Home Improvements - what & how much $$$?

Ok, another question about houses ;)

I have no idea about costs on things, so just wanted to get an idea from people who have had work done on their homes. I know it depends on extent of work, who you get to do it, top or lower range, etc but whatever you have had done will give me some idea, so,

what work/renovations/have you had done on your place and what was the cost approx?
I`m looking at things like building a deck, new kitchen, new bathroom, fencing, ducted heating, replacement or creating windows or skylights etc

What sort of jobs are a pain in the ass and what should be gone into with caution??

Looking at buying a place that will need some 'tlc', just want to be aware of what will be major and maybe not worth the trouble.

thanks in advance :)

any extensions or fireplaces removed???
(bump) ;)

We just had a fence go up yesterday, one side has cost us $3000...that's our half (it's a big block). That's colourbond. We did put the last one up ourselves but with a DH always away, 2.5yr old & one on the way it was easier to pay someone. The back is yet to go up, that will be about $2000 for our half.

We got a quote on painting 3rooms of $3500....we are doing that ourselves. We just couldn't be bothered but can do it for much cheaper than that ourselves. It's a queenslander so it's a bit of work to prepare & very high ceilings.

We also just replaced the hall floor, it was lino & now we have a cheaper version of floating boards. Again we did this ourselves, the shop actually sells them to be done by the buyer. That's how easy they are & a great price.'

You just need to look around & if you are patient enough (we have a million jobs on the go) & handy enough you can do lots yourself.

what are floating floors?
Yes I am quite handy but DH isnt. And with little kiddies Im not too sure how much I want to do myself. Some bigger jobs I definatly could not do myself.

New kitchen $15-20k at least, however I am determine to do mine for under $10k. Bathrooms can be lots too and you can discover pretty crappy treasure...

My place needs tlc, but its totally functional until I get around to it - depends on a few things. Divvy has just redone her entire house, she might come in and give you a better feel for expenses

Hi Salsa,

Dh and I bought what seems to be a renovators delight, so we've done quite a bit of work.

Bathroom 6k
Kitchen 10k
Polish timber floors 1.5k
Carept in 3 bedrooms 2k
Colourbond Roof 10k
Ducted Cooling 4k
Decking 5k

With renovating, it all tends to be a bit disruptive, but if you have good tradesmen, most jobs arent a pain in the butt, and the end result is worth it. I just thought I'd mention too that my DH, brother and BIL are all tradies so they were able to do alot of the work which didnt cost anything.

HTH some :)

HA! Thats my bathroom and kitchen budget too! I KNEW I'd be able to do it all for less than $40k for both...
Will be picking your brains at a later date Hat!

We're doing our kitchen ourselves next week. We have a budget of around $6000.

So far we've spent:

$3000 on the cabinets, benchtops etc. They are a flatpack.

Then we got some massive bargains:

Rangehood from DH's work which was a wrong order $50
Cooktop from Clive Peeters old display kitchen $130
We are using our existing oven which we only bought last year.

I don't know how much the electrician, tiling or flooring will cost yet. But am looking around for some bargains.

We did two bathrooms about 2 1/2 years ago - DH did most of the work himself except plumbing and electrician and we 'bargain-hunted'. Cost approx $6000 for both.
DH also pulled out and replaced our whole kitchen. We got the kitchen at auction (granite benches, 2 pak cupboards, pull-out pantry) for $5000, plus all appliances, a little retiling, and overhead cupboards for around $7000.
We've just had the house painted not long ago - $1800 I think (but get quotes, the first quote was about $3500!) and carpets around $900.
We've got plans to extend our deck and add a rear staircase- will have a double car space underneath too. It'll be huge (6 1/2 x over 7m) and we're looking at around $40 000. Out of our budget at the moment!
My best advice is to get lots of quotes as prices vary a lot! And shop around for appliances, tiles, lights, fans etc as you can get some great bargains!

Sounds like things can vary a lot!
I`d love to do more things ourselves but DH gets moody about even ikea!
Kitchens sound like they have a very big variance.

HAs anyone done an extension?

We did a new deck last christmas, it's fairly large about 12 mtrs long and 3/4 mtrs out from the house. (runs along the back of the house.) We also installed a sort of sun deck which is only 3x4 mtrs off to one side - just somewhere to get some sun as the rest is all under cover.

