Rennovating an entire house.

Lets say you have a shell of a house. It’s solid and in good condition, it has full double glazing but the inside is pretty much empty.

It needs a new central heating system throughout, all the fittings, obviously decorating and carpets, new kitchen, new bathroom. Possibly re-wiring.

3 Bedroomed cottage, quite big. Just as a very rough guide, how much to fit it all out, taking into account I am completely happy doing all the hard graft? Obviously very difficult to answer but 20 grand? 40 grand? 60 grand?

impossible to answer, but a friend spent £35k just on a kitchen…

We’ve budgeted £45k for rebuilding and full fit out for a 1-bed/lounge/dining/bathroom/utility (20m * 4m interal size) stone/slate annex.

We spent £25k – it was empty for 50 years but had been half renovated (rewired, double glazed, plastered etc. We fitted kitchen, carpeted, painted, bought cooker etc, log stove. This was 9 years ago.

But from your OP – I guesstimate £40k

60k + depends where you live and spec of the refurb

Not 60 but definitely more than 20!

As above it’ll all depend on the spec, how much you do yourself and whether you get a good deal on the trades. 20k will be fine for a buy-to-let/ikea finish, 60k will get you something nice, but not bling. Watch a few episodes of ‘homes under the hammer’

Ta,

It’s this one by the way.
http://www.millermetcalfe.co.uk/property-residential.php?p=2662943

I did total up what I’d spent over the years doing up my ex-student house and it was over £70k! I was keeping a complete tally for each room down o tins of paint, it added up to way more than I’d have guessed. Bit ticket items were new roof, kitchen (inc small extension), double glazing, fencing three side of 50 garden, removing internal walls, new bathroom etc etc.

Semi rural village of Lowton

WHAT 😯

It’s can be a question of what you discover when you start. Friend started out with a similar proposition to yours, decided to strip back the plaster and re-do it to freshen the place up a bit. A month later he had no plaster, no plumbing, no lx, no floors, no windows, no doors, no roof, not no slates- completely no roof.
And some long years in a caravan. Turned out nice though.

I was going to say £40K, but then I saw the pics. I think if you do a lot of it yourself, you might do it for £40K, but it’ll take forever. Best of luck.

Or what you make sure you’re buying before you commit..

My friend is doing this at the moment in a 3 bedroom semi detached place and his budget is about 30k by the time it’s all in.

For a detached place, higher spec finish and paying people to do more of the work then expect 40k.

But don’t forget to consider what next door in good nick would go for – don’t spend £40k if it will only sell for another £20k the day after you finish works.

Way under 20 if you can find good contacts and can do the work yourself, or even barter your trade.
Mine.
Strip out and rewire about £600 upgraded some lighting later.
Full new double glazing including front door, 2 x patio/balcony door, 5 x large windows was about £2,800
Re plastered throughout £400, plasterer just came by when free or after work.
Central heating was free, bartered my work for his.
Kitchen inc appliances was about £900 ex display plus new additions.
New steel garage door and frame £500 fitted
New doors throughout, skirting, painting, floors wood and carpet, wired alarm all DIY
Bathroom suite £200 cancelled order.
Garden done as and when, new lawns, fencing, patio.
New facias and sofits £1,600 a lot as house sits sideways.
Custom made wrought iron balconey £300

Still needs 4 car driveway.
Re decorating, just paint
Soakaway

Do u want a 8k howdens kitchen or a 30k bespoke? A full rewire by a pro 2k or a 800quid cash house basher, plastic plumbing or copper? Decorated with 60quid per roll paper or 6quid,

I did my whole house (3bed semi but 3 double beds) for 19k, im a tradesman, the father in law a sparky, me bro a gas/plumber and my uncle a joiner, all the rest was done by myself (decorator/multi trade) i used all my favours and when i did my kitchen i worked for a huge firm which got 70% off howdens kitchens, the paint i allready had as my stock, and all items/materials were all trade price with no labour fees,

Average joe would have spent triple easily what i spent, no social life and all my holidays plus unpaid leave for a month, 18hour days and strain on the wife.

