Builders finish to Full finish

whitelightrider

Folks,

We are looking at a house that has a builders finish, with door and architrave dont on the house. We would have to floor it, furnish it and put a kitchen into the house. Can anyone give a rough figure as to what it would cost to get a house from builders finish to full finish?

squire1

I'm trying not to be sarcastic here but how long is a ball of string?

It would be impossible to price such a fit out without knowing the size of the house, what standard finish you want etc.

Basically, you will have to take measurements of floor areas, kitchen size etc and get quotes.

The guys over on the DIY forum will then be able to tell you if the quotes are reasonable or not.

whitelightrider

squire1 wrote:

I'm trying not to be sarcastic here but how long is a ball of string?

It would be impossible to price such a fit out without knowing the size of the house, what standard finish you want etc.

Basically, you will have to take measurements of floor areas, kitchen size etc and get quotes.

The guys over on the DIY forum will then be able to tell you if the quotes are reasonable or not.

I know what you mean squire. It's 2300sq ft. I know you could spend a fortune on a kitchen and flooring. Just asking to see if we can afford to put in an offer on this house.

squire1

whitelightrider wrote:

I know what you mean squire. It's 2300sq ft. I know you could spend a fortune on a kitchen and flooring. Just asking to see if we can afford to put in an offer on this house.

Ah, get ya.

Jebus, that's a tough one.

I'd say you would want a minimum budget of 10 to 15K before furniture but basically you could spend what you can afford to do the essentials and do the rest over time.

If you are planning to stay in the house a while my idea would be to spend the maximum I could afford to do the essentials with quality materials. If you are only going to stay for a couple of years then cheap and cheerful might suffice but with the housing market going the way it is, quality finish will make it easier to sell later.

whitelightrider

squire1 wrote:

Ah, get ya.

Jebus, that's a tough one.

I'd say you would want a minimum budget of 10 to 15K before furniture but basically you could spend what you can afford to do the essentials and do the rest over time.

If you are planning to stay in the house a while my idea would be to spend the maximum I could afford to do the essentials with quality materials. If you are only going to stay for a couple of years then cheap and cheerful might suffice but with the housing market going the way it is, quality finish will make it easier to sell later.

Exactly. We'd be staying in this house if we buy it. I was thinking about 30k to 40k with everything? Thats spending about 10 to 15 on a kitchen and allowing the rest for floors and furniture.

squire1

40K would be a good start.

Best of luck with it.

whitelightrider

squire1 wrote:

40K would be a good start.

Best of luck with it.

Good start? Oh God, I was hoping that would be a good finish

NextSteps

I got a quote recently of €18,000 for a very good quality (Geba) medium-sized kitchen, not including appliances. Slate floors about €35 per square metre, painting €10,000 for a medium-sized house. This might give you some idea. Maybe you should sit down and make a list of furniture essentials and then price it from a mid-range catalogue such as Habitat. It would give you a clearer pichture in your own head.

magicbastarder

UB wrote:

painting €10,000 for a medium-sized house.

bloody hell; what was included for this price?

squire1

magicbastarder wrote:

bloody hell; what was included for this price?

I'd want gold leaf walls for that price:D Are painters really that expensive? I know a good paint job looks great and it is skilled work despite what some people think but is the finish really worth that much more than what a competent DIY'er could achieve in a week or two?

twenty8

Make sure that you don't forget all of the 'other' costs!!

For example - someone has to lay all those tiles - expect to pay anything from €20 - €30 sq yd in addition to the cost of tiles. Don't forget another 500 for grouting etc. Carpeting is a fantastic cheaper option to tiles!!!

Also - kitchen appliances. They can cost a fortune - depending on what you want. I would budget 4k for cooker, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher etc.

With a builder finish you will probably have to get extras such as shower doors, bathroom accessories, mats, rugs, fireplace, etc etc.

Sorry - but it does go on and on. Just depends on how much and to what standard you want to put in.

NextSteps

magicbastarder wrote:

bloody hell; what was included for this price?

Now that you mention it it is a lot but it's just one item in the itemised quote from the builder, which overall is very reasonable. So maybe he overquoted for this and underquoted for something else. At least I hope so...

whitelightrider

twenty8 wrote:

Make sure that you don't forget all of the 'other' costs!!

For example - someone has to lay all those tiles - expect to pay anything from €20 - €30 sq yd in addition to the cost of tiles. Don't forget another 500 for grouting etc. Carpeting is a fantastic cheaper option to tiles!!!

Also - kitchen appliances. They can cost a fortune - depending on what you want. I would budget 4k for cooker, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher etc.

With a builder finish you will probably have to get extras such as shower doors, bathroom accessories, mats, rugs, fireplace, etc etc.

Sorry - but it does go on and on. Just depends on how much and to what standard you want to put in.

Cheers twenty8. We'd be looking to finish it well seeing as we are hoping to live there for the foreseeable future. At least it gives me an idea of what to expect. Just found out that there is no hollowcore in the house either so noise might be a problem from upstairs, although the builder reckons that wouldnt be a problem with the insulation he's put in.

mad m

10K for a medium sized house to be painted is a lot of money to be honest. Even if it was old or new work including paint I would say in or around 4-5k. What are you getting done for the 10K...?When you say medium house what square footage is it?