Ours is'n't high off the ground though, I suppose in a queenslander you would need to 'stilt' it up?? :D

It was $10k from memory. I think the timber cost $3k, and the rest was labour and supplies. My dad installed his own deck which is on an outcrop so therefore on stilts, he was a carpenter though, but I know he thought we got a good price as the timber for his was $4k and apparently when priceing jobs you price the materials and then a third for supplies/costs and then a third for profit.

I'm glad he told me that actually because it has helped when I get quotes for everything else!!

We also did kitchen and bathrooms and ended up with the same costs as the other comments.

Pain in arse jobs??? Removing tiles, especially old ones which have been literally cemented on. My DH said he would never do that again, even though he had a tile removing tool. Also any sort of bricklaying is time consuming, getting every brick level is a 'pain in the arse' (or back!)

We have put up a few fences in our time and I would say that is a fairly easy job, bit of string, one of those fence hole diggers and some cement and you can knock it off in a weekend. I also think tiling can be worth doing yourself. You have to be one of those 'perfecionist' type people and not rush it, but I personally like tiling, with those spacer things its quite simple.


Phoar, what a reply! I'll leave you to it. HAPPY RENOVATING!:clap::clap:

oh, good to know about tile removal! SOme of the houses weve been looking at have very 'interesting' tiles. I wonder if there is any thing else that can be done to change tiles without actually changing/removing them?? Some sort of magic paint?:lol:

We have had the interesting tiles as well, that took a lot of grunt to remove. Also the many layers of wallpaper, we are pretty sure the one with the brick print was meant to be load bearing :rofl:

Renos are so hard to budget for, once you start ripping things done you can come across some very scary things. Always be prepared to pay more than what you think for electrical and plumbing, these tend to be the blow out areas.

Also budget in extra on petrol and parking. There is always a lot more driving to be done. Don't forget takeaway food budget, especially if you are ripping out a kitchen.

I'm pretty sure you can get paint for tiles. Depending on where they are, it is possible to tile over existing tiles too - I've heard it can be a pain in the whatsit though!

Astrid's right about uncovering scary stuff. We've found that nothing in our house is square, so we have an extra half a tile's width in one part of our kitchen/dining room! DH fitted fly screens to the windows and doors and we have a huge gap at one end of each of the sliding doors cos they're not square either.
When we moved in, we thought our kitchen was just ugly and old fashioned, but we soon found out that hardly anything in it worked (dishwasher, 3 out of 4 stove elements and the oven had exposed wiring in it!) so that became priority no 1 instead of the bathrooms. And we found some pretty shoddy workmanship too e.g. the stuff surrounding the shower wasn't waterproof - fortunately no damage to the structural timbers!

Renovating can get so expensive, it really depends on how you can do yourself and if you know anyone to help with the big jobs.
We put a front pergola up and the steel cost us i think around $1500 and the concrete cost $1500 too for 7 x 5 metres labour nothing as hubby is a boilermaker and some friends helped with the concreting...one of which turned out to be an ex concreter :dance: They also concreted around the pool we put in, got professionals to do that though...now that was exy $30 000, so worth it! We still have a back extension to do that will be 14 x 5 metres, bathroom, kitchen, floor coverings more concreting, carport, new garage to replace the old existing one! We have just decided to sell a block of land we have to pay for the rest of the renos cos we will make more outta the house than the land.

I did my whole house (minus bathroom) for about $40K.

My initial budget was $20K but then I decided to add in the floating floor ($7.5K) and aircon ($5K).

Kitchen (including glass splashback and installation) $8K and this is a very small kitchen 2.6m by 3m. And I got it at 30% off. Kitchens are a rip off IMHO. I had a cheaper quote but it was going to take much longer so I went with the more expensive option - which unfortunately wasn't the best.

Painting - did with my dad, about $1K worth of materials/paint.

Extension - turned garage into playroom - $5K including carpet and paint.

Gardening - including engaging an excavator - $1.5K

Fencing - $1.5K

Plumbing - $1K

Electrician - $2k

Laundry - $500

Miscellaneous bits and pieces (Bunnings lol) $about 3K - amazing what you need when you renovate, I didn't have ANY tools so had to buy basic things like drills, screwdriver sets, drill bits, spanners, plasterboard, etc etc.

You have a LOT of uncounted-for expenses, mine were the plumber and electrician. Make sure you get good tradespeople that have a documented history.

Oh and don't get me started on my airconditioning drama... I'm thinking of suing the manufacturer for their (lack of) after-sales service...

And I haven't done the deck yet... that's the next project...

salsa, there is a tile paint where you can paint over old tiles, it's a white knight product. If you google for White Knight and then search for tile paint on their website :)