What a full house renovation costs
A whole-house renovation is several jobs added up, which is what the project budget above does with whichever ones you are actually doing. Here is the basket Costwise publishes for a typical three-bedroom house, each line priced from its own guide:
| Job | Typical UK cost |
|---|---|
| New kitchen | £12,000 |
| Bathroom renovation | £8,000 |
| Full house rewire | £5,500 |
| New boiler | £3,000 |
| Double glazing, 9 windows | £4,950 |
| Resin driveway, 40 m² | £2,200 |
| Whole-house total | £35,650 |
Guide prices reviewed June 2026, not quotes. This is the same basket published on the cost report, so the figures agree.
This is a refresh: it replaces what is worn out and leaves the layout alone. It does not include moving walls, structural work, planning or adding floor area. A smaller flat comes in below this, a four-bed detached above it, and London runs about 30 per cent higher than the UK average. For the whole-project view see the cost report, and to track your own numbers there is a free renovation budget spreadsheet.
Renovation cost per square metre
Most renovation work is quoted by the square metre once you get past the fit-out. These are the 22 jobs Costwise prices that way, cheapest first:
| Job | Range per m² | Typical |
|---|---|---|
| Turfing | £10 to £30 | £18 |
| Floor screeding | £15 to £35 | £22 |
| Carpet fitting | £15 to £40 | £25 |
| Laminate flooring | £20 to £45 | £30 |
| Repointing | £20 to £50 | £32 |
| LVT flooring | £30 to £70 | £45 |
| Tarmac driveway | £40 to £65 | £50 |
| Resin driveway | £40 to £70 | £55 |
| House cladding | £40 to £90 | £60 |
| Artificial grass | £40 to £90 | £65 |
| House rendering | £40 to £100 | £65 |
| Gravel driveway | £35 to £90 | £65 |
| Bathroom tiling | £40 to £120 | £70 |
| Block paving | £60 to £120 | £85 |
| Concrete driveway | £70 to £120 | £85 |
| Underfloor heating | £50 to £150 | £90 |
| Wood flooring | £55 to £150 | £90 |
| Flat roof replacement | £60 to £130 | £90 |
| Imprinted concrete driveway | £80 to £130 | £100 |
| Patio | £70 to £220 | £120 |
| External wall insulation | £90 to £160 | £120 |
| Decking | £60 to £220 | £120 |
Supplied and fitted per m², UK guide prices reviewed June 2026. Each row links to the full guide.
Adding floor area is a different scale again: a single-storey extension runs £2,000 to £3,200 per m² for the shell and a basic finish, typically £2,500. As a whole-house yardstick, the £35,650 refresh above works out at roughly £396 per m² across a 90 m² three-bed. That number only means anything with the floor area stated, which is why it is stated.
What this calculator covers, and what it leaves out
- All 150 jobs Costwise prices, singly with the options and add-ons that genuinely move a price, or several at once in the project budget.
- A regional adjustment, using the same multipliers as every guide and the cost map.
- It does not know your property. Access, condition, spec and what is behind the walls are the things that move a real quote most, and no calculator can see them.
- It is not a quote and no lead is generated by using it. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
- Hold back 10 to 15 per cent on top of any figure here. On this basket that is £3,565 to £5,348.
How these figures are worked out
Every price comes from the 150 cost guides on this site, researched job by job and reviewed June 2026. Between full reviews they are uprated against the ONS Construction Output Price Index, so they move with the market rather than sitting still. The method is published in full on how we price, the underlying figures are downloadable from the cost index under a CC BY 4.0 licence, and nothing here is a survey of real quotes or a fabricated average. Costwise only earns if you choose to ask for quotes, which is why the numbers are not talked up.
Common questions
How much does a full house renovation cost in the UK?
A full refresh of a three-bed house comes to about £35,650 on Costwise guide prices for 2026: a new kitchen, a bathroom, a full rewire, a new boiler, nine double-glazed windows and a 40 m² driveway. That is a refresh, not a structural renovation. Moving walls, adding floor area or underpinning is a different job and costs more.
Is £40,000 enough to renovate a house?
For a refresh, yes, but without much room. The six-job basket above totals £35,650, so £40,000 leaves about £4,350, roughly 12 per cent. Most builders want 10 to 15 per cent held back for what the walls hide, so £40,000 covers the work and a sensible contingency and little else.
Is £50,000 enough to renovate a house?
£50,000 covers the £35,650 refresh with about £14,350 left, which is comfortable for a contingency and some structural work such as knocking two rooms together. It does not stretch to adding floor area: a single-storey extension alone runs £2,000 to £3,200 per m².
What is the most expensive part of a house renovation?
The kitchen, on these figures. At about £12,000 it is the largest single line in the basket above, ahead of a bathroom at £8,000 and a full rewire at £5,500. Anything structural changes that ordering: a loft conversion at around £45,000, or an extension at £2,500 per m², outweighs the fit-out lines put together.
How accurate is a renovation cost calculator?
Treat any of them as a starting range, not a quote. This one prices from researched UK guide figures, reviewed June 2026, and adjusts for your region, but it cannot see your access, the state of your walls, or what a builder finds when the floor comes up. Use it to sanity-check what you are told, then get three written quotes. If you already have a number, the quote check compares it against the guide range.
These are independent guide prices based on typical UK jobs in 2026. Your actual cost depends on your property, spec, access and where you live. Always get at least three written quotes before committing.