Apartment finishing in Batumi

What the finishing stage includes and what is done before it

Apartment finishing in Batumi starts where the preparation ended. By this point the walls are ready for paint or wallpaper, the floor is ready for the chosen covering, the cables and pipes are at their points under caps, and the wet areas are waterproofed. Everything that is hidden in the walls and floor is done earlier, at the rough stage and during pre-finishing, and the finishing crew doesn't touch it.

Our finishing work includes:

• tiles in the bathroom, on the kitchen splashback and on the balcony, grout and silicone;
• touching up the skim coat where joints have shown through after the boxing went up, primer, two coats of paint or wallpaper;
• stretch or painted ceilings and curtain track recesses;
• laminate, SPC vinyl or porcelain tiles on the floor, threshold strips, skirting boards;
• interior doors with architraves and hardware;
• sockets, switches, light fittings, toilet, washbasin, taps and heated towel rail;
• post-renovation cleaning.

New circuits and moving outlets are not part of finishing. After painting, every chase means dust over the finished surfaces and repainting the whole wall, so these decisions are needed before the start. We measure for a custom kitchen and wardrobes against the finished tiles and walls, but making them is not included in the price of the finishing work and is priced separately.

The base: what we check before the first bag of adhesive

If we did the rough and pre-finishing stages, the base has already been accepted against certificates, and the crew starts straight away. If the apartment was prepared by the developer or another crew, the foreman first spends a day checking it. Otherwise a wave in the screed or a damp corner will only show up in the finished laminate and paint, and the finish will have to be redone together with the base.

• We look at the walls with a lamp held along the surface: waves, sanding marks, cracks where blockwork meets the columns.
• We check the screed and the self-levelling layer with a straightedge and a moisture meter. Laminate and SPC vinyl need a dry, flat base.
• We check the outlets against the plan: the mixer and toilet have to fit the tile layout, and the sockets above the worktop have to sit at the right height for your kitchen.
• We pressure-test the water supply, and give the electrical circuits a continuity test and an insulation resistance test.
• We find the finished floor level at the front door, the balcony and the shower, so that the floor coverings meet without steps.

We record what we find with photos and measurements and put the corrections into the estimate as separate lines, and the check record stays with you: it shows the condition the walls, floor and services were in when they were handed over to us. If the developer handed over the apartment with part of the finish done, the check follows an inventory, and how that works is described on the page about green frame renovation.

The order of finishing work

The order here is set by mortar, dust and accurate measurements. Tiles go first, and whatever is afraid of dirt and knocks goes in at the end. Some of the work runs in parallel: while the tiler is busy in the bathroom, the painter skims the rooms.

Finishing stalls more often because of deliveries than because of the work. Made-to-order doors and tiles sometimes take weeks to arrive, and if they aren't there in time for their stage, the crew jumps to another area and the schedule stretches.

Joints that show the quality of the finish

Almost any crew can make a flat wall in the middle of a room. Experience shows where different materials and different tradesmen meet, so we decide these spots before work starts:

• The bathroom threshold. Tiles and laminate meet under the door leaf, not in the middle of the doorway, with a profile or a thin joint. The tile height is already set by the screed.
• Sockets in tiles. We put the back box in the centre of a tile or symmetrically on a joint, so that a strip just a couple of centimetres wide isn't left next to it.
• Skirting board and architrave. The skirting butts up against the architrave, so the doors go in first, and we choose an architrave thicker than the skirting.
• Bath and wall. Waterproofing tape runs along the junction under the tiles, the tiles come down onto the rim of the bath, and the joint is closed with sanitary silicone. Otherwise water gets in behind the bath.
• Curtain track and ceiling. The recess for a concealed curtain track is formed when the ceiling goes up; it can't be added later without redoing the film.
• Window and reveal. We fill the joint between the frame and the reveal with elastic sealant: the frame and the wall move differently in heat and cold.

We draw the tile layout before laying and show it to you: which corner the row starts from, where the cuts will be, where the outlets fall. How we set out the rows and how many tiles go on cuts is covered on the page about tile installation.

When to choose materials so the crew doesn't wait

Our price for finishing covers labour only. You buy the materials yourself or have us buy them from a materials schedule with product codes. Either way, the decisions have to keep to the schedule, because each material is needed for its own stage:

• before the start: tiles, flooring and the sanitary ware the outlets are set for, since the layout and levels depend on them;
• in the first week: interior doors, if they are made to order, and the stretch ceiling film;
• by the middle of the work: paint with its tint code, skirting boards, threshold strips;
• by the last week: socket faceplates, light fittings, taps and bathroom accessories.

We buy tiles in a single batch with extra for cuts, and check the shade and calibre on the boxes before opening them. We also inspect materials you bring before they go in: it is better to find a defect before the tiles are on the adhesive. If a designer is ordering the materials, we check their schedule before the start.

How much apartment finishing costs in Batumi

Finishing work costs from 265 to 385 ₾ per m² of apartment floor area. This is the price for labour only, on prepared walls and floors. Finishing materials are priced separately: in the mid-range they cost from 390 to 540 ₾ per m² of apartment, and this part of the estimate is usually bigger than the labour itself.

Within the range, the price is moved by the share of tiling and complex details. Laying wall tiles costs from 66 to 96 ₾ per m², wall painting in two coats from 23 to 36 ₾, a stretch ceiling with film and installation from 78 ₾ per m², and interior door installation from 205 ₾ per door. An apartment with two bathrooms tiled up to the ceiling comes out at the upper end. Closer to the lower end is a one-bedroom apartment with one bathroom, painted walls and laminate.

If the base was prepared by another crew and needs correcting, that work goes into the estimate as separate lines. The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed. We write the price of each stage into the contract, and unless the scope changes, it doesn't go up.