House renovation costs getting out of control - RANT

Brummie85

naf123 wrote: »

and the plastering!

if you are redoing boiler, instead of a system flush you could replace all the radiator pipes....there goes more money lol

I was all for this at first. Not even doing it in Copper. There's a double skinned plastic pipe system from a company called Bute that took my fancy. It's so much quicker and easier to work with that the additional material cost is still very worth it.

Changing the rads will literally take away most of the sludge, as it tends to stick to the rads until it is agitated. I have use of a power flush for free. I can therefore give the pipes a longer flush then a paid for engineer would. The magnetic filter on the new boiler will pick up the rest over the following few weeks and will be useful in continuing to keep the system clean and dosed.

Hidden heating cost - the regs say that all pipework running out of site/in voids must be insulated as much as possible (they allow no insulation passing through joists etc). Its logical to retain the heat in the pips until it enters an occupied space with a radiator but when you're buying metres and metres of the stuff.....I'm gonna have to hug my bankcard and tell it not to go towards the light!

ssparks2003

I don't want to come across all smug (ok maybe a little) we are currently on our third project house, the last being a 9 year full strip and rebuild of a 350 year old farmhouse. And I must say that currently we are running under budget and ahead of schedule. I put this down to the following:

1. The wife is an accountant, we have costings that actually stack up. We treat this no differently than you would any project in business.
2. I'm a procurement manager by profession, so I understand the spending and more importantly the savings to be made.
3. Having a trusted an honest builder and not just a bloke out of the yellow pages.
4. Planning, failure to plan is planning to fail.
5. Don't panic
6. Do what you can yourself, a lot of diy is not difficult, just take your time and you can save money.

Mr.Generous

ssparks2003 wrote: »

I don't want to come across all smug (ok maybe a little) we are currently on our third project house, the last being a 9 year full strip and rebuild of a 350 year old farmhouse. And I must say that currently we are running under budget and ahead of schedule. I put this down to the following:

1. The wife is an accountant, we have costings that actually stack up. We treat this no differently than you would any project in business.
2. I'm a procurement manager by profession, so I understand the spending and more importantly the savings to be made.
3. Having a trusted an honest builder and not just a bloke out of the yellow pages.
4. Planning, failure to plan is planning to fail.
5. Don't panic
6. Do what you can yourself, a lot of diy is not difficult, just take your time and you can save money.

Agreed, but I'd add when you see a bargain think ahead and buy it. We've bought stuff in sales like 1 tap hole bathroom basin & pedestal for £10, Franke kitchen taps clearance for £10 (sold quite a few on Ebay too) nice kitchen sinks for around £50, oven & hob packs £100 etc.

Buy discontinued or ex display stuff if you know you can use it - and don't be afraid to make an offer. We saw a load of grade 5 floor tiles in 3 colours for £5 a box reduced from £50, and because we were taking the lot we offered £4 a box and it was accepted. Small savings add up.

When we buy a kitchen we pick up all sorts of components from all sorts of suppliers. handles, hinges, worktops, sink, appliances, even things like heat deflectors, if its cheaper to get them from a different supplier we do.

We renovate a 2 or 3 bed house (typically ex council terraced or end terrace 1930's / 40's / 50's type) for about £8k spend per property. Roughly £1k bathroom, £1.5k kitchen, £1k flooring the rest is just eaten up in electrics & plumbing, decorating, general materials, legal costs, council tax, utility bills and costs individual to each project like windows, sealed units, garden etc.

None of these costs include labour!

phil_b_2

blimey, you guys are getting some insanely low prices!

I'm having to fork out £20k just for full house plastering, whole new heating system (includes underfloor though) and complete rewire.

onomatopoeia99

Brummie85 wrote: »

New Boiler with relocation, system flush and replacement rads will probably hit me for another £2000.

Blimey thats cheap, I was getting quotes higher than that from local RGIs for a straight like for like replacement of the boiler in the same location, eight years ago. No new rads, no flush, no relocation.

Niv

phil_b wrote: »

That's a great thing, congratulations! It must surely make all the trauma seem much more worthwhile. You're now creating a family home for your childrens future. I imagine a chunk of the resentment and stress must melt away a little with that thought.

I'm in the opposite boat in that we've struggled to get pregnant and are facing a very large bill for further IVF too. Really not ideal! If it was the other way around I think I'd care less about costs of renovation works.

I suppose you could buy a house fully 'done up' at a massively inflated price and still find all of these things and need to spend umpteen thousands in any case. I'll try to go easy on my wreck for now and learn to enjoy the process, somehow!

Thanks .


