How much to decorate a house?

mdb99jh

I was just wondering, does anyone have any idea how much it would cost (ball park) to decorate an entire 2 bedroom semi for example? I was just thinking from the point of view of buying a cheaper house with a nasty interior and doing it up (a fixer-upper) than paying over the odds for an identical house with a nice interior.

Nothing fancy, just nice and simple (paint, carpets, curtains - no chadelliers)

I realise the kitchen and bathroom are probably the biggest expenses - lets say the kitchen is ok but the bathroom is not...

Just wondering! All speculation welcome

Doozergirl

Nice and simple?
£1000 cheap bathroom suite plus fitting (most of the expense on fitting)
£1000 carpets inc. fitting
£500 decorating, light fittings, ikea blinds.
£1500 kitchen inc. fitting

Problem with houses with neglected interiors is that eveything else is often neglected too and 'everything else' is the most important part of the building!

mdb99jh

Doozergirl wrote:

Problem with houses with neglected interiors is that eveything else is often neglected too and 'everything else' is the most important part of the building!

Oh OK - its crazy how little I know. So presumably you're talking about structural maintainance. Would a survey not normally show that stuff up? I always kind of thought that if a house was neglected it was just a case of gutting it and giving it a lick of paint, and that most people just couldn't be bothered to do this - thus a low asking price. Never realised it usually meant the house was likely to need serious work...

silvercar

How old is the central heating, the electrics and the plumbing?

Doozergirl

Yes, a survey would show it up, just look hard at the expensive things like boiler, windows, roof, fuse box or you'll be spending a lot on surveys! A house that needs a lick of paint will only sell at marginally less than it's full value. Our first two buys were like that but it is certainly arguable that we paid market value and rode the property market for the profit. In fact, the first one really needed new windows and a new roof as well as quite a bit of repointing but we didn't recognise that at the time

It all depends on the house you find as no two are identical, but the house you talk of is probably going to be marketed at full value and it's up to you to knock them down. Anything marketed as needing updating (a fixer-upper as you call it) will need a LOT doing.

mdb99jh

silvercar wrote:

How old is the central heating, the electrics and the plumbing?

Well it's a hypothetical house so lets say 25 years? Is this normal? Do you get houses with 60 year-old plumbing or does it not last that long? How much is this stuff to re-do (ballpark)?

marlau

mdb99jh wrote:

Well it's a hypothetical house so lets say 25 years? Is this normal? Do you get houses with 60 year-old plumbing or does it not last that long? How much is this stuff to re-do (ballpark)?

Last house I put an offer on didn't have a bathroom and had gas lighting! Some people are happy to do nothing to their property so it is possible that a lot of fixer upper houses will have very old plumbing or electrics. Like you I am looking to buy a fixer upper al lot of the places I have looked at needed a lot of work like central heating, new windows, damp proofing,etc. Try http://www.whatprice.co.uk/

People who have done work on their houses post their costs and so can give you a good idea of how much a job will cost.