Home Renovation Cost Estimator India — Full Budget Breakdown

What the September 2025 GST reform means for a renovation, specifically

If your renovation includes swapping out a split or window AC unit, that line item got cheaper: room air-conditioning machines (HS 8415) moved from 28% to 18% GST in the GST Council's 56th meeting, alongside cement at the same 28%→18% cut if your renovation involves any structural or wall work.

Tiles and paint — the two line items that dominate most renovation budgets — were checked against the official change annexure by searching it for "ceramic", "vitrified", "tile", "paint", "varnish" and "enamel", and none of those terms appear against a floor/wall tile or a wall-paint item in the rate-change list. Budget flooring and painting at their pre-reform GST slab; nothing in this reform reduced them.

BIS standard numbers for the six biggest renovation line items

Each of these is a current, licensed BIS product standard under Scheme-I of the BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018. For interior wall paint, that means IS 15489:2024, the current standard for plastic emulsion paint, under which a sample of each type and class sold under the licence must be tested; for floor and wall tile, it means IS 15622:2017, which classifies pressed ceramic tiles by water-absorption group, surface finish and edge finish. Ask your contractor or vendor for the ISI licence number tied to the correct one — a brand name alone does not confirm the standard.

The plywood distinction matters most in wet zones: general-purpose plywood under IS 303:2024 is fine for a bedroom wardrobe, but a kitchen carcass near a sink or a bathroom vanity should use marine-grade plywood, whose adhesive is required to be based on any suitable synthetic resin conforming to BWP Type of IS 848 under IS 710:2024 — ask specifically which of the two your contractor is quoting, since general-purpose plywood is usually the cheaper of the two and is sometimes substituted without the client noticing.

Two further standards are worth naming for specific renovation zones: for factory-made carcasses (wardrobes, kitchen cabinets) built from board rather than plywood, IS 12823:2015 covers prelaminated particle board, a separate material and standard from plywood; and for utility or kitchen flooring that needs to resist spills and chemicals, IS 4457:2007 is a distinct BIS standard for unglazed vitreous acid-resisting ceramic tiles, separate from the general pressed-ceramic-tile standard used for the rest of the home.

Bathroom and plumbing: what the standard numbers actually cover

A WC pan replacement should carry a licence under IS 2556 (Part 2):2024, BIS's current standard for washdown water-closet pans — the same IS 2556 family runs to at least twelve separate parts (wash basins, urinals, pedestal bidets, wall-mounted fixtures among them), each licensed and tested separately, so the part number should match the specific fixture you're buying, not just "IS 2556" generically.

For the plumbing rough-in feeding those fixtures, the standard for potable-water supply pipe is IS 4985:2021, BIS's current standard for unplasticized PVC (UPVC) pipes for water supplies — distinct from the standard covering soil/waste discharge pipe, which is a different IS number. If your plumber is re-routing supply lines as part of the renovation, this is the number to see on the pipe markings.

False ceiling boards and adding an EV charging point

If the renovation includes a false ceiling, plain gypsum plaster board is licensed under IS 2095 (Part 1):2023; companion parts of the same standard cover coated/laminated boards (Part 2) and reinforced boards and ceiling tiles specifically (Part 3) — ask which part your supplier's board is licensed under if the ceiling design calls for a moisture- or fire-rated variant, not the plain Part 1 board.

If you're adding a home EV charging point during the renovation, the Ministry of Power's 2024 guidelines confirm that an individual flat or house owner, or a Resident Welfare Association on the owner's behalf, can request a separate metered connection from the distribution licensee with a dedicated EV charging tariff — each charging point needs its own metering arrangement to record consumption and apply the correct tariff. Alternatively, residents may install a private charging point supplied through the existing house meter or a separate sub-meter, whichever the household chooses. Either route needs a decision at the electrical-rewiring stage of the renovation, not after.

Adding rooftop solar as part of the renovation

A renovation that touches the roof or the electrical panel is also the practical moment to price in rooftop solar. Under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, the Central Financial Assistance for standard-category states is ₹30,000 per kWp for the first 2 kWp and ₹18,000 per kWp for the next 1 kWp, capped at 3 kWp per house; special-category states and UTs get ₹33,000 and ₹19,800 per kWp respectively. A 2.5 kW system in a standard-category state earns ₹30,000 × 2 + ₹18,000 × 0.5 = ₹69,000 in CFA, per the scheme's own worked example.

For the panels themselves, eligibility depends on the module list: only models and manufacturers on MNRE's Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) List-I are eligible for use in Government-assisted projects and net-metering installations. List-I is updated frequently — as recently as 16 September 2026 at the time this page was checked — so confirm your installer's quoted panel brand is on the current list before signing off, rather than relying on a list your contractor showed you last quarter.

A directional check on material cost trend

If your renovation includes structural or masonry work, the Ministry of Commerce's Wholesale Price Index gives a directional signal: for October 2025 over October 2024, all-India WPI inflation was (-)1.21% (provisional), with the Cement, Lime and Plaster sub-group at an index value of 132.0 and Mild Steel – Semi-Finished Steel at 118.5 (Base Year 2011-12=100). This is not a renovation-specific figure and does not predict your contractor's quote — use it only to sanity-check whether input costs have broadly moved since your last renovation.