How to Calculate the Rebuild Cost of a Home

When insuring a property, your insurer will want to know the rebuild value of your home. However, how do you work this out?

Home insurance companies ask for the rebuild value of a home rather than its retail value because if an insured event occurred - such as a fire that wipes out your home - the insurance would only need to pay for repairs. It wouldn't have to pay for the land or the location, which are among the factors considered in a retail value.

One way to find out the rebuild value of a home is to employ a chartered surveyor. For around £200, a surveyor will take measurements of your home and draw up an accurate assessment of the rebuild cost.

If you don't want to pay out for a surveyor however, you can use a rebuild calculator.

Home insurance calculators - rebuild calculators - are available online and are generally free to use. However, they do come with a drawback because if you under insure the home you could be left out of pocket if a rebuild is eventually necessary. Similarly you could over insure and pay over the odds on your home insurance policy.

In order to make an accurate assessment of the rebuild value of a home using a rebuild calculator you will need your home's external floor area both upstairs and downstairs. In terms of the ground floor, you can go outside the home, measure the length and width of the walls and multiply these figures together. In most cases the upstairs will match the downstairs.

In addition you may need to answer a number of questions such as what your house is built of, whether it includes any special design features, whether it is a listed building and whether it contains any hazardous materials such as asbestos in its make-up.