Loan Home Renovation Estimator
Whole-home renovations fail on one number guessed too early. This estimator does the honest version: pick the area you are actually touching and the depth of the work, and get a range wide enough to plan a life around.
Be honest about area: a whole-home cosmetic pass touches every room; a full renovation usually touches kitchens, baths and living spaces — often 50–70% of the home. The kitchen and bathroom inside any scope cost several times the blended rate; the room estimators here price them separately.
How it works
Midpoint = renovated area × scope rate: $45 cosmetic, $110 full, $220 gut per sq ft, blended 2026 national planning rates. Cosmetic means surfaces: paint, flooring, fixtures, no walls or systems. Full means kitchens and baths redone, floors, some layout and system updates. Gut means back to studs — new mechanicals, insulation, drywall, everything. The range is deliberately asymmetric (−20% / +25%): renovations overrun more often than they underrun, because the expensive discoveries live behind walls that have not been opened yet.
Method & worked example
Method: Midpoint = renovated area × scope rate: $45 per sq ft cosmetic (surfaces only), $110 full renovation, $220 gut (back to studs, new systems). Range is asymmetric — 20% below to 25% above — because renovation outcomes skew that way once walls open.
Worked example: 1,500 sq ft at full scope: $165,000 midpoint, $132,000–$206,250 range. The same area cosmetic: $67,500 midpoint. As a gut: $330,000 — scope moves the budget five-fold while the address stays the same.
When to use this
- Buying a fixer-upper and needing the renovation number next to the purchase price.
- Setting a whole-home budget before collecting room-by-room quotes.
- Deciding cosmetic vs full vs gut on the same house with comparable figures.
- Phasing a multi-year renovation and pricing each stage honestly.
How to use it, step by step
- Walk the house and list the rooms genuinely being touched; total their area.
- Pick the scope per the definitions — most projects are honest cosmetic or full.
- Read the range and set the budget at midpoint plus contingency for your scope.
- Price the kitchen and bathroom separately with their own estimators and reconcile.
- Re-run per phase if you are staging the work over years.
What the inputs mean
| Input | What it is | Typical values |
|---|---|---|
| Renovated area | Sq ft actually being worked on | Rooms touched, not the whole house by default |
| Scope | Depth of work: cosmetic / full / gut | $45 / $110 / $220 per sq ft |
Another worked example
A first-floor cosmetic pass: 800 sq ft of paint, flooring and fixtures at $45 per sq ft — $36,000 midpoint, $28,800–$45,000 range. It is the renovation that sells houses and refreshes lives without a single wall moving, and it prices like it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to renovate a 1,500 sq ft home?
At full-renovation scope, the midpoint is $165,000 with an honest range of $132,000–$206,250. The same area at cosmetic scope midpoints at $67,500; a full gut at $330,000. Scope is a bigger decision than size.
What is the difference between full and gut renovation?
A full renovation replaces finishes and fixtures and updates some systems, working within the existing walls and layout. A gut renovation removes everything to the studs — new wiring, plumbing, insulation and drywall throughout. The per-foot rate roughly doubles because the house is essentially rebuilt inside its shell.
Why is the range wider on the top side?
Because that is how renovations behave. Floors come up and reveal rot; walls open and reveal wiring that cannot stay. The −20%/+25% band is the shape of real outcomes, not symmetric uncertainty theatre.
Should I renovate everything at once or in phases?
Phasing costs more per foot — repeated mobilisation, repeated protection and dust control — but spreads the cash and lets you live in the house. The estimator prices the area you enter, so run it with the phase areas to compare honestly.
How much contingency should I hold back?
Ten percent on cosmetic work, 15% on full renovations, 20% on gut jobs of older homes. Contingency is not pessimism; in renovation it is statistically the most predictable line in the budget.
🍳 Start with the expensive room
Kitchens consume renovation budgets first. The Kitchen Remodel Estimator breaks out the cabinet, counter and labour shares for yours.
What does 'per square foot' leave out?
Kitchens and baths inside the area are blended into the rate, though they cost 2–4× the blend per foot — a renovation heavy in wet rooms lands high in its range. Additions, structural repair and exterior work (roof, siding) are separate budgets with their own estimators here.
How do lenders and appraisers see renovation budgets?
Appraisals credit finished, permitted living space; unpermitted conversions can subtract value at sale. If the renovation is financed, lenders typically release against completed, inspected stages — one more reason the phased run of this estimator matches how the money actually moves.