First time buy - older house that needs lots of work

sophie131

I am looking at purchasing a house as a first time buy - it is 40k under our budget but it needs a lot of work.

New kitchen, new bathroom, new windows and central heating installed as a minimum.

Would also like the chimney breast knocked out and downstairs bathroom done at some point.

I know costs vary massively but can anyone give me a rough idea about the cost of this? It is 4 beds and approx 115 sq metres. Could I get the essentials done for around 40k or am I way off?!

Thanks for any help

Mojisola

sophie131 wrote: »

New kitchen, new bathroom, new windows and central heating installed as a minimum.

If you're planning all that, it would be worth doing a re-wire first.

phill99

This is my stock in trade. You might struggle at £40k, but not insurmountable depending on your level of specification.


For a 4 bed, you probably have £7k in windows / doors, same in GCH (assuming new rads), £4 - £7k on a bathroom, £10 - £20k on a kitchen. Chimneys out with BC fees and engineer fees prob £4k.


This would be for a company to do the lot. Others will no doubt tell you they did a kitchen for £1500 and a bathroom for 65p and that it is easy to install a toilet.


Whatever your budget be prepared to add 25 - 40% for contingencies and double how long you think it will take!

phill99

And mojisola is right - allow for a rewire. That then leads you into replastering and while you are doing it, get the ceilings reskimmed.


We're now at £60k

AlexMac

I think you're in with a chance to do a majority of what you want on £40k but it very much depends on where you are, which determines local tradespeoples prices, and the level of your spec. Oh and whether you are even vaguely handy and can do anything yourselves?

Assuming by 'old' you mean Victorian (?) the bonus will be character. We started in a Victorian wreck and with absolutely no skills, but while we got the roof, central heating and re-wiring done by professionals, we did droid work ourselves: like

• lifting, shuffling up, renailing/replacing and sanding pine floorboards,
• fitting a kitchen (with a plumber or sprky doing odd bits),
• complete internal decoration and on one occasion,
• hacking down a lath and plaster ceiling and re-boarding it prior to a plasterer skimming it)

thus saving throusands at current prices (it was too long ago for prices to be relevant). I did exactly what you require (minus the windows) in two different 3-bed Victorian properties for around £25k but that was several years ago and one was in a UK region where labour is cheap; I decorated myself too.

A new kitchen can cost only a grand or so for the bits as a DIY project, or from £4k-£20k fitted but you'll be well down that range if cash is tight. A new bathroom could be similar; ours cost £4k in London 2 years ago. Central heating will be around £4-6k and re-wiring a bit less.

Do you really need new windows? We paid £4.5k to the Council freeholder to replace all 8 in our BTL flat 2 years ago with nasty UPVC double-glazing which seemed reasonable, but you'll need more... If you want timber, a lot more.

But if they're timber, unless really rotten, they could well be resuable with patching and renovation; our last place had 150 year-old timber windows which were perfectly servicable?

Dunno about the chimney breast out andbut if by "downstairs bathroom" you mean toilet and handbasin, replacement' s possible for a few hundred; you can tile and decorate yourself unless really cack-handed.

It really depends on your attitude - despite always having done office jobs, I still do the odd bit of kitchen fitting to save dough; most recently by replacing all the door fronts as carcasses tend to be good for 20 years despite knocking 70; but we did cop out and buy a 1980's house several years ago and it's less demanding (and less draughty) than a Victorian slum!

But if (like you?) I was 40 years younger, I'd go for it!

Blush2783

HI definitely do a rewire. We ended up doing ours 10 years after we bought the house and it was chaos and everything gets channeled/ripped out etc so MUCH better to do this at the start. I think ours was around 5k.

We didn't do all the work you've said but got a Howdens kitchen and got a fitter to fit it for around 12k including appliances. Id say it was a medium sized kitchen with enough room for a 2 seater breakfast bar.

We got a cheapy bathroom installed from the high street and that was about 7k but that was mainly fitting costs and plastering/tiling/taking off old tiles and moving a few pipes.

We were actually lucky enough to be able to go and bed down at my parents when things got very bad and messy so hope you have somewhere to go to or allow for the odd night in a cheapy hotel room too as some days there was just no way we couldve stayed there!

dirty_magic

It really depends how much you can do yourself and what kind of finish you want. We've spent quite a lot on ours and that's with OH doing everything except electrics, gas work and plastering. We got cheap rates for those too because he has a lot of friends in the trade.

I'd say it's possible to do the things you've mentioned for 40k as long as you're not looking for a very high spec. It's very easy to get carried away though when you're looking for ideas and you see all of the things you could have. If you've got a budget of 40k you'd really need to stick to it and sacrifice some of the nice to have but not essentials.

Also, how old is the house? Definitely get a good survey done if you're putting an offer in, you don't want to end up spending a fortune on fixing things that aren't so obvious.

Cakeguts

What is the roof like? I always look at the roof first because it is so easy to do. Have a look to see if the ridge is the same high all the way along and have a look to see if there are any uneven bits under the tiles. If water gets into the roof because of broken or missing tiles you could need to/ have the roof timbers replaced.

Will the house qualify for a mortgage?

sophie131

Thanks guys this is all so helpful.

I would say the house was built in the 1970's so perhaps not as old as some of you are thinking!

I have had another look and the bathroom and conservatory have radiators so I am assuming that there is some sort of heating/gas in the house somewhere but will ask more on Saturday when I view it.

The roof does look in good shape and has a large number of solar panels so I wouldn't have thought the current owner would have gone to the effort of installing if it had a dodgy roof although I may be wrong!

We do have some pretty good local links as my Dad used to be a builder - unfortunately he is no longer around or he would have helped me out with all these questions! Also happy to attempt whatever work we can by ourselves!

Mr.Generous

70's house wont need a rewire but you may want to upgrade the mains board and add a load of sockets if its not been done. 70's houses had 1 or 2 single sockets in a bedroom and probably 3 in the lounge and kitchen.

glasgowdan

You'll manage all of that and more with 40k. 5k bathroom, 8k kitchen, 4k full heating system, 6-8k new windows, 3k chimney and building work, leaving plenty for joinery, carpets, decor etc.