Regarding the refurb, please don't get my post wrong, I do not resent / get stressed about it. It is a project house, I want to do it 'right' rather than bodge it (including using incorrect materials) so am prepared for it to take time.


Budget went out the window yes, but that does not mean that it has cost the earth still. I have found two very good local (ones is literally over the road) tradesman and I am reasonable at DIY and do the donkeywork. So I clear a bit and roughly prep an area then they come in and do their thing - this keeps costs down a bit and also feels like I am involved in the refurb (I don't just want to be handing out the money as at the end I will not feel any achievement).


My wife getting pregnant wasn't in the plans when we bought the house so it has added urgency to get some things done which actually is probably a good thing as it will actually get the place done a bit quicker, the money is there so I am lucky that it will not include having to get loans etc.

-taff

Carrot007 wrote: »

And a lot of what ordinary people would think of as bodges as perfectly normal as things are not simple and stuff just does not fit perfect..

There's a wire that is plugged into a downstairs socket, going through the floorboards, with a double plug added to it and fixed to a wall upstairs.
There are seven different pieces of waste pipe from the shower to the wall outlet because it's circumnavigating all the boiler pipework and pump that were put in next to the bath above the floorboards.

I only do DIY, I'm not a professional, but those two things are bodges to me. And we've got many many more examples in this current house.

phil_b_2

Niv wrote: »

Thanks .


Regarding the refurb, please don't get my post wrong, I do not resent / get stressed about it. It is a project house, I want to do it 'right' rather than bodge it (including using incorrect materials) so am prepared for it to take time.


Budget went out the window yes, but that does not mean that it has cost the earth still. I have found two very good local (ones is literally over the road) tradesman and I am reasonable at DIY and do the donkeywork. So I clear a bit and roughly prep an area then they come in and do their thing - this keeps costs down a bit and also feels like I am involved in the refurb (I don't just want to be handing out the money as at the end I will not feel any achievement).


My wife getting pregnant wasn't in the plans when we bought the house so it has added urgency to get some things done which actually is probably a good thing as it will actually get the place done a bit quicker, the money is there so I am lucky that it will not include having to get loans etc.

Good attitude. It sounds like you're prepared for it all now, and can enjoy the process.

I really want to enjoy the process too, after all, it is a lot of time and money and should be a positive thing. I could quite easily go out and get stressed and fed up for free!

I suppose if we could detach more from the financial side, then it would all be much more enjoyable.

EssexExile

There were two good bodges in our 1930s house. The chimney breast had been taken out of the bedroom, the stack on the roof remained & there was a gas fire in the lounge below, just nothing between the two. There was one power point upstairs, the pvc cable to it wouldn't fit through the old metal conduit so they had taken the pvc sheath off & just threaded the red, black & earth through the conduit.

phoebe1989seb

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

You will come out the other side (relatively) unscathed I'm sure OP - although the budget will undoubtedly take a bashing! I know ours has.......

We're on our umpteenth house restoration and are just starting to feel that things are coming together.

An age away from the unloved repossession we moved into back in February - there was no mains water and the farmer on whose land the supply originated had cut it off, so there was also no flushing toilet or heating (except a few electric heaters we brought with us)! All our furniture and other worldly possessions were in storage and the damp, leaky 400 year old cottage was bleak to say the least.

We had to get on with the work fairly quickly as we were paying for three large storage units in another part of the UK, the outbuildings here being not watertight either, lol!



Since getting the keys we've not only had the borehole done, but had wood burners fitted, rewired, new boiler/radiators fitted, removed walls/chimney breast, stripped out the hideous Kitchen and bathroom, replastered loads, fitted a hand built kitchen and built a large kitchen island, renewed the roof on the extension, built new walls, decorated several rooms including constructing period style panelling and partially landscaped the gardens which has involved planting around 400 plants so far. Not bad for seven months, I suppose.

At times it's been really hard but its now beginning to look great, although we're looking forward to taking a break at Christmas

I meant to say that regarding budgets, ours was actually relatively small (£50k was the target) for the amount of work required. Currently we've spent around £58k and still have a few things to pay for - although we've stockpiled some stuff for next year's jobs and as I said, we DIY where possible! Fortunately DH can plaster and do tiling, joinery etc and I'm not bad with a paintbrush A much larger period house we did a few years back for £100k including lots of Villeroy & Boch/Hans Grohe Axor etc and acres of limestone flooring we sourced from Egypt.

I'm an inveterate bargain hunter, but only if it's a good quality/high end brand (I won't have cheap tat in my house, lol!) and am prepared to wait for the right item to come along.

The borehole alone took up £11k of our budget :eek: