For some reason I've been doing a wee search about looking at plots of land - I don't think I'm wanting to move but the appeal of having a house set how I'd like it seems to appeal so I'm wondering if there is a website (or sites) that I can use to design my idea of a house and then it can give an indication of what is needed in terms of materials and a rough indicator of costs to build.
An old bakery building is up for sale and it is pretty much just the shell and upper floor intact but it has plan/permission for a 4 bedroom conversion, so would be good to get an idea of how much it would be to convert - just in case it is in a region that I could stomach.
Suspect this has been asked various times throughout the history of this site but I can't find anything as too lazy to work out how to search for what I'm after!
Cheers.
From my limited recent experience all of the online calculators are out of date at the moment because the price of materials has gone mad. I wanted a small built on garage extension nothing fancy, calculators were saying £6-10 grand, I’ve had 2 quotes one at £24k and the other at £30k+.
I’m not bothering yet.
There are guides on checkatrade.com but expect them to be on the low side at least for a while.
I doubt that exists. You can get basic calculators for number of bricks and the like then add everything up but it'll still be miles off. I'd just go with a per sq metre figure. £1k for basic/diy, £2k for standard, £3k for fancy, £4-5-6k for grand designs follies. You can probably add a bit for doing an old building up over a new build.
Don't mind if they are low, but it will be better than my guesstimate of £100k for fixing everything (assuming shell of building is present)...
I'll check checkatrade.com, thanks.
You can probably add a bit for doing an old building up over a new build.
Old building budget planning:
#1 - open wallet
#2 - start pouring
This suggests between £600 and £1,100 per sqm : https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/conversion-guide-barns-churches-schools-and-industrial
I would plan to be at the higher end of that given that was from May last year. Obviously more for fancy stuff like gold taps for you bespoke bike wash and ethically source wooden handles for your coffee grinder
We had an extension quoted last month (2.5m x 6.5m + steelwork to make the back of the house open plan), two quotes came back one £45k, the other £50k. So yea, depending on what you have planned, £1-£2k per m2 can be a LONG way off.
Trying to figure out whether that's inflated. Plenty of reasons it could be:
* Loads of people doing lots of saving (no holidays, no going out, no petrol, no new car, general belt-tightening out of economic uncertainty) and now looking for something to spend it on. There are certainly some demographics that have done well out of the last year. I know some people that have saved ~£6k on railway tickets, and billed 3h/day or more overtime as a result of home working!
* People haven't moved house this year so looking to spend it on extensions
* Materials prices are high. One quote even said materials had to be paid for upfront so they could buy it all in advance and store it until needed otherwise they couldn't guarantee them being available buying on the usual "just in time" basis.
In the end we got an estate agent round and his opinion was not to bother, the layout isn't ideal/fashionable but the market was such that there wasn't money to be made or even recouped at the moment doing the work.
You can probably add a bit for doing an old building up over a new build.
Yep, it'll be cheaper to knock down and start fresh 🙂
Unfortunately planning wouldn't let us do this so we 'renovated' a stone/slate barn for my Mum. Worked out at £1600 per m2 all in for single storey including extension 5 years ago. We owned the plot and the only services cost was another power line/meter, but from the pole adjacent to the building.
Oh, and don't forget that you may not be able to claim some/all the VAT back.
You can probably add a bit for doing an old building up over a new build.
yep, no VAT on new build (except on white goods and carpets)
Online estimators don't take into account for things like location and how busy local builders are - in more rural areas you may only have the choice of one or two, they're always busy and they can name their price. There's been a big hike in building material prices this year too - and big delays, our windows were ordered in October for December - they are due for delivery next week! We're paying £1800/m2 for a new build house - you can save 10% on that if you were to project manage / appoint the trades yourself.
I think rather than, people haven’t moved this year, it’s more that more people have looked at their surroundings and decided to change it. Those that can and want to move have done that - and some of them will buy a property to extend on or do up, those that don’t want to or can’t sell have stayed and the builders in.
Was there a bit of a plaster shortage?
So, the number of house sales in 2020 was still over 1m and not much lower than 2019.
yes there is, one of them is
https://www.estimators-online.com
Costs will vary quite a bit depending on the discounts you manage to pick up with the merchants..
For a refurb the cost of materials will bear bugger all relation to the total cost of works so making your idea pointless. Also without architects details how do you know what materials you need. An online pricer will need proper drawings to work from. For a new build just work on cost m2. Those m2 prices above of £1000m2 and below are totally out of date. £1500 - £2500 is going to be far more realistic.
£1500 – £2500 is going to be far more realistic.
agree. More if you want a high spec.
Everyone seems to be extending. Down our way (Plymouth), you have to wait weeks to just get an architect out to see you, if you can find one who isn’t too busy.