frogian Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 I see some SCARY info in some of the replies you got nicolac34 (mainly house oriented replies). You are looking at possibly renovating an apartment though, so this is (maybe) a completely different story to that of renovating a house (suppose it depends on the size of the apartment you are after and whether it's ground floor or not). Personally can't give you an idea of renovation costs I'm afraid (be it DIY or professional) without knowing the layout of the apartment, but what I can say is that (from experience), if you and / or your OH, mates, mates of mates etc are handy (and, for some things, tradies), whatever a pro company quote you for work on something, pretty much half it and it will give you an idea of what you can get the work done for. The saying "it's who you know, not what you know" definitely has feet here in Oz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freckleface Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 My daughter has just renovated her kitchen but she was quite smart in what she did and ended up with a beautiful kitchen at a significantly reduced cost. Rather than ripping the entire kitchen out she kept the same configuration but replaced the oven, cooktop and dishwasher ($4000) and replaced the cupboard doors and handles, taps, bench tops and sink etc (around $3000). She didn't buy cheap things but she did buy end of line products so, although new and really nice, she got them cheaply. Her bench tops for example are thick granite but there was a tiny flaw in the slab so she got it for next to nothing - the kitchen guy cut the bench tops in such a way that the flaw was in the section the sink hole had to be cut in and hey presto - beautiful and flawless kitchen benches. It took her a bit of hunting around to find everything she wanted but she saved a fortune on a kitchen that looks like it cost 10 times more than it did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Often the way - shop around, think cleverly and don't skimp on materials. Eg for kitchens, the cupboard carcasses often last years beyond the fashionability/tiredness of the doors so if they are fine and the layout works, as FF's daughter did, replace appliances, doors and benchtops and it'll look like a new kitchen for a fraction of the cost - particularly if you get lucky with things like her granite Always buy the best material you can as it really shows. Real stone or solid surface benchtops for example. They are expensive but make a massive difference. For flooring, laminate always looks cheap, consider engineered wood which is just as easy (and therefore the same price) to fit, not much more expensive but looks a whole lot better. Cheap paint is always a false economy - it takes twice as long to put on, you often need an extra coat (so it wasn't that cheap) and it lasts half the time. Particularly exterior finishes. Outside paving etc, don't believe any claims of any type of concrete to look "like stone" - it doesn't. Reconstituted stone is a slightly cheaper alternative to natural. If your garden has a lot of level changes and you need terraces/retaining walls, doing it in masonry is really expensive, it can look as good/better with timber retaining walls/sleepers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishgirl1 Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Your daughter did really well Freckleface, my parents just renovated the kitchen in one of their rentals and did it a lot cheaper than what they would have for a whole new kitchen and it looks really good, I need a new kitchen too but I don't like the layout so I know mine will be a $$$$ so it will have to wait. The good thing to do is get at least 3 quotes for everything can be a pain waiting for people to come and give the quotes though but could save you a fair few $$$ in the end. Good Luck Nicolac34 you are living in a fantastic spot to . Laney x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicolac34 Posted November 28, 2012 Author Share Posted November 28, 2012 I see some SCARY info in some of the replies you got nicolac34 (mainly house oriented replies). You are looking at possibly renovating an apartment though, so this is (maybe) a completely different story to that of renovating a house (suppose it depends on the size of the apartment you are after and whether it's ground floor or not). It's a ground floor apartment at the back on the corner (only 8 apartments, 2 story) so we only have one common wall. I think the flat is approx 79sqm. I think when we did it (if we did!) then the kitchen would need a complete overhaul. Layout is fine, but it dates back to the 70's and the insides of the cuboards are really manky and worn and generally falling to bits. Theres no current space for a dishwasher that i'd want to put in either. Some really good ideas on here, certainly think IKEA seems to be a good bet for quite a few things! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eera Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Hi, we will be renovating our kitchen soon too and like you say, it's so expensive here. I really appreciate it if you could you let me have the details of where you have bought your appliances from, I'd love to save some money on them like you. Thanks. No probs, I use a mob called A La Cucina who are in Maidstone and specialise in exporting appliances to Aus, I've imported a Rangemaster (Falcon in Aus) induction range; $8000 from Harvey Norman/Joyce Mayne, GBP 1720, plus a rangehood, with delivery via Anglo Pacific about 900GBP. I also use Grays Online a lot, got a Smeg steel sink for $45 (full price apparently $1700, have no idea how they can charge that!). The stone I could get online for about $200 a slab and try and cut it myself, but I'm not even going to attempt that, I'll leave some things to the pros and pay the price. There's loads of advice on Whirlpool about importing appliances and the legality of various imports; basically electrical not a problem, gas you might have issues getting connected due to a lack of AGA stamp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VictoriaP Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 No probs, I use a mob called A La Cucina who are in Maidstone and specialise in exporting appliances to Aus, I've imported a Rangemaster (Falcon in Aus) induction range; $8000 from Harvey Norman/Joyce Mayne, GBP 1720, plus a rangehood, with delivery via Anglo Pacific about 900GBP. I