My girlfriend and I will be looking at buying a house in a few months.

The "whys" and "wherefores" of this to one side for a moment, if a 3 bed semi needed completely redecorating (ie new carpets, stripping and painting all walls), how much roughly ought this cost?

I'm assuming that we'd need carpets, underlay plus fitting, paint and brushes but we'd do the work ourselves.

Thanks!

Budget 3k for decent carpets, 1500 for nasty ones.
Just decorating alone, diy materials and paints etc, looking around £200. Getting someone it could add 500-1000 on top.
Also depends on the condition of the walls, could need skimming if they're papered and bad underneath. That would be around 6-800 too

How long is your piece of string?

We bought a house. Well shell. It had bare plaster walls throughout and no floor coverings (had been empty 50 years and half modernised by a speculator who subsequently needed the cash).

Ours is a two/three (if you include the loft room) bed end terrace. I estimate that we spent £5k on paint, carpets etc. We spent a great deal more on other stuff too though.

But whatever you do, prepare for some additional costs along the way – you are bound to uncover some surprises as you go.

Cheers fellas.

Bikemonkey, i'm in manchester if you find you need any work doing, will happily take a look for you. I cover pretty much everything.
I can also point you in the right direction for any gear you might need, the diy stuff is rubbish, trade quality is no dearer if you know where to go.
My father in law is a carpet fitter too, done it for 30 odd years and really knows his onions.

mastiles_fanylion – Member

How long is your piece of string?

We bought a house. Well shell. It had bare plaster walls throughout and no floor coverings (had been empty 50 years and half modernised by a speculator who subsequently needed the cash).

Ours is a two/three (if you include the loft room) bed end terrace. I estimate that we spent £5k on paint, carpets etc. We spent a great deal more on other stuff too though.

But whatever you do, prepare for some additional costs along the way – you are bound to uncover some surprises as you go.

As MF & TFM said, you won't know how bad the walls are until you strip it back, then when you have, you might find you want to put new sockets and switches in to finish it off, it all adds up.

One room at a time and do it to a high standard, otherwise you will end up with 2-3 roomes half finished and rush them, like I did 😉

even if you're doing it yourself you need to budget higher for paint. I'm off today doing my daughters room (currently literally watching paint dry between coats). It's 3.5m x 2.5m, going to take only 2 coats of paint and the paint plus sundries for that cost nigh on £50. If you're doing a 3 bed semi with a large lounge / diner (or 2 separate ones) kitchen and bathroom, I'd reckon on more like £400.

As above, do it a room at a time and do it well; if the decor is so bad you have to do something all at once try and marry rooms up, the bigger pots of paint are far better value and while off white all through the downstairs might not be exactly what you'd planned it buys breathing space if nothing else.

also worth considering other things that fall on the border of 'decorating'

for instance

plastering £2-500 per room
coving – diy = £50 per room
skirting – diy = £20 per room. pain in the arse if the walls aren't true (they won't be)
doors – £100 each for anything quarter-decent.
door frames – the twirly bits round the edge – £20 per door
handles – £20 per door
plug sockets – £100
lights – anything. Replacement basic fittings – £100. changing lights to downlighters (if you needed a sparkie) – £500 per room
kitchen – £5k
bathroom – £2k

I've had to do all them on my place, not the whole way through

£500 per room for halogens and plastering! Are you mad!?
Wish I was getting that, more like 150 per average room for plastering and same for lights

I assume the £500 includes additional electrical gubbins to bring the work up to code?