Children's room renovation in Batumi: safety and room to grow

Two layouts on one plan

We plan a children's room renovation in Batumi ten years ahead. In that time the finishes can be refreshed in a couple of days, but the cables in the walls stay where they were laid. The room will be a playroom, then a schoolchild's room, then a teenager's room, and the furniture in it will change two or three times.

So we draw two layouts on the plan: one for now and one for school age. We put sockets, a network cable and an outlet for a desk lamp by the future desk, even if there is a play mat there now, and by the bed we leave points for a night light and a charger. An extra socket in the wall costs less than a new chase a few years later, when the room already has its finishes.

Wall bars, a pull-up bar in the doorway or a loft bed are also decided at the start, because they need fixings in the concrete or backing boards in a partition.

Sockets, lighting and an RCD

In a children's room we fit sockets with built-in safety shutters: the contacts open only when a plug is pushed into both holes at once. A child quickly learns to pull out plug-in socket covers, but shutters always work. We fit more sockets than are needed now: an extension lead on the floor of a children's room is more dangerous than an extra point in the wall.

We connect the sockets and lighting of a children's room through a 30 mA RCD (residual current device): if current leaks through a person, it cuts power to the circuit almost instantly. If the developer's consumer unit has no such device on the room circuits, we add it when we upgrade the unit, as described on the page about consumer unit assembly. We sometimes fit the switch by the door lower than usual so that the child can turn the light on without help, and hide the lighting power supplies behind a hatch the child can't reach.

Furniture is fixed to the wall

A child can pull an unfixed chest of drawers, wardrobe or shelving unit over onto themselves by opening the top drawer or climbing the shelves. So in a children's room we fix all tall and heavy furniture to the wall, even pieces that seem stable, and the TV too, if there is one. Which fixings we use in concrete, block and plasterboard is covered on the page about furniture assembly and wall fixing.

A plasterboard partition holds a wardrobe and shelves only on backing boards inside the frame. So we fit them before boarding, for both layouts at once, the current one and the school one: for the top of the wardrobe, the shelves, the wall bars and a loft bed. Each backing board is marked on the diagram and photographed for the handover file.

We don't hang heavy shelves above the bed. For a bunk bed or a loft bed we check the ceiling height: a child on the top must be able to sit up without hitting their head on it.

Low-emission materials

The smell after a renovation comes from paint, adhesive, new furniture boards and stretch ceiling film. For a children's room we choose what smells less and airs out faster: water-based paint low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs), furniture made from E1 emission class melamine-faced chipboard with edging on every edge, and solvent-free flooring adhesive. We don't use any material without a technical data sheet in a children's room.

The paint on children's room walls needs class 1 or 2 wet scrub resistance: felt-tip pen and modelling clay come off with a sponge, and a mark on a matt wall is touched up in patches. The order of work and the choice of paint are covered on the page about wall painting. A stretch ceiling is possible in a children's room too, but the film has a noticeable smell for the first few days, so after installation we air the room for longer. If you'd rather avoid that, we make a painted plasterboard ceiling.

Floor, walls and sound

Noise from a children's room goes two ways: down to the neighbours and through the wall into the parents' bedroom. The impact of jumping and dropped toys is best absorbed by a floating screed on a soundproofing mat; a rug takes away only part of it. A floor with a mat rises by a few centimetres, so it is easier to build it into an apartment in black frame, before the screed is poured, and to work out the thresholds at the same time. If the child goes to sleep before the adults turn off the TV, we line the wall shared with the bedroom with a frame and mineral wool, as described on the page about apartment soundproofing.

We lay a floor that isn't slippery and isn't cold stone, so that children can play on it barefoot: hard-wearing laminate or SPC vinyl. How they differ in a humid climate is explained in the comparison of laminate and SPC vinyl. The lower part of the walls by the play area and the desk is painted with the same washable paint or covered with panels that can be replaced one at a time.

Windows, balcony and air conditioning

On every sash we fit a restrictor that stops the window opening wider than a ventilation gap, and a lockable handle. We don't put the bed, desk or chest of drawers under the window: a child uses them to climb onto the windowsill. If the windows in the apartment are being replaced, we order the lockable hardware together with them; what to choose for Batumi is described on the page about window replacement.

The balcony door from the children's room is fitted with a lockable handle or a child safety lock. We hang the air conditioner so that the airflow goes past the bed, the play area and the top bunk, if there is one. For daytime naps, heavy curtains in a ceiling recess are useful.

How much a children's room renovation costs in Batumi

A square metre of floor in a turnkey children's room costs 475–695 ₾, and this covers labour and rough-work materials: electrics to a plan the child can grow into, backing boards in the partitions, wall levelling, screed and the ceiling. Finishing coverings and furniture are priced separately. Per metre, a children's room comes out more expensive than a bedroom, because a small area has more points, fixings and backing boards.

Refreshing a children's room with a cosmetic renovation, without new circuits, comes to 210–300 ₾ per m². Labour for wall painting in 2 coats costs 23–36 ₾ per m², with the paint and filler extra. A made-to-measure hinged-door wardrobe, including manufacture and installation, costs 900–1,200 ₾ per linear metre. Wall soundproofing, made-to-measure furniture and a sports frame on backing boards push the price up; paint instead of wallpaper and ready-made furniture bring it down. The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed.

The check before the child moves in

We hand over a children's room against a separate checklist, and you can repeat any item on it yourself:

• we push a plug into every socket: the shutters open and close;
• we press “Test” on the children's room RCD, and the circuit switches off;
• we open every sash as far as the restrictor and try the lockable handle;
• we pull the top of the wardrobe, chest of drawers and shelving unit towards us: the fixing has no play;
• we check that the cables of lamps and night lights don't hang in loops near the floor.

You get the diagram of backing boards and sockets with photos in the handover file. You will need it a few years from now, when the furniture in the room is changed: it shows where you can drill and where a cable runs behind the finish.