Project costs

[Zebra]

I have kept all the receipts in a big folder for all the costs on the house: all the planning fees, skip hire, every tube of silicone, every pack of screws over five years.
I have now added them up and have a total figure for the project (not including the garden which is not done yet).
So, for: knocking down and rebuilding two single storey extensions, new roofs - clay tiled and flat, repointing the whole house inside and out, lining the chimney and installing a woodburner, new timber windows, new external doors, external wall insulation, complete lime render, cutting in a dpc, new insulated concrete slabs, rebuilding the stairs, relaying all wooden flooring, lime plastering or gypsum plastering throughout, new bathroom and kitchen, new boiler and central heating system, complete rewire, how much do you reckon?
Shall I tell you now or wait for you to guess? You may find my answer insufferably smug.

 

[Me!]

Please remind me first, have you paid any trades(wo)men along the way to do any of it for you, or have you done absolutely all the work yourself?

 

[plasticpigeon]

40k

 

[malcolm]

Won't be as much as that - that's the budget for mine which is bigger. Given how efficiently you have sorced things and how much you have done yourself I'll guess around 20k.

 

[mims&pip]

Pip says 17k......I reckon 23k. It will definitely be relatively low imho. Work on our last house cost 100k give or take a few £££ - we also keep receipts, but know that a few things unavoidably slipped through the net. We also did loads of the work ourselves - not the rewire - and have guesstimated it would have been at least twice that had we used trades for everything :wink:

Mims x

 

[plasticpigeon]

I bet I've spent 20k+ on my place and I don't think I've done as much as Zebra.

 

[mims&pip]

I bet I've spent 20k+ on my place and I don't think I've done as much as Zebra.

It mounts up *so* quickly though, PP - and if you don't keep track, before you know it you've racked up a small fortune I know that when we were working on our last-but-one house (the Tudor one that had been moved, lol!), we spent around 40-45k just doing the more cosmetic stuff - kitchen, two bathrooms, garden landscaping (and plants - especially if you want instant impressiveness, size-wise, even though we always wait for sales, look at the bargain area etc - eat up the budget crazily!), replastering & redecoration :roll:

We always do the plastering, tiling, flooring, wallpapering, painting, gardening and majority of the plumbing as well as the hard labour (demolition etc), so we save hugely on labour costs, plus we try to source materials on eBay, but if you want high end, good quality *stuff* it's never going to be cheap......

 

[plasticpigeon]

I think I can account for around 5 thousand pounds that I have paid out for jobs that I have had to re do. Thankfully this hasn't happened for a few years now, and I have learned to be a bit tougher with people, both how I evaluate their ability to do a job, and what I expect during the job. But it really does add up. For example for my bay window I spent £100 on stripper, probably £60 on paint, £100 on reclaimed bricks and slate for the roof, at least £50 on felt structural timber nails and battens. Maybe £100 in lime cement and sand (I poured founations too), £400 on leadwork, and if I remember correctly £300 to £400 on some new sills, that is £1200 just on making the bay window nice!!!!

 

[kreyszig]

Do tools count? I am sure it is acceptable to deduct fancy new tools from expenses. They'll get used over and over, right? ;-)

 

[Zebra]

Oh. I had thought you would all guess higher. I have had trades for : roofing, rendering, gypsum plastering (not lime), boiler (not plumbing) and the structural work of the extensions.
I have spent £49k, which I thought was pretty amazing, given that my budget was originally £30k, and I have had to do so much more than I had imagined I would.

 

[plasticpigeon]

I'm sure we are just all optimists. Certainly if I were to properly add up everything that I have spent it could well be a lot more than I might estimate but I try and be realistic. You have achieved an awful lot for the money. My guess was because I knew you had done so much yourself and seemed pretty pleased, so I guessed quite low. Wasn't so far off though!!!!!

 

[malcolm]

That's very good, and a lovely result. It would have been half a million and botched to within an inch of it's life had it been on a TV show.

My own budget might need to be adjusted as I notice I've spent £30k since March but I also spent £10k last year and am still only half finished. Expensive things these houses when you start paying attention.

 

[LadyArowana]

Oh. I had thought you would all guess higher. I have had trades for : roofing, rendering, gypsum plastering (not lime), boiler (not plumbing) and the structural work of the extensions.
I have spent £49k, which I thought was pretty amazing, given that my budget was originally £30k, and I have had to do so much more than I had imagined I would.

That's brilliant, was saying to someone only today that you had done a really splendid job with your place. TBH at the outset it didn't even look that promising a prospect and it's like a special place now.

 

[a twig]

I spent £100 on stripper,...

sorry PP but you simply cannot claim such entertainments on expenses

 

[TheRoost]

I'm late to the party but seeing the three words extensions, roofs and new windows I immediately thought £100k+ if done mainly by a builder - so you've done a serious amount of work for that outlay, well done. How much did you spend on he windows?

 

[Flyfisher]

Do tools count? I am sure it is acceptable to deduct fancy new tools from expenses. They'll get used over and over, right? ;-)

I keep a spreadsheet of all my expenditure on our project, though I'm reluctant to actually calculate the total sum!

I put tools in the 'capital' column to differentiate them from 'consumables'. Basically, anything that has lasting value is classed as 'capital' expenditure, though it's a fine line really as fixing a roof obviously has lasting value but I class that as 'consumable' expenditure because a good roof is usually assumed. Conversely, our kitchen extension is classed as 'capital' on the basis that it has added value to the house. But there are no real rules, just define what categories you wish to track.

But it is an eye-opener if you really track everything right down to paint brushes, nails, screws, etc.

 

[Feltwell]

I think it's a fantastic result that you've done so much for so little outlay Zebra, a testament to all your hard work saving on labour costs. As for costs on Feltwell Towers - I don't want to work it out, especially the man cave (garage)! All done as cheaply as possible and much of the labour came from yours truly, but it's a home first & foremost - not a forever one admittedly but the next 20 years are as assured as it can be - rather than a financial investment.

Conversely, our kitchen extension is classed as 'capital' on the basis that it has added value to the house.

Speaking of which, I chanced across an old thread yesterday showing the FF kitchen in the midst of being painted red - but I don't recall seeing pictures of the finished project - hint, hint........

 

[Flyfisher]

Did you miss this topic Feltwell? http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14964

 

[88v8]

Twenty-four years ago we spent well over £50k on a two-storey extension, and that with me doing all the internal finishing.
Mind you, we did use builders recommended by a lady in St George's Hill.

And my double garage looks like eating more than £35k.

Ivor

 

[Zebra]

I'm late to the party but seeing the three words extensions, roofs and new windows I immediately thought £100k+ if done mainly by a builder - so you've done a serious amount of work for that outlay, well done. How much did you spend on he windows?

There are four windows. They were £3.5k for the joinery, and £600 to buy the DG units. I fitted them myself. Another £400 on linseed oil paint and fasteners makes £4.5k in all.
The other main items were: £7.8k on new building, £5k on roofing, £4.5k on what I've called "old house repairs", £4k on rendering, £3.5k on skip hire, £3k on boiler and plumbing, £1.8k on the fire and chimney, £1.6k on the all-encompassing term "various," £1.4k on the bathroom, £1k on asbestos removal, £900 on doors, and £700 on the kitchen, plus other smaller categories not worth mention.