Victorian and Edwardian House Renovation: Costs, Process and Choosing a Builder

What a Victorian house renovation costs per m²

Builders price a renovation by floor area and by how deep the work goes. The price of the house does not set the cost of the works. Measure the gross internal area, inside the outside walls on every floor, then pick the depth of work.

Our example is a large detached Edwardian family house in Surrey: 300 m² (about 3,200 sq ft) over three floors. Surrey's average house is about 125 m² on EPC data from January 2026, so this is a big home, well over twice the average.

With 20% VAT, the full refurbishment comes to about £413,000 to £486,000. The back-to-brick renovation comes to about £551,000 to £648,000. Fees and contingency sit on top, as the next section shows.

A family planning to stay 30 years or more usually lands in the middle two rows. Old wiring, lead or iron pipes and tired heating are hidden in the walls. Replacing them once, before the finishes go in, is far cheaper than opening the house again later.

Planning a bigger house or a basement? Our guides to house extension cost in London and loft conversion cost in London price the new floor area.

The full budget for a 300 m² family house, with VAT and fees

The build is the biggest line, but not the only one. A mortgage buyer needs every line before exchange, because the deposit, the loan and the works all come from the same pot.

Together, the first four lines come to about £588,000 to £783,000. Add VAT on the fees, the consents and any rent. An old house belongs at the top of the contingency range, because more is hidden.

Our guide to renovation mortgage and refurbishment loans explains the further advance, the retention and refurbishment bridging. Already own the house? See the wider picture in how much it costs to renovate a house in London.

Why the same renovation costs more in Kensington than in Surrey

The same house, renovated to the same standard, costs a different amount in different places. The Valuation Office Agency publishes BCIS location factors that show it. Each area gets a number against a national average of 100.

The last column takes our back-to-brick rate as the Surrey level and scales it by each area's factor. It shows how the market moves, not a separate price list.

What drives the difference

1. Labour and access. Inner London trades cost more to employ and to get to site. Narrow streets mean small deliveries, hand-carrying and more labour hours.
2. Parking and road charges. Bay suspensions and permits cost money every day. The Congestion Charge rose to £18 a day on 2 January 2026, on top of ULEZ for older vans.
3. Conservation areas and Article 4. Much of inner London sits in conservation areas. More work needs consent, often with matching materials and sash windows made to the old pattern.
4. Terraces and party walls. A terrace shares two walls, so steels, chimneys and digging mean notices and surveyors on both sides.
5. Specification. In prime central London, buyers expect stone, bespoke joinery and smart-home systems. The finish moves the price more than the postcode does.

A detached Surrey house avoids much of this: drive access, room for a skip and often no party wall at all. It brings its own questions, such as green belt rules for extensions and longer travel for trades.

We work across Kensington, Wandsworth, Clapham, Wimbledon, Richmond and Surrey. The team is the same wherever the house is.

Why design comes first, and how it saves money

The value of a house is created in the design. Where the kitchen goes, how the light reaches the hall, whether the loft becomes a bedroom: those choices make the house worth more. The builder then delivers what was drawn.

A design that is finished and agreed protects you in four ways:

1. A real fixed price. A builder can only fix a price for what is drawn. Without drawings, every quote is a guess with a margin for risk.
2. No delays on site. Trades wait for nobody when every decision is already made. Long-lead joinery and windows are ordered early.
3. No budget creep. Most overruns come from decisions made on site. Each one becomes a variation, priced when you have no other builder to ask.
4. No disappointment at handover. You see the rooms, finishes and lighting before work starts. What you get at the end is what you approved.

What goes wrong without design

On a house renovated without finished drawings, the same mistakes appear again and again. A radiator lands where the sofa needs to go, so the pipes are rerouted. Sockets end up behind the bed and are moved after plastering. The kitchen is re-ordered because the window is 10 cm narrower than assumed.

Each fix means cutting into new plaster, then making good and redecorating. Nothing like that happens when the electrician, plumber and joiner build from the same coordinated drawings.

On the market guide of 3% to 15% of construction, the design phase to Stage 4 is roughly 70% of the fee. For this house that is about £10,000 to £57,000, plus a structural engineer. Our guide to architect fees in the UK explains each fee model.

We saved a lot of money by having professional advice from the start.

That line is from a client couple who bought a house in Hampstead and renovated it with us. The full review sits further down this page.

The renovation process step by step, from survey to handover

A whole-house renovation runs in a fixed order. Each step makes the next one cheaper and more certain.

For the contract, the Joint Contracts Tribunal publishes building contracts for a home owner or occupier. One is for a homeowner with no consultant, another for one who has appointed one. Whatever form you use, it should fix the price, the dates, the payment stages and how changes are agreed.

