Old apartment renovation in Batumi: Soviet-era blocks and 2010s buildings

Renovating a resale apartment in Batumi depends more on the age of the building than on its size. An apartment in a block from the middle of the last century and one in a 2012 new build appear in the same section of the listings, but they have to be renovated differently, and their estimates are made up of different lines.

Soviet-era blocks: what we almost always replace

In Soviet-era blocks, and in the even older buildings of the Old Town, the pipes, wiring and screed are usually as old as the building itself. Steel pipes clog up inside and rust at the threads, cast-iron drains crack at the sockets, and aluminium cable with no earth was never meant for an air conditioner in every room, a water heater and a hob. We replace these systems completely, from where they enter the apartment to every point, and put together a new consumer unit (fuse box) with RCDs on the wet areas.

We look at the building separately. Its risers, water supply and electrical network are shared, and their condition decides what can be done in a single apartment. A rusty riser that the neighbours aren't ready to replace is better found before the estimate than after the tiling. If the supply to the building can't carry air conditioners in every room, we raise the capacity question at the inspection: an increase is usually arranged through the electricity company, and that application has its own timeline.

An apartment in a 2010s building: what the last renovation hides

Buildings put up in Batumi in the 2010s usually still have fairly young services: copper cable, plastic pipes, a reinforced concrete frame. Their weak spot is the finishing, which was done quickly, for a sale or for the first season. What we find most often:

• a bathroom with no waterproofing, tiles on gypsum plaster and dark joints around the shower tray;
• laminate that has swollen by the balcony door and at the entrance;
• mould on the reveals of windows that stream with condensation in winter, and behind wardrobes against the external wall;
• a bathroom fan without a non-return valve, which lets in the neighbours' smells;
• a consumer unit without RCDs, with all the kitchen sockets on one circuit;
• an air conditioner drain run straight out onto the facade.

In apartments like these, the screed and partitions can often stay if they are level and don't sound hollow. The job is then closer to a full renovation of part of the apartment: we redo the wet areas, the electrics and the floors, and bring the walls up to a paintable finish. If both the services and the base are sound, a cosmetic refresh will be enough.

Inspecting the apartment and the building before the estimate

A resale estimate can't be worked out from the photos in a listing, so the first step is a visit from the foreman. In an old building the foreman looks beyond the apartment: where the water and gas supplies come in, what state the risers in the basement are in, and whether there are cracks in the load-bearing walls of the stairwell. Owners usually pay for repairs to the shared parts of an old building together, and you will have a share in that too.

We check the measured floor area against the Public Registry extract. Soviet apartments often have glazed-in loggias added on that don't appear in the extract, and it is better to know this before any layout change. If you are still choosing, the inspection can be done before you pay a deposit, and then you can decide between an apartment with or without a renovation with the figures in front of you.

Strip-out: what we keep and what goes

Stripping out old finishes costs from 36 to 54 ₾ per m², and removing tiles from 24 to 30 ₾ per m², so in a resale estimate this is a noticeable line. That is why we only remove what gets in the way. We can often keep the brick partitions of Soviet buildings, solid parquet if the boards aren't rotting underneath, and a level, sound screed in a 2010s building.

Some things go without discussion: old wiring, steel pipes in the walls, a second layer of tiles laid over the first, and plasterboard boxing with mould inside. In the old centre, waste removal is harder: the streets are narrow, there is nowhere to put a skip, and the bags are carried to the van by hand.

Walls and floors in an old building

Walls in Soviet buildings are rarely straight, and in the bathroom we always level them for tiling. Plastering to guide beads costs from 39 to 60 ₾ per m²: cement plaster in wet areas, gypsum plaster in the rooms. For painting, a skim coat over the old plaster is sometimes enough, if it holds and doesn't sound hollow when tapped.

Floors in the Old Town need more care. In buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries the floor structures are sometimes timber, and a heavy wet screed overloads them. There we lay a dry floor or a floor on joists, and build the bathroom on a lightweight base with waterproofing. The order of work in a wet area is described on the page about bathroom renovation.

How much old apartment renovation in Batumi costs

A full renovation of a resale apartment, with strip-out and new services, costs from 570 to 780 ₾ per m². This price covers the labour and the materials for the rough work: cable and the consumer unit, pipes, plaster, screed where it is needed, waterproofing. Tiles, flooring, sanitary ware and lighting are priced separately, according to the grade you choose.

The points move the estimate most. An electrical point costs from 42 to 66 ₾ and a plumbing point from 96 to 145 ₾, and in an old apartment almost all of them are made from scratch. A 2010s building with sound screed and partitions works out cheaper, while an old building with timber floors and a riser replacement costs more. The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed.