I have a budget but I’m worried it’s wrong: How to set a renovation budget you can actually work with.

There are many specific kinds of dread that come with renovating but today we are tackling one of the biggest. It’s not the dust, or the noise, or even the disruption to daily life. It’s the quiet, nagging fear that you’ve either wildly underestimated what everything costs, or that your money is somehow going to end up in the wrong places. If that sounds familiar, you’re in good company. This week, Henry and James from The Page team break down how to approach your budget with more confidence, and what to actually do when reality doesn’t quite match your spreadsheet.

Henry: Start with your scope, not your wishlist

Henry has been left high and dry by a builder, misinformed about renovating protocol first-hand, and is soon to move into his fully renovated and refurbished home in North West London. He’s the first to tell you that the single most important thing you can do before spending a penny is to get a proper scope, or schedule, of works in place.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” he says. “A detailed scope of works is essential. The more thorough it is, the more useful it becomes as a budgeting tool.” The reason is simple: unknown costs are where budgets come undone. A scope forces you to surface those costs early, before they blindside you mid-project. Think of it less as a document and more as a process of interrogating your project until it has nowhere left to hide.

The second thing Henry points to is something most of us are guilty of: going too deep on Instagram before we’ve got a grip on what we actually want, or need. “Instagram is a blessing and a curse,” he says. “It’s brilliant for inspiration, but it can make your imagination run away with you, and wild imagination almost always means expensive!” His advice is to pause and ask yourself a few grounding questions before you fall in love with anything: Why am I actually renovating this space? How long are we planning to stay? What are the real problems I’m trying to solve? These questions won’t kill the dream; they’ll just keep it tethered to the reality of your budget.

The third piece of Henry’s thinking is about being smart with where you spend and where you hold back. Not everything in a renovation is equal in terms of value or longevity, and that goes for both the construction itself and the items you’re supplying as a client. The most expensive option isn’t always the best one. Knowing where quality genuinely matters, and where it’s largely cosmetic, can make a significant difference to the final number. It’s also worth knowing that builders, in particular Pagers, often have access to trade discounts on materials and fixtures that aren’t available to the general public.

James: Benchmark it, break it down, and have built- in breathing room

James is The Page’s operations lead, and he brought his own renovation experience to the table when he tackled his flat in Hertfordshire a few years back. A project that involved a mix of self-managing, hiring in trades for the technical bits, and learning a great deal along the way about what budgets look like in practice versus on paper.

“First of all,” he says, “this feeling is completely normal. Almost every homeowner hoping to renovate starts in the same place: I have a number in my head, but I genuinely have no idea if it’s right.” The good news is that there are concrete things you can do about it.

The most useful starting point, according to James, is to benchmark your budget against real, completed projects. Not estimates, not guides, not averages from a Google search. Real projects, with real costs, that are similar in size and scope to yours. That’s exactly what The Page’s Our Projects page is designed for. It’s a library of London renovations: extensions, full refurbs, bathroom overhauls with transparent costs included, precisely so that homeowners can get a grounded sense of what projects like theirs actually cost in practice.

Beyond benchmarking, James is a strong advocate for breaking your overall budget into its component parts rather than treating it as one monolithic figure. In most renovation projects, you’re broadly dealing with three buckets: labour, materials, and fixtures and fittings. Labour typically accounts for the largest share, often somewhere in the range of 40 to 50 percent of the total build cost, while materials make up another significant chunk, and client-supplied fixtures and fittings (bathrooms, kitchens, lighting, and so on) account for the rest. The split varies considerably depending on the project, and it’s worth having a direct conversation with your builder, or Pager, about what their quote does and doesn’t include. Understanding what you’re responsible for procuring versus what they’re pricing in can save you from a nasty surprise. And don’t forget about VAT!

James goes on to flag something that tends to get glossed over in the excitement of planning: contingency. “Always leave wiggle room for surprises or changes in scope,” he says. A ten to fifteen percent buffer on top of your build cost is not pessimism, it’s just the reality of working with old buildings, hidden structures, and the kinds of decisions that only reveal themselves once walls start coming down. Finally, he encourages homeowners to be honest with themselves about their priorities. If you’re working within a fixed number, you may at some point need to choose between investing in a more ambitious layout or a higher-end finish. Neither is the wrong answer but knowing which matters more to you before you start will prevent decision fatigue (and overspend) further down the line.

The honest truth about renovation budgets

Here’s the thing no one tells you at the beginning: there is no such thing as a perfect renovation budget. Issues arise. Problems occur. Things that were hidden behind a wall for decades choose your project to reveal themselves. The goal of budgeting well isn’t to produce a number you’ll stick to with military precision — it’s to arrive at a number that won’t fall apart entirely when reality intervenes. Plan methodically, get as much on paper as early as possible, and build in the flexibility to absorb what you don’t yet know.If you want a real-world sense of what renovation projects in London actually cost, start with Our Projects page. It’s one of the most useful tools we offer — not a glossy portfolio, but a transparent look at what homeowners like you have actually spent. Browse a few projects similar to yours and you’ll come away with a much clearer picture of whether your budget is in the right ballpark.