Anyone wondering what a whole-house alarm will run you? Or looking to see what a new patio will set you back? Behold, Fixr.com’s “Remodeling Cost Guides.” They’ve created a handy little average budget breakdown of a slew of house-related projects to help homeowners wrap their minds around the amount of money that these undertakings might possibly set them back.
Just head over to this link and scroll down below the image shown above to see a ton of links that lead you to some pretty heavily researched guestimations for everything from building a swimming pool or sauna to installing a tin roof or renovating a kitchen or bath. Of course things like location and the changing economy can alter these estimations (so they could be a bit high or low depending on your circumstances) but it’s nice to peruse some ballpark figures just for reference.
What do you guys think? Any projects that feel especially appealing now that you’ve learned that they’re less than you expected them to be? Any projects that seem shockingly expensive now that you’ve poked around on their site? Do tell.
Psst- We weren’t paid or perk’d by Fixr.com (or anyone else) to write this post- we just thought it was an interesting site and wanted to share it.
Update: Ooops, it appears that we’ve momentarily crashed their site. Here’s hoping that it’s back up and running soon. In the meantime, here’s an old post all about how we get lots of estimates and negotiate for the best deals that we can find. Were all about saving those benjamins!
Love it…I was wondering what to pay for tile flooring. This makes it much easier to gauge.
This would’ve been awesome to have 2 years ago when we started tearing everything apart. We did it all ourselves so that cut the cost way down. I definitely be using it for our second bathroom remodel. Pics of the first remodel are linked in my name
Great site! We are looking to install a closet system in our master closet sometime in the next year, and I like how it compares DIY to professional install.
I looked at the basement remodel just for fun. I am very proud to say (and brag) that we finished our 1800 sq ft basement for just under $22k. That included everything from waterproofing (gotta love DryLoc), studding, insulation, electrical, HVAC, sheetrock, paint, drop ceiling, fixtures, and laminate flooring in all rooms but the gym. We did everything ourselves except the electrical, HVAC, and drop ceiling grid. We saved $500 by putting the ceiling tiles in ourselves.
fixr.com says that remodeling a 600 sq ft basement will run around $54. It definitely saves to DIY.
I think we are crashing the website! It keeps timing out on me!
Having trouble getting it to load. Busy server? Are the links still good?
Eeks- it’s possible! Although a few others have mentioned they had success perusing some of the estimates over there (and we were able to get over there this morning before posting this) too many people might be trying to go all at once. We just gave it a go and we couldn’t get through either. Maybe try back in a bit?
xo,
s
haha, totally crashed their site! The power of YHL! I am favoriteing and hopefully they’ll be back up soon :)
We just shot off an email to their contact person so hopefully they are at least aware of the issue (although sometimes these things take some time to work out). Fingers crossed they’re up and running again soon!
xo,
s
Whole lotta of DIY projects about to be going on! Just got a great deal on a house and of course with a good deal comes a lot of work….New wiring, New flooring, New windows, Wall knocked out, sheetrocking, kitchen renovation, and Master bath…just to name a few of the projects that will be going down! All to be recorded and share @ http://www.heatherkm.blogspot.com! Should be an interesting few months! Preciate the post about this sight…look forward to scoping it out!
Great site, but I think you can only take so much stock in these. We have done a lot of bidding out of projects and the quality and prices vary a lot (even on our major home addition last year). For an alarm system (since you used that example up front), we got 3 different VERY different costs. The highest was from the company we were already with – we weren’t thrilled with them anyway – sooo, we switched to Slomin’s Shield – great customer service and WAY cheaper! So, don’t under estimate the power of getting several bids. Probably worth the time and energy in the long run!
http://www.houseography.net
Absolutely! We’re all about getting tons of estimates and then sweetly saying: is that your best price? Here’s a post about how we negotiate when it comes to keeping costs down: https://www.younghouselove.com/2008/11/negotiating-101-smarter-wheelin-dealin/
Hope it helps!
xo,
s
So I’m dying to know. What project did you research?
Also, I noticed you’re not on the True Value DIY Blog Squad this year.
Hey Billie,
We looked up a ton of things, just to see what budgets they came up with. For example we have a whole house alarm already so we looked that up to see if we came in under budget (we did- yay!). We also looked up a tin roof (since that’s one of my dreams) and just poked around to see what kitchen and bathroom reno numbers they had. All quite interesting!
