Full house remodel estimate

[Anonymous]

We saw that house— loved it, but not worth the cost to remodel, at least with these interest rates! Our realtor estimated it would be hundreds of thousands to get it into shape. I kind of think you go do it a little more slowly, over time. The bones of the house were good. If you do get it, good luck! Would love to see the finished product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friends recently redid their condo’s kitchen and it was $100K with a well-known design/build firm in this area. Not including appliances. But design-build handled everything, start to finish. Basically white glove service. It’s a well-design kitchen. But they didn’t add any square footage.

Did they put in solid gold sink and faucets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to find people to work with directly and cut out the middleman. The general contractors do not add value and they just inflate the costs dramatically. I found all of the subcontracting labor myself and substantially reduces the cost of the remodel. Whatever you do, definitely do not work with super large construction or remodeling companies because they charge the highest prices and have the worst quality.

Right, but for people not in construction it can be hard to find crews. OP, when we did this, we would go to active construction sites and find folks that worked different trades.

You speak Spanish well, correct?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to find people to work with directly and cut out the middleman. The general contractors do not add value and they just inflate the costs dramatically. I found all of the subcontracting labor myself and substantially reduces the cost of the remodel. Whatever you do, definitely do not work with super large construction or remodeling companies because they charge the highest prices and have the worst quality.

Right, but for people not in construction it can be hard to find crews. OP, when we did this, we would go to active construction sites and find folks that worked different trades.

You speak Spanish well, correct?

This is essential.

[Anonymous]

$600k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A flipper MIGHT pull that off if you did it cheaply. But a general homeowner I would think doing all that work should budget $350k in the DC area. A lot depends how much you budget for the 3 bathrooms.

New furnace $8k
Central air $20k
Full kitchen gut, including partially opening into adjoining dining room $100k
Three fully gutted and rebuilt bathrooms $30-80k per bathroom.
Complete electrical rewiring $40? Assume you need a heavy up?
Refinishing all wood floors $25k assuming no repairs needed.

DCUM is insane. I did a lot of these renovations in my similarly sized 1890s DC row house working directly with a contractor who had his own small crew and it was nowhere close to this cost. I paid like 10K for each bathroom and they did beautiful work. I bought all the tiles, paint, and fixtures myself. I didn't move any plumbing, but we took it all the way down to the studs. We also refinished the wood floors for way cheaper. It was a few thousand to resend and stain. No one I know pays the prices that are being quoted here, in NW neighborhoods. I don't work with the big design firms though. Insane!

Furnace and central air prices look roughly accurate. I don't have experience with electrical rewiring cost because it had been done shortly before I bought the house but I know that can be expensive. I will forever value my contractor. And yes, he is licensed and insured. Please ask around, not everyone is paying these prices. It costs a lot to add square footage, if you can even do that depending on your neighborhood, but the things you're talking about doing shouldn't cost as much as people are saying here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A flipper MIGHT pull that off if you did it cheaply. But a general homeowner I would think doing all that work should budget $350k in the DC area. A lot depends how much you budget for the 3 bathrooms.

New furnace $8k
Central air $20k
Full kitchen gut, including partially opening into adjoining dining room $100k
Three fully gutted and rebuilt bathrooms $30-80k per bathroom.
Complete electrical rewiring $40? Assume you need a heavy up?
Refinishing all wood floors $25k assuming no repairs needed.

DCUM is insane. I did a lot of these renovations in my similarly sized 1890s DC row house working directly with a contractor who had his own small crew and it was nowhere close to this cost. I paid like 10K for each bathroom and they did beautiful work. I bought all the tiles, paint, and fixtures myself. I didn't move any plumbing, but we took it all the way down to the studs. We also refinished the wood floors for way cheaper. It was a few thousand to resend and stain. No one I know pays the prices that are being quoted here, in NW neighborhoods. I don't work with the big design firms though. Insane!

Furnace and central air prices look roughly accurate. I don't have experience with electrical rewiring cost because it had been done shortly before I bought the house but I know that can be expensive. I will forever value my contractor. And yes, he is licensed and insured. Please ask around, not everyone is paying these prices. It costs a lot to add square footage, if you can even do that depending on your neighborhood, but the things you're talking about doing shouldn't cost as much as people are saying here.

PP when did you do a to-the-studs bathroom reno for $10k in DC? I'm getting 150k+ estimates to redo one bathroom and tweak a layout (basic finishes) and would LOVE to find a more reasonable contractor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A flipper MIGHT pull that off if you did it cheaply. But a general homeowner I would think doing all that work should budget $350k in the DC area. A lot depends how much you budget for the 3 bathrooms.

New furnace $8k
Central air $20k
Full kitchen gut, including partially opening into adjoining dining room $100k
Three fully gutted and rebuilt bathrooms $30-80k per bathroom.
Complete electrical rewiring $40? Assume you need a heavy up?
Refinishing all wood floors $25k assuming no repairs needed.

25K to refinish floors is a lot! We did an entire house for 5K, and our floors are gorgeous!! OP, the only way you will get all that done for the amount you want is to become your own GC. Sub out the work to multiple contractors and treat each item as a separate job, and you will come out much cheaper. Most likely, a contractor will try to get as much of the work as possible and may give you a great price to avoid someone else coming in to do the other work. However, I would get a good demo company to clear the house first, which will help your cost. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Builders and contractors have an insane notion for how much their time is worth right now. They cite material costs but when you do your own research you realize they’re marking up 20% at least and then adding administrative fees at a rate of 2500-5000 per week. They justify the markup because of the potential for fluctuations. They still feel burned by 2020-2022 material price increases and are trying to recover their losses now. But when you call them on it they act like lumber could spike 3x this year. It’s all a smokescreen to pad their margins.

The market is supporting it for now (likely because they need to work less at those rates to make ends meet. But if the economy turns and people start pulling back their spending prices will have to come down as there will be a huge oversupply of contractors with much lower demand.

This is magical thinking. More people are opting to stay where they are versus buying someplace further from DC. I don't love the markups, but the contractors are in business and the only thing we can do is not use them, but chances are someone else will.