Help please with ballpark figures for home renovation….

Hi – I am putting in an offer for a house, the seller is basing his price on how much the next door house sold for recently. However the next door was completely renovated to a very nice quality. I don’t have much experience with big renovations so could do with ballpark figures so I can base my offer on non-crazy pricing!

So here are the details, and what I have gleaned from experience and Google:

3mx3m kitchen – Shaker style, regular worktops – maybe around 12 units. Room needs gutting with extra electrics and plastering – £5k fitted?
Convert 4.5m square cellar – already has outside door, needs new staircase from floor above, floor lowering 0.5m, including additional toilet – £30k?
3m square conservatory, victorian style, no dwarf wall – £10k
2mx3m bathroom refit with 3 piece suite, not high end but nice quality with separate shower cubicle – £5k fitted
4 fireplaces fitted, change from 70’s gas fire to victorian cast iron ones, making 1 work (lounge) – £5k
Total around £55k. Is that crazy?

Thanks in advance!

I think your kitchen budget is a bit light. I just spent £10k doing ours and I took it back to brick and removed the ceiling myself, did some electrics myself and fitted the new kitchen after the plasterers had been in. It’s 5m x 3m. Depends how much you spend on units I guess though but ours weren’t particularly pricey.

No idea on the rest of your list.

Cellar conversion could eat money. Depending on the situation tanking etc, fitting a sump pump could be massively costly.

I’d agree that the kitchen costs are a bit tight, likewise but to a lesser extent the bathroom. You could spend £5k in the bathroom but I’d want a bit in reserve in case any electrics or plumbing needs sorting out or moving, also tiles can go from cheap to “how bloody much?” surprisingly quickly. A lot depends on how particular you are.

No experience of the other bits, but if I had to take a punt I’d be going in at his top price minus £60k. The only way I’d budge on that would be if i were prepared to get stuck in and do some of the work myself.

Thanks all.

Cellar is dry (probably helped as its half not a cellar if you know what I mean, like a lower ground floor) but tanking would be necessary I think.

If anyone else has any ideas please let me know!

Normally when I see these threads I think, if you double your original estimate you might be close. But those figures look pretty bang on to me.

Depends where abouts in the country you are?

If you are in Yorkshire, the costs are fine. If you are in London you can treble them.

I think your kitchen and conservatory prices are out by about 50% , others seem fine but I have no idea about the cellar one as I don’t quite know what you need to do.

No idea on where your costs are for your area, but don’t forget the cost of the money to do the house up.

Depending on where you fall in terms of LTV, it can work out more expensive to buy somewhere and do it up, because you drop into a lower LTV bracket and your mortgage interest goes up. That’s obviously going to be rectified when you re-mortgage and revalue the house, but it can make it painful short term.

How much off the asking price do you want?
Not being funny but if you’re looking for 25% or more off you’re probably not going to get it however you try to justify it.

I presume you’ll be doing all this via the approved planning methods? Not sure on fire regs re cellars but I’d suggest some kind of protected stair way may be required and wired smokes. Just something to think about. As for the costs re the cellar with modern tanking it’s generally a doddle but you’ve still got to get 10m3 plus of muck out of a room with no current access so labour could kill it.

Thought about taking a builder round with you?
Shows the seller your serious and might be worthwhile to give you a better ball park (you would obviously have to pay the builder)

I wouldn’t actually be converting the cellar myself, we don’t need the extra space. I’d be using it for a bike workshop and it’s fine as it is. The seller is basing his price on next door which has had it converted. I wouldn’t be putting a conservatory on either!!

We are only borrowing around £100k with around £60k deposit so LTV isn’t such a big issue really.

I’m in Yorkshire.

Fire’s might also be tight, if you decide to have more than one working – and not sure why you’d put a fire in that wasn’t for working…

And tbh, better to buy one that’s already been done – may cost more but it’ll be less risk.

Sounds like rather than cost the job your are trying to value the house and negotiate with the seller? Bear in mind the relationship between spend and return is not 1:1.

The only way to tell what they add is a professional valuation.

We have looked at a project on our place which would be very expensive, so we asked estate agents for a with/without valuation and they came back and said there’s no return, just do it because you want the space.

No idea on where your costs are for your area, but don’t forget the cost of the money to do the house up.

Depending on where you fall in terms of LTV, it can work out more expensive to buy somewhere and do it up, because you drop into a lower LTV bracket and your mortgage interest goes up. That’s obviously going to be rectified when you re-mortgage and revalue the house, but it can make it painful short term.

The other thing is that though at the end of the day you could end up with a (arbitrary figure) £350k house by buying a £300k house and spending £50k on it, or buy a £350k house, if you take option one (which is what we did) you have the be able to get the £50k yourself as cash i.e the bank wont lend you £350 to buy and do up….whereas if you’re buying at £350 they will lend it to you (well, they’ll mortgage you a %age of the £350k)

DrP

That’s basically a muddle way of saying “you’ll need to stump up more of your OWN cash if renovating, as opposed to borrowing from the bank”!

DrP

I reckon I’d budget £40k not including the cellar.

not high end but nice quality

My missus uses this phrase regularly , it always cost more!
Round our way , everyone seems to be removing redundant chimney breasts.
Builder who has helped me out couldn’t understand why we would leave them in.
He obviously doesn’t come on here! 🙂

Agree with most above – 8 years ago our nice quality kitchen & bathroom which are similar size to your came to around (we did have to re-wire the house too) £15K

So I’d reckon you’re at least 30% out

Well we have bought the house, SSTC anyway. Yay!

Budget is £5k for the kitchen, but it isn’t big and I’m installing it myself. I used to work in DIY trade so I know I can do it for that, no granite or solid oak but it’ll look nice!

We did get a bit of money off the house, not as much as I wanted but I had to give it a go!