also use Grays Online a lot, got a Smeg steel sink for $45 (full price apparently $1700, have no idea how they can charge that!). The stone I could get online for about $200 a slab and try and cut it myself, but I'm not even going to attempt that, I'll leave some things to the pros and pay the price. There's loads of advice on Whirlpool about importing appliances and the legality of various imports; basically electrical not a problem, gas you might have issues getting connected due to a lack of AGA stamp. Oh my gosh! Those are amazing savings - I'm so glad a found your post, I will definitely get in touch with them, thanks for the details. Just goes to show how much people are getting ripped off here doesn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I fitted an IKEA kitchen in my old house in the UK. It's all in the planning. I took my time. I think there was only a one week period when we didn't have a kitchen we could use and had to eat microwave food. My wife was preggers at the time and didn't appreciate me getting her to hold the high-level cupboards level whilst I marked the holes for drilling. We are still together though. (Next week's tale is the 3 months I took to upgrade our only bathroom when the wife was preggers with twins and our son was 1 yo. :laugh:Not that we were ever without a working bath and toilet, which is part of the reason it took so long....) Anyway, back to the kitchen, the only bit I didn't do were the benchtops (wooden) which I got my local carpenter in to do. He spent 2 days and charged me 120 quid. Did a great job. 2001 I think it was. I get the impression on the North Shore, a man for a day will cost you about $1000. That's based on four different jobs I have had done in the last year. That's about 50 quid an hour using Fleabo's AUD/GBP exchange rate of $2.5/GBP. 50 quid is probably about what you pay for a plumber/chippy/plasterer in the UK for small jobs? I guess I'm persuading myself I'm not getting rorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keily Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 we just bought our house 3 weeks ago ....we got it for a good price knowing we had to replace ...kitchen ..2 bathrooms and laundry ...all servicable at the mo but will need updated ......but what we didnt expect was a burst water pipe 3 days after moving in ....temp repair was $170 ....only to find it was leaking out of gas water heater which was basically knackered ....cost of new one including installing and pipework $2400 ......also had a termite inspection done when we bought house ...no sign of live termites in property ...but when we started digging up the garden the old palm stumps were full of them ....another $750 to get that done .....my advice would be to make sure you have a good reserve of cash for things that you didnt plan on going wrong as these are the things that are more costly (imo) .....kitchens etc can be done as and when and will also give you time to shop around mrs keily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I get the impression on the North Shore, a man for a day will cost you about $1000. That's based on four different jobs I have had done in the last year. That's about 50 quid an hour using Fleabo's AUD/GBP exchange rate of $2.5/GBP. 50 quid is probably about what you pay for a plumber/chippy/plasterer in the UK for small jobs? I guess I'm persuading myself I'm not getting rorted. You are getting rorted, sorry. UK rates, about 200 a manday is par for the course. I used to pay 100 a day for the best jobbing builder in the world but he was an old village hand (so no housing costs to pay) and a mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcorners Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 We did everything in our UK house ourselves, apart from getting the house shot-blasted which cost us 1000 pounds. We got quotes for repainting the exterior which were about 5000 pounds, nobody really wanted to do it as the stone walls were very roughly and nobbly. We bit the bullet and did it ourselves in the end making full use of ladders and makeshift platforms (dodgy as hell!). We did one coat in week, then my OH had to fly back to Karratha for 6 weeks, so I did as much of the second coat as I could then when he got back he finished the higher up places. We used pricey paint, about 130 quid for 20l, but it was lime based and breathable which is what our property needed, and we used 3 of those, so all in about 300 quid. We did rent some scaffolding to do the pointing and bought a new hammer drill, but all in all we spent less than 1700 pounds for a job that would have been nearly 10k pounds had we used builders. So we are always of the mindset that we can do anything ourselves, which may not work too well here if we do buy a property. The needs for everyone to be licenced actually really puts us off buying anywhere here. If we did I think we would buy something that wouldn't require any work, and save ourselves a load of hassle. Just remember that when you're doing renovations, all your time off/annual leave gets used up by it. I would rather go on a few more holidays! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest littlesarah Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Personally, from an investment perspective, I reckon it'd be a struggle to make money on a reno if you have to pay someone to do all the work. We're renovating, partly because we fell in love with a tired house in a location we like, and partly because we'd find it hard to rip out perfectly good kitchens and bathrooms just to get what we prefer. Lots of things are costly, but it also depends what you want. You don't need to be licensed to do everything here, it's mainly electricity and water/gas that you need a license for. Legally, anyone can fit a kitchen - they just can't alter the plumbing or light fittings. But it's easy enough to get a plumber to do the disconnect and make any alterations to the pipework ready for connection once the kitchen is finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippy79 Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 How can someone know if you've changed the plumbing pipes in the kitchen yourself? or moved a power point when refurbing the kitchen? Sounds pretty daft all of these rules..... luckily my cousin is a plumber, so he'll just have to come up for a "holiday" :biggrin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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