A full house renovation in Canberra typically ranges from $250,000 to $700,000 or more, takes 12 to 22 weeks on site depending on scope, and is the right call when the layout, services and finishes of an existing home are all past their working life at the same time. This is not the same job as a bathroom refresh or a kitchen swap. It is stripping the house back, resetting the layout where it needs it, replacing the services, and re-finishing every room, ideally in one continuous run rather than one room at a time over five years.
I am Jeff Rentoule, director of Rentoule Projects. I have been building in Canberra for 19 years and running my own business here for the last five. This article is for the family sitting down at the kitchen table trying to work out whether a full house renovation is the right move, and if it is, what actually happens between "we should do this" and "the site is clean and we move back in." I will keep it honest, direct, and specific to how projects run in the ACT in 2026.
What counts as a full house renovation
The phrase gets used loosely. Someone might call two new bathrooms and a repainted kitchen a "full renovation." That is not what this article is about. A full house renovation, the way we mean it here, hits most or all of the following:
- Every wet area redone (main bathroom, ensuite, laundry, and often a powder room)
- Kitchen replaced, usually including layout change
- Floor coverings replaced through the whole house
- Paint, doors and hardware refreshed throughout
- Electrical rewired or upgraded, plumbing replaced where accessible
- Layout changes to at least one main area (opening up living, moving a bathroom, closing off a bedroom)
- External elements refreshed where they touch the internal work (windows in wet areas, external doors, sometimes cladding or render)
If the project only ticks two or three of those, you are looking at a substantial single-area renovation, not a full house job. That distinction matters because the sequencing, cost, timeline and disruption story is completely different.
When it is the right call versus other options
Before committing, run the four-way decision. Full house renovation is one of four options when your home is not working for you any more. I covered the full framework in our renovate, extend, rebuild or move article, but here is the short version.
| Option | Best when |
|---|---|
| Full house renovation | The footprint works, the roof and structure are sound, the location is right, but the layout, services and finishes are all tired at the same time. Common with 1970s and 1980s Canberra brick veneer homes in Chifley, Weston, Curtin, Aranda and similar established suburbs. |
| Renovation plus extension | You need everything in the full renovation list PLUS more space (extra bedrooms, larger living, second storey). See our extension vs renovation guide for the trade-off. |
| Knockdown rebuild | The existing structure is compromised, the footprint fights the block, or you would spend so much on the renovation that a new build makes better commercial sense. Common in Mr Fluffy blocks and older cavity brick homes with foundation issues. |
| Move | The location no longer suits, the block is too small for what you need, or the emotional attachment is not there. Sometimes this is the honest answer. |
Full house renovation wins when the bones are good and the location is worth keeping. Canberra has thousands of these homes. Well built to their era, in genuinely good suburbs, but with kitchens and bathrooms from before the previous owner installed them.
The sequencing challenge that makes it different
The biggest difference between a full house renovation and a series of single-room renovations is sequencing. When you do the bathroom, then the kitchen a year later, then the flooring the year after, you are paying the same trades three separate mobilisation costs, ordering separate skip bins, running separate site setups, and dealing with three separate project management overheads. You also live with the mess three times over.
Doing it in one continuous run gets you the following:
- One site setup, one skip run, one round of temporary services. Real dollars, usually $8,000 to $15,000 saved compared to splitting the project
- Trades sequenced properly. Electricians and plumbers can run new services through open walls once, not chase existing walls three times
- Consistent finishes across the house. Same skirtings, same door hardware, same paint colour cutting into the same architrave profile in every room
- One disruption window instead of three or four. This matters more than most clients expect until they have lived through the second one
- One certification, one final clean, one handover. One end date rather than a rolling series of "nearly done" moments
The trade-off is that a full house renovation costs more upfront than any individual room, and it commits you to a bigger decision earlier. But per square metre and per outcome, it is almost always the more efficient way to spend the money if the whole house needs it.
Stay or move out
This is the question every client asks and it is one of the most consequential calls on the project. There is no universal right answer but there are patterns.
