How can I understand how much renovation costs?

RHemmings

I would like to be able to look at a house, see that certain work needs doing, and have a very rough idea of how much money I would need to throw at it to make it liveable. 

How can I learn more about this? 

Is there anyone who has renovated a property and would be kind enough to say what they had done, and how much it cost. 

Is there anyone who can say something like 'To renovate a three bedroom semi including new carpets, fully painted, new kitchen, new bathroom, just basic stuff nothing fancy, it might cost somewhere in the ballpark of £??,???'? 

Any other advice on how I can learn more about this? 

TheJP

The cost is based on many factors,

• The area you live in, trade costs differ in regions
• The quality of what you want to install, this can have a big impact in costs but also enjoyment (buy cheap buy twice and all that)
• Also if you can do some of the basic labour yourself, ripping up carpets, cabinets, dismantling built in units etc

Make sure to get a number of quotes to compare and always research reviews on google, trust pilot and often the FB page of the trade can teach you a lot on their standard of quality.

I'm sure some seasoned renovators can give examples of their experiences and costs to help you gauge your budget.

RHemmings

TheJP said:

The cost is based on many factors,

• The area you live in, trade costs differ in regions
• The quality of what you want to install, this can have a big impact in costs but also enjoyment (buy cheap buy twice and all that)
• Also if you can do some of the basic labour yourself, ripping up carpets, cabinets, dismantling built in units etc

Make sure to get a number of quotes to compare and always research reviews on google, trust pilot and often the FB page of the trade can teach you a lot on their standard of quality.

I'm sure some seasoned renovators can give examples of their experiences and costs to help you gauge your budget.

Thank you. I wouldn't do the basic labour myself as I would likely make a mess of it. That's not my skillset. Even ripping out carpets. 

Getting quotes can only happen after I have a property to renovate - and I can't really buy a fixer upper without having some idea of the cost. I'd be happy with estimates +/- £5000, but can't even get that close myself. 

Unless I learn more, I can't buy a fixer upper. Which otherwise might be a good option for me as I could buy now and fix up later. (If current state is liveable.) 

Slick88

We purchased a 3 bedroom semi that needed modernising, so not quire renovation. 

Biggest expense was the Kitchen which need all tiling removed, walls and ceiling skimmed. 

We had a full kitchen with all built in appliances and opted for Bosch and Hot Point appliances, which aren't the cheapest. 

The kitchen cost around £5000 and the fit/walls etc cost another £5000.

We weren't particularly handy but we didn't have a lot of money so taught myself to lay laminate flooring and did the whole of the downstairs, much cheaper than having someone else do it. 

Carpets for 3 rooms upstairs plus landing and stairs was around £500 plus fitting. 

Repairing walls, painting, general maintenance we did ourselves to save cash. 

After the Kitchen next biggest expense was having the driveway extended (additional 36sqm) which cost £6000ish with draining and a new rear fence, etc. 

Then a new boiler at £1500

If you haven't looked into it I think you'd be surprised at the cost of a good labourer, decorator, etc. 

FreeBear

Slick88 said: The kitchen cost around £5000 and the fit/walls etc cost another £5000.

After the Kitchen next biggest expense was having the driveway extended (additional 36sqm) which cost £6000ish with draining and a new rear fence, etc. 

Then a new boiler at £1500

If you haven't looked into it I think you'd be surprised at the cost of a good labourer, decorator, etc. 

My kitchen, including new ceiling, wiring, and plastering - £1800

25m² block paved drive, about £1K

New central heating system & boiler, £3K, but only because I had to pay for a Gas Safe engineer to fit the boiler.

In all of the above, I did the bulk of the work myself in order to keep costs down. Building trades seem to be charging £250-400 per person per day at the moment, with plumbers & electricians charging even more. Based on what I've seen of some work, quality can vary from good to abysmal - The last plaster job i had done, I reckon I could do better. So took a short course with the local Adult Education dept, and have since plastered the hallway & ceiling. And yes, it is a much better job. £100 for tools and materials.

theartfullodger

A good rule of thumb ...

