Full House Refurbishment — Where to Start and What to Expect

A full house refurbishment — as opposed to a cosmetic refresh or a room-by-room renovation — means comprehensively upgrading the property from structure to finish. A genuine full refurb typically includes:

**Structural works**: Any load-bearing wall removals, steel beam installations, chimney breast removals, or structural repairs to floors, walls, or roof structure.

**Roof**: If not recently renewed, the roof should be addressed during a full refurbishment — new felt, battens, tiles or slates, ridge tiles, and guttering.

**Damp investigation and remediation**: Full investigation and treatment before any internal finishes are applied. This may include repointing, damp-proof courses, tanking, or external drainage improvements.

**Full electrical rewire**: New consumer unit, all circuits, sockets, switches, lighting points, and EV charger provision if required. Rewiring during a full refurb — when walls are open — is far cheaper than retrofitting later.

**Full plumbing replacement**: New boiler, new heating system (radiators or underfloor heating where floors are open), new hot and cold pipework, replacement of lead supply pipes.

**Insulation**: Loft insulation, cavity wall insulation where applicable, internal wall insulation to solid walls, floor insulation where floors are lifted.

**Windows and external doors**: Repair or replacement depending on condition.

**Full plaster**: Skim coat to all walls and ceilings after services are in (or repair and retention of original lime plaster where appropriate).

**Kitchen**: New kitchen unit installation (kitchen supplied separately or by contractor depending on specification).

**Bathrooms**: New bathroom suites, tiling, and plumbing.

**Joinery**: Internal doors, door frames, skirting, architraves, and any bespoke joinery.

**Flooring**: Throughout the property.

**Decoration**: Full paint or wallpaper throughout, including ceilings.

Not every refurb includes every item on this list — the scope depends on the property's condition and the owner's brief.

The order in which work happens on a refurbishment is not optional. Getting the sequence wrong is the most common cause of rework, cost overruns, and disputes.

**The correct sequence:**

1. **Strip-out first**: Removal of all fixtures, fittings, non-structural partitions, floor coverings, ceilings, and old services. This exposes the structure and makes everything else easier.

2. **Structural works**: Any load-bearing wall removals, steel beams, or structural repairs happen on the exposed structure — before anything else is built.

3. **Roof and external envelope**: The building must be weathertight before internal finishes begin. Roof works, window replacements, and any external damp repairs are done early.

4. **Damp investigation and treatment**: After strip-out and structural works expose the walls, damp investigations are conducted and treatment applied. Plastering over unresolved damp will fail.

5. **First-fix electrical**: All conduit routes, back boxes, and wiring are run before walls are boarded. This includes all circuits, TV/data cables, and EV charger cables.

6. **First-fix plumbing**: All new pipework — hot and cold, heating, and drainage — is installed before walls are closed.

7. **Underfloor heating**: Where specified, pipes are laid before screed is poured (wet UFH) or boards are installed (electric UFH).

8. **Insulation and boarding**: Wall insulation, floor insulation, and plasterboarding.

9. **Plastering**: Skim coat to walls and ceilings once boarding is complete. There is typically a drying-out period of 2–3 weeks before decoration can begin.

10. **Second-fix electrical**: Sockets, switches, light fittings, consumer unit commissioning.

11. **Second-fix plumbing**: Radiators or UFH manifolds, bathroom suites, boiler commissioning.

12. **Kitchen and bathroom installation**: Kitchen units, worktops, tiling. Bathroom tiling, suite installation, shower enclosures.

13. **Joinery**: Internal doors, skirting, architraves, and any bespoke joinery.

14. **Flooring**: Engineered timber, LVT, tile, or carpet installed last (after all other trades).

15. **Decoration**: Final paint throughout. This is always last.

Costs for a full house refurbishment in London (2025) depend heavily on the size of the property, its condition at the start, and the scope and specification:

• **1-bedroom flat (50–60m²)**
• •Standard specification: £25,000–£45,000
• •High specification: £45,000–£70,000

• **2-bedroom flat or small terraced house (70–90m²)**
• •Standard specification: £40,000–£75,000
• •High specification: £75,000–£110,000

• **3-bedroom Victorian terraced house (90–120m²)**
• •Standard specification: £70,000–£120,000
• •High specification: £120,000–£180,000

• **4+ bedroom house or large Victorian semi (120–180m²)**
• •Standard specification: £110,000–£180,000
• •High specification: £180,000–£280,000+

• **Structural works and extensions** add to these figures:
• •Each load-bearing wall removal + RSJ: £4,000–£8,000
• •Rear extension: £45,000–£90,000
• •Loft conversion: £35,000–£100,000

**What 'standard' vs 'high' specification means:** Standard: mid-market kitchen and bathrooms (£8,000–£15,000 kitchen, £6,000–£10,000 per bathroom), engineered oak or LVT flooring, new windows (UPVC or aluminium), full rewire and plumbing, fresh plaster and decoration throughout. High specification: bespoke or premium kitchen (£20,000+), premium bathrooms (£12,000–£20,000 each), solid hardwood or large-format porcelain flooring, bespoke joinery, underfloor heating throughout, smart home systems, external works.

