Anyone bought a doer upper property?

[Deleted User]

Hi looking at a property built in the 70's and needs total modernisation, has anyone done this?
If so what tips would you give?
We think if we go for it then we would have to rent somewhere while it gets gutted and re-designed inside, also for a 4 bed detached what would be a rough ball park figure for costs to re do the house 30k, 40k, 50k?

vivatifosi

My brother did this with a seventies house. He lived in it while doing it up and as someone in the trade, did a lot of the work himself. First project was to get rid of old hot air system and put in central heating. That required taking up floors and knocking out voids and replastering. Probably the single biggest job and the only one he did before moving in.

Rest of house reasonably serviceable, so did kitchen next, then bathroom, then rest of house. As he did each room he also insulated it, so not just a decoration job. He also replaced some windows and converted garage.

His was ex council. There were two points he was very aware of, one, doing things in the right order so that he could live there and minimise the making good. The other was remembering the ceiling price and not going all Grand Designs.

Can't give costing tips as labour costs less of an issue for him, plus it was a little while ago. He had a fabulous house for what he'd paid by the end though.

I think the scariest bit was tearing out the warm air system and finding someone had been posting used syringes through the vents.

Doozergirl

It's going to depend on what you're doing to it. New electrics, plumbing, knocking a couple of walls down, new roof? new windows? new kitchen, replacement bathroom, ensuite? Re-landscaping? It's a 70s house so do you want to give it a facelife on the outside with render or cladding etc?

Insulation can be done for little or nothing, but is essential - the house will have none.

You can easily lose £50k on a decent refurbishment of a 4 bed house. I suggest you need at least a quailty builder to give you an idea of what needs to be do before you make the offer. Then you can pay for your survey if it's accepted.

[Deleted User]

Yep this one also has a hot air central heating system which will need to go. It's pretty much everything you say doozergirl except for the landscaping that's fine as it is. It's a perfect house for us, size, location and price so guess we will have to think about builders and quotes...

Ivana_Tinkle

My last house was a similar age 4-bed in need of total refurbishment. Ours already had central heating - albeit very old and needing the boiler moving and replacing - so can't really comment on that, and it also didn't need full rewiring, but we did everything else (boiler, kitchen, 2 bathrooms + redecoration) for about £15k. But we did nearly all the work ourselves and we both have a background in design so we're v good at making houses look posh on the cheap! We lived in the house, with young kids, while it was all going on without too much problem, but then that's easier when you're doing it all yourself too. If we'd had a houseful of builders the whole time, obviously it would have cost 2 or 3 times as much, and it would also have been more difficult to live in the house.

[Deleted User]

Guess if we go for the viewing and maybe take a builder along sometime to get a rough quote then try and negotiate with the seller...

phill99

I run a home maintenance company and refurb clients hoses on a routine basis. I always say this: whatever you think it will cost, add 50 % and how ever long you think it will take, double it.

Beyond that:

Take your time
If your not sure about something, get someone in.
Don't compromise on safety issues eg gas and electrics.
The last 20 % of a job will require 80% of your total effort
The devil is in the detail.
Don't out price fixtures and fittings - don't get the cheapest, but few people know the difference between a £500 tap and a £100 one, and it will make no difference to the end value.
Don't underestimate the number of electrical sockets you will need. Getting more put in now will be pennies compared to having them put in 2 years after all the work is finished.
Open trade accounts were possible
Monitor what you are spending - you'll be surprised how much a couple if pounds here and a fiver there add up.
Buy in bulk where possible - a box of 200 screws will cost you a fiver, but buying 10 packs of 20 screws from a shed will cost you £20!

MFW_ASAP

I've done this twice, the first time was when I was single and bought my first home. I lived in the house while I renovated it which I wouldn't recommend, but I couldn't afford to rent somewhere else while also paying a mortgage and paying for renovation costs.

We have recently moved into a house with my family and we're renovating it. The house has a spare bedroom and 2 reception rooms, which allows me to do one room at a time, moving the kids in and out of the spare room as I do theirs. I've also had floors up in various rooms as I do the electric, etc. and I try and do this more disruptive stuff while the kids are at school so they don't fall through ceilings!

It's a pain but you do end up with a house that is exactly as you want it, plus once the structural stuff and services (electrical, gas, water) are complete you know you're not going to have a problem again because it's all new. The house feels more 'yours' as well when you've done a lot of work on it and have been in all its nooks and crannies.

We found a couple of jam jar 'time capsules' with handwritten notes from the children who had lived there, plus some newspaper cutouts behind a bath panel. We put them back with a couple of new jam jars that my kids put together.

phoebe1989seb

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

My last house was a similar age 4-bed in need of total refurbishment. Ours already had central heating - albeit very old and needing the boiler moving and replacing - so can't really comment on that, and it also didn't need full rewiring, but we did everything else (boiler, kitchen, 2 bathrooms + redecoration) for about £15k. But we did nearly all the work ourselves and we both have a background in design so we're v good at making houses look posh on the cheap! We lived in the house, with young kids, while it was all going on without too much problem, but then that's easier when you're doing it all yourself too. If we'd had a houseful of builders the whole time, obviously it would have cost 2 or 3 times as much, and it would also have been more difficult to live in the house.

We've never owned a house as new as 1970s, but have done several renovation projects, from the fairly basic (Victorian - requiring new wiring, heating, kitchen, bathroom & redecoration throughout) to the major (Victorian - converting four flats with four kitchens etc back to a single dwelling and our current place Georgian - building new kitchen extension, demolishing dilapidated stone-built wing, new wiring as no lighting to most of ground floor, new kitchen, bathrooms, flooring as concrete g/f, new plastering as previously stripped back to bare stone etc etc).

Like Ivana, we both come from design backgrounds and do most of the work ourselves. We've always lived in the houses we've been restoring as this has been more practical for us, even when DS was tiny and I agree with Ivana that this is actually more do-able when you are doing the work yourselves. Last year we had to have builders in for a while and the disruption was a PITA

Budget-wise, we spent £40k+ restoring a smallish (1600 sq ft), non-listed Tudor house but it would have cost ££££ more had we had trades do everything.

Our budget for restoring this house is £100k but it's a lot larger and was considered uninhabitable when we bought We do always use fairly high-end fittings though, but as DH has contacts in the trade we usually get these for a good price and I would never advise buying cheap rubbish as it's usually pretty obvious corners have been cut!

It's best to have money set aside for contingencies - for example, last year we had to have our boiler moved and we thought it best to have the company that fitted it for the PO in 2010 back to do this. They charged £600 just to take it out and intended to charge £3000 in total (re-siting it in new extension) :eek: We hadn't expected it to cost anywhere near this and had only budgeted around £1000. We ended up getting a local heating engineer to re-site the boiler for a lot less than their quote.....but it's better to be prepared for unexpected costs.......

kingstreet

I assume there will be no mortgage requirement?

If there will, first question is, is the property suitable security for a mortgage? A large, even 100% retention, may mean you cannot purchase.

princeofpounds

It's sometimes easier to do a renovation job when it's a true rip-out-and-start-again job than trying to deal with working over bad 'foundation' work.

As for living there whilst working on the place - it's really not easy or pleasant.

Don't kid yourself as to the amount of work you can do yourself. Even if you are competent at DIY, if you only have weekends it can suck your social life and relaxation time for months on end.