how much to do up 1940's house

Viewed this house yesterday. Think it's 1940's, c.1100 sq ft.
Needs absolutely everything done to it. Wiring, central heating, insulating, new kitchen/bathroom,double glazing (is wooden preferably). Those would be the main things I think. Decorative stuff could wait.
Is this about right -
wiring €5000 (does this include fuse box or is this extra?)
central heating €10,000
windows and replastering €10,000
insulating €3000
bathroom needs knocking into one and new suite -€5000?
small new cheap kitchen (without extending which would be the ideal) €5000?
If we were to knock the old kitchen into the dining room assuming it was a load bearing wall, what would we be looking at? €10,000?
Many thanks

Your figure for electrics would increase if you wanted to hide conduit in walls - chasing, replastering and decorations (say €3000)

Your figure for insulating - do you want to dryline the external walls, if so you would be looking at between €8000 - €10000

Other than that based on information your figures seem okay. Would depend on level of finish required. Better finish = more expensive.

Also, has a building survey been undertaken? There may be structural issues that need sorting out or the building may not be weathertight, these would be other potential costs..

The old 'Rule of Thumb' for this type of job was - work out your the budget based on what you can see - then double it.

Did it a few years ago on an old Victorian House and it was spot-on.

Just about finished gutting & renovating a similar 1950s house and the overall figure is around 85k including a large extension. We did alot of the gutting prep ourselves and most of the decorating.

Building works including all rewiring, plumbing, knocking bathroom to one & refit, installing utility room and downstairs shower & very large extension came in at 45k plus vat which was a great price from the builder.

Some of that breaksdown to:
Rewiring (inc chasing & refinish & fusebox) = 6k
Plumbing & new heating (new rads, tank etc, kept orig boiler) = 8k

Other stuff not in 45k:
Kitchen & utility from Panelling Centre = 10k (no appliances)
Windows PVC = 6k, timber 8 - 10k, aluclad 10 - 12k (Haven't done this yet and ignoring the silly quotes like 33k from one supplier)
New bathroom suite inl shower, bath, wc, sink & taps = 2500k

We saved money by shopping around and asking for discounts everywhere. Only got refused twice, got between 10% to 30% off every other time. Tried to get as much in each place as possible to maximise the discount. It's a good time to be renovating as there are great bargains out there if you look and/or ask. Some stuff is still very expensive though. Price of tiles & carpet were a shock. It's looking great though and glad we went for the complete refit.

I can send you a proper breakdown if you pm me.

moneygrower said:

Viewed this house yesterday. Think it's 1940's, c.1100 sq ft.
Needs absolutely everything done to it. Wiring, central heating, insulating, new kitchen/bathroom,double glazing (is wooden preferably). Those would be the main things I think. Decorative stuff could wait.
Is this about right -
wiring €5000 (does this include fuse box or is this extra?)
central heating €10,000
windows and replastering €10,000
insulating €3000
bathroom needs knocking into one and new suite -€5000?
small new cheap kitchen (without extending which would be the ideal) €5000?
If we were to knock the old kitchen into the dining room assuming it was a load bearing wall, what would we be looking at? €10,000?
Many thanks

Click to expand...

Hey There,
I just bought a 1960's house, and it needed all that you need.

Full rewire ( chasing replastering etc) 6500
Brand new kitchen( with applicances) 4700
New Heating system 5000
Replaced toilet,wash hand, got a electic shower, tiles etc All 2400

hope that gives ya a hand

hi, I missed all the responses to my thread! thanks they are really helpful. We haven't done a survey just viewed the house and wanted to figure out roughly how much money would be needed on top of any offer we might make to make the place comfortable.

Joker - are you saying €8k to rewire with chasing and plastering? no way do I want some half assed ugly wiring job but we'd be happy to do the grunt work ourselves.
As for do I want to dryline the external walls - I don't know! Should I? One of the things I like about the house is that it's roomy enough on the inside to take drylining. Is one better than the other or should one do both?

Feek are you living in Donegal? Your prices seem very good value! There is a downstairs bathroom in the house and we don't plan on doing an extension. I'd never heard of Alu CLad windows will have to look into that.

Mrs Liamo your bills sound most similar to my estimates.

So revised - roughly - in order of importance -

Wiring €6500
heating €10,000
insulating €3000-€13000?
Bathroom €2500
Kitchen €5000
windows €10,000 +

First four would need doing straight away so that's about €25k for starters?
Haven't got enough cash now so need to save for another year or two, by then might get same thing done up for same money. who knows.