Cost to renovate 3 bedroom 1930s house?

andy208833

I have bought a 1950's nouse which has needed all the things doing that you listed above. including fitting which i paid for someone to do it cost:

Kitchen £6k (Got units from howdens, electricals from various and used quidco for cashback!!)
Bathroom £4k
Knocked down a wall and put RSJ in £2k
Electrics £2.5k
Plastering £2k
Work i have done myself (so materials only) £2k
New gas central heating system (8 radiators) £3.8k

All the above about 3/4 finished and still not decorated all the other rooms! i reckon about £10k left to go.

Its not cheap.

lincroft1710

If you fit the windows yourself you won't get a Fensa certificate and you will therefore have get (and pay) Building Control to confirm they've been fitted properly.

frankfrankly

Wow! I must say after reading this I am massively put off! May well pull out, if all you guys are right . It really will be our dream house once done . Have a think over the weekend but might be back to the drawing board for us...

Homersimpson

All I can say is that these jobs never get better when you start, if it needs all that doing from you inital visit it will be a lot more when you get into it.

I've spent about 14k on a bungalow so far, new windows, bathroom kitchen, floors, complete new roof, heating etc.

The roof was a bargain from a local company, the plastering is being done free by my neighbour, the boiler was expensive and everything else i'm doing myself. I've still got the lounge, master bedroom and an ensuite to do (floors, electrics, heating, plastering etc.) and the external rendering then its time to start the drive. I don't reckon I will get much change out of 25k but then i'm moving walls around, windows, fitting lintels, moving drains, new guttering, fascias, internal solid wall insulation, insulating floors etc.

Its hard work doing most of it on my own and so its taking a while, its very satisfying when you make a nice job of something though!

I think you need to weigh up your budget and think honestly about your abilities and the standard you want and then make a decision based on this. With me I knew I could afford to do it and would like to think that i;m very practical (previous hobby was restoring classic cars to show standard and have done more than I care to remember). I've also been very lucky buying a house next to a builder/plasterer as he's been great lending me tools, giving advice and plastering for me.

If you think you can do it and the number stack up then go for it! I always used to say with restoring cars that you might not make a lot of money (if any!) but at least you knew they were done right and not lashed up!

Best of luck!:beer:

frankfrankly

Thanks all, we have decided to go for it as we love the house . We will just be taking our time and doing it cheap ...

lincroft1710

frankfrankly wrote: »

We will just be taking our time and doing it cheap ...

Cheap and house renovation are words which do not fit well together. I agree that you should try to spend as little as possible, but the cheapest may not always be the best for your needs (you don't want to be replacing in a few years time) and stupid little things keep pushing the price up. If you really like the house and want to stay there, then invest time effort and money.

Time......well double the figure you first thought of. And you'll keep finding more jobs that you'd like/need to do.

But that's the fun of owning a house!

Nixer

My partner is doing up his mum's bungalow (1950s I think) doing all the work himself. They have budgeted 10k for: new kitchen, new shower tray and cubicle (although she wants a bath now, which means will have to get someone in to move loo - trying to dissuade her), heated towel rail and tiles and paint, installing new radiator, removing another radiator, moving 2 others, some plastering and decoration, new windows and finally new carpets and gas fire if there is any money left, which there probably won't be. I think 10k to do all yours sounds like not enough.

SimonMrGreenWard

Without flowering it up too much, you've got naff all hope of getting all that work done for £10k and it looking even remotely okay. If you run out of cash, the worst thing you can do is try and finish it on a shoe string, it will look terrible and the hardest properties to sell are bad DIY jobs.

I know lots of good quality builders that spend more money, on less work than what you're planning. Be VERY careful.

Good luck.

frankfrankly

Just to clear up a bit.......I will get what I can done on 10k. I will have about £1500 spare cash each month to add to the jobs as I go and will get the Kitchen and Bathroom on interest fee. I can get the electrics and central heating units at cost price and will fit ourselves with a good mate checking regularly as we go. It is a not a complete rewiring we have found out.

When I say cheap I mean spending some time looking for sale items rather than budget line items.

My Uncle is a Structural Engineer and will do the calcs on the small wall we are knocking down, we will then do this ourselves, my Dad was a bricklayer so can help us a lot with this.

The 10k is the initial cash boost to buy materials for plumbing/electrics/paint/rsj, raise te floor a couple of inches, a skip, new front door, one new window, a few skims of plaster it does not all need doing had someone round to look tonight, any down payments on finance, get the damp proofing done (we have found the cause of the damp, faulty rendering).

It is a huge decision but it is the right house and we have been looking for about 2 years for something like this.

Thanks to all on here it has helped us re-evaluate the real long term cost and time frame, it still stacks up for us. I hope to have all of this done by the Summer, I will post on here with updates....

frankfrankly

Bit of an update , have cleared kitchen, bathroom , stripped all the wallpape, had house rewired and put up plasterboard for ceilings. Plasterer coming tomorrow for a skim. Bathroom ordered. Lintel ordered. Kitchen design on Sunday pipe work for central heating to be laid on weekend. Wall being knocked down week after. Operation move in for Christmas still on. only had house for one week!

Family have been amazing.

Will update with pics at some point. need sleep now!