Savvy Home Renovator Saves £7,000 On Stunning Property Transformation
- James, 25, wanted to renovate an entire house on a budget
- He got the job done for under £10k, saving £7k in the process
- By doing many tasks himself he saved over £4k in labouring fees alone
- He transformed the kitchen and bathroom and redecorated the whole property
Taking on a big home renovation project can be daunting for many of us, particularly as it typically means forking out a large sum of money. However, one savvy renovator has managed to complete a home upgrade for a fraction of the price he was quoted, saving a whopping £7,000 in the process.
James Reeve, 25, a property surveyor from Suffolk, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘This project was an 11-week renovation of a 1990s semi-detached house in Suffolk. I wanted to replace the kitchen and upstairs shower, as well as update the decor throughout the property. The living room had been fitted with a dado rail and was painted in pale yellow and blue; the kitchen had tiling which looked old-fashioned. I wanted to create a clean and minimalist feel for this home, but not to break the bank doing so.
‘I was pleased that I got this job done for under £10k. I decided to do the demolition, repairs and painting myself, as a local builder gave me a quote of £160 per day to carry out the demo and repair works. I estimated that by doing it myself, I saved £4,000 just in labouring fees - because the project would have taken roughly 25 days to complete if a labourer had been there full time.
‘I also saved money on the painting - I was quoted £3,000 for a professional job, alongside £300 per room for ceiling plastering. I estimated that I saved myself £7,000 by doing these jobs myself, as I did the painting myself and worked out a fix for the plastering without doing the complete process.
‘I did recognise I needed professional help for some parts of the renovation - the areas I got tradesmen in for were the plumbing, kitchen installation, electrical work and installing the shower. I managed to get the professional labour costs down to about £1800 by using apps like MyBuilder and networking with local tradesmen I know through my work.’
Once James had found professionals to help him out for a reasonable price and worked out which tasks he would do himself to save money, he got to work. ‘Demolition was step one. I tackled the living room first and took down the dado rails, then ripped up the carpet.
‘I prised the dado rail off with a hammer, then pulled the nails out with it. There were some cracks in the walls which needed filling and painting over. For the filling, I used two tubes of Polyfilla which are only £3.50 each from B&Q. I then sanded them down and painted the blue and yellow walls white.
‘With the ceilings in the living room and kitchen, my idea was to skim over them and get rid of the Artex, but the cost was too much, and my budget was too tight, so I thought I’d leave it. I thought and researched options for a money-saving fix and decided to get Polycell Polyfilla SmoothOver instead. I rolled it on and then skimmed it over. It didn’t look great after I’d done it, so I had to sand it down. I quickly realised that what I’d actually bought was a really expensive tub of skimming plaster! However, I got the result I wanted in the end. I got two tubs and that covered both ceilings; they were £30 each so I paid £60 total.
‘I am not really a fan of Artex ceilings, and I needed to skim the kitchen if I was going to put fancy light fittings in there. I used this method rather than fully sanding down the Artex ceilings or scraping them off. By applying two layers of Polycell Polyfilla SmoothOver, I protected myself from the sander touching the Artex.
‘When sanding down the product I had used to skim the ceilings, I used an electric sander which you attach to your hoover to prevent dust from filling the room. I got the Evolution Electric Drywall Sander from Screwfix which cost £150, and I spent a further £12.79 on dust masks from Interfix.
‘In each room, I replaced the floors with either new carpet or hardwood flooring. The whole house was carpeted before, and the kitchen previously had tiled floors, but each room had a dated feel to it with these floors so I wanted to upgrade them. I removed the tiles and replaced the downstairs rooms and bathrooms with laminate ‘wood effect’ flooring from Karpet Kingdom. I got a tiler to tile the kitchen splashback and main bathroom but did the rest of the floor tiling myself. As this property is a fairly new build, the floors didn’t need to be prepped too much.
‘I got Fairway XL Supergrip carpet for the stairs, landing and bedrooms. I paid the carpet fitter £300 and the stair carpet fitting was included in the overall flooring cost from Karpet Kingdom, which I thought was a great deal.
‘I replaced the entire kitchen - the units, appliances, drawers and countertop. It cost me just under £2300 for the supplies, and I saved money by fitting most of it myself. The tiler did the wall tiles which I got from Lowestoft Tile Centre, and they cost £333. The installation for this area cost me £467, but I would have spent £1000s more if a labourer had also done the rest of the kitchen installation.
‘The garden needed a lot of work as weeds were poking through the patio slabs, and the lawn was unruly. I used a pressure washer on the patio slabs, mowed the lawn and got some weed killer for the patio cracks. I also did some edging work to tidy up the flower beds. I got the lawn edging on Amazon for around £25, and I borrowed the pressure washer from my parents.
‘To replace the units in the main bathroom, I used a 1685 x 700 shower tray from Sanuex which was £170 and a 1100mm Kudos Ultimate fixed glass shower screen from City Plumbing which was £420.
‘I painted the walls, skirting boards and ceilings of the house white, using paint brushes and roller brushes from Amazon. The paint and gloss came from Brewers, and the total cost was £176.26 for the equipment for the whole house. I was quoted £3,000 for painting the house, so I saved £2,823.74 by painting the property myself!
‘Now that the project is done, the house has been transformed from a dated and old-fashioned property to a house which has clean white walls, fresh units and a minimalist style. It was hard work but I saved a lot of money and I’m proud of the result.’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘James has done very well to save £1000s on this impressive property renovation. By thinking smartly he has saved lots of money on professional labour costs. Although it may take longer, and require more effort, you can do many painting and decorating jobs yourself if you’re want to save some cash. His property makeover now looks fantastic!’
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