House Renovation Cost: UK Prices for Each Job and Trade

How much a house renovation costs

How much a house renovation costs depends on which jobs your house needs, so price those jobs, add them up and put a contingency on top. Checkatrade’s house renovation cost guide prices each job for an average 3-bedroom house and recommends adding 10% to 15% to the budget as the contingency.

The size, age and condition of the property all move the price, along with how complex the work is, whether there is structural or extension work, the quality of materials, fixtures and finishes, the decoration and where you live, Checkatrade says.

House renovation prices for each job

Excluding VAT, these are Checkatrade’s prices for each job in an average 3-bedroom house. The three replastering rows are different ways to do the same job, so a budget takes only one of them.

Job	Range, excluding VAT	Average, excluding VAT
Gas and electrics
New gas supply	£500 to £2,500	£1,500
New heating system	£3,000 to £8,500	£5,500
Rewiring	£4,000 to £8,500	£6,250
Internal work
Replastering option 1: replaster walls	£10,000 to £15,000	£12,000
Replastering option 2: re-skim walls and ceilings	£5,000 to £12,500	£8,750
Replastering option 3: hack off and replaster walls and ceilings	£16,000 to £32,000	£26,500
Replace skirting throughout	£2,200 to £3,800	£3,000
Paint walls and ceilings	£5,000 to £7,000	£6,000
New cloakroom WC, including tiling	£1,500 to £2,500	£2,000
New kitchen	£7,000 to £25,000	£17,500
Structural and outside work
Knock down walls	£500 to £3,500	£2,000
Kitchen extension, 12m²	£15,000 to £24,000	£19,500
Skirting for a new extension	£200 to £500	£350
New roof	£6,500 to £18,000	£12,250
Damp proofing course	£500 to £5,000	£2,750
Windows	£2,500 to £8,000	£5,250
French doors	£1,500 to £3,500	£2,500

On Checkatrade’s figures, a new heating system of about £5,500 means a combi boiler and radiators, a downstairs WC of around £2,000 includes the floor tiling, pipework and waste, and French doors at about £2,500 include the lintels, brickwork and plasterwork. The same guide puts a new bathroom at around £7,000 on average.

Knocking through a load-bearing wall averages £1,250 to £1,750 on Checkatrade’s figures, and the job can be done in as little as two days. Repairing an existing roof instead of replacing it costs £210 to £465 per m², Checkatrade says.

Labour costs and day rates for each trade

Day rates on a renovation run from £120 for an apprentice to £400 for a plumber or an electrician, on Checkatrade’s figures.

Trade	Day rate	Average day rate
Plumber	£250 to £400	£325
Electrician	£250 to £400	£325
Roofer	£200 to £250	£225
Double glazing installer	£200 to £250	£225
Plasterer	£200 to £250	£225
Carpenter	£200 to £250	£225
Tiler	£200 to £250	£225
Painter and decorator	£150 to £250	£200
General builder	£200 to £250	£225
Labourer	£150 to £180	£165
Apprentice	£120 to £150	£135

A new central heating system and boiler takes one to two weeks and around £3,000 or more in labour, Checkatrade says. Fully rewiring a house takes around 6 to 15 days, and the same guide puts the electrician at a minimum of £2,100.

Larger projects are usually quoted as a full job rather than by the day or the hour, because the quote may need to include materials, several trades, waste removal, structural work and building regulations, Checkatrade’s builder day rate guide says. That guide puts a building company, the kind suited to renovations and jobs needing several trades, at around £400 a day, and says the rate might include project management, admin support, insurance, equipment and a wider team.

Hidden costs and how much contingency to add

Structural work brings survey and planning application costs, and major work can mean paying rent for temporary accommodation while it goes on, Checkatrade says. The 10% to 15% contingency Checkatrade recommends is for discoveries such as asbestos, dangerous wiring or rotting beams.

To budget, add the low end of every job’s range together and the high end together, then add 10% to the low total and 15% to the high total. A house that needs rewiring, new heating, re-skimmed walls and ceilings, new skirting and a repaint comes out like this on Checkatrade’s prices, excluding VAT.

The order of work for a full house renovation

Checkatrade sets out an order for a full refurbishment that starts with the structure and finishes with the decorating, and doing the structural work first is also on its list of ways to save money.

How to save money on a house renovation

Checkatrade’s other ways to save include using reclaimed or second-hand materials, renovating in phases and booking work in off-peak seasons, although winter can bring delays. It also recommends keeping your estimates in a spreadsheet and getting at least three like-for-like quotes for each trade.

Quotes only compare like for like when every firm prices the same written description. Ask three plasterers to replaster the house and one may price re-skimming the existing plaster while another prices hacking it off first. For the walls and ceilings, Checkatrade’s price table averages £8,750 for a re-skim and £26,500 for hacking off, excluding VAT.

If you would rather one firm ran every trade, the Nottingham building firms we compare include Buon Construction in St Ann’s, which keeps architects, designers, builders, plasterers, plumbers and electricians in-house, renovates single rooms and whole houses and gives fixed-price quotes. Westbull Construction in Ruddington has been building in Nottingham since 1990, and its work includes home renovations, roofing, kitchens and bathrooms.