How to Halve Your Renovation Costs - Part One

Low costs do not have to equal low-quality finishes when it comes to renovating old properties — there are many ways to keep a lid on your budget. Here, Natasha Brinsmead reveals how she and her husband, Bill, kept down costs during their Victorian house renovation.

Far more than self-builds, renovation projects are notorious for going over budget, due to the nasty habit they have of springing up unexpected, and often unwanted, surprises that result in yet more money being spent on the project.

However, there are many ways to keep costs under control when renovating a house and replacing kitchens, bathrooms and period features — all without resigning yourself to a poor-quality finish.

Of course, one of the best ways to keep costs down is to bite the bullet and take on some of the labour required on a DIY basis. Having said that, if you lack the correct skills and even the patience and enthusiasm necessary, then your DIY efforts could actually end up costing you more than if you had got the professionals in to begin with — so it is important to get a good idea of what you are and are not capable of tackling yourself.

One of the easiest ways to control costs is to keep things simple. What this means is choosing standard-sized fittings, using materials which most tradesmen are familiar with and generally trying not to over - complicate matters.

BUY CHEAP, BUY TWICE

Yes, it sounds like something your grandad may have told you, but it is true. There is a time to save and a time to spend. For example, we tried to save when it came to paints, both matt emulsion and gloss, and every time we bought a cheap product we ended up having to repaint due to poor final coverage or gloss that turned yellow within a matter of months. So, too, when buying fittings such as screws, nails and wall plugs — all the cheapest versions we tried to get away with bent, snapped or rounded off. Same goes for adhesives and grout, plus tools such as drills and saws.

THE FLOORS
Acting as the main backdrop for the rest of your interiors, the floor is one area you don’t want to get wrong.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: £20 per m2 for machine sanding, whilst hand sanding can cost double this; £39.99 per m2 for this solid oak antique flooring from Floorell (01727 800313); £78 per m2 for Kahr's engineered Oak Heritage Stuart flooring (02392 453045)

Your choice of flooring has a huge impact on the finished look of a house and as such deserves plenty of attention. Perhaps the most popular option for many at present is wooden floors, particularly in period houses. You have several options when it comes to a wooden floor — some more costly than others.

You might be lucky enough to find that your home has original wooden floorboards, hidden under old carpet, that are in good enough condition to be worth saving. How much this is likely to cost will depend on the type of flooring you have, and the condition which it is in. Some old cottages have impressive hardwood floors which can look beautiful when restored. However, hand sanding as opposed to machine sanding is recommended for this type of floor, where the boards are often bowed and irregular, and this can work out to be fairly costly — or very time-consuming if you intend to do it yourself.

Lift the carpet in many Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses and you will find pitch pine floorboards which, although not originally intended to be on show, can look fantastic when sanded, stained, sealed and polished — or even painted or whitewashed. In this case it should be fine to get the boards machine sanded — at a cost of around £16- 20/m2. Bear in mind, however, that damaged or missing boards will need to be replaced and there is a strong possibility of gaps in the floorboards which will need filling, adding to costs.

In terms of new flooring, solid wooden planks and parquet tend to be the most expensive option, with prices reaching over £100/m2, although cheaper versions are available. Pre-finished tongue-and-groove planks are quicker and, therefore, cheaper to lay than planed boards, which require fiddly nailing and gluing. Buying reclaimed versions rarely proves any cheaper than buying from new.

A cheaper and usually more cost-effective option – and one which it is simple to lay on a DIY basis, therefore cutting out labour costs – is engineered boards. Made up of a top layer of solid wood glued to several softwood layers and with a tongue-and-groove edge, this flooring gives the beauty of a solid floor without the price tag. Prices vary depending on the wood and quality of the boards, but start at around £25/m2. Engineered flooring tends to give a uniform finish, and for those wishing to recreate an authentic period feel this can be a negative. However, there are now a number of products with an aged finish, although expect to pay upwards of £45/m2 for these. We initially wondered whether we had done the right thing in opting for engineered flooring which had a very ‘new’ look, but have found that in the course of just a year, the timber has begun to wear and now has a much warmer, rustic appeal.

At the lowest end of the price scale lies laminate. Not actually wood, but usually mdf overlaid with a photograph of real woodgrain, laminate starts at around £10/m2. The cheapest laminates are bouncy and unrealistic, but some of the more expensive versions can look something like the real thing — in truth, though, laminate rarely fools anyone.

BUYING RECLAIMED

Many renovators of period properties are keen to get the details right and to use authentic fixtures and fittings wherever possible. For this reason, reclamation yards are usually teaming with renovators on the hunt for that perfect piece for their home, and the recent popularity in ‘shabby chic’ style interiors, including reclaimed furniture and fittings, has meant that it is now much harder to find a bargain than it once used to be. You might find that you have more luck – and end up saving more money – at an auction house, flea market, second-hand furniture shop or even charity shop than you do at a salvage yard these days.

Online auction sites such as eBay are also worth a look and it is certainly still possibly to grab a bargain — but be open to the idea of restoring furniture and even joinery items yourself. We were quoted over £1,200 to have a new set of French doors made up for our dining room, but ended up finding an authentic Victorian pair on eBay for just £150. We had to have them reglazed at a cost of £80 and put in some elbow grease sanding, undercoating and painting them, but they now look far better than a new set could ever have and cost us £970 less too.

THE KITCHEN
Adding a new kitchen can be the most expensive part of a renovation, but quality doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: £1,500 is the strting price for an unpainted kitchen from Pineland (01299 271143); £2,839.79 is the cost of IKEA's Bravad free-standing kitchen (www.ikea.com); £5,000 is the approximate price for this cherry wood kitchen from B&Q (www.diy.com)

A new kitchen can cost as much as £50,000, but at the other end of the scale, as little as £1,500. The trick is in knowing how to stick within your budget and still get the look you want.

If you are trying to save money, you can either opt for standard off-the-shelf unit carcasses and dress them up with slightly more expensive doors and cabinet handles, choose a complete off-the-shelf kitchen and then opt for a high-quality worktop, or, as many people featured in this magazine are doing, go for a bespoke kitchen made by a local company supplied unpainted, ready for you to finish yourself.

THE DETAILS
Details matter when it comes to creating a luxury feel, but they need not blow your budget.

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: £19.99 - IKEA's Pronomen beech worktop measuring 124 x 38 x 2.8cm; £9.99 for a five pack of Screwfix Romana Crack Ceramic and Pewter knobs (0500 414141); £34.99 - Wickes' Constance basin tap pair in chrome (0845 279 9898); £195 for this porcelain enamelled steel bath from B&Q

DIY Dos and Don'ts
One of the best ways to save money when renovating is to do as much of the work as possible yourself. However, some jobs require real skill and attempting them yourself, only to mess them up, could just end up costing you more.

DO

• Decorating
• Ripping out old bathrooms etc.
• Battening walls and fixing plasterboard ready for the plasterer
• Laying wooden flooring
• Tiling and grouting (except in some cases)
• Fitting a kitchen
• Digging trenches and simple drainage
• Fitting rainwater goods
• Hanging doors
• Fitting skirting boards and other decorative mouldings
• Some electrical work, such as replacing light switches

DON'T

• Plastering — this is a skilled job and if you mess it up it really will show
• Some electrical work (visit www.partp.co.uk for more details of what you can and can’t do)
• Any plumbing work involving gas — this must be carried out by a CORGI-registered contractor
• Bricklaying — again, a skilled task that may look easy but isn’t
• Anything involving expensive materials that you are not confident working with — such as large-format, heavy stone wall or floor tiles, glazing or solid timber worktops that need to be cut to size

• Read part two