Refurbishing 2 bedroom flat in London

fighter7927

Hello All,
Happy New Year 2020
I am in the process of buying a 2 bedroom flat in London. It needs extensive modernization/redecoration. Pretty much everything needs doing I would think. The flat is approx 90m2 and is on the 1st floor of a 4-floor building. Since it is not a house, I don't think there will be any structural issues. The refurbishment should be strictly indoor.

I have done some online research and estimate that it would cost around 35k, based on the following:
Plastering (including roof and walls): 3,000
Painting: 2,000
Floor: The flat is currently carpeted and hence it is difficult to estimate if the flooring needs changing. However, as a worst-case estimate, I am estimating 4,000 (40-50 per sq ft for a good wooden flooring)
Carpeting: The carpeting is old and needs replacing. I am estimating 4,000 (40-50 per sq ft for a good carpet)
New central heating: including new boiler, new rads, new pipework, etc: 5,000
New 3 piece bathroom plus tiling: 5,000
Newly fitted kitchen: 8,000
New electricals including re-wiring and all ports, sockets, etc: 5,000

As a conservative estimate, I am keeping aside an additional 20% on top of the 35k in case certain costs spiral out of control. Also, i believe i could DIY some of the above activities with some help but dont want to consider it at this stage since i want to estimate the maximum worst price that i need to pay/spend to refurbish that flat.

Is there something I am missing in the above list? Do the estimated prices make sense and are realistic to the current market in London?

Any info people could give me would be incredibly helpful. I am a first-time home buyer and nervous if I should be taking up this project/flat. I would be very grateful for any help provided.

I want to be able to make an educated decision about it all and don't want to end up in a situation of opening a can of worms and regretting it later.

naf123

Are you allowed wooden floors in the flat ? Check the lease . It can make hell for your downstairs neighbours hearing your footsteps.

Electrical rewiring and bathroom costs, painting and plastering seem a bit on the low side.

Is parking free where the flat is ?

MovingForwards

Costs for obtaining freeholders permission, if applicable.

phill99

I can't work out why you have got both wooden flooring and carpeting. Is some of the flat having wooden floor and some of it having carpet?


Or is it that you are thinking the floor boards will need replacing? If so, this is very unusual. If repairs are needed to the sub floor, then normally localised repairs would be undertaken and then wooden/laminate/carpet would be put on top.


What do the pipework and rads need changing? Even if you change the rads, you may not need to change the pipework.


Cost for a new bathroom is on the low side. You'll struggle to get it done for that. (I'm just about to start on bathroom number 79!!)


TBH my gut feeling is that you are on the low side. You haven't allowed for a kitchen, new doors etc.


And depending where you are in London, the price will vary. The only way to get proper prices is to get some quotes.

dirtycredit

skips and/or rubbish removal always come to more than you would think!

novelty-socks

I think you might be underestimating a bit. We paid £30k for similar work in a similar sized flat, but our work didn't include:

* Any work on the kitchen (we kept the existing kitchen)
* Flooring / carpeting (we did get new carpet but paid ~£3.5k for this separately)
* Bathroom tiles / furniture (we purchased these separately, ~£5k altogether I think)
* New boiler, although we did replace and move a bunch of radiators

So overall I guess we paid more like £40k, without including any work on the kitchen (which I think could easily be £10k+), or a new boiler.

To be fair, we had a range of quotes from the work, from about £20k right through to £38k. There was a lot of variation in builders' prices, but we went with one we felt we could trust, and who managed to meet our timescales.