Renovation levels
Gut renovations include new electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and often layout changes.
- Cosmetic whole-home refresh: $50–$100/sq ft
- Moderate renovation: $100–$200/sq ft
- Gut renovation: $200–$400+/sq ft
Gut vs cosmetic whole-home
Cosmetic refreshes skip behind-wall work; guts include new electrical, plumbing, and HVAC paths.
- Cosmetic: paint, floors, fixtures — lower $/sq ft
- Systems + finishes: mid-range $/sq ft
- Structural + layout changes: highest $/sq ft
Phasing strategy
Kitchen and baths first, or systems first — sequence affects where you live during work.
- Systems before drywall when possible
- Temporary kitchen and bath plans
- One permit package vs many
Phasing is how occupied houses survive
A true gut with the family in place needs a temporary kitchen, a working bath, and dust walls that actually seal. That logistics cost is real. Vacating the house is often cheaper than living through a 6-month gut — run both numbers.
- Temporary housing or a long hotel stay belongs in the budget if you leave
- Whole-house electrical and HVAC replacements should happen before pretty floors
- A “while we’re at it” addition is a different permit and a different price band
Per-square-foot ranges lie when the kitchen and baths dominate
A 2,000 sq ft house with one cheap bedroom refresh and a $90k kitchen is not “$45/sq ft.” Split the house into wet rooms, systems, and cosmetic rooms or the average will fool you into under-saving.
- Price kitchens and baths as projects, then add bedrooms as a second stack
- Historic plaster and knob-and-tube blow the average
- Use this page for order-of-magnitude, then build a room-by-room sheet