Cost of a Gut Renovation
Obviously, a very broad question, but: we’re thinking of buying a modest, 2-family brownstone. Nothing huge or fancy, just a floor with a 3 bedroom and a rentable 1 or 2-BR on another floor. Should we find a place which requires a gut renovation, what kind of range of costs should we expect to be…
Obviously, a very broad question, but: we’re thinking of buying a modest, 2-family brownstone. Nothing huge or fancy, just a floor with a 3 bedroom and a rentable 1 or 2-BR on another floor. Should we find a place which requires a gut renovation, what kind of range of costs should we expect to be facing? Not to turn it into a palace, just to bring everything up to speed, preserve original detail, basically turn it from a dump to making it pleasant and livable for a small family and rentable for a tenant. In other words, a middle-of-the-road renovation. I know without specifics it’s hard to judge, we’re just trying to get an idea if this is even remotely doable. And would this take weeks? Months? We’re generally DIY, handy with a table saw and have done interior buildouts and art studio renovations ourselves, but we’re not plumbers or electricians, we’ll need a contractor for something like this even if we put in some of our own hours, and we have full-time jobs which would limit those hours.
Thanks for any advice guys!
mopar: would you be willing to share your electrician’s contact info here? I need to update all of the electrical in a brownstone I just purchased in Crown Heights. Thank you.
Thanks for your comments and advice, all. Much appreciated.
You are definitely looking at a starting range of 150k-200k and with a good GC it should be 2-3 months not including the time it takes to get an architect to draw up plans and pull the permits.
People go a bit crazy with the notion of “gut” renovation. You can replace electric and all plumbing without “gutting” the house. Ideally, you will find a place with sound floors and sound plaster that does not need skim coating. You can spend almost anything on bathrooms and kitchens.
We paid $15,000 for a full electrical upgrade. Plumbing we have done in bits and pieces. If your plumbing is laid out like ours is, more or less all accessible, and you were to re-do two kitchens and two baths at the same time in a modest fashion, that could cost, say $65,000. It can also be done for less — or a lot more. It really depends. Then you will need to plaster over the holes. $3,000 is plenty. Then again, all our plumbing is external to the walls, so perhaps you will have to rebuild entire walls to hide your plumbing, and this is costly. Hauling is $700. You can do a lot of structural work in the basement for $500 to $2,000. Refinishing floors $3,000 if no stain, $4,500 with a stain.
Skim coating can add up. I’d estimate $2 a square foot for an average job. But if the walls are smooth when you buy the place, it won’t need it. There’s no need to start removing walls unless you are changing their location. And you don’t need to replace plaster walls with drywall. People have odd notions.
Watch out for wallpaper, dropped ceilings, non-original panelling — it will almost always be hiding walls that need expensive work.
Also, if you like old built-ins in kitchens, you will save a fortune on cupboards and such if you find a place that already has them.
Do all the plumbing and electrical at once, then plaster, then refinish floors, then move in.
We discovered when we were all done that our second floor bath has to be gutted. If we had done it at the beginning, we wouldn’t have spent a dime more. Now we’ve got to save the money over several years.
I hope this rather lengthy, rambling post makes sense.
I’ve brought projects in below 100 a square foot, but again, that’s really scrounging around for best prices, staying on top of things, building smart, it’s a PITA, but it can be done. Small house as described is probably going to be around 1500 square feet, I’m sticking with $150K.
You’ll save money and time if the CoO is already for a 2-family. If there is structural work (changing exits, doors, walls) add more time and money. It could easily take 3 or 4 months even for a fairly simple project.
Agree with denton. Don’t forget to factor in the time/expense for getting drawings done and filing with the DOB. i’d add 6-8 weeks for that, min.
Figure $150-200 per square foot. Notice that’s not the same as 150k. That’s for a gut reno. Will take several months at a bare minimum.
I think I understand where you’re coming from, but it’s really hard to do a “middle of the road” gut renovation. You can specify middle of the road finishes, and that will save you some costs, but labor has become a huge expense in and of itself, so unless you’re talking about going crazy with finishes, you don’t save all that much. Additionally, you’ll be leaving the door open for the GC to cut corners and when you call him or her on it, the answer usually is “well, you wanted to save money”, which gets old in a hurry. Gut rehab is going to take months.
Given what you’ve written and the desire to preserve original detail, I think you’d be better off looking for something that needs some updating, but no structural problems with a layout that you can live with. Then you can take your time, update mechanicals as needed but work on the finishes yourself. Is it a pain in the neck? Yeah, but with a barebones gut rehab, you’re probably looking at a minimum of 150K with barebones interior finishes, you’ll have to act somewhat as a GC, subbing out various aspects of the job to save money with additional months of carrying costs while you have to live elsewhere. That’s assuming no significant structural problems.