First-time house renovation

phill99

Gwendo40 wrote: »

Fair play to you if they're the kind of prices you can get away with charging for a 'mid-range' kitchen or bathroom... you must have an ability to find some very naive and gullible people to charge those prices though.

Stop talking such rubbish.


You are the extremely naïve one. You have no idea about labour rates, material costs or the costs associated with running a business.


If you think you can employ a qualified tradesman for less than £250 a day in London, then please let me have their details as I would be happy to employ them and keep them employed.


Having fitted over a hundred kitchens and 90 bathrooms, I understand exactly the price points of these installations. And for information, I haven't had to advertise for nearly 10 years and get work simply by word of mouth and am booked up until early 2020.


so now who is showing their naivety?

ryanmaryland

Since you are still under the guesstimating stage, I think you could look into some this offer online http://!!!!!!/2LrCgF3. Currently, they are running a sale and fitting your new bathroom with quality yet affordable finds won't hurt anybody but would gain you more. Good luck on your renovation and I do hope your estimation will come to a success.

Gwendo40

phill99 wrote: »

Stop talking such rubbish.


You are the extremely naïve one. You have no idea about labour rates, material costs or the costs associated with running a business.


If you think you can employ a qualified tradesman for less than £250 a day in London, then please let me have their details as I would be happy to employ them and keep them employed.


Having fitted over a hundred kitchens and 90 bathrooms, I understand exactly the price points of these installations. And for information, I haven't had to advertise for nearly 10 years and get work simply by word of mouth and am booked up until early 2020.


so now who is showing their naivety?

As others have said, people have different ideas of low/medium/high range... I've had two properties refurb'd in the last 8 years with what I would consider a ''mid-range'' kitchen costing around £4k for the units and integrated oven/hob... with the fitting, electrics, gas, plumbing, tiling coming in at between £3k-£4k, so £7k-£8k all in.

As I said, fair play to you if you can get away with charging £25k for the same, but given you're referring to London where people happily pay £300k for a 1 bed ex crack den I doubt you'd get away with those charges in parts of the country where sensible people live.

Doozergirl

Gwendo40 wrote: »

As others have said, people have different ideas of low/medium/high range... I've had two properties refurb'd in the last 8 years with what I would consider a ''mid-range'' kitchen costing around £4k for the units and integrated oven/hob... with the fitting, electrics, gas, plumbing, tiling coming in at between £3k-£4k, so £7k-£8k all in.

As I said, fair play to you if you can get away with charging £25k for the same, but given you're referring to London where people happily pay £300k for a 1 bed ex crack den I doubt you'd get away with those charges in parts of the country where sensible people live.

'Other people' did say ideas of mid-range were different but also pointed out what mid-range actually is, and it isn't yours at £4k.

My current kitchen cost £4k too and it's from Ikea, the cheapest place to buy a kitchen.

The reverse snobbery here is palpable.

Gwendo40

Doozergirl wrote: »

'Other people' did say ideas of mid-range were different but also pointed out what mid-range actually is, and it isn't yours at £4k.

My current kitchen cost £4k too and it's from Ikea, the cheapest place to buy a kitchen.

The reverse snobbery here is palpable.

What a silly thing to say.

The non-reverse snobbery here is palpable.

Doozergirl

Gwendo40 wrote: »

What a silly thing to say.

The non-reverse snobbery here is palpable.

I haven't been rude to or about anyone.

patch9495

Morning,


Echoing the above you will need to get individual quotes.


We have recently undertaken the following


Full bathroom refurb
Full kitchen refurb and modernization
Full bungalow rewire


We found trades people using an app called my builder. It is like a baby brother to checkatrade and allowed us to get the above completed for a reduced price, and high quality, still safe in the knowledge that the trades people we chose were reliable had a high standard of work and most importantly fully insured.


This was in the South East London area

[Deleted User]

Hiya,

I work for a building company so I'll just give you some averages...

1. Kitchen: Full refurbishment to build a good modern kitchen (They cost us between 1k for tiny ones, to about £5k for a fancy big kitchen. I'd budget for £7-8k to cover the kitchen, appliances, tiling etc. Also, I'd suggest going to kitchen places like Howdens & Benchmarx over places like Wren)
2. Bathroom: Full refurbishment (Depends on size, try and avoid places like Victoria Plumbing etc they're an absolute nightmare to deal with and their quality reflects in their price. Budget about the same as the kitchen price, if you don't want vinyl etc on the floor)
3. Converting the W/C and attached storage to an ensuite kind bath & shower enclosure (Probably as above? Not sure because of the size...)
4. Converting the warm air heating to gas heating and installing the combi boiler (Combi Boiler replacement is about 3-4k, but depends on how the current system is laid out as to extra's that would need sorting, I'd budget for 8k to be safe)
5. Converting the open staircase to closed and carpeted (Not sure on this one, carpet completely depends on what carpet you're choosing, can get cheap nasty stuff for £10 a metre or fluffy stuff from John Lewis for £30, makes a big difference in overall cost!).

I bought a flat in May and it needed some minor works doing to it. I work for builders and I know the trades on a personal basis and I still found it an absolute nightmare. Maybe, in the end, it went against me as they just fitted my works in around everyone else's, but I'd say you have to be wary that sometimes its much better to pay a bit extra for the quality of service & the ease. I wouldn't use the trades I know next time!

I'd say realistically 35-40k if you're not getting the cheapest of everything!

cybervic

I am in the middle of renovation. Kitchen just under 7m2 area and I'm in a flat.

I budgeted £5K for a mid range kitchen but in reality I have spent:

Kitchen units: £2000 (IKEA)
Hob: £450
Oven: £650
Fridge Freezer: £500
Extractor Fan: £250
Sink: £200
Tap: £200
Dishwasher: £500

---

Total: £4750

I haven't included the worktop which costs between £500 for laminate or £2000 for Quartz.

Then there's plumbing, electric, plastering, tiling, fitting, which is around £2000+Vat, that makes the grand total of around £8K.

£4K kitchen is achievable if using the basic range, I personally can't see a mid-range kitchen in that budget happening unless a lot of DIY involved.

Lokolo

My new bathroom cost around £8k. This was a rip everything out, replace all plasterboards (there was a leak so half the boards were moudly) and plastrer, tiling everything, replace pipework. Of that £2.5k was labour.

I did go for some expensive items though. The showers, controls, and bathroom cabinet were £1k+ just by themselves.