Country house construction in Adjara: a light seasonal house near Batumi

For us, country house construction in Adjara starts with the calendar: when people live in the house and who shuts it up in autumn. A country or garden house is usually small, 30–70 m², with no permanent heating, and it stands empty for most of the year. People expect it to be inexpensive and quick to build, and also that in spring they won't have to repair what the winter broke. If the country house is already standing and needs putting in order, that is a different job: country house renovation, with new water supply, septic tank and finishes.

Land and documents before the build

Country plots in villages are often registered as agricultural land. Under the rules for 2026, a foreigner cannot buy such land, apart from narrow exceptions, but can lease it. What may be built on a particular plot we check from the Public Registry extract and the zoning rules, together with the architect and our partner lawyer, before the deposit and before the design.

Whether a small house needs a permit or only a notification depends on its class of structure. We determine the class at the concept design stage from the house's parameters, as described on the page about construction in Batumi. On the same site visit we check access for a truck, the nearest electricity pole and the water source.

Lightweight methods for a seasonal house

For a country house we most often suggest a timber frame: the house is built from dry planed timber, insulated with mineral wool and covered with membranes on both sides. An ordinary truck brings the materials, and the shell goes up in a few weeks. Per metre of floor area, a small timber frame house is usually no cheaper than a masonry one. Its advantage lies elsewhere: it needs no concrete mixer truck, no crane and no full foundation slab, and on a plot without a good road that often settles the matter. The weak spot of a timber frame country house is that a house shut up for winter without airing gets damp, and the moisture works its way into the studs. So we build the winter routine of the empty house into the design, as described below.

There are other options too:

• light gauge steel: a frame of galvanised steel sections doesn't rot, but right by the sea the zinc needs protection, and the joints need protection from condensation;
• SIP panels: the house goes up fastest of all, but such an airtight wall needs good ventilation, as explained in our comparison of SIP panels and timber frame;
• a factory-built modular house: it arrives almost finished, but it needs a road for a long truck and a crane, and they can't always reach a mountain village.

A country house needs insulating even without heating. Under an uninsulated roof it is hot in summer, and in a wall without a vapour barrier moisture builds up by spring.

Piles and a ventilated crawl space

A lightweight house doesn't need a full slab. We usually put in reinforced bored piles with a timber or steel bearer frame on top, and raise the floor above the ground so that air moves freely under the house. A ventilated crawl space keeps the floor dry through the whole empty winter, and the pipes can always be reached from below.

The number and length of the piles are set by the structural engineer from the ground survey. On a slope the piles come out at different lengths, and this is usually cheaper than cutting the ground back to a level platform. When a slab makes more sense after all is covered in our pile vs slab foundation comparison. We close off the base between the piles with a grille or slatted panels: air gets through, but dogs and chickens can't get under the house.

Water, the bathroom and the septic tank

Water at a country house comes from the mains, a borehole or a spring, and almost everywhere a storage tank with a pump is needed. In a new house we run the pipes in internal walls and in the insulated layer of the floor, not along an external wall or through the open crawl space, where frost would catch them first. The incoming supply, pump, water heater and filters are grouped in a single insulated cupboard by the entrance, and all the pipes run to it with a fall. Then the system can be drained from one point in one short visit, and we show you the draining procedure at handover.

We put the bathroom and the kitchen sink on either side of one wall: short pipes cost less and are easier to drain. Hot water comes from an electric water heater. For waste water at a country house a sealed holding tank or a simple septic tank is usually enough. A treatment plant needs a constant inflow of waste water and takes a long time to get going again after an empty winter, so we hardly ever install one for a seasonal house. We place the tank downhill from the house, well away from the water source, with access for the emptying tanker.

A house that is easy to shut up for winter

We settle the country house's winter routine at the design stage, and there are two ways to go. You can drain the water completely and switch off everything except the circuits you need. Or you can keep the house a few degrees above freezing with electric convector heaters on thermostats. The second way is more convenient, but in the mountains, where the power can go off for a long time in winter, draining is more reliable: without electricity a convector heater won't save the pipes.

The rest we build into the structure. We make the roof overhangs wide and fit the gutters with leaf guards, because nobody clears them in winter. Ground-floor windows get shutters or roller shutters. By the sea we give its own circuit in the consumer unit to a dehumidifier, which runs all winter with the windows shut. In the mountains a dehumidifier is almost useless in the frost, so there the house ventilates itself, through wall vents and crawl-space vents. If there is nobody to shut the house up and open it again, you can hand this over to our seasonal winterising service.

Where you can save, and where you can't

The cheapest option is a simple rectangular house with a gable roof: fewer corners, junctions and offcuts. Standard-size windows, a single wet area, a kitchen-living room instead of separate rooms and a sleeping area under the roof also bring the estimate down. A terrace costs less than the same area of enclosed room, and in summer life at a country house happens mostly on the terrace.

You can build in phases: the shell, roof and windows in the first season, and the finishing in the next. But for the winter the house must be left closed in, with its membranes and windows, otherwise the frame will get wet. Don't economise on wood preservative, membranes and vapour barrier, on the height of the floor above the ground or on the roof: mistakes there show up after a couple of winters, when they are expensive to fix.

Timelines and the building season

We usually build a 40–60 m² timber frame country house in 2–4 months from piles to handover. The piles, with curing time for the concrete, take 1–2 weeks, the frame and roof 3–5 weeks, and the windows, services, insulation and finishing the rest of the time. The design and documents are not included in this timeline.

Until the roof is on, the frame needs dry weather, so we store the timber under cover and fit the membrane and roof covering straight after the rafters. On the coast, spring is the best time to put up a frame: autumn is the rainiest season in Batumi, and by summer the house is ready. We work in the mountains by separate arrangement. The season there is shorter, from the snowmelt to the first frosts, and we bring materials up in advance while the road is passable.

How much country house construction in Adjara costs

A 30–70 m² turnkey timber frame country house costs from 1,530 ₾ per m². This price includes lightweight foundations, insulated walls, the roof, windows, electrics and interior finishing. The bathroom, septic tank and terrace are not included and are priced separately: a turnkey septic tank, for example, costs from 4,140 ₾.

If you want to finish the house yourself or in phases, a timber frame house shell without windows, services or finishes costs from 750 ₾ per m². A turnkey factory-built modular house costs more, from 1,830 ₾ per m², but it goes up faster on the plot. The price goes up with a long road, your own water from a borehole or spring and a complex roof, and in a mountain village delivery and the crew's accommodation are added. It comes down with a simple house shape and standard windows. The final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed.