Ballpark estimate for a 4,000 sq ft house renovation

[Anonymous]

Bought an old 3-story colonial in McLean, 1200 sf per floor. Plan to do major renovation: add a great room (400 sf, total 4,000 sf), screened porch, deck, finish basement, redo kitchen & 2 baths, add 2 new baths, install another HVAC system, whole house recessed lights, replace cast iron pipes with PVC throughout the house, replace all windows, replace all siding with Hardi, paint whole house, etc.

What will the ballpark cost be?

[Anonymous]

Too much

Buy a new house

[Anonymous]

I’m guessing around $600k just for interior renovations (including 2 new baths which I’m assuming are inside the existing footprint), new windows and exterior finish work. The great room addition, screened porch and deck could easily be an additional $400k to $500k depending on whether there is finished basement space below the great room. And then there is the McLean tax..

What’s your budget?

[Anonymous]

Not worth it if it's over 200k, I'd just buy another house

[Anonymous]

You'd be better off tearing it all down and starting from scratch. With just the electrical wiring and plumbing you are talking about, that requires basically tearing through all of your drywall.

You'll also be better off living someplace else while the work is going on, which will also have to factor into your costs.

[Anonymous]

You’re looking at around 700k I would guess, based on what I did earlier this year in Arlington (which was less than your plan).

Frankly I think you should consider tearing down and building new as a better investment. Perhaps maintain some of the existing house facade so that you can technically be a renovation even though most will be new construction (should save you in permitting costs, though I’m not familiar with FFX county permits, so could be wrong here).

[Anonymous]

What about the exact same question but for a DC rowhouse?

[Anonymous]

Not worth it. Was in a similar scenario/area. Just sell and put that money towards another house

[Anonymous]

definitely on team teardown. Way too much.

Even if all you did was add sqft, redoing/add the major rooms (kitchen + bath) AND changing pipes thats too much.

for essentially the same price you can start from scratch and reimagine the flow within the house

[Anonymous]

teardown. But since you asked - for all that in mclean you are probably looking at 750-1M?

[Anonymous]

I was quoted a rough $800k for similar size house and scope.

[Anonymous]

Probably $600K-$1M depending on finishes.

[Anonymous]

I agree with everyone. You're looking at many hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you may have a lot of trouble finding contractors to do the work, if it's even possible, not to mention the building permits. It almost sounds like you'd like a totally different and brand new house, so tearing down and rebuilding what you want makes the most sense and is probably cheaper and more achievable.

If you really don't want to tear down the house and start over, break the work up into pieces and contract out the individual parts. Plan out 1-2 remodels per year. Maybe start with the kitchen remodel and the screened porch. Realign your expectations - you probably won't be able to replace all of the pipes, and certainly not all at once. A 400sf addition is probably going to be $100k+ depending on the details. Adding bathrooms where they didn't previously exist may or may not even be possible depending on the plumbing access in that area of the house.

[Anonymous]

Recently did a gut renovation of our basement in Mclean, adding a 2nd bathroom and kitchen, and redoing layout of bedrooms. Total cost was around $300k, so I would multiply by 3 - $900k.

Not sure I agree with those who recommend a new build. If your in a neighborhood in Mclean with an HOA you may not be able to do that, and even if you can, to build a new home comparable to others in the area, you will spend $2.5M+.

[Anonymous]

The great room addition is going to be $150K alone, could be twice that depending on foundation, how many windows, HVAC needs, etc. Screened porch could be $100K depending on size. Kitchen $100K. I think you are looking at a minimum of 500-600K and likely approaching $1M by the time you factor in the zip code premium for McLean.