If you're thinking about fully renovating your home, one of the first questions you're probably asking is, "How much is it actually going to cost?"
And the answer really depends on the size of your home, its age, the work involved and the quality of the finishes you're wanting.
When we talk about a full home renovation, we're not just talking about replacing the kitchen and bathroom and giving the walls a fresh coat of paint.
We're talking about potentially stripping out old wall linings, upgrading insulation, replacing flooring, kitchens and bathrooms, improving storage, updating electrical wiring and lighting, and making your home warmer, more comfortable and better suited to modern living.
For a full home renovation in Tauranga, we'd generally suggest allowing somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000+, depending on the size of your home and the work involved.
We do many home renovations, and most of our clients actually book us because they're confused about where to start. They're wanting somebody to help them from start to finish, from managing their budget from the very beginning, to helping them come up with the look and feel of their renovation.
And that's exactly what we're experts in.
Let's break that down with a couple of examples of the types of homes we commonly renovate around Tauranga, Papamoa and the Western Bay, so you can get a better understanding of what those budgets actually include. I've got a few real-life examples below, so bear with me as I walk you through some of our recent renovations and what you can expect them to cost.
What Does a Full Renovation of an Older Three-Bedroom Home Cost?
For Tauranga renovations, let's take an example of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, approximately 100–130 square metres.
Let's say it's an older-style weatherboard, board and batten, or James Hardy Cladding home built in the 1960s or 1970s or 1980s, and you're not wanting to change too much of the actual footprint or extend any of the areas. You're just wanting to fully upgrade the inside of the house and make it warmer, drier and more comfortable to live or holiday in.
Perhaps it has wallpaper on the walls, or old mouldy paint, and all the interior doors feel a bit sticky and old.
Replacing Wall Linings and Upgrading Insulation
With these older homes, particularly houses built in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, we often find that the interior wall linings really need replacing. They're old, sometimes warped, and in some cases there can be issues with mould or moisture.
Often, we'll strip off the existing wall linings and replace them with new ones, which makes a huge difference to how the home looks and feels inside.
One of the other big reasons we do this is to upgrade the insulation in the walls.
Many homes from this era have little or no wall insulation, so while we've got the walls opened up, it's a great opportunity to improve that.
It's something that's really important when you're renovating an older home, particularly if your goal is to make it warmer, drier and more comfortable to live in.
A Complete Interior Refresh
We're also talking about a complete interior refresh throughout the home.
That might include new flooring, a completely new kitchen and bathroom, interior painting, updating wardrobes and creating better storage areas throughout the house.
We'd generally be looking at updating the interior doors, potentially replacing the window joinery, and perhaps doing a few small cladding repairs on the outside, as well as a full repaint inside and out.
For the kitchen and bathroom, we'd be aiming to keep costs down while still achieving a really nice result. Perhaps an acrylic shower in the bathroom, a basic level of tiling, but some nice splashbacks and taps.
Electrical, Lighting and Hot Water Upgrades
Depending on the age and condition of the home, we might also be replacing the hot water cylinder, upgrading electrical wiring, installing new lighting and adding extra power points throughout the house.
One thing we often find with older homes, particularly those built before the 1990s, is that they simply weren't designed for the number of electrical appliances we use today.
Back then, people didn't have nearly as many appliances, devices and things that needed plugging in. Now we're living in a completely different world where almost everything is electrical!
So when we're renovating these homes, we often look at adding more power points in practical places throughout the house, making it much easier for modern family living.
Lighting is another area where we can make a really big difference.
We've got some really nice lighting options available these days, including modern LED downlights, which can completely change the look and feel of a home.
They're also generally much more energy-efficient than older-style incandescent or halogen ceiling lights, helping reduce electricity consumption.
All these things add up, but they're also what makes a full home renovation so worthwhile.
You're not just updating how the house looks. You're making it warmer, more practical, more energy-efficient and better suited to the way we live today.
So, What Would This Renovation Cost?
