Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Feb 19, 2022 9:30 pm Hello Homeone user....first post here......looking for some advice Entering into the fray of either renovating or knocking down and rebuilding a house in the covid / post covid age (late 2023 or start of 2024). The house we have is on Sydney's upper north shore on 1030m2 land size. The current house floor space is ~230m2, single story, orientation is easterly, double brick build, built on foundations (not a slab). Build circa 1965. The condition of the stuff that matters ie; foundations, brick work, floor joists is excellent from a visual inspection - no signs of brick work cracking and it has those wonderful never to be seen again hardwood floor joists (you builders out there know what I am talking about), interior walls all brick. The roof tiles are nearing their useful lifespan, but the framework is all hardwood. The position we are in at the minute is the place needs a refresh to better suit our needs. So do we either renovate to suit our needs or do we knock it down and start all over again. Now building prices seem to have got a bit out of hand and I am strongly against knocking down and building a garbage volume builder cheap quality house - I have spoken to Meadowbank who whilst aren't "volume builders"....I would still say fit the mold of a builder who uses same same techniques and design ethos to build all of their houses (its not hard to see all their designs are cut from the same flavor....I guess done by the same design team)..... the problem is there builds Start at 1.6million I am told for a knockdown rebuild. On the flip side to renovate the property - add a few extra rooms and change the layout a bit on the ground level, add a second floor for family sleeping quarters and general modernizing (re-wire, re-plumb, aesthetics, kitchen and bathroom) to end up with a final floor area of between 300 - 350m2. Would feel like a huge shame to knockdown such a solid house, when it could be renovated into something just as nice, if not nicer and better built than a new build. Of course the house needs to "fit the area" which is why a generic volume builder would not be suitable (Metricon, et al), it has to be a quality build by the likes of Meadowbank or Homestead using their inhouse design team (at a huge expense that I feel we cannot afford)..........or to renovate and use our own architect and builder to achieve a similar result but for less. Our budget is $1m comfortably (upper end stretch is $1.2m). Which do the Homeone forum members believe is the best route......we are heavily leaning into renovating using an architect and a builder who we are very familiar with - i.e. we can trust who won't throw on the "north shore tax" (built and renovated other family members houses on the northern beaches and north shore) Re: Renovating Old House Vs Knockdown 2Feb 21, 2022 12:36 pm It depends on the potential of your current house, whether it is possible to add rooms and change layout as you want. You could easily fork out $0.5m on these renovations and still can't achieve what you want. Would it become your forever home after renovations? If not, in 10-15 years down the track, you might end up building a new house anyway. With your budge, it seems possible to build a custom home of the size you want. A new house could also be a better investment than a renovation. You already know roughly how much a new house could cost. It's probably a good idea to get a few renovation builders to look at your current house and see what's possible to achieve. Re: Renovating Old House Vs Knockdown 3Feb 22, 2022 6:49 pm Hello_world Hello Homeone user....first post here......looking for some advice Entering into the fray of either renovating or knocking down and rebuilding a house in the covid / post covid age (late 2023 or start of 2024). The house we have is on Sydney's upper north shore on 1030m2 land size. The current house floor space is ~230m2, single story, orientation is easterly, double brick build, built on foundations (not a slab). Build circa 1965. The condition of the stuff that matters ie; foundations, brick work, floor joists is excellent from a visual inspection - no signs of brick work cracking and it has those wonderful never to be seen again hardwood floor joists (you builders out there know what I am talking about), interior walls all brick. The roof tiles are nearing their useful lifespan, but the framework is all hardwood. The position we are in at the minute is the place needs a refresh to better suit our needs. So do we either renovate to suit our needs or do we knock it down and start all over again. Now building prices seem to have got a bit out of hand and I am strongly against knocking down and building a garbage volume builder cheap quality house - I have spoken to Meadowbank who whilst aren't "volume builders"....I would still say fit the mold of a builder who uses same same techniques and design ethos to build all of their houses (its not hard to see all their designs are cut from the same flavor....I guess done by the same design team)..... the problem is there builds Start at 1.6million I am told for a knockdown rebuild. On the flip side to renovate the property - add a few extra rooms and change the layout a bit on the ground level, add a second floor for family sleeping quarters and general modernizing (re-wire, re-plumb, aesthetics, kitchen and bathroom) to end up with a final floor area of between 300 - 350m2. Would feel like a huge shame to knockdown such a solid house, when it could be renovated into something just as nice, if not nicer and better built than a new build. Of course the house needs to "fit the area" which is why a generic volume builder would not be suitable (Metricon, et al), it has to be a quality build by the likes of Meadowbank or Homestead using their inhouse design team (at a huge expense that I feel we cannot afford)..........or to renovate and use our own architect and builder to achieve a similar result but for less. Our budget is $1m comfortably (upper end stretch is $1.2m). Which do the Homeone forum members believe is the best route......we are heavily leaning into renovating using an architect