Move out if you can. Full house renovations are hard to live through. The kitchen is unavailable for 8 to 10 weeks. Bathrooms are staged, so you might have zero working bathrooms for a two-week window. Trades are on site from 7am. Dust travels. Kids and pets add complications. If you have somewhere to go, moving out speeds the whole build up because trades can work simultaneously in areas they would otherwise wait to enter, and there is no need to protect belongings or maintain temporary services.
Cost of moving out to plan for: 4 to 5 months of rental (allowing for a start-up buffer), plus moving costs both ways, plus overlap on utility bills. Budget $18,000 to $35,000 depending on where you rent and how you handle storage. Some clients cover this cost by trimming the project scope to save the equivalent. Most who move out say it was worth it.
Staying in place is possible but expensive on both sides. The builder has to stage the work so at least one bathroom, kitchen access and a bedroom stays functional at all times. That adds 2 to 4 weeks to the total timeline and often adds temporary kitchen, temporary bathroom or partitioning costs. You also compress into fewer rooms while dust and noise happen around you.
The cost picture in 2026
Full house renovation costs in Canberra sit in three broad tiers. The numbers below are 2026 pricing on our own recent work.
| Tier | Typical range (inc GST) | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-range | $250,000 to $400,000 | Full strip out and rebuild of wet areas, new kitchen, new flooring throughout, paint, some layout change. Standard fixtures, mid-tier joinery, no major structural works. |
| Premium | $400,000 to $600,000 | Everything in mid-range plus structural layout changes (opening up living, moving walls), higher-end fixtures, custom joinery, upgraded windows where the wall is coming out anyway, better cladding or render on affected external walls. |
| Luxury | $600,000 to $900,000 or more | Whole-of-house structural rework, bespoke joinery, imported finishes, integrated smart-home systems, external envelope renewal, sometimes services relocation. On larger heritage or premium suburb work in Forrest, Deakin or Griffith this tier is standard. |
For the full cost picture including per-square-metre benchmarks and room-by-room detail, see our Canberra renovation costs guide. That article is updated with current 2026 numbers and covers the tier breakdowns in more depth.
Worth flagging that construction costs in Canberra are up 40.56 per cent since 2021 according to the Insurance Council of Australia's 2026 report, well above the national average. The full context on why, and what it means for your project, is in our Canberra construction cost update. Do not benchmark against numbers you heard from a friend who renovated in 2022. That is not the market you are in.
Realistic timeline
The honest range on a full house renovation from contract signing to move-back-in is 6 to 10 months. That breaks down roughly as follows:
- Pre-construction (PSA stage): 4 to 8 weeks. Selections, engineering if needed, energy assessment if the project triggers it, final quote preparation, contract
- Building Approval if required: 4 to 8 weeks. Not every full house renovation needs a BA, but layout changes involving structural walls, external envelope changes or wet area relocations often do
- Construction on site: 12 to 22 weeks. Mid-range projects finish quickest, premium and luxury run longer because more custom joinery and specialist finishes are on the critical path
- Practical completion and handover: 1 to 2 weeks. Final defects, cleaning, certification
Two things extend that range this year. First, detached home build times nationally have blown out from 8.79 months pre-pandemic to 11.49 months as at mid-2026 according to Master Builders data. Second, the trade capacity picture is tight in the ACT, particularly for wet area trades and specialist joinery. Build these into your program planning rather than treating them as bad luck if they hit.
The four decisions that shape everything
Every full house renovation lives or dies on how well four decisions are made early. Get them right and the project runs cleanly. Get them wrong and every subsequent decision fights the last.
Scope. What is in, what is out, what is a "maybe" that gets dropped if the budget tightens. Nail this in the pre-construction stage, not during the build. Every scope change during construction costs more than it would have cost to include from the start, because you are now working around already-installed elements.
Structural. Which walls are staying, which are going, whether the ceiling is being lifted or replaced, whether the roof line changes. Structural decisions cascade into engineering, energy efficiency, and BA requirements. Make them once and hold them.
Staging. Continuous strip and rebuild, or phased zones. Continuous is faster and cheaper per outcome but requires you to move out or accept heavy disruption. Phased zones let you stay in a working part of the house but stretch the timeline and add cost.
