After a few decades, not only houses, but also apartments are “worn out” and look optically a little out of time. The cost check expert explains in detail in an interview what costs you have to expect for renovating the apartment.Question: Which areas are affected when renovating an apartment?
Cost check expert: Of course, this depends very much on the age and condition of the apartment. In many old buildings, which have not yet been renovated, there is already a lot to do. In the case of apartments that are located in buildings built only a few decades ago, the effort is rather limited and concerns above all the appearance.
Very often kitchen and bathroom are affected during a renovation. Both quickly seem unfashionable, outdated and shabby. This often takes only 2 – 3 decades, if little attention has been paid to “timeless” designs in the design.
Walls and flooring are also almost always affected by renovations. Most floor Bathroom Renovations coverings have reached the end of their service life after a few decades or at least need to be comprehensively refurbished.
Technically, it can be mainly water pipes (especially the very old, harmful lead pipes) and the electrical installation that need to be renewed or improved.
An exchange of windows can be useful in some cases to achieve a higher living comfort. Old radiators can and should also be replaced – this makes them work better and often looks better.
As a landlord, however, you will have to pay particular attention to profitability when renovating an apartment: here it is above all important to achieve the best possible renovation result with the least possible effort and, above all, to upgrade the appearance of the apartment. What is economically worthwhile should be calculated very precisely in advance. Question: How much can it cost to renovate an apartment?For a comprehensive renovation are with costs from 400 € per square meter
Cost check expert: It’s impossible to say that – it always depends on the condition of the apartment and what renovation result you expect.
Large, extensive renovations can easily cost 400 EUR per m² to 500 EUR per m², if it is particularly comprehensive and a high or luxurious standard is to be achieved, this can also be up to 1,000 EUR per m² in costs.
Conversely, you can also achieve very good results for significantly smaller amounts if you plan correctly and also lend a hand.
A small cost example from practice:
We want to completely renovate our 70 m² condominium. All floor coverings are to be renewed, we want to replaster and paint the walls ourselves with woodchip plaster. The kitchenette is renewed. In the 8 m² bathroom and kitchen, the sewage pipes are to be replaced, the bathroom will also be newly furnished and newly tiled.
Of course, this is only a single cost example for a very individual renovation. The costs can also be significantly different in other cases.
Our cost example also clearly shows how low the costs incurred by redesigning the walls are. Own contribution is worthwhile here in any case.Question: On which factors do the costs for a renovation depend?The worse the condition of the apartment, the more expensive the renovation
Cost check expert: There are a few things to consider:the condition of the apartmentthe work that is strictly necessarythe desired standard to be achieved after the renovationthe nature of the renovation measureswhich work is carried out in-house and for which a specialist company is commissioned
In particular, the desired equipment condition of the apartment plays a significant role in determining the costs incurred for the renovation. If you want to have a real wood floor laid in your apartment, you will of course have to put significantly more money on the table than if you lay a laminate floor.
Conversely, tile floors in particular can also pay off in the long term: they are robust, easy to clean and with the selection of timeless and unobtrusive designs, tiles can easily remain in place for 40 – 50 years without any revision or maintenance. This also makes them financially worthwhile compared to floor coverings, which have to be replaced every 15 years, especially in the long term.Question: How much does it cost to lay tiles by a specialist – and can you do it yourself?
Cost check expert: For the specialist, it largely depends on how large the surfaces to be tiled are and how angled the area is. Especially in the bathroom, this can be much more complex with many heels and complicated geometries.
As a rule, you will have to expect between 20 EUR per m² and 30 EUR per m² for laying in most cases. With complicated patterns and elaborate laying techniques with borders and edge strips, however, this can also be more, as well as if a lot of cutting is necessary and many small surfaces and edges have to be tiled.
Tiling yourself is not advisable: if you do not master it perfectly and professionally, in most cases the result will always visibly lag behind that of the professional. Especially with the long durability of tiles, visible defects disturb for a very long time – this should be avoided in any case.
If you only want to visually renew an old tile mirror in the room, you can also fall back on tile stickers, which you usually get from around 15 EUR per m². Often, however, you also have to match the color of the tile joints, which can often be easily achieved with the right joint color. Joints only have to be completely renewed if they are already very crumbly and damaged.
Tiles can also be painted with tile varnish for even less money – for a visually perfect result, however, a lot of skill is necessary here. As a rule, you have to completely renew the joints here.
