What is a total refurbishment?
If you've bought an old house or are thinking of refurbishing your home, we'll tell you why a complete refurbishment could be the best decision. Studio by Clikalia is a specialist in this type of refurbishment, having carried out 650 jobs in the last year, and we can help you throughout the process. We'll explain in detail what a house renovation is, the step-by-step process and its advantages.
Definition of total remodeling
A total refurbishment is the process of renovating all or most of the rooms in a house. It involves updating both the finishes and the installations themselves, as well as optimizing the space with new distribution proposals and improving efficiency.
Better distribution
Let's start by talking about the possible improvement in the distribution of spaces. The private client usually has in mind the layout of traditional houses, with corridors, various distribution spaces and unused nooks and crannies in the house, assuming that there is no need to change them. However, the possibilities offered by these divisions to unify spaces with the aim of giving a greater feeling of spaciousness, luminosity and making the most of every centimeter are usually countless.
The key is careful design before construction begins. It's important to have a team of professionals like the one Studio has, capable of proposing an improved distribution that can be adapted to each client's usage needs and that aesthetically and functionally improves what already exists, without increasing the cost of the work.
Each person is different and their needs and tastes are very diverse, which is why it is important that the design team takes the care and dedication to get to know each client, with the aim of designing spaces according to the uses they will be put to.
Optimizing the layout of a space can cover many aspects, from the reconfiguration of rooms to the position of furniture. This part is fundamental to achieving the ideal distribution, as it's not the same for a client who wants a 150-meter bed and a 2-meter bed in their bedroom, just as it's not the same for a client who needs a work area or a leisure area.
The design team must have a spatial vision and an analytical capacity to guide this distribution towards flexible spaces that can be adapted to the changes and needs that people have over time.
The redistribution has to be linked to the possibilities allowed by the characteristics of the house in its morphology, structure and adapted to the corresponding regulations. Prior analysis is the main starting point.
Best facilities
Total refurbishments don't just create more aesthetically pleasing homes, but also make them more efficient and safer. In a housing stock as old and historic as the one we find in many cities in Spain, with houses over 100 years old, the electrical system and its wiring, plumbing, drains... need a complete renovation. At the moment, we are optimizing the energy system, improving the letter of the energy certificate and, consequently, saving money on the electricity bill. That's why the following sections are the most important part of a comprehensive renovation: the complete updating of the installations.
Electrical and telecommunications installations
Nowadays, electricity is present in a multitude of appliances and equipment distributed throughout the different rooms of the house, the number of electrical appliances in the kitchen has increased considerably and the switchboards and wiring they are normally based on cannot cope with this volume. Upgrading this part of the installation is essential for safety reasons, our main objective being to reduce as far as possible accidents caused by sparks, the abusive use of power strips due to the reduced number of sockets, etc. During the development of the project, we like to define with the client the position of each socket and light point, which avoids delays in the work when making decisions and regrets in the future for not having given the necessary importance to the use that will be given to each room.
At the same time as this electricity upgrade, the need has arisen to install telecommunications cabinets to accommodate the new needs of connected homes. In this way, the old small electrical panels behind doors have given way to much larger boxes that safely collect all these elements, allowing compliance with the new safety standards and the technical building code for the safe use of the many devices we have in our homes.
Plumbing
Plumbing is the next important point to renovate and is usually the most overlooked. The fact that "it's not visible" leads many people to omit the renovation of this installation in order to reduce costs, which in our view is a serious mistake. Once the entire house has been surveyed, it's time to replace pipes that, with use and the passage of time, can cause clogging problems, and even in many cases we find materials that are not allowed for sanitary use today and it's time to replace them in order to make safe use of the water and reduce the risk to users (e.g.uralite fall pipes that are not allowed for sanitary use, the use of which is currently prohibited).
On the other hand, what are partial renovations?
Unlike total remodeling, a room-by-room remodeling or partial remodeling focuses on updating or renovating only some of the elements or spaces of the house individually (kitchen, bathrooms, painting, flooring, etc.). This type of remodeling can also be aimed at restoring the structure or specific problems in the home's facilities. In this case, they are minor alterations that do not involve changes to the general layout or characteristics of the house.
Guide to finding out if you need a total home makeover
The easiest way to figure out if what you have in mind is a total makeover is to answer yes to most of the following points:
- Space/room optimization
- Complete renovation of the kitchen
- Complete renovation of the bathrooms
- Changing floors
- Upgrading suspended ceilings
- General painting of the entire house with or without smoothing (gotelé).
- Replacement of interior carpentry (doors and/or closets).
- Replacement of exterior carpentry (windows and/or terrace and balcony fences).
- Replacement of water installations (plumbing and sewage), electricity, air conditioning, heating, etc.
Choice of finishes
For many people, one of the most challenging and fun parts of renovating a house is deciding on the materials that will accompany you every day. This is not an easy decision, as the choice you make will be present in your daily life. The choices range from the most common, which is to renovate the floor, the bathroom tiles, the paint color of the walls and ceilings, to the choice of handles, taps, bathroom fittings, hardware... to details such as curtains, carpets, etc. There is a very large catalog that can make this task complex if you are not accompanied by a professional who has understood you, who has captured your tastes and needs, who is up to date on technical developments and design trends and who can guide you through this decision according to your budget.
At Studio by Clikalia, we have a wide range of materials and catalogs to help you in this decision-making process. Our teams will help you recreate combinations, moodboards, so that every decision is coherent. As specialists and with our vocation to provide a 360º service, we advise the client so that every detail is unique, with architects and interior designers who get involved in each project we develop in a personalized way.
Kitchen
Nowadays, the kitchen plays a major role in the home. In many cases, the idea is to integrate this room by combining the living, dining and kitchen areas to give more space and brightness. If the idea is to opt for a separate area, it should also be designed so that it is practical and functional and allows the family to live together. Giving your home personality through the kitchen is always a good idea.
Kitchens come in a wide variety of finishes and prices. They can range from the cheapest options, with standard modular kitchens, to custom-made kitchens, taking advantage of every nook and cranny.
Carpentry
In the carpentry sector, two main categories stand out in terms of refurbishments:
Interior carpentry, which includes the manufacture of bespoke doors, closets and shelves.
Exterior carpentry, which focuses mainly on the manufacture of windows and exterior fences.
Interior carpentry
Interior carpentry focuses on renovating doors, closets and custom-made furniture. Wood is the material that brings the most warmth to a home. There are various options and qualities that can help transform your home. Doors, depending on their finish and shape, also add value to spaces, whether they are prefabricated with a standard size or designed/customized with a floor-to-ceiling shape.
The same goes for closets: some people prefer modular closets and adapt them to their space, while others value the use of detail, asking a carpenter to make them fit and make the most of the space.
There are other elements in a house made by a carpenter that can give it a lot of character, such as shelves placed in strategic places to create unique corners, wooden lath used to separate rooms or to cover walls, and bespoke furniture for TVs, shoe racks, etc.
Exterior carpentry
We end this article by commenting on exterior carpentry, i.e. the windows and railings of balconies and terraces.
This element adds considerable value to the house, as it greatly improves energy efficiency through thermal insulation by means of window frames and a good glazing system, and consequently the environmental impact and bill savings in the long term.
In short, a total refurbishment is a global intervention in the house with the aim of enlarging the space, gaining light, making the most of it and adapting it to the needs of each inhabitant so that it is comfortable and convenient. We can all have a house that looks like a magazine without it costing too much, it's just a question of carrying out the renovation with a good multidisciplinary team, who will accompany you in the process, advise you, think about every detail and customize the design for each client.
