Costs of House Modernisation

[lemarsh]

Thanks to all those who posted regarding my potential 'Orange' house (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=16213) - but I now have a 2nd potential property on the list.

However, this Edwardian 3 bed house has no central heating, bad decour (I can live with that to start of with), and needs new bathroom & kitchen.

The trouble is, before I seriously consider putting in an offer, I would like an rough estimate of the cost of kitchen/bathroom & central heating.

I have estimated about £11k for bathroom & kitchen, but have no idea of central heating. It is a 3 bed, 2 reception room, without anything in place at present. Any suggestions? Are the bathroom/kitchen figs in the right ballpark?

I have no DIY experience, so will either be using people I know (paying the going rate) or getting companies in to do it.

detail below:
http://www.townends.co.uk/photos/add_add040362.JPG
Edwardian Semi-Detached House, Three Bedrooms, Two Reception Rooms

Offering three double bedrooms this Edwardian house offers great potential for extension and improvement. Externally the property includes a 65ft rear garden. The property includes two reception rooms, large hall and landing giving flexible scope to change the layout (STPP). Ideally situated for the town centre and BR station we anticipate early interest.

[Chris]

You can certainly get your kitchen and bathroom for 11k, but it will depend a little on who you get to do it for you and how hard a bargain you can drive. A local independent showroom will almost certainly be your best bet (get recommendations from your neighbours).

As for central heating ... haven't a clue, sorry! But, it is well worth doing with the house empty of your posessions if at all possible. Is the house you want to buy vacant or occupied at present?

[SMHarman]

CH depends on what you want, a top quality pressurised system with a megaflow HW tank and a condensing boiler will be about 4k fitted and a more traditional gravity fed system about 3k.

You can save a lot if you are willing to help / make good etc, a lot of the work in putting in CH/Rads is pulling up floorboards, putting notches in joists, then putting it all back together again. If your CH engineer tells you what he wants pulled up and you do it you could probably knock £700 off those prices as he would not spend a 4 days pulling up and putting down boards.

If those three items need doing, how are the power circuits? With all that disruption it is worth ensuring you don't need to do it all again for dodgy electricals in 3 years time.

You also need to do all the plumbing / electrical and other structural cabling (TV / Network CAT5(or 6)/ Telephone) before you start decorating.

If you have no children and can be prepared to live in a mess for 6 months then this is probably a project worth taking on. You will get the kitchen and bathroom you want, CH rads where it makes sense, the knowledge that all three are new, warrantied for 12+ months and less likely to breakdown and the increase in the value of the property from it being fixed up, your reward for the 6 months of disruption.

Wherever you get your kitchen from, phone around local joiners for install costs, MFI wanted £2k for the install of mine, as I had a plumber and electrician already on site, those works were a low cost add on for them and the local joiner charged £1200 cash, so another £800 in the bank for other tasks.

[Ramrod]

You should be able to do the central heating for about £5k--rough figure--speak to a couple of plumbers about it. The kitchen and bathroom will be cheapest if you get /organise/manage individual workmen to do each job required rather than pay a premium for a company to do the jobs and sub them out themselves.
How much is the place going for?

[MovedGoalPosts]

I agree that £11k should be enought for a reasonable kithcen and bathroom, but you will need to be careful over your choice of fittings, tiles and all the other accessories.

SMHarman's costs too for the heating I would have thought are a reasonable budget. But bear in mind if you are doing a new kithen and bathroom, as well as heating there is very little else plumbed. You will probably best renew all the water supply pipework, so it properly integrates into the new heating and kitchen / bathroom. Culd be almost as economic as trying to salvage bits of the existing. Also give you the opportunity to loos the roofspace water tanks.

As said above too, I would expect the electrics to need work. Budget for a good upgrade or total rewire. Could add say £2500-£4000 dependent on how carried away you get with sockets, and the like.

Reading between the lines the estate agent's "great potential for extension and improvement" measn that the property generally needs a lot of attention. The windows look horrible, say £5k to replace. Your probably gona need to redecorate throughout. I doubt theres any worhtwhile insulation in the roofspace. What is the condition of the pointing and roof tiles.

If you don't know what you are doing, and it sounds like you dont, get a decent survey (RICS contact centre 0870 222 1600, for Chartered Surveyors working locally to you). Don't rely on the motgage valuation. Indeed you will probably find on something like this that you can only get a partial mortgage so the lender can see you have sufficient funds to make the needed refurbishment.

[SMHarman]

<snip> Indeed you will probably find on something like this that you can only get a partial mortgage so the lender can see you have sufficient funds to make the needed refurbishment.
However most mortgage lenders will, if you say finance this on a credit card, take out a further advance when complete to put the costs of the refurb (the capital ones, like electric, heat, kitchen and bathroom, not painting and curtains) onto the mortgage, or agree a release schedule for the full mortgage as these improvements are made.

When we had an extension built the Halifax agreed to release 1/3 up front (as it would be covered by the existing property equity), 1/3 on roofed in (they sent a valuer / inspector around) and 1/3 when I supplied them the building completion certificate.

[lemarsh]

Thanks to all those who replied - but unfotunately the house was sold this morning - back to the drawing board

[Chris]

Thanks to all those who replied - but unfotunately the house was sold this morning - back to the drawing board

Bummer. Better luck next time!

[paulyoung666]

as an aside , obviously i dont know your financial situation ........ , but , try yourt local council and see if they do renovation grants in your area , they used to in mine and i got all sorts for free when i got my house , worth a phone call i reckon :)