Is there a formula for working out how much you should spend on a renovation?

[ninedragons]

I am just wondering how much you should budget for a primarily cosmetic renovation. We have a solid but rather blah flat in a really lovely location so I want to do some work to it (replace 80s kitchen and bathroom, turn laundry into en suite bathroom, bring the gas line that runs into the building up to the flat). But it's a 70s brick flat so obviously I don't want to wire in a Bang and Olufsen sound system or put in Baccarat chandeliers willy-nilly.

The builder has estimated about 7% of the cost price, but that seems to be using fairly basic materials. I have just stayed in a serviced apartment where the owners had done every single element of the renovation with the very cheapest materials they could find, and it was obvious. I am torn between wanting to do it well and not wanting to overcapitalise.

The local market is completely stagnant and we'll probably live in it for about three to five years, if that makes any difference.

Kirsty? Are you out there?

Shameless bump

If you don't know, please just go ahead and give me permission to buy the staggeringly expensive wallpaper I am in love with if I economise slightly on everything else....

Ooooh, it's fabulous but in a 1970s flat?

It depends what you want to use flat for. If it's you, do what you want and pay the earth if you love it, if it's rental, be more hard-headed. You may have thought the serviced apartment was tacky but you - or your company - still shelled out to stay there.

Personally, I don't think you have to buy really costly materials to get a good, upmarket look but it does take a bit of imagination and a few expensive touches - cheap taps and sanitary ware really let a place down. In the end it's really about the quality of finish so get a fantastically painstaking decorator and, providing you've not chosen colours/fabrics too badly, you're pretty much there.

I think 7% sounds about right doing some mental calcs on various places I have owned for cosmetics.

Just reread that it will be your home. You can source your own materials and just pay for labour, bringing gas in definitely good idea but will add to costs since, I assume you will put in GCH once it is there which means new boiler and heating system.

When I'm renovating I spend time sourcing stuff that is cheaper but gives the same effect IYSWIM...

eg we have nice stylish bathrooms but the suites are all cheapish (I've used Ideal standard Studio, Space and one other that I forget the name of) then tiled in basic bumpy white 8" tiles (shop around and you get them for about £6/m2) and expensive green glass tiles in a border (not many required). All taps are from France where they are 1/2 price (although be careful as this only works if you have more than 2 bar water pressure!)

Kitchen is a Magnet Trade kitchen - solid wood which looks good and was cheap.

Stay well away from bathroom and kitchen showrooms except for the design (our kitchen design was by moben, they wanted to charge £14k - we did it for £5k by getting cheap granite tops from the internet, magnet trade kitchen and a local fitter etc etc)

spend money on nice touches - maybe just do one feature wall in the expensive paper?? then paint the rest...

You don't need to spend a lot to get a good look but you do need to find someone that will fit those fittings for you well. Get lots of quotes from lots of people and check their reputation either through references or with your local trading standards office.

As the above poster says, you an get a cheap kitchen or bathroom but make your extras like taps etc a bit more expensive. You can also add loads with good flooring and accessories.

Agreed, do a feature wall in the paper you like and paint the rest.

Thanks very much for the replies. Is GCH gas heating?

The flat itself is fine; it's really the location that makes it something special (waterfront with an unobstructed view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge). I suppose I am thinking about whether it would be just as silly to undercapitalise as to overcapitalise. If the flat were in a different suburb I wouldn't be dreaming of wood floors and hand-painted wallpaper.

You are right, I did shell out for the serviced apartment, but I wouldn't book that particular one again and I certainly wouldn't buy it if it were for sale. This particular apartment just made me start thinking about where the tipping point from cheap into nasty lies.

Excellent tips about taps and feature walls - can't believe that a feature wall hadn't occurred to me!

thanks again, some very good food for thought here.

My tip. Work out the maximum you can afford and plan accordingly. Renovations can easily rise in cost rapidly if you don't very carefully manage it on a day by day basis. Get yourself a spreadsheet going. Hunt around for bargains. Don't overspend but modernise to suit. Kitchen, bathroom etc. Hardwood floors maybe. Sounds like fun.

IN my experience, pick a random number, double it, then add VAT!!

surely it's a function of current value of you flat versus maximum potential value of a flat of that size in tat location? Estate agents should be able to help

Ordinarily that would be the case, but it's tricky because it's the only block of flats squeezed in amongst the huge old houses that occupy the rest of the suburb, and the flats very rarely come up for sale. Ours is the only one that's been sold in the past three or four years so it's hard to get an idea of what a renovated one would go for.

thanks for the input, everyone.