Renovation works in Batumi: what you can order separately

Concealed and visible work

Any renovation is made up of two groups of work. One group ends up hidden in walls and floors: preparation, electrics, plumbing, air conditioning lines, waterproofing and soundproofing. The other stays in sight: walls and ceilings, floors, tiling, windows and doors, decorative finishes. The first group is harder to redo, so we check the two groups differently. Concealed work is checked more strictly, and before it is closed up.

In an estimate, preparation work looks like a minor item. It covers strip-out, protecting the lift and shared corridors, waste removal, measurements and checking the surfaces we will work on. It decides how precisely everything else can be done and how many complaints the neighbours will have.

Walls, ceilings, floors and tiling

In a humid climate, plaster takes longer to dry than the schedule would like, and we paint a wall only once it is dry. Paint on damp plaster blisters over time. The ceiling often hides air conditioning and ventilation runs, so its type, stretch ceiling or plasterboard, is chosen before the rough work.

Flooring is chosen for each room and for how often people walk on it in wet shoes. We lay tiles to a layout agreed in advance, so that cut tiles end up in corners where they won't be noticed and the joints line up with the centre lines of the sanitary ware.

By the sea, microcement and decorative plaster need a protective coating, otherwise they soak up moisture and dirt. In a bathroom we put the same waterproofing under microcement as under tiles.

Electrics, plumbing and climate control

Electrical work starts with the consumer unit and a circuit diagram: separate circuits for the hob, oven, water heater and air conditioners, and RCD protection for wet areas. We run cables in straight lines, parallel to corners and the floor, so that their position can be traced from the diagram.

In plumbing, what matters most is the pipe layout and access. Where possible we don't leave joints buried inside walls, we put manifolds and valves behind access hatches, and we check the slope of the drain pipes with a level before closing them in.

In Batumi, climate control is more about humidity than heat. We lay air conditioning lines before the finishing and connect the condensate drain to the sewer through a trap, so that water doesn't run down the facade. We design the air supply and extraction so that the air is replaced even with the windows closed.

Windows, doors and insulation

When replacing windows, we pay attention to the joint between the frame and the wall: on the outside a tape that keeps water out and lets vapour escape, on the inside a vapour barrier. Expanding foam left unprotected from sun and rain breaks down, and the reveals start to darken within a couple of seasons.

Interior doors go in after the floors and painting, so the door leaves aren't damaged. We replace a front door with the building's rules in mind, because in new builds all the doors on a floor sometimes follow one design.

Soundproofing for partitions and ceilings goes in at the rough stage, because it can't be added later without stripping things out. Internal insulation is done to a calculation and with a vapour barrier: the dew point will be behind the insulation, and vapour must not reach it.

Renovation works in Batumi as separate jobs

It makes sense to order as separate jobs the things that wear out or date sooner than the rest: air conditioners, taps and toilets, bathroom tiles, floors, wall painting, interior doors. This work has little to do with the rest of the renovation, and each job can be signed off on its own.

It is harder with work that depends on other work. Tiles are not laid on screed that hasn't dried yet. There is no point putting a new kitchen socket on an old aluminium circuit, and SPC vinyl flooring on an uneven screed will show every ripple over time.

So before a separate job, we check what it sits on: the screed, the wall, the circuit in the consumer unit, the pipes up to the tap. If we didn't do that earlier work, we record its condition in photos and in a signed condition report before starting. That way it is clear which part we are responsible for.

How we hand over concealed work, and the warranty

You see concealed work before it is closed up. The site foreman photographs and films every part of it with a tape measure in the shot, showing distances from the corners, and sends you the pictures before it is covered. On request, the foreman shows you any part on a video call, right there on site.

The warranty period doesn't depend on the size of the job. Our work has a 2-year warranty, and concealed services have a longer one: 5 years on wiring, water pipes and drains in walls and floors. If we have replaced the pipework in a bathroom, the five-year period applies to that pipework. For taps, sockets and appliances the period is set by the manufacturer, and their documents are kept in the handover file.