Anyone have a handle on the cost to gut and update a house?

[GasX]

This house is current a multi-family residence that my wife and I are considering purchasing for our home. We would want to redo the floor plan to make a more spacious home and do things like eliminate the kitchens on the second and third floors... Anyone have a handle on what this kind of work would cost?

Basic list of tasks (as I currently see it):

1st floor
reconfigure stairs to make entryway more inviting
rip out interior walls to mae a large great room, office, eat-in kitchen and 1/2 bath
kitchen and bathroom w0uld be all new

2nd floor
move walls to make a master suite with dressing room and bathroom and 2 or 3 bedrooms

3rd floor
either make entire floor the master suite or make it a guest room and den/movie room

umm... that's it for now other than we would probably add central air

I KNOw this is going to be a lot, but I want to make sure it is a lot that is in our budget...

Any thoughts?

edit: I stopped by today and took a whole bunch of photos

The interior is in good shape, so the renovations wouldn't be total but there is still a ton of work to do to make it a nice big one family...

edit 2: The other house we are considering is here. This house is nice but too small - we would look to add on about 6 feet to the footprint in the rear (2 floor addition)

 

[Heisenberg]

How much would you do yourself?

 

[notfred]

It'll cost a lot.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
How much would you do yourself?

that's a tough question, but ultimately not a whole lot...

 

[HappyPuppy]

Off the top of my head I would guess between one and two hundred thousand dollars. You are talking about removing/moving bearing walls which will necessitate ripping open the floors and ceilings to reinforce the horizontal structure.

You should consult an engineer or architect before making a decision.

 

[brunswickite]

my parents had our old house remodeled and it cost about ~90 thousand IIRC

consisted of.

-Broke a wall to combine 2 rooms
-new kitchen
-put in a bathroom on second floor
-removed drop ceiling from entire house
-new roof
-new siding
-new steps in the front yard
-new windows

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
This house is current a multi-family residence that my wife and I are considering purchasing for our home. We would want to redo the floor plan to make a more spacious home and do things like eliminate the kitchens on the second and third floors... Anyone have a handle on what this kind of work would cost?

Basic list of tasks (as I currently see it):

1st floor
reconfigure stairs to make entryway more inviting
rip out interior walls to mae a large great room, office, eat-in kitchen and 1/2 bath
kitchen and bathroom w0uld be all new

2nd floor
move walls to make a master suite with dressing room and bathroom and 2 or 3 bedrooms

3rd floor
either make entire floor the master suite or make it a guest room and den/movie room

umm... that's it for now other than we would probably add central air

I KNOw this is going to be a lot, but I want to make sure it is a lot that is in our budget...

Any thoughts?

Don't tear out bearing walls or you will regret it!

 

[Ornery]

Why are you doing this? It looks like the house has already been renovated. Are you going to stay there for a long time? If not, you'll never recoup what this is going to cost, because it's already in move-in condition.

Otherwise, how is the insulation, roof, gutters and siding? What about the plumbing, electrical and HVAC? I'd worry more about those issues than the cosmetic hoohah you listed. You may even be depreciating the house by deviating from the period it was created in.

 

[KK]

My friend is gutting a split level house and piecing it back together. The bad thing is he's trying to do it himself. Not a good idea. I personally think he's in over his head. Of course, his house was in the low 100's and I don't know how much it'll will cost him, but I'm sure what ever he puts into it he won't get back.
Of course with a 1/2 million dollar house, I wouldn't want any hassles. I'd buy something that I initially liked without doing any work and required no work.

KK

 

[Rage187]

Nice floors, look like Heart Pine.


Make sure to get those refinished LAST.

Have them use 3 coats of moisture cure.

 

[GasX]

my friend's roughestimate just blew us out of the water

$100-$125 per renovated square foot of floor space plus kitches and bathrooms...

:Q

note - that's doubling the price almost...

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
my friend's roughestimate just blew us out of the water

$100-$125 per renovated square foot of floor space plus kitches and bathrooms...

:Q

note - that's doubling the price almost...

$125/ft2 + kitchens & baths. That sounds pretty high. But then your plans are very ambitious.

Moving around all those walls is asking for trouble. And you need to take a good look at the floor plans. Odds are that some of those walls are bearing walls. And some of em likely have plumbing in them also. That makes things alot more complicated, and complicated = expensive.

Do you have a sketch of the floor plans & what walls you want to move?

