Renovating the house is a great idea to restore an older house to its former glory, to ensure the comfort of the inhabitants and their safety, to make it more energy efficient, etc. But you can’t renovate your house without any plan. And one of the first steps in planning the renovation of your house is to consider its costs. So how much does it cost to renovate a home?
The cost of renovation of a home fluctuates depending on a lot of factors, such as the size of the house, its age, the materials to be used, etc. Also, the cost will vary according to what part of the house you will renovate. In general, renovating the entire house costs between $60 to $150 per sq. ft.
Let’s take a look at various aspects of home renovation.
Cost to renovate your house
Once you decide to renovate your house, you shouldn’t dilly-dally, and start planning as soon as possible. The first thing you should plan for is the cost to renovate a home because this is the thing that will determine how much of your home you can renovate and what materials you will use.
You also have to plan for the costs because you will need an estimate of how much you will have to spend.
But the thing is, you can’t estimate the correct cost of renovation right away. Because the average price of home renovations isn’t a fixed one. A lot of factors influence this cost.
Below are the average costs of renovating homes depending on the spaces that are being renovated:
| Space | Average cost (in USD) | Recommended spending compared to the cost of the entire house |
| Entire house (Low-end renovation) | 15000 to 40000 | 100% |
| Entire House (Medium-end renovation) | 40000 to 75000 | 100% |
| Entire house (High-end renovation) | 75000 to 200000 | 100% |
| Exterior | 6000 to 20000 | – |
| Roof | 5000 to 11000 | 2 to 4% |
| Bathroom | 5000 to 25000 | Small – 5% |
| Primary – 7% | ||
| Kitchen | 10000 to 50000 | 16% |
| Basement | 20000 to 75000 | 10 to 15% |
| Bedroom | 1500 to 10000 | Primary – 13% |
| Standard – 1 to 3% |
Remember, these costs are just an estimate, depending on where you live, the costs may vary. Every state has a different cost of renovating per square foot of your home.
Also, if you live in a rural area, you may be able to reduce the renovation cost by about 40%.
What are the full home renovation costs?
If you want to renovate your full home, then the costs will go up by a large margin compared to that of a bedroom or a kitchen.
There are a few ways the cost of renovating an entire house can be calculated. They are:
1. Materials used
According to the materials used in the renovations, the house renovation can be of three types.
- High-end: This type of renovation uses high-end products for renovation. They cost the most, obviously.
- Medium-end: The materials used in this type of home renovation aren’t exactly top-shelf, but they are nothing to be scoffed at either.
- Low-end: This renovation type doesn’t use top-quality products, rather the materials are on the cheaper side. As a result, it is the cheapest kind of renovation of the lot.
2. Size of the house
The size of your house greatly affects the amount of money you have to pay for your home renovation.
The average price of home renovations if you want to renovate the whole house is between $60 to $150, depending on whether you’re doing high-end, medium-end, or low-end renovations.
So, according to these prices, here are a few examples of the costs you may have to bear depending on your home size
| House Size (in sq. ft.) | Low-end ($60/sq. ft.) | High-end ($150/sq.ft.) |
| 1000 | 60000 | 150000 |
| 2000 | 120000 | 300000 |
| 3000 | 180000 | 450000 |
Medium-end renovations for the entire house will cost between these estimates depending on your house size. If you know the area of your house, you can calculate how much you’ll have to pay for renovating it.
3. The type of your home
The kind of house you have also impacted the budget for home remodeling.
For example, an older classical house will cost more to be renovated than a newer apartment. Let’s take a look at some of the house types and how much it usually costs to renovate them.
| House type | Cost of renovation per sq. ft. |
| Apartment | $25 to $40 |
| Townhouse | $10 to $35 |
| Mobile home | $10000 to $30000* |
| Condo | $75 to $100 |
| Row House | $25 to $75 |
| Victorian | $20 to $200 |
| Historical | $100 to $200 |
| Farmhouse | $10 to $50 |
*Cost of renovating the entire home
What is the cost to gut renovate a house?
Gut renovating a house means stripping it to its skeletal form, that is, taking away everything such as flooring, plumbing, and even the roof.
When your gut renovates a house, you have to put every new thing in place, such as insulation, HVAC, etc. The cost of gut-renovating a house ranges between $100000 to $200000 on average. But depending on the house size, it can go up even more.
You can also rehab your house if you don’t want to gut it. In theory, gutting and rehabbing a house are very close to each other, but rehabbing doesn’t need you to completely strip it to its bones. The average cost to rehab a house is between $20 to $50 per square foot.
What factors affect the renovation prices of a home?
There are plenty of factors that affect the overall prices of a house’s renovation or the per-square-foot cost. These factors are
- Gaining permit
- The age of the home
- Hiring an architect
- Condition of the house
- Hiring contractors
- Labor
- Additional costs of newer electrical cables, plumbing, HVAC, etc.
- Location of the house
- The number of rooms
- Type of the rooms
- Type of the house
- Preparing the site
- Materials used
- Whether any structural change has to be made
- Problems regarding the foundation
- If the floor plan needs changing
Final Words
Whenever the issue of home renovation comes up, the first thing people ask is, “How does it cost to renovate a home?”
While the cost of renovation varies depending on various reasons, one thing that can’t be denied is that it is cheaper than buying a new house. So if you are facing a dilemma regarding this, you can choose to renovate your house 99 times out of 100.
FAQ
1. How much does it cost to interior renovate a house?
The interior renovation cost of a house includes the cost of taking the older interior apart.
Taking this into account, the average cost of the interior renovation of a home is between $1200 to $4700. If you want high-end renovation, the cost can get up to $10000.
2. How long does it take to do a full house renovation?
The time taken to renovate a full house depends mainly on its size. Smaller houses need about 7 to 10 months to be renovated.
On the other hand, larger houses can need up to 12 months to be renovated.
3. Is it cheaper to renovate or rebuild?
It is cheaper to tear your house down and remodel it than to build a whole new one. In general, rebuilding your house is around 20% costlier than renovating it.
Learn more: Why you should renovate your home
