Full house renovation in Batumi: roof, walls, floors, services

When a house needs a full renovation

People take on a full house renovation in Batumi when patching things up no longer works: the roof leaks in several places, cracks run across the walls, the upstairs floor is springy, and the pipes and wiring are as old as the house. New tiles don't cure problems like these, and a couple of years later they come off together with the old problems. How refreshing the surfaces differs from work on concealed systems is explained in our comparison of cosmetic and full renovation.

In a house, a full renovation goes further than in an apartment. The owner is responsible for the roof, facade, foundations and floor structures, so the estimate covers the structure, not just the services and screed. If what you need to renovate is an apartment in a block of flats, the order of work there is different.

The survey: what the engineer looks at

Before the estimate, the house is examined by the site foreman and a structural engineer. With your consent, we make exploratory openings: we lift a floorboard by an external wall, open up the plaster where a joist bears on the wall, and dig a trial pit by the foundations to see their depth, material and waterproofing. We fix dated tell-tales across the cracks.

As a result you get a list of defects with photos, sorted by urgency. First come the things that threaten an emergency or spoil everything else: leaks, dangerous wiring, floors that can't be trusted.

Timber floors in an old house

In old houses in Batumi and Adjara villages, the floors are often timber: the joists rest with their ends in a stone or brick wall. They rot where you can't see them, in the pocket of an external wall that wind-driven rain has soaked for decades. The middle of a joist can be sound while its bearing end already crumbles under a screwdriver.

The engineer chooses the solution based on the joist section, the span and what will stand above:

• splicing the ends, if the rot is only at the bearing: we cut out the rotten section and join the joist with a steel splice plate;
• fixing new joists alongside the old ones (sistering) when the existing section isn't enough;
• complete replacement with new timber joists treated with preservative and fire retardant;
• a cast-in-place concrete slab instead of the timber floor, only to a structural design that checks the walls and foundations.

Along with the joists we rebuild the floor itself: plywood or OSB decking, mineral wool between the joists against voices and the TV, and a resilient underlay under the finished floor against footsteps.

The roof: patch it or replace it completely

If the roof covering is old, there is no roofing underlay, and some of the rafters have darkened and gone soft, there is no point in patching any longer. A complete replacement goes like this: we strip the covering and battens, replace or strengthen the rafters, lay a breathable membrane, counter-battens for a ventilation gap, new battens and the new covering. At the same time we fit new gutters and insulate the loft floor while it can still be reached from above.

We open up the roof section by section and only when the forecast is dry. Every evening we cover the open part with a tarpaulin: in Batumi a night-time downpour can come in any month. We choose the covering material together with you, and we have already compared the pros of a metal roof and asphalt shingles for the rainy coast. We keep the shape and height of the roof, otherwise the renovation turns into a reconstruction that needs paperwork.

Walls, foundations and facade

We repair cracks after the cause has been found and stopped. If a crack has stopped growing, we rake it out, set stainless steel helical bars into the masonry joints and fill it with repair mortar. If the wall is weakened more seriously, the engineer may specify strengthening with mesh and a render jacket, and if there is settlement, underpinning of the foundations. The structural engineer calculates any strengthening to the seismic code; we don't make decisions like this by eye.

We relay the paved apron with a fall away from the house, and if water stands by the walls, we waterproof and drain around the foundations. We tap-test the old cement render on the facade: everything that sounds hollow is knocked off back to the masonry. Then comes either new vapour-permeable render on mesh or an insulated facade, and the difference between the systems is described in our comparison of a ventilated facade and ETICS.

Services along new routes

In a full renovation we lay the wiring, water supply and drains anew, not along the old chases. The services go in after the work on the structure and the roof, but before plaster and screed, otherwise the new finishes would have to be opened up again.

• a new supply connection, a consumer unit with RCDs and separate circuits for the boiler, pump, kitchen and air conditioners, an earthing system;
• water supply through a manifold with a valve for each bathroom, pressure-tested before closing up;
• drains laid to a fall with access points, sleeves through the foundations and walls;
• heating, if the house will be lived in during the winter.

We photograph the runs with a tape measure in the frame, and the photos go into the handover file.

Order of work and documents

A full house renovation always follows the same order, and the survey decides what each step involves:

1. the survey and a strengthening design, if one is needed;
2. stripping out the old finishes down to the structure and removing the waste;
3. foundations, wall strengthening, floor structures;
4. the roof, then the windows;
5. services along new routes;
6. plaster, screed, the facade and, last of all, the paved apron.

After that the house is ready for interior finishing. You usually can't live in the house during the structural work: there is no water or power, the floors are open and the roof is off. If the work affects load-bearing walls, floor structures or columns, we start with a structural design and a permit, and the time for them goes into the schedule as a separate line. We handle adding a storey or an extension as reconstruction that follows the construction stages.

How much a full house renovation costs in Batumi

A full house renovation in Batumi costs from 960 to 1,320 ₾ per m² including materials and new wiring, water supply and drains. The estimate shows separately the strip-out of old finishes, from 36 to 54 ₾ per m², wall plastering to guide beads, from 39 to 60 ₾ per m², and a plumbing point, from 96 to 145 ₾.

The price goes up with replacing floor structures, strengthening walls and foundations, a complete roof replacement including the rafters, work that requires a design, and a house with no vehicle access. It is lower when the structure is sound and mainly the services and the roof covering are being replaced. Items that will only become visible after the strip-out are marked in the estimate in advance as possible extras. The final cost is set after the survey and agreement of the estimate, and the price of each stage in the contract doesn't go up unless the scope changes.