As for the True Value DIY Blog Squad, sadly we couldn’t take it on this year. We’re just barely able to keep up with our two-post-a-day schedule along with organizing giveaways, answering comments, writing our column for Babycenter and Do It Yourself magazine, and of course taking care of our new baby girl- so we sadly had to pass. We can’t wait to see what our old squad friends have up their sleeves though!
xo,
s
On the topic of money, and hopefully saving lots of it, do you guys have any go-to money or investing blogs that you check out regularly?
We get Money magazine (it’s actually really good- not dry like some other investing publications) and we also have a financial adviser who we work with to ensure that we’re all set in the retirement, life insurance, investing arenas (we have to be careful about things like that on our own since we don’t have an employer or a human resources department to monitors that for us).
xo,
s
Please be careful with alarm systems. Do lots of homework and checking before you “buy”. Just Google it, you’ll be shocked. But at least informed.
Very true! We definitely did a lot of research and even called existing customers before picking a monitoring system for our house!
xo,
s
We have been considering redoing our attic considering we have a house from 1950 and only shredded wool insulation with tung and groove floors but were nervous about the price of insulation and plywood to cover the floors, etc. But after some serious research, insulation is less than half the price and with reclaimed 3/4 inch plywood from a friend, we can get the whole thing done for less than $350!!! It will more than pay for itself in just a couple of months! For a tip on how to say an extra 10%, go to your local post office, ask for a moving package and inside is a 10% off ANYTHING at Lowe’s. (just bought new appliances this weekend, and even used on on all three of them!) Thanks for the great site! Now time to finish the kitchen and basement!!!
It was crashing for me too but it’s back up again. What an awesome site! It also gets high marks from realtors. We’ve already put in a request for bathroom remodeling and have heard back from the website to confirm our information. They said we can expect to hear back from up to 4 contractors with estimates within the next 24 hours. Thank you for this tip! We’ve been dragging our feet to start this process because we didn’t want to get in over our heads and didn’t know where to start. Problem solved!
It seems like everything we want to do comes in around $3,000-$3,500 – a figure that is certainly doable but kind of painful. I don’t know if it’s better to tackle smaller, less painful things first (some sort of blinds for skylights; additional dedicated electrical circuits) or save for the big things (replace garage doors; replace fence; install gas fireplace inserts; replace basement floor covering;). This may explain why we’re not getting *anything* done right now.
Buying our first home has us making a long list of remodels. First thing is replacing the second floor carpeting with wood laminate ourselves! Found this great website: http://www.findanyfloor.com/FloorEstimator.html
I found it last night & will now combine it with your link so we can get our $$$ just right :)
Its let me figure out the square footage of the rooms and hallway so I can buy plenty of material & provided us with a 55 page DIY guide to installing the floors!!!
(Nope, I was not paid by this website just pure coincidence I’m playing with its tools as you guys posted this!)
wow – perfect timing. We’re moving into a new home soon and the kitchen and baths all need updating (eventually). I honestly had no clue of the price, so this was super helpful in giving me an idea! Though … for at least one bathroom, I am thinking of taking a page out of the book of YHL and attempting to DIY it on my own. :)
Lovin’ the fixr site! Thanks so much for the link!
Oh, this could be a very fun way to distract myself from doing what I’m actually supposed to be doing! Thanks!
This looks like a good site, I’ll be sure to check it our for future projects. Thanks!
Im a star..I love to sing!
thank you for sharing this site’s existence! my boyfriend and i always watch hosts on HGTV replace the plumbing in an entire house… we sit and wonder, “how much must that COST?!”
it’ll be great for budgeting when we do get to buy a house!
Wow. That really put some things in perspective for me. In a good way actually. Our kitchen cabinets are 80% awesome, I’d never thought of just resurfacing them instead of installing new. Although if we did resurface them we could add a couple addiontional cabinets where we need them. (There are a couple of awfully small cabinets we’d like to replace with larger ones that we would have more use for.)
And of course this would mean I could showcase some nicer things with a glass cabinet!
Thanks for the site!
Looked at installing hardwood floors — they verified that these are beyond our budget for now — but no more so than we’d thought. Good to know the research we’d done is verified here!