My best advice (i also do this as a living) is to do the wiring/plumbing get the mess out of the way 1st fux etc, then center on kitchen, bathroom, and a clean room ie bedroom, u need a place to relax after grafting all day (if your living in build) and materials allways end up in living room which i completed last (other than gardens) its a mammouth task even when i know that im not getting ripped off and project running, let alone making sure the builders are doing a good job making brews (important) and then liasing with project manager, iv noe done this 4 times on my own homes/flats and approx 28 as jobs, father in law used to be a project manager for schools/leisure builds so he knew the crack, he went back on the tools due to stress.

Do in stages the slightest thing can put things back massively, ie on a flat i did i overlooked the fact floors and ceilings were concrete (doh!!) Just took for granted needless to say the electricians price doubled and i was known as “bell end” fir the next 2 weeks.

As above, depends on spec and level of finish you want..
Interior walls look ok- maybe just windows and decoration once the wiring and plumbing has been done?
Are you looking to change the layout? Cos that’s when it’ll prob get expensive.
I bought a 100 year old tenement flat- still had the coal bunker in the kitchen!
Reasonable handy so rewired it myself but got a spark I knew in to test it all, fit a new consumer unit and tie it in to the mains, fitted a new wickes kitchen which I got a good discount on, and ended up patching or plasterboarding and finishing a lot of the walls/ceilings where the lathe and plaster was too far gone.. Got a plumber mate in to fit a boiler and central heating.. Then flooring and redecoration.
Took months of living, eating, and sleeping in the living room but got it done for about £8k. Still own the flat and rent it out now so can’t have been too badly done.
It was a major pita though, and I did take a lot of time reading up on things, taking advice where I could and getting folk in to help when I wasn’t sure I could do a job myself.

From past experience of doing up cottages/houses for a mates company i’d say under 20k if you do all the work yourself and it is held to a budget rather than what you or the missus would prefer to do, it’s no hassle to do the plumbing yourself using pushfit stuff these days and just get the trades in to do the actual work that needs signed off such as combi/consumer unit etc, obviously this only applies if you consider yourself competent to do the fitting out and you have the time and skills necessary, if it takes a qualified tradesman one day to do job X then i used to figure on two days for myself to do it as the tradesman has obviously done it many times before and knows all the tips/tricks of the trade so to speak, i’m perfectly happy doing plumbing/electrical wiring/kitchens/floors/joists/brickwork/dampproofing/lintels/joinery etc so i can’t speak for yourself but these refits can be done on the cheap (but not nasty) if you are willing to do the vast majority of the work yourself.

If you do the vast majority of the work yourself and all it needs is just a new heating system, wiring/sockets & fittings, kitchen/tiling, bathroom/tiling, all skirting, flooring and remedial plaster work followed by decorating then well under £20k with enough change to tidy up the garden, depends on how many tradesmen/mates you know to help you out if you get bogged down.

Its ok doing work yourself, but….. Do you know what diameter pipe to use? Where you need your service valves, how far away a socket has to be away from a water source??, joist spacing, what btu rads to use? Its not just get the pros in to do the connect ups and paperwork, i only know as a friend used to do this with wiring, he was competant, granted, did the rewire and his qualified pal did the paperwork, 2months later house fire, proven in a inspection to have caused the fire,and hello shit street for the innocent sparky just helping his mate out, two people sadly died, for someone trying to save cash, imo dont **** about with things that need qualifications, its not clever.

Like above stick to a buget and no matter how “pretty” your mrs thinks it will look stick to it!!!

Sorry somafunk not trying to knock your advice, nowt personal but when it happens to people
You know its terrible and just infuriates me, sorry

No worries bigphil, i understand what your saying, and agree with you up to a point, that’s a truly horrible experience regarding the loss of your friend but for the fire to have been caused by wiring (if that was so) suggests he prob shouldn’t have been attempting it in the first place, it’s all well and good being able to extend a ring main, wire in extra lights, fit a shower/rcb or take a spur but to take into account all the variables and subsequent electrical loads you need to understand more than how to use a pair of sidecutters. I did advise only do it if you feel you are competent, i consider myself competent to do a full refit on a house to as high a standard as any tradesman, it may take me longer but i’m perfectly comfortable doing wiring or remedial building work as i’ve worked for various friends within the trades on and off for years along with a mech/elec engineering degree years ago so i do know what i’m doing, and if i’m unsure of anything i’ll sure as hell find out the correct method before i attempt anything, I’m sure Samurai would not attempt anything he would not feel comfortable with either.

We moved house 3 years ago to a nice sized 3 bed semi.

We had the following done..

