Demolition works in Batumi before an apartment renovation

What we check before the first blow

We start demolition works in Batumi with a pencil and a detector, and only then pick up the hammer drill. The site foreman marks on the walls what comes down and what stays, and traces the cables and pipes from the diagram of the previous renovation if it has survived, or with a detector where there is no diagram. Separately, we check against the building's documents which walls are load-bearing.

Without approval, the crew does not touch:

• load-bearing walls, columns and slabs: these are changed only to a design and with a permit;
• shared water and drain risers: the building's maintenance service shuts them off on a scheduled day;
• ventilation shafts, even when they are hidden in boxing: the neighbours' air runs through them;
• gas pipes: disconnection and rerouting are usually done by the gas company on request;
• balcony railings and glazing, if the building's rules set how they look.

Demolition works in Batumi: what we do and how we price it

In the estimate, demolition is broken down into lines, because a metre of tiles and a metre of wallpaper take different amounts of work and produce different amounts of waste.

Partitions and openings

We don't push a partition over in one go; we take it apart from the top down, a few courses at a time. A block wall weighs hundreds of kilograms, and if it collapses all at once, it can crack the screed, damage pipes in the floor and send a jolt through to the neighbours below. We first cut through the joint with the ceiling and columns, so that the masonry doesn't pull the plaster of the adjoining walls down with it.

An opening in a block wall starts with the lintel. Above the future opening we set in steel angles or a ready-made lintel, and only then cut the block with a diamond blade. The edges come out straight, the door frame goes in without a thick layer of foam, and there is less vibration than with a hammer drill. If the wall is concrete or load-bearing, this is a job for a layout change with a design, not for demolition.

Tiles and screed: the heaviest part

Tiles on old cement mortar come off together with the mortar, right back to the wall, otherwise the new adhesive would go onto a layer that may or may not hold. In a bathroom, once the tiles are off, we check whether there was any waterproofing underneath. We usually redo it, as described on the page about bathroom and balcony waterproofing.

Screed produces the most waste and noise. As a guide, a square metre of screed 5 cm thick weighs about 100 kg, and the floor of a 1+1 apartment adds up to several tonnes. We take it up in sections, with a breaker or a hammer drill in chisel mode, down to the slab, but we don't chip into the slab itself: small chips will be covered by the new layer, and breaking concrete means making noise all the way along the riser. Pipes in the old screed, if you have decided to keep them, are located from the diagram and uncovered by hand. The new layer is poured to guide rails, as described on the page about floor screed.

Dust and noise: how we look after the building

Demolition dust goes wherever the air draws it. So while demolition is under way, we tape plastic sheeting over the ventilation grilles in the apartment: otherwise the dust goes into the shared duct, and with reverse draught it can come out in the neighbours' apartments. We cover the front door with a zipped dust sheet, dampen the debris before collecting it, and tie up the bags right where we are working.

We group the loudest work into a few consecutive days rather than spreading it over two weeks an hour at a time, and tell the neighbours on the riser in advance which days these will be. We keep to the hours allowed by law, 08:00 to 23:00, or to the building's rules if they are stricter.

What is left after demolition

After demolition the apartment is empty and swept. Everything we find under the old finishes is photographed with a note of the room and wall, and added to the list attached to the stage certificate: a damp patch behind a former shower tray, traces of an old leak on the slab, a length of steel pipe by the riser. If a find changes the scope of work, we show it to you first and only then draw up a contract addendum.

The things you decided to keep come off first and are stored in one room under plastic sheeting. Everything else goes into bags as the work proceeds, and waste removal happens in loads, not as one big heap at the end. What is usually worth keeping in old housing stock and in 2010s buildings is covered on the page about renovating a resale apartment.

How much demolition costs in Batumi

Strip-out of old finishes costs from 36 to 54 ₾ per m² of room floor area. That is labour only; bagging the waste and removal are separate lines. Within the range, the price depends on how many layers there are on the walls and ceiling and how firmly they hold.

The most expensive line per metre is screed removal, from 69 to 90 ₾ per m²: it takes the longest to break up and is the heaviest to carry out. Tile removal costs from 24 to 30 ₾ per m² of tiling, and in a bathroom the tiled area on the walls is several times larger than the floor area. Cutting an opening in a block wall, with a lintel, costs from 390 to 480 ₾ per opening.

The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed. We write the price of the stage into the contract, and it doesn't go up unless the scope changes.