and a builder who we are very familiar with - i.e. we can trust who won't throw on the "north shore tax" (built and renovated other family members houses on the northern beaches and north shore) Hello_world I just saw your post and had to add my 2 cents as we specialise in both renovations, and new builds on the North Shore. For $1m you can get a really nice custom 330sqm home including all design demo and landscaping. Basically move in. $1,100,000 would get you a 370 sqm home which would get you 4-5 bedrooms, study movie theatre and rumpus. Renovations are also a great option if you like the bones of your current house, but can often be more expensive as all the demo and remedial work has to be done by hand, so we find that most times it's more cost efficient to start from scratch. Anyway, I hope that helps a little. Happy to show you some plans so you can get an idea of what you get for you money Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Renovating Old House Vs Knockdown 4Feb 23, 2022 10:04 am Thanks for the reply Simeon Interesting regarding the prices you list - I do have a question on the big disparity between the prices you list and what the Meadowbank (sales person I assume) told me? looking at a difference of 600k-ish? quite a significant difference which would be made up somewhere quality wise surely (waffle pods vs solid slab, cladding upper floor vs brick veneer, single vs double glazing, ceramic tiles vs concrete tiles, 40mm stone bench tops vs laminate, 2.4 ceilings vs 3.0m, etc) Re: Renovating Old House Vs Knockdown 5Feb 23, 2022 1:41 pm Hello_world Thanks for the reply Simeon Interesting regarding the prices you list - I do have a question on the big disparity between the prices you list and what the Meadowbank (sales person I assume) told me? looking at a difference of 600k-ish? quite a significant difference which would be made up somewhere quality wise surely (waffle pods vs solid slab, cladding upper floor vs brick veneer, single vs double glazing, ceramic tiles vs concrete tiles, 40mm stone bench tops vs laminate, 2.4 ceilings vs 3.0m, etc) Hello_world No it's simply the north shore tax and clever business practices Meadowbank build a nice home but in my opinion, ours are at an equal or higher standard. As I have mentioned in other posts, both Meadowbank and Homestead have the reputation for being premium builders and the Chinese buyers in particular love them and pay a premium, therefore I think they are able to charge more for their builds. But like for like, same design same materials our costs will be much lower than both of them. We use a lot of suppliers out west so we get lower prices and our clients get the benefit. For instance we use Amber Liverpool for our tiles and the price difference between Liverpool and chatswood is incredible. Same with most of our other suppliers, we bring western suburbs prices to the North Shore. We also run really low overheads so we pass those savings on. The home we are building in St Ives, the clients had a design and quote from Oppidan, home was 450sqm and the quote was $1.7m, we have increased the size to 511 sqm and several hundred thousand dollars cheaper and we included the concrete pool. We are currently doing a renovation in Turramurra, the client had the Kitchen quoted at $69,000 and timber flooring at $28,000, we are doing the kitchen, TV room cabinets, and a massive custom study for $71,000, flooring for $14,000. North Shore prices are ridiculous, we get penalised because the suppliers think we are all super rich. Anyhow, I would be really happy to own a Meadowbank home, you cant fault them quality wise, you just have to pay a bit extra. Cheers Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Renovating Old House Vs Knockdown 7Apr 25, 2024 9:56 am G'day! Just stumbled into your post whilst doing my own research, and wanted to connect with you as our situation is almost identical! If you are still active on this forum, would really appreciate knowing what you ended up doing! Thanks Re: Renovating Old House Vs Knockdown 8Apr 25, 2024 11:12 am Santojds G'day! Just stumbled into your post whilst doing my own research, and wanted to connect with you as our situation is almost identical! If you are still active on this forum, would really appreciate knowing what you ended up doing! Thanks Hello there, we ended up going for an architectural renovation. Building new was A: too expensive and B: the quality of a standard new build vs the price they want for the quality we want wasn't achievable We, like most, had delays with the council and excessive waiting over the Christmas period so we have only heard back in the last month. Had some minor drafting changes that were required, now we are waiting for the final approvals Anticipate now starting to build in June now The existing bottom story is full double brick, we are extending on the bottom floor in full double brick then putting a second floor on using Hebel power floor instead of a concrete slab and Hebel wall panels on a 90mm timber frame instead of other cladding or brick veneer (that was a choice in thermal efficiency not cost). Steel standing seam roof instead of terracotta/concrete tile (again thermal efficiency). Double glazed everything. Not even Meadowbank vanilla tier houses build to that spec but want about 40% more dollarydoos. We are building for a long term live-in not quick build and flip. Re: Renovating Old House Vs Knockdown 10Apr 25, 2024 11:35 am Santojds Thanks so much for replying. I can honestly resonate with everything you're saying.. it's almost freakish. Can I ask, are you working to the same budget 1-1.2M ? Yep 1.2 plus a contingency of 15% Hi We have finally decided to complete a KDR on our corner plot in NE Melbourne suburbs. Given its a corner plot approx. 400 sqm just a standard design may not fit the… 0 9239 if the original house is in good condition most of what you listed could be added in stages without the need for KDR and costs and disruption of having to live elsewhere… 1 14035 multiple occ properties are always billed by trades at a premium, rarely per sqm for the lot. You either have trades you know whoe will do by sqm or youre going to get… 1 2677 |