renovating a 2nd hand house

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positivenote

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Hi all,
we're looking to buy a house at the moment and have an eye on one with bids been put in etc... however we want to budget for big renovations. We want to knock a wall down thats currently seperating a dining arae and a kitchen to make it open plan and then get a whole knew kitchen installed including tiling etc. We also want to get the majority of the house recarpeted and a knew ensuite fitted where the old one currently is (wc/basin/shower base etc) and we finally want a knew bath in the bathroom. Now i know its a lot of work but if anyone has any ballpark idea on what the cost of all or any of these renovations will cost it will help us out alot, as we can allocate more to our house purchasing budget if needs be...
any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
 
Just in case - don't go knocking out walls willy nilly without checking if they are load bearing and may need additional support (e.g. RSJ or whatever)!
 
as a lay man, i have given it the preverbial knock, and it seemed as though it was hollow and, once again as a layman, im presuming that this means that it can be removed.... please let me know if im way off mark with this :eek:
 
Hello Positivenote, From my recent experience: kitchen units from 10k to 40k, as an average. Renewing all kitchen appliances from 3k to 6k for good to high quality brands. (I was very happy with service and prices from DID). Carpet - for good to high quality, allow 50euro per square metre. WC and WHB- 100 plus, bath / shower: 2k. Plumbing for kitchen and bathroom: 6k. Knocking through a non-load bearing wall: 2k. Hope that helps.
 
kitchen units from 10k to 40k, as an average
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Wow! Must be some kitchen deirdra! Unless you're going for all sorts of fancy finishes and worktops, somewhere like Cash n' Carry kitchens will come in a good bit under that for the average sized kitchen.
 
Sherman, I'm still a lousy cook! I went for the 'safe' option of getting the complete kitchen supplied and fitted by the same company. Think you're right about cheaper options - it's just being able to fit them 100% yourself or get someone who is recommended. I suggest if Postivenote is happy with his builder, he/she could ask the builder to quote for fitting from some where like C and C.
 
Deirdra said:
Hello Positivenote, From my recent experience: kitchen units from 10k to 40k, as an average. Renewing all kitchen appliances from 3k to 6k for good to high quality brands. (I was very happy with service and prices from DID). Carpet - for good to high quality, allow 50euro per square metre. WC and WHB- 100 plus, bath / shower: 2k. Plumbing for kitchen and bathroom: 6k. Knocking through a non-load bearing wall: 2k. Hope that helps.
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Deirdra where are you getting those figures from.i got my BR(loo,wash basin,bath with all taps etc) for 550E and installed for 250E.got new kitchen in MFI for 850E plus delivery.Carpet.......you can get laminate flooring for 6E Syard average 100-150 per room.

guys this is rip off republic but if you look hard enough you can reduce your budget by thousands
 
cheers guys,
was talking to a plummer/tiler combo and they said for the labour they'd be looking for around 250-350 euro a day... the tiles would cost bout 1200-1500 for kitchen and BR, altough the wc/toilet/bath etc could cost anything from 400euro up wards.... think that this might be a good deal. Also thinking about knocking down the wall ourselves to get rid of the frustration that is being caused by the buying of the house :mad:
 
positivenote said:
cheers guys,
was talking to a plummer/tiler combo and they said for the labour they'd be looking for around 250-350 euro a day... the tiles would cost bout 1200-1500 for kitchen and BR, altough the wc/toilet/bath etc could cost anything from 400euro up wards.... think that this might be a good deal. Also thinking about knocking down the wall ourselves to get rid of the frustration that is being caused by the buying of the house :mad:
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do not pay this money.that is an absolute rip-off.i bought tiles for my kitchen (average size) floor and walls and also for my bathroom(floor and wall) plus small hall PLUS laminate flooring for 3 medium size BR and large living room for 850E.

please do not pay this money.
 
Positivenote.

Take heed of what Clubman is saying; if you take out a loadbearing wall without the appropriate steps being taken you will finish up with a very expensive mess on the floor. Some of this mess will be the floorjoists possibly resting on the wall and the rest will be the blood of the poor chap who took out the wall!

At the very least, get up into the space above and check to see which way the joists are running. If there is a room above look at which way the floorboards are running - the joists will run at rightangles to the boards. By this I mean that if the boards run parallel to the wall underneath, then the joists will be resting on that wall. If this is the case then you would need to support the joists and insert a RSJ before removing the supports.

Failure to carry out this check could be life threatening. No Joke.
 
take it as a warning heeded on all accounts .... if we eventually seal the house i'll get a builder in to give me the lowdown on the wall knockin. And i'll shop around for the tiles and bathroom
thanks again
 
positivenote - the wall you are talking about is a stud partition wall. These should not be loadbearing, but through time they may naturally take on a bit of the load, and there's always the odd situation where you see a stud partition is actually supporting a load substantially more than it was designed for. Bottom line is, even if you removed this yourself and said 'hey, nothing fell down, looks like its fine', you may be in for further pain down the road as the joists may sag, or you might get stress cracks elsewhere.

This is one area to get someone in the know involved, and be aware that if you need an RSJ it'll probably sit proud of the ceiling surface which will impact that open plan look a little (still worth going open plan though just be aware of this).

Get a structural engineer to have a look for a couple of hundred, and if you get the go ahead, knock it out yourself. If you do need an RSJ then budget around 2k.

I assume the plumber and tiler were looking for 250-300 each per day? Crazy as it sounds this does seem to be the going rate most trades price their labour at. My experience when working with these lads was that only making this rate was 'not making money'...making money is when they get their 300 a day for labour but also manage to conceal further profit in material or sub-contractor expenses - thats why theres lads out there earning crazy cash.

You should get a very decent kitchen from Cash&Carry or Panelling Centre for under 5k and pay another grand or two for a fitter.

No offence to Deirdra but her prices are all excessive, though maybe the gear she was getting was at the high-end, which is where the most profit for both suppliers and fitters is (a tradesman will never be shy about upping the price when he sees the client is spending top whack on the gear as they are less likely to be fussy over price).

Taking Hotpoint as a 'decent' brand DID should sort you out with a disher, washer, fridge, cooker, dryer for 2.5k.

6k for plumbing a bathroom and kitchen is ridiculous, especially in a renovation where all your supplies will be present and its just a case of extending the pipes to where the new appliances will be.

Shop around and source as much materials as you can yourself as you wont be paying the margin the tiler/plumber will stick on top, and you'll be making their prices more transparent (i.e. if he quotes 1200 you know its all for labour).

You can do a lot of the preparation work yourself to reduce the cost: remove existing tiles (can never understand why anyone would pay someone else to do this simple job), pull out existing kitchen etc. - this will reduce labour time for your tradesmen, but also make the job cleaner for them and the price will reflect it (e.g. if its a pain in the ass plenty of lads will charge top whack).

Good luck with the purchase and the renovations - my advice is make sure you have a 15 - 20% contingency fund on top of your original budget to cope with unexpected problems (beware asbestos) and the inevitable increase in your taste as you're out and about viewing kitchens and bathrooms
 
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