What is the most expensive to renovate in a house?

Kitchens and bathrooms are the most expensive rooms to renovate, and structural work (extensions, lofts, removed walls) costs more than either. The pattern is simple: everything expensive in a house concentrates where the services are.

A bathroom is a small room carrying plumbing, electrics, ventilation, waterproofing and tiling all at once, which is why a full refit starts from £7,000 and a wet room from £8,500, while decorating a whole room elsewhere in the house starts from £400. Kitchens follow the same logic, with gas, water, drainage and heavy electrical circuits before you have bought a single unit or worktop.

Structural work sits above both. A side return extension starts from £40,000, a kitchen extension from £2,500 per square metre (a typical 20 square metre single-storey from £55,000), and a dormer loft conversion from £50,000. Then there is the cost nobody budgets for: what turns up when the floors come up in a Victorian terrace. Rotten joists, dead wiring, botched work from previous owners. It is why we survey properly before quoting anything, and why our written quotes are fixed. The price we quote is the price you pay, surprises included.