A full house refurbishment of a London terraced house typically takes 12–20 weeks on site, depending on the scope.

**1-bedroom flat**: 6–10 weeks **2-bedroom flat**: 8–14 weeks **3-bedroom terraced house (no extension)**: 12–18 weeks **3-bedroom terraced house (with rear extension or loft)**: 18–26 weeks **4+ bedroom house or complex structural works**: 18–28 weeks

• The factors that extend the programme:
• •Structural works (each opening adds 1–2 weeks)
• •Extent of damp remediation required
• •Plaster drying time (2–3 weeks before decoration, cannot be compressed)
• •Kitchen and bathroom specification and lead times
• •Whether the property is occupied during the works

For occupied refurbishments (phased room by room while the client lives in the house), the programme is typically 30–50% longer. An empty property allows work to proceed across all rooms simultaneously.

The quality of a full house refurbishment is determined less by the specification of finishes and more by decisions made in the first month. The following are the decisions that matter most:

**1. How comprehensive is the scope?** Many clients start with a cosmetic brief and discover mid-project that the rewire, damp, or structural issue cannot be avoided. Trying to do a partial refurbishment in an older property often costs more in the medium term than doing the full scope at the outset. Get a structural and damp investigation done before fixing the scope.

**2. Is the design resolved before work starts?** The most expensive changes on a refurbishment are changes made after work has started. Every structural opening, kitchen layout, bathroom position, and partition location should be decided before first-fix begins.

**3. Bathroom and kitchen supply — client-supplied or contractor-supplied?** RCB's standard position is that second-fix materials and kitchen/bathroom units are client-supplied. This allows clients to select their own specification. It also means the contractor's programme depends on client supply arriving on time.

**4. Who is coordinating the trades?** A full refurbishment involves 8–12 different trades operating in a specific sequence. Without a principal contractor coordinating the sequence, gaps, overlaps, and conflicts between trades are the most common cause of delays and disputes. This is one of the core reasons to use a principal contractor rather than managing individual trades directly.

The following are the mistakes that most frequently cause refurbishment projects to go over budget, over programme, or under-deliver on quality:

**Starting before the design is resolved**: Structural changes and service routes must be fixed before first-fix. Making layout decisions after walls are plastered means opening walls again.

**Underestimating the scope upfront**: Older properties regularly reveal damp, structural issues, or substandard previous works once the strip-out happens. Build a contingency of 10–15% of the total project cost for unforeseen items.

**Not waterproofing before plastering**: The single most common cause of plastering failure. If there is any damp in the walls — rising damp, penetrating damp, or condensation — it must be fully investigated and treated before the final plaster coat.

**Selecting finishes too late**: Long-lead items — bespoke kitchen units, bathroom tiles from specific suppliers, specialist flooring — can take 6–14 weeks from order to delivery. If these are not ordered before first-fix starts, they can hold up the finish stages.

**Managing individual trades directly**: Coordinating 10+ trades, each with their own schedule, is a full-time job. Most homeowners who try this experience the same failure: the sequence falls apart, trades wait on each other, and the project stalls. Using a principal contractor with a programme removes this risk.

RCB approaches full house refurbishments as a principal contractor — meaning one party takes accountability for the entire project from strip-out to sign-off.

**Pre-construction stage**: Before work starts, we review the design, agree the scope, produce a programme, identify long-lead items, and flag any structural or damp risks that need investigation.

**Coordination**: We manage all trades — structural, electrical, plumbing, plastering, carpentry, tiling, flooring, and decoration — to a single programme. The client has one point of contact.

**Documentation**: Every refurbishment begins with a written scope of works. Changes are documented and priced before they are instructed.

**Quality control**: We manage Building Control inspections for works that require sign-off — electrical, structural, drainage, and energy performance.

**Client communication**: We provide regular updates throughout the project. Clients know the programme, where the project stands against it, and when they need to make decisions.

The result is a refurbishment that runs to programme, to budget, and to the agreed scope — without the coordination overhead falling on the client.