Wertz

10K???? Sorry but that sounds WAAAY over for a "medium sized house" (I'm thinking 5 bed, all ensuite, dining room, 2 living rooms, large HSL, kitchen, util and bathroom)
Unless you're going for something very awkward that involves lots of brushwork and/or you have an overly large colour pallette, that builder is over the mark and is probably just adding on 25% kicker for himself.

I'd really need to see it but I can't see it being too much more than what mad m quoted.

whitelightrider

The house is going to be completely painted and the lawns will be seeded. So it's just the internals that I was looking to get an idea for.

mossym

we're in the middle of doing the same...builders finish to miving in...i'd fugre we've spent at least 30000. 2800sq ft house...quote we got for painting was 7500..we're painting ourselves now

whitelightrider

mossym wrote:

we're in the middle of doing the same...builders finish to miving in...i'd fugre we've spent at least 30000. 2800sq ft house...quote we got for painting was 7500..we're painting ourselves now

We'll be painting it ourselves aswell, although at the minute it's painted by the builder.

What did that 30000 cover, if you dont mind me asking?

mossym

kitchen fitted, including granite tops and island
all appliances
3*bathrooms tiled(and we didn't tile all walls, only around shower in one and bath in other)
kitchen and dining room tiled
main entrance area tiled
carpets for upstairs rooms
wooden floors for 2 rooms
1 * fireplace (another to get that isn't covered in 30000)
paint to do everything white first until we choose colors

might be a bit more but thats the main stuff..also count in that i'm spending around 200 euros every week in one of the diy stores on odds and ends..

mossym

oh i should add, there is no painting done in our house, we're doing it all

whitelightrider

mossym wrote:

kitchen fitted, including granite tops and island
all appliances
3*bathrooms tiled(and we didn't tile all walls, only around shower in one and bath in other)
kitchen and dining room tiled
main entrance area tiled
carpets for upstairs rooms
wooden floors for 2 rooms
1 * fireplace (another to get that isn't covered in 30000)
paint to do everything white first until we choose colors

might be a bit more but thats the main stuff..also count in that i'm spending around 200 euros every week in one of the diy stores on odds and ends..

Thanks mossym. That gives me an excellent idea of what it would cost us as we'd have the same amount of work to do, apart from the painting.

mossym

no bother..also, we didn't go for the cheapest we found on some stuff..our kitchen guy is a bit more than a couple of other quotes we got, but i've seen his work and thought it worth it. you might be able to know 15/20% off that list if you wanted..

NextSteps

Wertz wrote:

10K???? Sorry but that sounds WAAAY over for a "medium sized house" (I'm thinking 5 bed, all ensuite, dining room, 2 living rooms, large HSL, kitchen, util and bathroom)
Unless you're going for something very awkward that involves lots of brushwork and/or you have an overly large colour pallette, that builder is over the mark and is probably just adding on 25% kicker for himself.

I'd really need to see it but I can't see it being too much more than what mad m quoted.

Now you're getting me all worried. It's a 3 bed, 1 bathroom, kitchen/living/dining, sittingroom, study (dunno what a HSL is but I don't think we have one!). It's going to be replastered and so it will be a painting job from the start throughout. But that 10k was part of a large overall quote which was subsequently negociated down by about a third (a significant amount), so I think I'll bite the bullet.

mossym

sounds smaller than our house and we our highest quote was 7500 including sanding and varnishing all wood(skirting, stairs et al). we also had a polish guy in who gave a quote of 3000. your 10,000 even less a third seems very high

mossym

whitelightrider wrote:

Thanks mossym. That gives me an excellent idea of what it would cost us as we'd have the same amount of work to do, apart from the painting.

oh and one thing i really really shoud have mentioned..all tiling and wooden floors were done ourselves, we didn't have to pay anything to put them in..so factor that into your equations

whitelightrider

mossym wrote:

oh and one thing i really really shoud have mentioned..all tiling and wooden floors were done ourselves, we didn't have to pay anything to put them in..so factor that into your equations

Ill be doing them myself aswell. House size seems similar to what you have and we'd be putting in a good kitchen also so it's a pretty good guide price for us.

Wertz

UB wrote:

Now you're getting me all worried. It's a 3 bed, 1 bathroom, kitchen/living/dining, sittingroom, study (dunno what a HSL is but I don't think we have one!). It's going to be replastered and so it will be a painting job from the start throughout. But that 10k was part of a large overall quote which was subsequently negociated down by about a third (a significant amount), so I think I'll bite the bullet.

HSL = hall, stairs and landing; everyone has one usually the room with the most work to put in, especially if you have a staircase to do as well.

I dunno, maybe the guy has lumped in some other trades with the painting price for his own reasons...I'm not going to just out and out call him a scammer, but on the other hand, if a bill was that high I wouldn't mind seeing a breakdown of the guy's rates who's going to be doing the job....and I'd like the option of getting someone in do do it at a lower rate. Maybe the decorator is just someone the builder always uses and he charges high.
I could understand big prices if the house was accomodated and had floors and carpets to protect, furniture to move, cleaning to be done, but with a new or remodelled house, it's a quicker job, less hassle.