The build, phase by phase

1. Strip-out and opening up. Old finishes come off and hidden problems show. An asbestos survey comes first: HSE warns any home built or refurbished before 2000 may contain it.
2. Structure. Steels for new openings, repairs to joists, chimneys and the roof, and any extension shell.
3. First fix. New wiring, pipes, heating and ventilation run through open walls and floors.
4. Plastering. Walls and ceilings are closed, and the house starts to look like rooms again.
5. Second fix. Sockets, switches, radiators, sanitaryware, the kitchen and the joinery go in.
6. Finishes and snagging. Floors, decoration and a room-by-room check before you move back in.

How long a 300 m² renovation takes

Herbert Crescent, a 450 m² house we refurbished in Knightsbridge, took 32 weeks on site. A 300 m² house that keeps its layout is usually quicker. Back to brick with an extension, it takes longer, and design and consents come before the build. We set your date after the survey and write it into the contract.

16 worries about renovating a period house, answered

Most families renovating their first period house share the same fears. Here are the honest answers, with what we do on our own projects.

Money and price

1. Will the builder disappear with my deposit? A deposit should only cover materials ordered early for your house, such as windows or joinery. After that, pay in stages for work you have seen done on site. Check the company on Companies House: Craftex has been registered there since 2016, number 10210252.
2. What if the price goes up halfway? Get a fixed price on finished drawings, with a clear list of what is excluded. Any change should be priced and signed in writing before it is built. That is how we work, and the contingency covers what the walls hide.
3. Is it really that expensive? The cost follows the depth of work and the specification, not the postcode. Both are your choices, made at design stage. A full refurbishment that keeps the layout costs much less than a back-to-brick rebuild.
4. How do I compare quotes? Give every builder the same drawings and specification, then compare line by line, not total by total. Watch for provisional sums and exclusions. Already have a quote? Send it to us. We'll beat it. Our guide on why builders' quotes vary shows what to look for.

Quality and safety

1. How do I know the quality will be good? Agree the specification and see samples before work starts. Building control inspects the structure, fire safety and services and signs off at the end. At handover we give you the certificates, manuals and warranties in one file.
2. What insurance should the builder have? Public liability for damage to your house and your neighbours', and employers' liability, which the law requires of any firm with staff. Professional indemnity matters if they design. We carry £10M of each.
3. Have you done houses like ours? Our published homes are in central London: a 450 m² house at Herbert Crescent and a 400 sq m penthouse at Kensington Olympia. Outside London, we take on country houses and estate homes in the home counties, with the same directors. We do not show clients' homes without their consent.
4. What if something goes wrong after we move in? The contract should name a defects period and who fixes what within it. The law already requires a trader to work with reasonable care and skill. We leave the aftercare dates in writing at handover.

Time and family life

1. Do we need to move out? If the layout stays, often not: the work is phased floor by floor and the working area sealed. For a back-to-brick renovation with new services, most families move out for the structural stage. We tell you honestly at the first visit.
2. How long will it really take? Longer than the build alone, because design and consents come first. The build date goes into the contract once the house is surveyed. Ask any builder for a written programme before you sign.
3. Can we do it in phases? Yes, but design the whole house first. Run the services in one go, so a later phase never cuts open a finished room. Each extra phase repeats the set-up costs.
4. Will it add value? A sound structure, new services and a layout that suits family life are what buyers pay for. Ask a local agent for sold prices of renovated houses on your street. Spend on what lasts, not on fashion.

Consents and management

1. What about planning, neighbours and party walls? Internal work in an unlisted house rarely needs planning permission. Extensions, roof changes and outside changes in a conservation area usually do. Shared walls and digging near neighbours need party wall notices, two months or one month ahead.
2. Do I need a project manager? Not with a design and build team: one contract and one director run the job. Our projects director runs delivery from design to handover. You get one name to call.
3. Is design really needed? For a whole house, yes. Without drawings there is no fixed price, and the decisions get made on site at the highest cost. The design section above shows why.
4. What if we fall out? A written contract with the price, dates and change procedure prevents most disputes. Raise problems early and in writing. Keep payments in line with work done, so neither side is ever far ahead.

How to choose a builder you can trust

The best protection is to choose well. A builder you can trust shows you their work, their paperwork and their price before you commit.

Look for accreditations you can check. We hold ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001, CHAS, Constructionline Gold, SafeContractor, FMB and TrustMark. TrustMark is the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme for work in and around the home.

The ten checks below take a week, not a month. Use them on every builder you speak to, us included.

How we price and run a family house renovation

Send us the floor plan, the sales particulars and a few photos. We tell you which depth of work the house looks like and the range at our 2026 rates, the same working day.

Then we visit and check the structure, services and what planning will allow. Our design team draws the house to Stage 4, and the team that will build it prices the drawings. You get one fixed price, one contract and one director.

About 60% of our labour is in-house, and every project we have delivered has finished ahead of programme and on budget. We take on renovations from £100,000. Buying a period house now? Send us the floor plan and we'll price the works before you exchange.