Rough renovation of apartments in Batumi, ready for finishing

Where rough renovation starts and ends

Rough renovation of an apartment in Batumi covers everything the finishes will later hide: partitions, electrics, water supply and drains, plaster, screed and waterproofing. In British terms, that is the first fix plus the plastering and screeding. It ends before the skim coat. By then the walls are flat and dry, the floor is ready for its covering, and the cables and pipes are brought out to every point and capped off.

We sign off each layer against its own check, and these checks are written into the acceptance checklist in the contract:

In a black frame apartment, where there is only the structure of the building, we do every row of the table. In white frame the developer has already put in some of the layers, and the rough work comes down to moving walls and outlets and doing whatever is missing.

What to decide before the first block is laid

Rough work locks in decisions that are hard to change later. So before setting out we ask you to answer a short list of questions, and the crew doesn't start on site without the answers:

• the furniture layout and a kitchen sketch, which decide where the sockets and water outlets go;
• the models of toilet, mixers and shower: the installation frame and the concealed body of the mixer are fixed in the wall before plastering;
• the type of ceiling in each room, because the air conditioning runs and the hood duct boxing will go in it;
• the floor covering in each room, since its thickness sets the screed level;
• underfloor heating, if you want it, and the positions of the indoor air conditioning units.

The ceiling is the decision people put off most often, although it determines how deep the runs have to be hidden and where the lights go. The comparison of stretch and plasterboard ceilings helps you see the difference.

Electrics: from the consumer unit to the back box

We fit a consumer unit (fuse box) with spare ways, because within a couple of years it almost always gains a circuit for a new appliance. We use copper cable in straight runs: vertically from each point to the ceiling or floor, and horizontally along them. Joints are made only in junction boxes that stay accessible, and we never bury a twisted joint in the plaster.

We use deep back boxes so that the connectors fit inside and the faceplate doesn't stick out from the wall. Low-voltage cables for internet and TV run separately from the power cables, at a distance, otherwise the signal picks up interference. For each future air conditioner we bring out power and a condensate drain, and for ceiling lighting we leave cable with spare length. We label the cable ends, and at the finishing stage the electrician fits the sockets by these labels without testing everything again.

Water and drains before they are closed up

We run the water supply from the stop valves at the inlet to each fixture. In an apartment with two bathrooms a manifold is more convenient: each fixture has its own valve on it, so a leak means shutting off one line, not all the water. The manifold goes behind an access hatch, and we leave no joints buried in the wall.

Before closing up, we test the system at a pressure above its working pressure and leave it like that for several hours. We photograph the gauge at the start and end of the test: if the needle hasn't moved, the joints are holding.

We lay the drains with a fall towards the riser and check it with a level on every section. At bends we use swept fittings, and at the riser we leave an access point. Pipes and the section of riser next to a bedroom or living room get wrapped in acoustic insulation: without it you hear every flush at night, yours and your neighbours'. We cap every outlet, from the washing machine to the sink, so that no mortar gets into them before the finishing stage.

Plaster and screed: tolerances instead of “roughly flat”

We plaster to guide beads and measure with a two-metre straightedge vertically, horizontally and diagonally. For paint and tiles we keep the gap to no more than 2–3 mm over the length of the straightedge, and for large-format tiles closer to the lower figure. In the corners where the kitchen, wardrobes and bath will go, we bring the walls to a right angle: in an out-of-square corner the worktop sits with a tapering gap, and the tiles end in cuts. Where blockwork meets a concrete column, we embed mesh over the joint, otherwise a crack will run straight along it.

With screed, the key thing is the level. We set it from the thresholds of the front door, the balcony door and the shower, and work it out separately for each floor covering: SPC vinyl is thinner than porcelain tiles, and underfloor heating adds its own thickness. If the levels aren't worked out in advance, you get a step where two rooms meet. Along the walls and around pipes we fix a perimeter strip. Without it the screed has no room to expand, especially with underfloor heating, so it cracks along the walls, and the sound of footsteps travels through the walls to the neighbours.

Waterproofing the bathroom and balcony

Waterproofing completes the rough cycle in wet areas. We apply it once the bathroom screed has dried out a little and the water outlets and floor drain are at their final levels: after it goes on, no more channels are cut in the floor or the bottom of the walls. Besides the bathroom and balcony, the same layer is needed under a washing machine and water heater in a storeroom, if there is a drain there.

We test the finished layer with water: we flood the floor for 24 hours, check the water level and the ceiling of the neighbours below, and only then photograph it and tile over it. On a balcony we take the layer under the door threshold, and the fall carries water to the edge of the slab. How many coats a shower needs, how high to take the membrane and how to build in the floor drain is covered on the page about bathroom renovation.

How much rough renovation of an apartment costs in Batumi

Rough renovation costs from 370 ₾ per m² of apartment floor area, with the usual range up to 505 ₾. The price covers labour and rough-work materials up to white frame condition, with the services run to your plan and the wet areas waterproofed. The skim coat, finishes and finishing materials are not included.

The estimate is priced item by item, and a few items move the total most. Wall plastering to guide beads costs from 39 ₾ per m², each electrical point from 42 ₾, and each plumbing point, water or drain, from 96 ₾. So an apartment with two bathrooms and dense wiring for the kitchen and air conditioners comes out closer to the upper end, and one with a simple layout and a single bathroom by the riser closer to the lower end.

The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed. The price and timing of each stage are written into the contract, and unless the scope changes, the price of a stage doesn't go up.

If the finishing will be done later or by another crew

We hand over the rough stage with its own certificate, together with routing diagrams and photos of concealed work. From these, the next crew can see where the cables and pipes run and where it is safe to drill. Any comments on flatness are best raised when you sign off our stage: once someone else has applied the skim coat, it is hard to tell whose wave it is.

If the apartment will stand for several months before the finishing, especially in winter, it needs airing or a dehumidifier left running, and the water should be shut off at the inlet. The caps stay on the outlets until the finishing stage. Individual jobs, such as just the screed or just rewiring, can be ordered without the whole rough cycle: they are listed in the section on renovation and finishing works. In a resale apartment, the rough stage is part of a full renovation and starts with the strip-out.