Do your estimates, then double the costs and triple the timescale.

Or is it double the timescale and triple the costs 

Seriously.... Has saved my bacon a couple of times...

RHemmings

Thanks for the information. I'm still hesitant to do a lot myself. I think I wouldn't get around to it, wouldn't do it properly, and wouldn't get the benefit of the new kit installed. I understand that this is a moneysaving website, and hence this is certainly all very good advice. But, I'm really ... not sure about doing it myself. 

There are houses I see which are under my budget by a considerable amount. But, which are serious fixer-uppers. One in particular is £40,000 under my budget, and I was wondering what the house would be like if I threw £40,000 at it. Or a lesser amount of £20,000. From what I see above, it seems that the answer is 'quite a bit' if I did the work myself

I live in a rented house, and one local DIY expert in particular fixes various things around the house. He always does a good job, everything looks professional, and nothing he has fixed here has subsequently broken again. I got the estate agents to give me his contact details.
 
One of the local renovation companies says 'we've never had a bad review'. Their Google Reviews are 5.0 from 64 reviews.

eddddy

Are you thinking about this because...

1. You want to end up with a renovated house at a bargain price, or
2. You want to end up with a renovated house that is designed to suit your taste and suit your lifestyle (and you are less concerned about a bargain price) 

It might be hard to achieve option 1 - especially as you are a novice, you're not keen to do any diy, and you don't seem to have any connections in the trade.

And you might be competing with people looking at option 2 - who are prepared to pay a bit more than you for a house, because they want to end up with "the house of their dreams".

RHemmings

eddddy said:

Are you thinking about this because...

1. You want to end up with a renovated house at a bargain price, or
2. You want to end up with a renovated house that is designed to suit your taste and suit your lifestyle (and you are less concerned about a bargain price) 

It might be hard to achieve option 1 - especially as you are a novice, you're not keen to do any diy, and you don't seem to have any connections in the trade.

And you might be competing with people looking at option 2 - who are prepared to pay a bit more than you for a house, because they want to end up with "the house of their dreams".

Thank you. 

 I'm not looking for a bargain price. Much more 2. My taste includes good on energy, easy to heat, and liveable. 

There is also a certain amount of some other options. 

3. I'm more fussy about location (for transport, not for general area quality) than the house, and impatient. So, including fixer-uppers increases the number of houses available to me, and increases the chance that I find a house soon. 

4. I'm worried about getting stuck in chain that won't finish, and the fixer-uppers are frequently already empty. See comment on impatience.

But, being able to decorate, simply, according to my tastes is a big plus. I won't want anything fancy, but the rented place I live in now has fancy looking kitchen, but the dark cabinet and drawer doors mark if you as much as look at them. I hate it. I just saw a 'handleless kitchen' on a kitchens website. I don't want that. Etc. 

propertyhunter

You should get a builder in after you've had an offer accepted and get a sense of the costs to do what you'd like to do. Yes it might cost you a little to get the sense of ball park costs,  but it will allow you to go into something with your eyes open, or back out because it'll be too expensive. These days, with building costs so high, it might be more cost-effective to buy a house that needs only minor cosmetic work, rather than a do-er upper. You'll only know what compromise to make when you see the property. 

RHemmings

propertyhunter said:

You should get a builder in after you've had an offer accepted and get a sense of the costs to do what you'd like to do. Yes it might cost you a little to get the sense of ball park costs,  but it will allow you to go into something with your eyes open, or back out because it'll be too expensive. These days, with building costs so high, it might be more cost-effective to buy a house that needs only minor cosmetic work, rather than a do-er upper. You'll only know what compromise to make when you see the property. 

Oh, I see. That works. I offer on a place that needs work conditional on getting a builder in and a quote for work that needs to be done. I then get the builder's quote. And, if it's acceptable I go ahead. And if not, I rescind the offer. 

That makes a lot of sense. However, I've just found this website:

https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/cost-guides/cost-renovating-house/

which says that the average price of renovating a three bedroom house is £76,900. That is a lot more than I expected. It's useful to see all the typical prices for individual improvements, however.