Cellar converted to kitchen, utility, & snug/2nd lounge.
Full house rewire
Full new central heating
Every room decorated
Every room carpeted/curtains etc
New bathroom used to be old small kitchen
New wood burning stove (ripping out 70’s old one)

Everything came in just shy of £50k

Looking at the photos, the external rendering has a lot of cracking, plus the rear extension needs rebuilding. It also looks like you could spend 10k on the garden.

Also – you may be as to do the graft, but can you do the electrics/gas/plumbing? How is your tiling? Plastering by an amateur looks shite.

Little bits add up on a full refurb. You could easily spend 5k on fittings and paint.

From experience this is my opinion.
On a budget £25k to £30k
Higher spec £30k to £50k+ and you could easily spend up to £60k, £75k+ depending on what you want, level of finishes and spec and any unforeseen work that may crop up. It would be possible to do it cheaper if you did some of the work yourself or had family or friends that could help out. Shop around loads for kitchens and materials too

Aye, if you look on google earth, the extension is still standing, it was huge! On street view the roof doesn’t look great either. Plus we’d want to plant a load of trees at the back to hide the view of that big garage thing that’s still there.

I know loads of tradesmen so we’ll get good deals from them for most of the work. I’m a good tiler, crap plasterer, can plumb water stuff no problem, would never touch gas and can run in cables and pipes where i’m told to.

You’re right though, that back garden needs a load of work plus I’d like a proper workshop/garage built. Second viewing we’ll take our main builder man with us to see what he thinks things will cost. I just wanted some rough idea of costs to see if it was a worthwhile plan.

Many thanks all.

its all down to your personal tastes imo and where your prioritys lie.

ive just done the central heating system at mine with the help of a plumber. – or rather he did it with the help of me…..and teachin me shit.

I managed to pick up nearly a full set of correctly sized delonghi radiators for 20 quid each from the returns pile (marked stock) at the local travis perkins (via my dad who spends 10s of thousands a month there) – the ones marked on the back were just fitted as was , the ones marked on the front were sprayed with the air spray gun and rad paint.

We are looking into rewiring with fair urgency the now as while rooting about doing the pipework for the heating i found the joys of a bunch of twisted together and taped wires round the ring for the 12v bathroom lighting……. pulled them out and repaired the scary shit. – folks shouldnt be allowed in BnQ

So far we have spent 4k i reckon , we have gutted living room, laid oak flooring , redone the fireplace , woodwork. Fitted a boiler (which was 2k in its self), new rads and pipework, plastered living room and bedroom (after removing some built in wardrobes and all the paper off all the walls) . Coated the walls in magnolia for now.

Hopefully the rewire shouldnt be too intrusive in the living room and bedroom as the cablings run in conduit down the walls OR can be accessed from the hall way before we get it plastered – we checked before plastering the living room – just need to get my spark in for a quote.

and with a new consumer box it means i can get a big cable neatly fitted and high amp outlet in my garage for unhindered welding. 13amps just doesnt cut it and i dont want to melt the house cables/trip the RCDs by doing as others do with a metal rod in the plug – dodgers

I think the biggest thing to make sure of is that you dont end up doing things twice in the long run – Ie get a room looking smart then decide to change the windows/fireplace/ chase pipes into concrete floors

sorry on what planet is that a cottage ? its a semi detached house at best.

It best be cheap i cant see anything special about it at all.

Looks like alot of grief for not much gain ?

Looks like the external render might need replaced as well

are you planning on living there at the same time?

I reckon you could do it for 30-35K.

Obviously a lot depends on the finish you go for and the amount you can do yourself. I did up a house in Liverpool with a mate. We got the professionals in for windows, plumbing, plastering and damp proofing. My sparky mate wired the house with me and fitted the Ikea kitchen (beware with them, no space behind units for pipework!).We grafted on clearance, decorating, tiling, woodworking etc. It still seemed to go on for ever!

Good advice from Bigphil to rewire and get the messy stuff done first, then bathroom, kitchen and clean room to live in.

It also looks like you could spend 10k on the garden.

What? I know someone ‘could’ spend anything on anything, but that’s the worst number in this thread!

Find your tradesmen and sort out when they can work. The more flexible you can be, the better. If you are also flexible on other things you can get them cheaper too. I did a complete rewire, new rads, moved walls, new bathroom, new kitchen, complete redecoration where I laboured for the tradesmen and did what I could – came in under £20k. The longer you can afford not to live in it, the easier the jobs are to do.

