Storage room renovation in Batumi: ventilation, shelving and space for appliances

What will go in the storage room

We plan a storage room renovation in Batumi around what will stand in it. A store for belongings, a laundry room and a utility room with a water heater need different services, and if this is decided after plastering, the water supply and drain will have to be run across finished surfaces.

If the consumer unit is already in the storage room, we put the washing machine and the shelves with cleaning products well away from it and leave the consumer unit door clear. We don't move a new consumer unit into a storage room with a washing machine: it is damp there.

Ventilation and damp

A storage room has no window, the door is almost always shut, and wet umbrellas, beach bags and sometimes drying laundry end up inside. The air stands still, moisture settles on the coldest surface, and within a single winter marks appear on the wall and on the suitcases. That is why we never make a sealed storage room, even one used only for belongings.

Air flows into the storage room under the door and leaves through the extractor; the overall scheme is explained on the page about apartment ventilation. A storage room almost never has its own ventilation shaft, so we run the extract in a boxed-in duct to the bathroom shaft. The closer the storage room is to it, the shorter the duct and the quieter the fan.

For shelves alone, a small fan on a timer is enough. With a washing machine and tumble dryer we choose a more powerful model and run it from a humidity sensor: after a wash it clears the steam by itself, and in a closed-up apartment it switches on when the air gets damp.

We choose finishes that can handle damp: primer with an antifungal additive, washable paint instead of wallpaper, moisture-resistant plasterboard on the ceiling. If the storage room holds a lot of clothes and the apartment stands empty for months, we add a dehumidifier with a permanent drain into the sewer.

A washing machine and tumble dryer in the storage room

A washing machine in a storage room needs its own valve on the supply pipe, a drain into the sewer through a trap and an earthed socket on its own circuit with a 30 mA RCD. We put the socket about a metre above the floor, to one side of the machine, and for a washer and dryer stack we fit two straight away. We put a leak sensor under the machine and a motorised valve on the water inlet: if there is a leak, it shuts off the water by itself.

The drain is the hardest part here. The machine's pump doesn't lift water very high and struggles with a long run, while a waste pipe needs a constant fall to the riser. If the storage room is far from the riser, we run the pipe in the screed or put the machine on a plinth; this is decided before the floor is poured.

We cover the floor under the machine with a waterproofing membrane taken up the walls, with a small upstand at the door, so that a leak stays in the storage room and doesn't reach the neighbours below. The procedure is described on the page about floor waterproofing. We stand the machine on tiles over screed, not on a floating floor or a shelf, otherwise it rocks on the spin cycle. If the storage room is next to a bedroom, we choose a solid door leaf with a seal at the sides and top, and leave the gap at the bottom for the air supply. You will still hear the spin cycle at night.

A water heater in the storage room

A storage room next to the bathroom is a convenient place for a water heater: the tank doesn't take up space in the bathroom, and hot water reaches the shower quickly. The tank size, the pipework with a relief valve and the connection to its own circuit are described on the page about water heater installation; here we cover what the storage room itself changes.

If the storage room is partitioned off with plasterboard, the position of the tank is decided before the boarding goes on: a full tank is heavy, and we build backing into the frame for its brackets. We plan the shelves around the water heater with room to spare. Underneath there has to be space to remove the flange with the heating element and anode, and at the front free access to the valves. So under the tank we leave an empty zone or a removable shelf, not a fixed shelving unit that would have to be taken apart at the first service.

We don't move a gas boiler into a storage room ourselves and we don't touch the gas pipe: gas is connected and moved by the gas company.

Shelves and shelving units

We choose the shelf depth to suit what is stored. Boxes, cleaning products and tools need 30–40 cm, while suitcases, folded blankets and a vacuum cleaner need 50–60 cm. If the shelves run along two walls in an L shape, we leave a walkway of at least 60 cm between them. Heavy things are kept at waist height, and cleaning products on shelves above a child's reach.

We raise the bottom shelf 15–20 cm off the floor: you can mop under it, and if there is a leak, things stay dry. We choose powder-coated or galvanised metal shelving, as bare metal rusts by the sea. Melamine-faced chipboard looks warmer, but next to a washing machine water gets into its edges.

Lighting, door and floor

We put the switch outside, by the frame on the handle side, and choose one with an indicator: the light in the rocker shows that someone has left the light on inside. If you often go in with your hands full, a light with a motion sensor is more convenient. If there is a water heater or a washing machine inside, the light needs a moisture protection rating of at least IP44. Over deep shelving we move the light towards the walkway: directly above the shelves, the upper ones cast a shadow on the lower ones.

The door of a narrow storage room opens outwards, as there isn't room for it to swing inside. In a corridor with several doors it is often made hidden, flush with the wall, and in a narrow corridor a sliding leaf is more convenient. At the bottom we leave a gap of 1.5–2 cm or fit a transfer grille: without them the fan has nowhere to draw air from.

On the floor we lay porcelain or ceramic tiles. Laminate next to a washing machine swells after the very first leak.

A storage room in an apartment you let

In a short-term rental apartment the storage room becomes the property manager's store: spare sets of bed linen, towels, cleaning products, light bulbs, the owner's belongings. We fit it with a lock, the owner and the manager have the key or the code, and guests get the free wardrobes. We mark out the shelves for stacks of linen, so that during cleaning it is clear at once what is missing. What else goes into an apartment for guests is covered on the page about renovation for short-term rental.

A year-long tenant needs a storage room more than a guest does: they have nowhere else to put empty suitcases and winter clothes, so we make the shelves deeper for them.

How much a storage room renovation costs in Batumi

A turnkey storage room renovation costs from 570 to 840 ₾ per m² of floor. The price covers labour and rough-work materials: walls, ceiling, floor, electrics, ventilation and outlets for appliances where they are needed. Shelving is priced separately: metal or melamine chipboard storage room shelving, installed, costs 360–540 ₾ per linear metre.

A square metre of a storage room costs more than a square metre of an ordinary room, because 2–3 m² need the same set of work as a large room: a door, a light, a fan, sockets. As separate lines in the estimate, interior door installation costs 205–300 ₾, fitting an extractor fan 45–60 ₾ for labour, an electrical point 42–66 ₾, and laying floor tiles 72–110 ₾ per m². The door leaf, fan, light and tiles are priced by the models you choose.

Storage rooms with a washing machine and a water heater come out closer to the upper end: water, drainage, waterproofing, a separate circuit and backing. The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed.