Anyone done a Reno on practically a knock down home because you can’t afford to knock down/build?

[Guest]

Worth it or absolute waste of time with costs these days? I’m talking asbestos ridden, with no hot water system, new electrical wiring, fencing etc.

House isn’t liveable in current condition.

Thank you.

[Jay]

Not worth it, could build new for the same price once you’re done.

[Karen]

About to do one. It is a 3 bedroom shack to be used as a holiday house. In 10 to 20 years it will likely come down as the area becomes more popular. No significant asbestos in ours. Horse hair walls. Asbestos wall etc are fine if you leave them alone and paint over. Our footings framing and electrics are fine.

[Jade]

I am defintely no expert but we have started renovating an old, dated 70s home that sunk 8cm in the middle (so much is cracked and a very large portion needs to be replaced).

We looked into knock-down rebuilds and decided it wasn't financially viable (or sensible for the area).

Rules about house placement on the block and where our neighbours houses were placed limited the floor plans we could choose.

The new houses all had underground power and ours is above ground currently, so along with a few other things, the site prep was going to be expensive. We went to a fair few of the new home builders and am fairly certain we were looking at $400k for a knowdown rebuild (west suburbs of Melbourne so nothing super fancy).

We are living in the place now and renovating. A fair bit more stressful and will defintely take longer, but hoping to keep costs down by doing a lot of the removal works/planning etc and hiring trades along the way. (We had many of the materials tested for asbestos and were lucky not to find any).

[Leonie]

Are you doing any work yourself? Ours had good bones but we're still renovating 4 yrs later. Asbestos removal, added ensuite/ extended room, knocked out walls, new everything including hot water, electricity, roof, weatherboard, floors, blinds etc.

But hubby's a carpenter so saw the potential and what he could do so that has saved a lot.

We also liked the style and size of the old house being bigger than new houses. It's a hard one and I think depends on your style as well as whether you are paying for every component or have the true ability to do any of it yourself. We have also lived most of the reno while it's happening with little kids so need to weigh up that part too.

Good luck either way, both will have pros and cons.

[Billy]

I did. It was a good decision for us because renovating meant we could DIY a lot to keep costs down, but also it was a very small block with the house designed and situated in a way that we like but wouldn’t get approval for today. If we’d demolished and rebuilt we’d be expected to have off street parking, away from boundaries etc which would significant reduce the size of the house we could have.

[Kall]

It really depends on the houses current state, the current layout and the plans you have. Can you post some photos? Although you also need to make sure you can afford to rebuild, I've seen too many houses having to be sold because the buyer purchased it to "knock down" and then couldn't afford it so just make sure you do the sums.

[Karina]

Hubby is a builder and honestly knock down rebuild of old places like that end up being a lot cheaper then renovating. I know it sounds odd but maybe if it’s a small place you can knock down and look into plot homes there are beautiful ones for around $180k.