To Renovate or Knock Down

This is one of the most common decisions that our clients are faced with when they embark on building their home. It may be that they intend to renovate or rebuild a home that they live in, or perhaps they have just purchased a home with the intention of extending and undertaking extensive renovations. The question that must always be considered is, “Do we renovate or knock down?”

In my experience, particularly when projects involve upper floor additions to free-standing houses, it’s usually a knock down. A typical scenario involves, say a 40-50 year old free-standing house that’s predominantly single story. By the time you open up living areas, add a storey, strengthen footings, possibly add garaging, replace the electrical cables, replace the windows, fix deteriorated waterproofing, create new openings in exterior walls, reline the ceilings, add new floor finishes, new bathrooms, etc. there isn’t much left and the cost of keeping those few walls may in fact prove to be a more expensive exercise than building from scratch. I like to conduct a visualisation exercise with my clients where we carefully imagine in detail what the house will look like when demolition is completed. This informs the decision.

There are of course very valid reasons to renovate. The house might have great “bones” and therefore require minimal structural work, e.g. a two-storey 70-80s house with no structural or water issues, perhaps a house that is built higher or closer to the boundary than what would be currently permitted, the house may be heritage listed, or perhaps you have space to do minimal work to the original house and you can build a new ‘pavilion’ with a light connection to the dwelling.

It’s important to give this decision due consideration and get the assistance of a cost planner and builder.