We did our 3 bedroom house up from scratch, rewiring, modified central heating (not full replacement), new bathroom, new kitchen (custom built), re-plastered about a third of the walls, moved windows/doorways and it was less than 30k which included buying decent tools as we went along. We did everything we could ourselves including building the kitchen from scratch and spread it over about 3 years whilst living there. Two biggest expenses were the tiny bathroom which we had done for us at 6k and the replacement windows at around 4-5k

If you’re paying people to do the work then it’ll be done a lot quicker but the cost will easily double or treble. If you’re happy to learn as you go and tackle as much as you can yourself then I reckon sub 30k would still be easily achievable.

[edit]
Should say that the 30k price includes all new kitchen appliances, oak flooring, carpets, furniture, basically everything up to the point where we considered the house finished.

The longer you can afford not to live in it, the easier the jobs are to do.

This is very,very good advice. We moved in on day one 🙁

Its ok doing work yourself, but….. Do you know what diameter pipe to use? Where you need your service valves, how far away a socket has to be away from a water source??, joist spacing, what btu rads to use?

Personally I find figuring it all out is half the fun. You make the odd mistake, but then that’s the best way to learn.

having read all of that, I reckon you should listen to big Phil. I’ve knocked down a house and built a 5 bed house, trying to do a lot myself along the way, so have a bit of experience.

There’s a balance to strike between cost and professional installations, so I would do things like stripping plaster or painting walls and leave all mech & elec to the experts. Its also about time too….if it drags on for ever, then it becomes a miserable experience, better to budget to get it finished internally in 6 months and then move outside to take on that work.

Sounds similar to my place

some damp problems and a few structural changes (internal walls out a couple of chimney breasts out and steel in) some damp in the walls so DPC largely replaced, new suspended floors (damp), new stairs, new bathroom, roof repairs, complete rewire, almost complete re-plumb (excluding boiler), will be completely re-plastered (80% already done), completely emptied and re-done the jungle of a garden

I started in Feb/Mar by brothers a sparky so that was sorted, I had 3 weeks off with a friend in the trades when it really was a shell, mud for floor no electrics, no water, no heating, no stairs, hole in the roof….bloody hell that was cold staying there (wife was at parents)
other than that I’ve been doing it on my tod bar a bit of help just here and there from one of my mates, wife was pregnant, our sons now 8 weeks, most of my mates are either useless at any trade except one who’s also in the process of renovating his place in the same village as us and who’s baby’s due in 5 weeks.

It’s been bloody hard work!
I’m 80% there now, upstairs is 100% done back room is all done except carpet (big rug down as a temporary thing) front room is a building site and down stairs toilet is a shell.

works obviously slowed due to the baby of late but funds are non-existent now too 🙁
We’ve spent about 60k I think and probably need 5-10k to finish.
that’s without touching the kitchen which was the only part of the house that had been touched in the last 56 years, 15ish years old and is small but perfectly live-able. Long Term the kitchen will get knocked down and a new extension built but that’s pie in the sky at the moment.

It’s good fun a times, really really hard at others and will always cost more than you think. but you’ll end up with a house you’ve really put your heart and soul into and will love.

Good luck

TooTall – you obviously havent had any landscaping done recently. Going from knackered crazy paving front and back, with no fences, could easily be 10k+. Just skips alone will be over 1k. Topsoil, paving/Decking, hardcore, fencing, turf , plants, machinery, labour – none of it cheap if you want it done properly.

When are you thinking of doing this?

My brother is doing a full renovation of his house in Glossop now

All walls and floors out, and roof is being re done so all thats left is the external walls

I can let you know how much its costing if its any help

Two things- focus on the shell first. Is it REALLY in great shape? This is where the main costs could be.

Second thing- why not fit the kitchen yourself? My Aunt and cousin (female) both do everything from scratch. Makes a mockery of my manliness 😆

The older the house the more money you throw at it.

At a guess it will be between £40k – £60k. The garden will always be twice the cost you think!

We ran out of money doing ours up as we kept coming across problems.
You will of course save a shed load of money doing work yourself (up to £200 per day) however it will be hard.

Good luck, it’s going to be worth it.

Curtains will be at mates rates though 😉