Reply to Renovation cost- too high or about right

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP:
I'm going to tell you my experience and suggest maybe you take a path more similar to mine rather than taking your house down to the studs.

I bought a house in DC as well.  And we have touched every single surface in the house over the years.  Total, we've probably put 120K in.  While we have had some electrical work done, we haven't had that system pulled out and put back in.

We did our changes piece by piece, but I'm going to list what we would have done if we had done the same thing, all at once starting from the beginning with prices we paid.  Only a small amount of our work was done during COVID, and lots of it was done many years ago, so you will, obviously pay higher prices.  In some cases much higher.

You'll pay much less if you keep the same footprint.  Which, if it's a DC rowhouse, you should really do (with the exception of possibly taking out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. If it's a row house, that wall is not structural in most cases so you don't need an engineer.

To save money, you'll be your own general contractor.

Have design plans drawn up for the kitchen and bathrooms if you need it. I designed my own and didn't actually change the layout of any of the above (rowhouses seldom allow for a total re-do of the layout unless you're putting a bathroom in the third tiny bedroom of a rowhouse.) But you can pay for them to be re-designed if you'd like.  They will tell you if you need to move wires or pipes.

First, I would take out the kitchen and kitchen wall if you're going to do that.  To take that out and have the debris cleared away, you'll pay maybe 5K.

Have the HVAC put in.  Have the HVAC people tear up walls as needed.  That will cost maybe 30K-50K to put all the vents and buy all new units.

Then have the electrician come in and totally redo your electrical.  You'll pay at least 20K for that.  We didn't have it done but our rowhouse neighbor did. He'll have to add the electrical for the laundry room.

Then have the plumbing re-done as needed.  Have the laundry facilities moved.  No need to have it torn up from the street, just have it inspected and then re-done in places where it's unideal.  Pay a plumber directly for this to be done.  Someone who gets good reviews from your neighbors/ neighborhood listserve.  You may be worried about lead.  Test for lead.  If you don't have it in your drinking water, don't totally re-do the pipes.  We tested and then had it re-done.  10K

Then have your kitchen put in.  This person will patch the kitchen wall you had torn down if you had it torn down. The cost for this in a high end neighborhood during covid will be 50K-75K.  Use a kitchen specialist.

Then have the bathrooms done.  At the very cheapest, you'll pay 15K total for a main bath and powder room.  But, if you're going more expensive it could be up to $50K or even higher.  It just depends on your tastes.

Then have someone fix all of your walls.  We had our walls repaired and re-surfaced in our first and second floors (added molding as well) and it was about 10K for that.  That estimate was cheap, though.  You might pay 30K for the same thing if you're in an expensive area.

Then have your floors re-done.  If you can keep some of the flooring and just add tile to the kitchen, then you can save a lot here.  Maybe pay 7K for this?  If you want all new floors, then you'll pay more.  15K?

I assume you want all new doors and windosws.  Then you're up to 20K.

So, with basics covered in the cheapest way possible, you're looking at: 220-280K.

If you add the services of someone general contracting for you and overages, it maybe takes you up to 450 at least.

So, I'm going to assume you're in Georgetown or Kalorama.  In which case, you're getting the rich people upcharge.

If you're balking at paying more fees for detailed plans, you're missing the forest for the trees.  Getting at least three proposals is crucial when undertaking a change this major.

If you have plenty of money but just don't feel like spending it on this, probably you need to get over it.

If you really need it to be cheaper, you'll want to get more bids and probably have to manage things more closely.

[/quote]

Thanks- it's a SFH in Brookland. We were expecting around $400k, so the additional $200k was genuinely a shock to us. [/quote]

If you're in Brookland, ask on the Brookland listserve who other people have used.  You shouldn't be getting the rich people upcharge in Brookland.  I wouldn't do design build.  I would just hire an architect and a general contractor.  [/quote]

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