Cosmetic apartment renovation in Batumi

What a cosmetic apartment renovation includes

We itemise a cosmetic apartment renovation in Batumi in the estimate by surface and fixture, so you can see what changes in each room. The line is simple: we replace everything that sits on top of the plaster, the screed and the connection points, and leave whatever is hidden in the walls and floor as it is.

If the inspection shows that something in the right-hand column is due for replacement, we put it in the estimate as a separate line with its own price. The signs that an apartment needs a different scope of work are collected in our comparison of cosmetic and full renovation. This page is only about the cosmetic work itself.

What we check before the estimate

A cosmetic renovation lasts exactly as long as the base underneath it. So at the inspection the foreman first looks for anything that would spoil the fresh finish within the first year:

• the consumer unit and sockets: whether the cable is copper, whether the wet-area circuits have an RCD (residual current device), whether the socket under the kettle gets hot;
• the pipes under the sink and behind the access hatch: drips, new clamps, rust on the threads;
• the screed, with a two-metre straightedge and by tapping: for click-lock laminate and SPC vinyl we want a gap under the straightedge of no more than 2 mm, and we take the exact tolerance from the flooring instructions;
• the external walls, with a moisture meter, especially the corners by the windows and the spots behind wardrobes;
• the adhesion of the old paint: we score a grid with a knife and pull off a strip of masking tape, and if the paint comes away with it, that layer has to go;
• the grout and silicone in the shower: dark joints near the floor and a damp smell mean there is water under the tiles.

We photograph everything we find and send the photos with the estimate. If the services are in poor condition, we'll suggest a full replacement of the pipes and wiring, at least in the bathroom and kitchen. Whether to replace them is your decision, but we don't hang new light fittings on an aluminium circuit.

Order of work: top to bottom, dusty to clean

Furniture that stays in the apartment is moved to the middle of the room and covered with plastic sheeting, the windows and windowsills are covered, and in a building with a lift we protect the lift car. Then we remove everything old in one go: wallpaper, skirting boards, socket covers, light fittings, silicone. That way the strip-out doesn't drag on through every stage or send dust over fresh paint.

From there we work from top to bottom. First the ceiling, then the walls: cracks, skim coat, sanding, primer. The first coat of paint goes on before the floor and doors, because roller spatter on bare screed bothers nobody. Then we lay the flooring, hang the doors, fit the skirting and replace the sockets and light fittings.

The final coat of paint goes on last and covers the marks left by fitting the doors, scratches from the skirting and handprints. We replace the silicone in the bathroom at the very end, when there is no dust left in the apartment. On a dusty joint it doesn't stick well and soon darkens.

Timing for typical apartment sizes

The timing depends on how long the skim coat and paint take to dry and on the number of doors. Below are the usual timings for an empty apartment with a level screed and two coats of paint. We'll give the exact timing for your apartment after the site measurement and write it into the contract:

If you live in the apartment during the renovation, add a week or two: the crew moves from room to room and can't work everywhere at once. In winter the timing is closer to the upper end, because skim coat dries more slowly in a cold apartment. Made-to-order doors sometimes take several weeks to arrive, so it is best to choose them in the very first week.

Where cosmetic renovations usually go wrong

When we redo someone else's cosmetic job, the problems are always in the same places:

• laminate is laid on an uneven screed, and six months later the joints click underfoot;
• paint goes over chalk whitewash or over old paint that doesn't hold well, and the new coat peels off in strips in the corners and by the ceiling;
• the shower grout is replaced without checking what is under the tiles: the joints are fresh, but water still finds its way to the neighbours;
• fresh silicone is laid over old mouldy silicone, and black spots show through within a month;
• a new oven or water heater is plugged into an old socket, and then the circuit breaker trips or the cable in the wall heats up;
• wallpaper is hung on an external wall in an apartment that stands empty in winter.

Wallpaper by the sea is covered in more detail in our comparison of paint and wallpaper for a humid climate. Floors are a similar story, and we have looked separately at the difference between laminate and SPC vinyl for the hallway and kitchen.

Cosmetic apartment renovation in Batumi for letting and before a sale

With an apartment on a long-term let, what counts is the weeks without a tenant. A full cosmetic renovation of a 1+1 usually takes 3–4 weeks, while refreshing only the walls in the hallway and passages, the silicone and a couple of doors takes about a week. To avoid losing time, we arrange with the tenant to come in for the measurement in advance, order the doors and flooring before they move out, and the crew starts as soon as the keys are handed over. What else a tenant on a one-year lease expects from an apartment is described on the page about renovation for long-term rental.

Before a sale the task is different: to remove the signs of everyday life that a buyer notices at a viewing and in photos. That means marks and scuffs on the walls, chips on the doors, dark joints in the bathroom, old light fittings. We won't paint over a leak or mould. The buyer or their tradesman finds it with a moisture meter in a minute, and after that they don't trust the rest of the apartment either.

How much a cosmetic renovation costs in Batumi

A cosmetic renovation costs from 210 to 300 ₾ per square metre of apartment floor area. The price includes labour and basic materials: skim coat, primer, paint and adhesive, plus consumables such as plastic sheeting and masking tape. You choose the wallpaper, flooring, doors, light fittings and sanitary ware yourself, and they appear in the estimate as separate lines. A cosmetic renovation doesn't include replacing pipes or wiring.

In the price list, individual jobs are priced by their own area. Skim coating walls for painting and wall painting in two coats each cost from 23 to 36 ₾ per m² of wall, wallpaper hanging from 36 to 54 ₾, and laying laminate from 20 to 30 ₾ per m² of floor. The wall area in an apartment is usually 2.5–3 times the floor area, so most of the estimate goes on the walls.

An apartment with level walls and screed, where preparation and painting are enough, is closer to the lower end. The price goes up with several layers of wallpaper, whitewash, cracks at partition joints and walls in side light from panoramic windows. The final cost is set after the site measurement and agreement of the estimate, and the price of each stage is fixed in the contract.