Renovation Single-family house built in 1954 Baden-Württemberg

Good day everyone,

I am Michael and new to the forum. We (family/child) intend to buy an old single-family house in South Baden-Württemberg. The house is relatively in the original construction condition and fully basemented. The sqm are estimated at around 150 sqm without the (living) basement. We assume that the roof was renewed once and the windows were replaced with double-glazed plastic windows. According to the realtor, the facade was insulated with +10 cm a few years ago. Construction/material unknown. The owners are deceased. Nevertheless, we would probably redo the above-mentioned renovations.

We will inspect the house again with an expert. I wanted to ask you for support on whether my estimated renovation costs are roughly accurate or if I have completely missed something/forgot something important.

1. Planning/Statics: 1,000 € (Renovation to be carried out by a construction company)

2. Masonry/Demolition/Dismantling incl. 3x wall breakthroughs: 25,000 €

3. Roofer & tinsmith: 40,000 €

4. Window work (17 windows + a few small basement windows): 15,000 €

5. Heating work radiators: 5,000 €

6. Conversion from oil heating to gas boiler (pending) incl. underfloor heating in living/dining room: 30,000 €

7. Renovation bathroom + 1x guest WC (equipment and sanitary work): 20,000 €

8. Sanitary work water pipes: 5,000 €

9. Electrical installation: 5,000 €

10. Interior plastering work: 10,000 €

11. Silicone joints: 1,000 €

12. Floor coverings (ground floor: wood, 1st floor: carpet, entrance: tiles): 15,000 €

13. Interior doors (10 pieces): 4,500 €

14. Facade work (insulation & painting): 20,000 €

15. Redesign of entrance area and new terrace construction: 20,000 €

16. Kitchen: 20,000 € (already decided, is important to us)

Total costs: 250,500 €

We plan to provide approximately 20,000 EUR in EL from the total costs (mainly in the trades demolition/flooring & terrace). The total investment would then be 550,000 EUR for the renovated house without the EL included, or 530,000 EUR without the EL.

Later, improvement/renovation measures would still have to take place in the (living) basement. These are also planned step by step as EL.

I/we look forward to your assessment.

Best regards

Michael

… Edit:

Sorry: electrical installation: €20,000 --> I made a typo.

Point 11 is funny ... anyway, planning and structural engineering of course cost way more, but if you do it through a general contractor [GU], it is included in the price and difficult to calculate accurately.

You want, as I understand it, a complete gut renovation and have rather higher expectations.
Then it is easier to first roughly calculate based on volume and area. If nothing has been planned yet, you get lost in details.
You have 150sqm of shell construction at about 500€/m². Added to that are finishing costs at about 1200-1500€/m² and demolition and incidental costs.
I think with 270k€ without kitchen and without terrace you are on the safe side. Less is certainly possible, but for that you have to actually plan something first and not just guess trades. A proper plan with an architect would be five figures.

I would also say that you planned that generously realistically. With some own effort, skillful purchasing, I think there is still some room to reduce costs. For example, the gas heating, even with partial conversion to underfloor heating, I would estimate significantly cheaper. For €25,000 you can almost have the whole house demolished, so the item for demolition also seems quite high to me, although I don't know what exactly is planned there. The wall openings are not a huge task at first, of course it depends on the statics.

One can still discuss each point again, but the flat rate per m² is okay.

What is the condition of the staircase?
Is the basement really dry and suitable as a living basement?
Are front doors, terrace doors included in the items?

If the facade is insulated, I would consider leaving it as is, especially if costs might become a problem later on.

Is the height of the floor structure suitable for underfloor heating? We recently had a thread about the tailwind that underfloor heating can bring in old buildings.

Good morning everyone,

thank you for your feedback/assessment!

Point 11 is funny …

Yes, indeed. I also simply took that from a previous/other project (which unfortunately failed).

You want, as I understand it, a complete gut renovation and yet have higher standards.

I suspect that a gut renovation will be necessary for the house to make us happy. Landing in the new build price range would be okay. The standards are not necessarily high-end (except maybe in the kitchen area, a "somewhat" better bathroom (walk-in shower, larger tiles) and wooden flooring on the ground floor), but it is important to us, in Swabian terms, to buy "something proper." So not having to fix anything in the coming years. We are definitely willing to compromise. The terrace would be great. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.

You have 150sqm shell

We find it hard to assess since there is little information on the current state. Maybe it’s only 135 sqm...

For example the gas heating, even with partial conversion to underfloor heating, I would estimate significantly cheaper.

That would be great!

For 25,000€ you can almost demolish the whole house, so the demolition item seems quite high to me, although I don’t know exactly what is planned. The wall openings are not a huge task at first, of course depending on the statics.

It’s actually not an unbelievable amount. 3x openings (to be clarified with statics) and clearing out (old doors, radiators, pipes, etc.). I think the contractor also prices a lot of planning, statics, and margin here. No offer has been submitted yet in any case.

What is the condition of the stairs?
Is the basement really dry and suitable as a living basement?
Are front doors, terrace doors included in the item?

The stairs are "okay." We would leave them as a compromise. Currently, they are covered with carpet. We would have the new upper floor carpet laid on them. If possible, we might redesign it ourselves at some point (if possible) (sanding, treating). I think the "charm" of the 50s can be partly preserved with the old stairs.

The basement seems dry to me as a layman. There’s no musty smell. Living basement is very much in quotation marks. According to the standard of the 50s. Nowadays, probably no student would move down there. If we manage it in EL, we would try to set up an office/guest room downstairs.

The front door is still unclear. Due to the somewhat awkward layout, terrace and front door will probably be the same. Unfortunately, that’s not practical. If there is money left over, it could be solved differently, but then the terrace would have to be "led around the corner" and a terrace door installed there.

If the facade is insulated, I would consider leaving it as is, especially if costs become a problem later.

Okay, I will discuss that with the contractor. If it’s not energetically sensible, I fully agree with you! We probably still have to paint. But for the roof, scaffolding would already be there.

Is the height of the floor build-up suitable for underfloor heating? We recently had a thread on what a rat’s tail underfloor heating can lead to in an old building.

Thanks for the suggestion! I can’t say whether it’s possible. We will address that! Thanks.

Best regards and have a nice weekend!

Michael!