When you put all of that together, we're not just talking about putting in a new kitchen and bathroom. We're talking about upgrading the home as a whole, including the things you don't necessarily see once the renovation is finished.
For this type of full home renovation, you'd generally be looking at a budget of $250,000–$350,000, depending on the final scope of work and finishes.
What About a Larger Four-Bedroom Home Renovation?
If you're wanting to do tiled showers, or perhaps you have a four-bedroom house and want to change quite a lot of the house, the costs can be higher.
For example, in Papamoa, you've got four-bedroom, older-style brick houses built in the 1990s.
A lot of people are updating these types of houses at the moment, as the kitchens and bathrooms are starting to look really dated, and the flooring and carpets are all dated too.
They're nice, solid homes, but often built a bit bigger than the houses in the 1960s and 1970s.
So, let's take a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a separate toilet.
You might be looking to spend more in the range of $300,000–$400,000, and perhaps you're wanting to do some nice tiled showers.
A tiled shower will increase the cost by roughly $10,000–$20,000 compared with an acrylic shower, depending on exactly the fixtures and finishes that we do.
How Much Does the Quality of the Finish Affect Renovation Costs?
The two main areas where the quality of your finishes can really affect renovation costs are your kitchen and bathrooms.
They're often the areas people care about most in their homes. They're the high-use areas, the spaces where you want to feel really good, and the rest of the house tends to tie into those areas with flooring, paint colours and things like that.
There are some really nice things we can do in both kitchens and bathrooms, but there are also areas where we can save costs while still achieving a really nice result.
How Much Does a Kitchen Renovation Cost in Tauranga?
One of the things that can really drive up the cost of a kitchen renovation is the style of cabinetry that we're going to use.
There's really basic melamine cabinetry, and then once you start getting into cabinetry with different designs, patterns or anything custom-made, that can really drive up the cost.
Entry-Level Kitchen Renovations: $50,000–$70,000
For example, if we're just renovating a kitchen alone, a basic kitchen renovation might range from $50,000–$70,000.
That would be a fully finished kitchen, completely stripped out and replaced with everything new.
It would include new lighting, electrical work, power points, tiled splashbacks and completely new kitchen cabinetry.
The cabinetry would be relatively entry-level, but perhaps we could add some nice stone benchtops.
Often, that might include a nice kitchen island, depending on the layout of your kitchen at the moment, what we have to work with and what you're wanting to achieve.
That would also include all new appliances, for example, stovetops, rangehoods and ovens.
We can also do things like interesting tiled splashbacks, really nice taps and perhaps some feature panelling on the end of the kitchen island, so it looks really spick and span.
And then potentially some extra pendant lighting. Lighting really lifts a space and can make the kitchen pop for a relatively small extra cost.
Everything we do, we do from start to finish.
The important thing to remember is that this budget wouldn't include removing walls or reconstructing the actual space. We'd be working with the space that we've already got.
What If You Want to Open Up Your Kitchen, Dining and Living Areas?
Often, people want to move walls, especially in older-style homes.
In many older homes, open-plan living between the kitchen, lounge and dining wasn't always thought about or valued in the same way it is today.
So we often get people wanting to fully open up their living spaces, bring the outside in and create a space that doesn't feel like you're just sitting inside the house.
That's especially useful in kitchen, dining and lounge areas, where restructuring the space can make a really big difference to how you live in your home.
If you're interested in restructuring the space, that's the sort of thing we'd need to discuss further over a phone call and then potentially come and have a look for you.
What About Higher-End Kitchen Renovations?
Moving on to higher-end kitchens, you could be looking at $100,000 or more, depending on the design and finishes you're wanting.
This is where we're getting into custom cabinetry and really focusing on architectural designs.
For these types of spaces, we'll often end up working with our interior designer, who will design the kitchen before we send it out to kitchen companies for quoting.
Our interior designer can help design all the cabinetry for you, making sure you've got the right handles and finishes for the look and style you're trying to achieve.
Sometimes that might include stone or marble benchtops, custom lighting, feature tiling and perhaps engineered timber floors.