Oh yea ... moving a staircase is trouble also, because the flor above it has to be structured right to hang the top of the stairs off of it. If you plan to change where the top of the stairs are, you asking for problems.

This is the kind of project that This Old House takes on, but mere mortals with real budgets never consider

 

[malbojah]

Jeez, my parents got off lightly. Only cost around $60k to put a second floor onto the house. But the house was designed so that another floor could be added with minimal stress (only had to build up one bearing structure...course it would happen to be in my room)

 

[DrPizza]

If you want to make *THAT* many changes to the house, I'd recommend keep looking, or tear it down and build a new house.

Personally, I don't see anything that disagreeable about the house from the pics you provided. And, regardless of the "improvements" you make to the house, I doubt you'd ever recoup more than 10% of that money. Consider moving the stairs... that's a pretty big project right there. Imagine trying to sell the house the day after you get just that project done and telling the buyer that you want $10,000 more than what you paid for the house, "because we moved the stairs"

Renovate the kitchen, renovate the bathrooms. That'll cost plenty. But if you're moving walls around, you're completely changing the character of the house.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
my friend's roughestimate just blew us out of the water

$100-$125 per renovated square foot of floor space plus kitches and bathrooms...

:Q

note - that's doubling the price almost...

$125 a s.f. could be the base rate of construction in your area per s.f. - IF you were adding on rooms. However, you are just working within those spaces. The cost per s.f. should be much less than that.

If you need some walls torn down, keep in mind that some could be load baring walls and might need additional support applied to make up for the missing walls. New walls (studs, drywall, etc.) can be constructed inside of a home for about $120 per L.F. based on some previous experiences.

You might want to ensure you get more than a few opinions regarding the costs of such a renovation so that you know what you might be getting yourself into.

 

[TechnoKid]

Just a thought, but that house wouldn't happen to be regulated by any historical/victorian societies, would it? Doesn't seem to be a special house, but it looks as if the outside appearence of the house has a specific theme to it.

And, if you are serious about doing all the thigns you want to it, might not be a bad idea to see if "This Old House" would mind taking on the project, like someone already metnioned. BTW, this old house does some really nice projects last i watched on public television.

 

[vi edit]

Roughly 2x as long and 4x as much as you think it will run.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: TechnoKid
Just a thought, but that house wouldn't happen to be regulated by any historical/victorian societies, would it? Doesn't seem to be a special house, but it looks as if the outside appearence of the house has a specific theme to it.

Almost all of the homes in this area are from the early 1900's. Some renovations require approval of the historical commision but they are more concerned with the exterior look of the house and the "feel" of the neighborhood. We wouldn't be doing much if anything to the outside so, in that regard, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

And, if you are serious about doing all the thigns you want to it, might not be a bad idea to see if "This Old House" would mind taking on the project, like someone already metnioned. BTW, this old house does some really nice projects last i watched on public television.

That would be really cool, but if we do this, we will pull the trigger in the next few days and I don't think they would scout and approve this project by Wednesday...

 

[Lola]

that is a beautiful house!
i cannot answer your question, but it sure nice!

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Since we are on this topic-- how much is it usually to add a second (or even partial second) story on an existing L-shape one story house? I heard somewhere in the 150k range, give or take 50k. Does that sound about right?

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: LordSegan
Since we are on this topic-- how much is it usually to add a second (or even partial second) story on an existing L-shape one story house? I heard somewhere in the 150k range, give or take 50k. Does that sound about right?

The first question to ask is whether the existing foundation and 1st story can support a 2nd story. If it can't things get alot more expensive.

Link to a TOH story.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Roughly 2x as long and 4x as much as you think it will run.

And divorce lawyers run about $200/hr ... figure a bare minimum of 30 hours.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Lola
that is a beautiful house!
i cannot answer your question, but it sure nice!

My only issue with the outside is the color. It has vinyl siding, so I don't know if painting it is possible or not...

 

[GasX]

bump for update

oh, and the smaller house we would add the addition to is here. As you can see, it is a corner lot and the driveway and garage are on the side street at the back of the lot...

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: LordSegan
Since we are on this topic-- how much is it usually to add a second (or even partial second) story on an existing L-shape one story house? I heard somewhere in the 150k range, give or take 50k. Does that sound about right?

The first question to ask is whether the existing foundation and 1st story can support a 2nd story. If it can't things get alot more expensive.

Link to a TOH story.

wow - that house was fugly before TOH got to it. Now it's beeeyouteefull...