George Clarke, from the Channel 4 programme Restoration Man, has written the following article on Renovation and Loft Conversion budgets.

George Clarke on Renovation Budgets

9 Jul 2013

So, you’ve only got £5,000 to spend on a home renovation? Maybe you could stretch to £10,000, or more? Where should you spend and save your money for maximum impact? Restoration expert, architect George Clarke, is here to help.

£5,000 Budget

Tidy up Cosmetics

When you’re talking about £5,000 you’re talking decorations and things which are very affordable, like new storage, new shelving, new lick of paint everywhere – it’s very cosmetic. You could easily spend £5,000 on all this if you’ve got a three or four bedroom house. It’s kind of a cosmetic exercise to tidy your house up and make it look fresh again, but you’re not doing any building work for that.

Change the Layout

You may be able to look at knocking through from one room to the next, having that room replastered and redecorated, moving door positions to help make another room larger, maybe changing the layout in a minor way.

Insulate

Any improvement like cavity wall insulation or double glazing is good if you can afford it. The best thing you can do is to insulate your house. It’s great, whether it’s credit crunch time or not.

Forget about all the expensive ecological things you can do, like wind turbines – insulating your home is so cheap, and so effective. Having cavity wall insulation and putting insulation into the loft is great. I insulate every internal wall and between floors, even if it’s just between the living room and bedroom upstairs, and it makes a real difference – you don’t get really hot loft bedrooms and cold rooms downstairs. If you insulate your home – say spend £500, you’ll get that money back in three years. Insulation is brilliant. It sounds sad, but I just love it. Insulation standards in this country are nowhere near what they should be. It’s shocking really.

£10,000 Budget

Renovate the Kitchen

This is where you start to get into proper building work. You can put in a proper kitchen, at least a proper new bathroom. If you were going for budget buys, you could probably do both. You could almost get a very small extension done – not in London, but you’re coming close to it. Maybe a lean-to extension, maybe getting a conservatory on the back – just. Normally it’s about £12,000 to £14,000, but you’re almost there.

Change the Spaces

If you’re talking good quality, you’ll get more substantial internal changes – new kitchen, new bathroom, changing spaces and layouts again – you’ll get for that money.

£20,000 Budget

Put on an Extension

By the £20,000 bracket we’re talking extensions, loft conversions, and adding good quality, reasonable amounts of space in your home.

£40,000 Budget

Renovate

That’s full house renovation and what we’re doing on The Home Show. If we’re talking a typical three or four bedroom house, it’s not going to renovate all your house to the highest standard, but it’ll get you an extension, a new bathroom, redecorating, knocking through, new electrics and a new boiler. If you want full house refurbs, you’re probably talking £60,000. But you’re talking substantial impact for £40,000. You can add space and improve your space, maybe improve windows. If you want to do all this, you’ll still have to compromise with quality. You have to be ruthless with anything you can’t do.

Approach an Architect

It’s also probably the least – or maybe I should say £30,000 is the least – you could approach an architect with, nationally. With just a few thousand, most architects will suggest you use a building surveyor. I don’t want to put people off approaching architects, though.

Many architects will give you a one-off consultation, and that’s really worthwhile. For a couple of hours you’ll get enormous amounts of knowledge, and that can add a huge impact to your job and that’s worth thousands of pounds, and it’s like gold dust. When you’re talking about a full service, though, with full fees, it’s a hell of a lot of work for the architect, so it’s not cheap.