Three-bedroom apartment renovation in Batumi: a 3+1 with two bathrooms

Three-bedroom apartment renovation in Batumi applies to 3+1 apartments: by the local count, that is three bedrooms and a kitchen-living room, and the living room isn't counted among the rooms. In 100 m² there are tasks a smaller apartment doesn't have: two bathrooms at opposite ends, a walk-in wardrobe, a children's room, four air conditioners and more appliances than a single power supply comfortably handles. We settle them before the first chase is cut, because mistakes here stay in the walls and in the consumer unit.

Two bathrooms and hot water

A 3+1 usually has two wet areas: an en-suite off the parents' bedroom and a shared bathroom off the corridor for the children and guests. We keep both by the risers: a bathroom moved far away for the sake of the layout ends up on a raised platform, because the drain pipe needs a fall. Renovating a 4–6 m² bathroom costs 5,880–8,400 ₾, and a 2–3 m² guest bathroom 3,480–4,800 ₾, in both cases for labour and rough-work materials, without tiles or sanitary ware.

Hot water for two bathrooms comes from one water heater or two. A single 100-litre tank is simpler, but the water reaches the far shower through a long pipe, and the first litres run cold. Two water heaters, each by its own bathroom, solve this but need two circuits from the consumer unit. How to choose the tank size and position is covered on the page about water heater installation.

Power capacity: we work it out before the appliances are bought

In a 3+1, four air conditioners, an induction hob, an oven, a water heater, a washing machine and a dishwasher all run at the same time in the evening. An induction hob alone draws about 7 kW with all its zones on, and a single-phase supply with a 32 A main breaker is good for roughly the same 7 kW, so on a summer evening an apartment like this easily trips the main breaker.

First we look at the allocated capacity in the documents and on the main breaker, and add up the appliances from your list. If the capacity is not enough, there are two options: an application to increase it, which has its own timeline, and a load priority relay, which cuts power to the water heater while you cook. An apartment like this has about twenty circuits, and a 36-module enclosure can't hold them with room to spare, so we plan a bigger recess for the consumer unit. How we assemble and test it is described on the page about the apartment consumer unit.

Air conditioners in all four rooms

An air conditioner is needed in the living room and in each bedroom, and each indoor unit has its own circuit from the consumer unit, its own pipe run and its own drain. A separate split system with installation costs 1,440–1,920 ₾ per unit. We lay the pipe runs to all the rooms at once before plastering, even if the owner will buy some of the units later: a capped pipe run in the wall costs less than boxing over finished paintwork across half the apartment.

Four pipe runs and four drains in one apartment are drawn on the plan, otherwise they meet in the corridor as a bundle under a makeshift box. Each unit's condensate drain goes into the sewer through a trap, and we photograph the route of every pipe run for the handover file. How many outdoor units to fit depends on the spots available on the facade, and when one is enough for several rooms is covered on the page about systems with one outdoor unit.

Walk-in wardrobe and children's room

A walk-in wardrobe in a 3+1 is usually carved out of the parents' bedroom or out of the end of the corridor next to it. We decide this together with the en-suite off the same bedroom: the bathroom door, the wardrobe entrance and the headboard must not compete for one wall. If there isn't enough width for a separate room, a sliding-door wardrobe is the simpler choice; made to measure, it costs 1,500–1,800 ₾ per linear metre. How much space the hanging rails and the walkway need, and how to ventilate a walk-in wardrobe by the sea, is covered on the page about the walk-in wardrobe.

The children's room in a 3+1 is usually one of the two smaller bedrooms. We place it next to the parents' bedroom and away from the living room, because a TV on the other side of the wall keeps a child from falling asleep. Sockets for when the child grows up, fixing furniture to the wall and a quiet floor are covered on the page about a room for a child.

How much three-bedroom apartment renovation in Batumi costs

Three-bedroom apartment renovation costs from 490 to 720 ₾ per m². That is labour and rough-work materials, while tiles, floors, doors, sanitary ware, furniture and appliances are priced separately. A square metre here costs less than in a 1+1 or a 2+1, even with two bathrooms: the bedrooms and the corridor, with no water or tiles, take up more than half of the 100 m². A turnkey apartment of about 100 m² with finishing materials, without furniture and appliances, comes to 90,000–120,000 ₾.

The price moves towards the upper end with a second bathroom far from the riser, a walk-in wardrobe with a built-in system, a multi-split with pipe runs across the whole apartment and five or six interior doors, with installation labour from 205 to 300 ₾ per door. It stays nearer the lower end with bathrooms by the risers, the developer's layout and separate split systems in the cages the building has already assigned. The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed, and the price of each stage goes into the contract.

Two crews and a test under load

On 100 m² we have two crews working: while the tilers do both bathrooms, the walls in the bedrooms are being skimmed and painted. That way a 3+1 from white frame usually fits into 4–5 months of finishing. Made-to-measure furniture is measured from the finished walls of each room, so the kitchen doesn't wait until the last bedroom is done.

Before handover we switch everything on at once: four air conditioners on cooling, the hob, the oven, the water heater and both showers at the same time. After an hour we check whether the terminals in the consumer unit are warming up, whether the main breaker holds, and whether the pressure has dropped in the far shower.