Want A Free House Renovation? You’d Need Over 1.4 Million Followers On Social Media, Study Reveals

A new study from Roofing Megastore has revealed how many followers and views you would need on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to finance renovation projects around the home.

The research reveals you would need to rack up 3,052,173,913 views on TikTok, 12,208,696 views on YouTube or have 1,404,000 followers on Instagram to finance a full house renovation, which on average costs £70,200.

According to industry estimates, it’s possible to earn £0.02 to £0.03 per 1,000 views on TikTok. On YouTube, the average YouTube creator receives £5.75 per 1,000 views, and on Instagram, once influencers have at least 5k followers, they can start earning around £250 per sponsored post. To establish the average cost for a range of renovation projects, researchers gained quotes from trade experts, and by combining these industry insights, the team at Roofing Megastore calculated the number of social engagements that budding social media stars would need to finance various projects around the home.

Renovation inspiration 

Many people turn to social media to find inspiration for their next home or interiors project, from Pinterest to YouTube, and the world’s most-followed home renovation accounts can rack up hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views across social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

For those with a big enough following, the benefits can be huge, with brand deals, ad revenue, gifted products or services, and sponsored posts allowing renovators to finance their latest projects just from their social influence. And to those without social media influence, you can always rely on grants for windows and doors from government 2021 and still going. Grants are given as a green renovation initiative to help people in need and promote green energy efficiency. 

The research shows a full renovation would cost around £70,000 for a three-bed house (for all labour and materials) and that would include: 

Renovation element	Total average cost (£)	No. of TikTok views you’d need to finance	No. of YouTube views you’d need to finance	No. of Instagram followers you’d need to finance
Kitchen renovation	£11,500	500,000,000	2,000,000	230,000
Bifold doors out to garden	£5,550	241,304,348	965,217	111,000
Full bathroom renovation	£5,500	239,130,435	956,522	110,000
Replaster walls & ceilings (re-skim existing)	£12,000	521,739,130	2,086,957	240,000
New windows throughout (UPVC)	£3,500	152,173,913	608,696	70,000
Full electrical rewire	£5,750	250,000,000	1,000,000	115,000
Internal painting throughtout	£2,600	113,043,478	452,174	52,000
Painting all internal doors	£350	15,217,391	60,870	7,000
Replacing skirting boards (per room)	£1,925	83,695,652	334,783	38,500
Engineered wooden flooring install	£5,850	254,347,826	1,017,391	117,000
New central heating – new radiators and boiler	£3,500	152,173,913	608,696	70,000
New roof	£6,750	293,478,261	1,173,913	135,000
New decking in garden	£2,600	113,043,478	452,174	52,000
Laying a patio	£1,950	84,782,609	339,130	39,000
New lawn	£875	38,043,478	152,174	17,500

So, to completely fund a full house renovation from your online social media activity, you’d need to acquire over 3 billion views on TikTok, 12.2 million views on YouTube or have over 1.4 million followers on Instagram. 

The renovation projects that require the biggest social following to finance 

Ranking as the most expensive part of a renovation is a loft conversion, costing on average £45,000 to complete. To cover the cost, you’d need just under 1 million (900,000) Instagram followers or a whopping 1.9 billion views on TikTok. To finance the project via YouTube, you would need 7.8 million views, meaning you would need to have built up a hefty following over time to finance a new loft entirely from online activity.

For an extension you’d need 750,000 Instagram followers, a garage conversion requires 290,000 followers on Instagram, and to replaster your walls and ceilings you need to get to 240,000 Instagram followers. 

Exterior rendering, underfloor heating, and a new roof all also rank in the top ten most expensive renovation projects, requiring between 135,000 and 218,000 Instagram followers or up to 1.9 million views on YouTube to fully finance each project.

Rank	Renovation element	Total average cost (£)	No. of TikTok views you’d need to finance	No. of YouTube views you’d need to finance	No. of Instagram followers you’d need to finance
1	Loft conversion	£45,000	1,956,521,739	7,826,087	900,000
2	Extension	£37,500	1,630,434,783	6,521,739	750,000
3	Garage conversion	£14,500	630,434,783	2,521,739	290,000
4	Replaster walls & ceilings (re-skim existing)	£12,000	521,739,130	2,086,957	240,000
5	Kitchen renovation	£11,500	500,000,000	2,000,000	230,000
6	Rendering outside of the house	£10,882	473,130,435	1,892,522	217,640
7	Conservatory	£9,000	391,304,348	1,565,217	180,000
8	Underfloor heating throughout	£7,700	334,782,609	1,339,130	154,000
9	New roof	£6,750	293,478,261	1,173,913	135,000
10	Engineered wooden flooring installation	£5,850	254,347,826	1,017,391	117,000

The renovation projects that require the smallest social following to finance   

The least expensive renovation work is tiling above kitchen work surfaces. Costing around £275 on average for both installation and materials, you would only need 5,500 followers on Instagram to finance a new look for your kitchen, or around 11,956,522 views on TikTok. 

Painting internal doors, a new front door, and replacing a bath all feature in the top five, and each needs under 13,000 Instagram followers or less than 115,000 views on YouTube. Rooms such as the kitchen, bathroom, and garden appear frequently in the top 10 cheapest renovation works, suggesting these are the rooms to spruce up if you’re working to a tight budget.

Rank	Renovation element	Total average cost (£)	No. of TikTok views you’d need to finance	No. of YouTube views you’d need to finance	No. of Instagram followers you’d need to finance
1	Tile above kitchen work surface up to wall cupboards	£275	11,956,522	47,826	5,500
2	Painting all internal doors	£350	15,217,391	60,870	7,000
3	New front door	£435	18,913,043	75,652	8,700
4	Replacing the bath	£650	28,260,870	113,043	13,000
5	Underfloor heating fitted in kitchen	£800	34,782,609	139,130	16,000
6	Garden shed	£850	36,956,522	147,826	17,000
7	New lawn	£875	38,043,478	152,174	17,500
8	Repainting kitchen cupboards	£900	39,130,435	156,522	18,000
9	Retile bathroom – floor and walls	£1,110	48,260,870	193,043	22,200
10	External painting	£1,300	56,521,739	226,087	26,000

Gian-Carlo Grossi, Managing Director at Roofing Megastore commented:

“The actual number of followers needed to finance various renovation projects will vary from user to user, depending on factors including follower engagement, specific brand deals, and more. Once budding social media stars have built up a big enough following, many will be offered elements of their renovation projects for free via gifted services and products.

However, the calculations in our research give a real insight into the scale of how many followers and views you’d need to make money back on your social media efforts. With so many renovators heading online for inspiration these days, many will look to post the results of their projects on social media anyway, if only to share with friends and family.

It’s clear though that there is real money to be made with a big enough following, with it being possible to make back the cost of smaller projects such as painting and tiling with just a few thousand followers. Renovating your home doesn’t come cheap, so it’s nice to know there are ways to cover the cost.

Our business exists to make it easier for people to improve and maintain the homes they’re lucky enough to own – so we wanted to highlight this opportunity so that more people can find creative ways to finance their renovations in the future.”

To see the full research, and see which renovation works would require the most social media followers to finance, visit: https://www.roofingmegastore.co.uk/tiktok-renovations.