Higher-end kitchens might also include custom natural timber cabinetry, where we'd look at getting a cabinetmaker involved rather than using a kitchen manufacturer that's producing more basic melamine cabinetry.
So it really just depends on the level of finish you're wanting to go for.
Planning a More Luxurious Home Renovation?
If you're wanting to go a step further and completely transform your home with architectural design, custom cabinetry, natural timber, beautiful finishes and perhaps some changes to the layout, that's a different level of renovation altogether.
We'll be covering this in a separate article, looking at what you might expect to spend on a high-end home renovation in Tauranga and what those extra costs can include.
Coming soon: How Much Does a High-End Home Renovation Cost in Tauranga?
How Much Does the Quality of Bathroom Finishes Affect Costs?
We can do some really amazing things in bathrooms these days and create nice sanctuaries.
But we also work on bathrooms for people who are renovating rental properties, which have a very different look and feel compared to your own tiled shower in a home that you're planning to live in for the foreseeable future, whether that's five or ten years, or more.
There are some really cool things that we can do.
For example, we do automatic lighting under the vanity, so that if you go to the bathroom or your ensuite at night, a really soft light will just flick on. That way, you don't need to be fumbling around in the dark for light switches.
Another more luxurious option is full floor-to-ceiling tiling throughout the entire bathroom.
But there are also areas where we can save costs while still achieving a really nice result.
For example, you might still want a nice level-entry tiled shower, but we can strip back the tiles from some of the walls and perhaps use some really nice vanities and taps, rather than tiling every wall from floor to ceiling.
It's really about working out where you want to spend your money and where we can save costs, while still achieving the look and feel you're wanting.
What's Most Important to You: Time, Cost or Quality?
Really, it's all about getting to know our clients and understanding their needs.
We often start by talking about your budget and what your priorities are.
What's your priority? Is it time, cost or quality?
Is it quality? Are you wanting something really good quality? Then we can focus on getting good value from our suppliers and subcontractors to achieve that really nice quality renovation.
Is it time? Are you wanting it done really fast? Do you have a deadline that you're working towards and need it completed by a certain date? Then we can work with that.
Or is it cost? Are you wanting to keep the renovation within a particular budget? Then we can look at where we can save costs while still achieving a really nice result.
Sometimes it's a bit of all three: time, cost and quality.
It's really about getting to know our clients' needs and working out what's most important to them.
What About Council Consent Costs?
Council consent costs would need to be individually assessed, depending on the work that you're wanting to do and whether your renovation requires consent.
This is another area that we can help you with.
We can talk you through what work might require council consent, what costs you might need to allow for, and how long the process could take.
For example, if you're wanting to move walls, change the layout of your home or renovate your bathroom, we'd need to look at exactly what's involved to work out whether council consent is required.
So again, give us a call and let us know what it is that you're wanting to do. We're more than happy to have a chat and help you understand what's involved.
Not Sure Where to Start With Your Renovation?
We understand that planning a full home renovation can feel overwhelming, particularly when you're not sure what things are going to cost or where to start.
That's why we encourage people to talk to us early, before they've committed to plans or made expensive decisions.
If you're thinking about a renovation and you've got all these sorts of questions, Amy is more than happy to have a chat.
Amy, who wrote this article, looks after our client care and new project enquiries at Seamless Builders. She's been building and renovating houses alongside her husband, Jordan, for the last eight years.
We're more than happy to talk you through our experience, what we know works, what we know doesn't work, and give you some initial ballpark estimates and timeframes to work with.
We can also answer your questions about council consent, whether your renovation needs consent, what parts of the project require consent, and how long those things might take.
We can start with a complimentary phone chat and, if you're wanting to progress further, arrange a free site visit.
Simply fill in the form below and we'll be happy to help you understand where to start.
The renovation costs above are indicative budgets to help you understand what to expect. Actual costs will depend on the condition of your existing home, the scope of work and your final selections. Any design and council consent costs will need to be individually assessed.