressing costs.

@PocketDinosaur The roof repair cost is just a wild guess, if you don't know what's wrong with it. Also, in my experience (city in the southeast) roofer prices can vary wildly. I had a couple of smallish leaks and had two quotes for around £5K incl full house scaffolding. Third quote was £900 and he worked just with a scaffold platform on top of the rear extension flat roof. Took him a day and a half. In other words, he was honest and not just pricing as high as he thought he could get away with.

Edited to add: a neighbour had similar leaky roof, just on a first floor bathroom extension, not the main roof. No scaffold. She stupidly paid over £10K.

@january1244 "Have you had an electrician to inspect the electrics? In both renovations we have done, the electrical units needed replacing, but the actual wiring was fine and had been done in the 80s /90s. We still had to spend several thousand adding lights, sockets etc,"

Agree, the house won't necessarily need re-wiring. I've just bought a do-er upper needing a ton of work and assumed a re-wire but the surveyor said it looked fine. But yes, will need a few more sockets, and fittings replaced and a new consumer unit.

Too much missing information to realistically respond to your figures. I do however think you are very very low. There are lot's of other big expenses not covered in your list too. If you are concerned at this point about affordability then I think it's not the property for you.
On the other hand, it could be it needs a good clean and tidy and a lot of the tasks can be repair rather than replace, at least for 5 years to allow time on the really important parts.
Roof - may just need repairing but the big expense is the scaffolding if required.

We had some wild quotes like this also, there was £100k between our most expensive quote and cheapest for the refurb part. Are your windows wood or sash? We are doing ours now (big bay windows) for under £2k per bay. But we had quotes of up to £9k per bay.

Painting of a wooden kitchen plus kitchen walls, dining walls, lounge walls and snug walls was £2.5k. Kitchen was £3.5 k to fit last year (large kitchen).

Just mentioning, in case you’ve time to source more quotes- we found local builders were cheaper. The bigger ones we contacted in London (build and manage) were extortionate. We did an extension also and everyone the architect recommended was way more than double what we went with