Selections. The finishes, fixtures and fittings that go in every room. This is where projects blow the budget most often. The gap between mid-range tapware and premium tapware, times fourteen taps across the house, is real money. We take clients to trade suppliers in person so we can call out cost implications as we go, rather than send them a catalogue and hope for the best.
For a deeper look at how these four fit into a real project plan, see our how to plan a Canberra renovation article.
Hidden costs that catch people
The categories that most commonly blow the budget on a full house renovation:
- Asbestos removal. Canberra homes built before the mid-1980s often have asbestos in eaves, vinyl flooring backing, cement sheeting behind bathroom tiles or Mr Fluffy insulation. Testing and removal add $5,000 to $25,000
- Rewiring cost pressure. Older homes often need switchboard upgrades, safety switches, and new circuits to meet current standards. Budget $8,000 to $18,000 above baseline electrical
- Structural surprises when walls come off. Rot, past unpermitted works, undersized beams. Contingency of 3 to 5 per cent of contract value handles most of these
- Selection creep. The tapware upgrade because the standard felt cheap once installed. The tile upgrade because the sample looked different in the showroom. Small individually, meaningful cumulatively
- Temporary accommodation running longer than planned. Program blowouts translate directly into extra rent
We cover the full hidden cost list in our renovation hidden costs article. Reading it before you sign anything is worth an evening.
Frequently asked questions
Is a full house renovation cheaper than a knockdown rebuild?
Usually yes, on a straight cost comparison. Full house renovation typically runs 20 to 35 per cent cheaper than knockdown rebuild for the same floor area, because you retain the slab, footings, roof structure and external walls. Where the existing structure has serious problems or the footprint fights the block, rebuild becomes the smarter economic call. A proper feasibility study answers this properly for your specific block.
How much can I do myself to save money?
Very little on a full house renovation done properly. Site preparation, minor demolition of non-structural elements, painting after final trades, and landscaping are the honest DIY zones. Anything touching services, structure, wet areas or the external envelope needs licensed trades in the ACT, and coordinating your own DIY work around a builder's program usually costs more time than it saves.
Do I need Development Approval for a full house renovation?
Most full house renovations that stay inside the existing footprint and do not touch heritage overlays only need Building Approval, not DA. External envelope changes, wall relocations affecting siting or setbacks, or work on heritage-listed homes may trigger DA. Confirm early with your builder or a private certifier. We covered ACT approval pathways in our DA approval guide.
Should I finish selections before construction starts?
Yes, and this is non-negotiable if you want a fixed-price build to hold. Every un-made selection at contract signing is either a provisional sum with a wide range or a variation waiting to happen. In our PSA process we lock every selection with a real supplier quote before the contract is signed. That is what makes a fixed-price contract actually fixed.
What is a realistic contingency to hold outside the contract?
For a full house renovation with a well-executed pre-construction stage, 5 per cent of contract value covers the vast majority of unforeseeables. On older homes (pre-1980) or projects with more structural change, budget 7 to 10 per cent to be comfortable. This is client-held contingency, sitting outside the fixed-price contract, to cover genuine unknowns like asbestos or wall-cavity surprises when the walls actually come off.
The bottom line
A full house renovation is the right call when the location and structure are worth keeping but everything inside them needs work at the same time. It costs $250,000 to $700,000 or more in Canberra in 2026, runs 6 to 10 months from contract to handover, and lives or dies on how well the scope, structural, staging and selection decisions are made in the pre-construction stage.
The projects that go smoothly are the ones where the builder and the client both went in eyes open about the scope, the sequencing and the disruption. The projects that go badly are the ones that started with "just a few things" and grew into a full renovation without ever being planned as one. Decide up front, plan properly, and pick a builder who will run the pre-construction stage as seriously as the build itself.
If you are weighing up a full house renovation in Canberra and want an honest conversation about your specific home and block, get in touch. I will come out to your place, walk through what you are thinking, and give you a proper ballpark on where the numbers actually land. Coffee is on me.