Interior of a Mallorcan apartment under renovation with a bare screed floor and balcony door open

Apartment Renovation in Mallorca

Renovating a flat or a penthouse means working inside a shared building as well as inside your own home. Describe the property and the work, and we pass the request to renovation and building companies on Mallorca that are used to access, neighbours and community rules.

Mallorcan apartment stripped back with the bathroom wall opened to the shared drainage riser

Why a flat is a different job from a house

Almost every constraint on an apartment renovation comes from the building rather than from the flat. Materials and waste travel through a shared entrance and often a lift that was never sized for them. Noise is limited to hours somebody else decided. Water, drainage and ventilation run in risers shared with the flats above and below, so moving a bathroom is rarely the small change it looks like on a plan.

The community of owners has a say in anything touching the structure, the facade, the roof or the common areas, and a terrace that forms part of the exterior is usually one of those. That permission is separate from anything the work needs officially, and it generally takes longer to arrange.

None of this makes a flat harder to renovate than a house. It makes the sequence different, and it moves most of the risk into the first two weeks rather than the last two.

What an apartment renovation request usually covers

  • Layout changes inside the flat, and which walls can move
  • Kitchen, bathrooms and the plumbing that serves them
  • Electrical installation, brought to current standards
  • Air conditioning, ventilation and where the units go
  • Flooring, plaster, paint and joinery
  • Windows, shutters and balcony doors
  • Terraces, and the waterproofing under them on a top floor
  • Protection of the common areas the work passes through
  • Removal of waste, and where it can be put in the meantime
  • The working hours the building allows, and what they do to the programme

How an apartment renovation usually runs

The building sets more of the order than the flat does.

  1. 01

    Survey and scope

    Someone measures the flat, works out which walls and which risers are shared, and writes down what the job contains.

  2. 02

    The community

    Anything touching the structure, the facade, the roof or a common area is raised with the community of owners before dates are set. This is the step that most often moves the start.

  3. 03

    Permissions

    What the work needs depends on what it touches. A company quoting the job says what it needs before it can price it.

  4. 04

    Strip out

    Demolition and removal, down the same stairs and lift everybody else uses, which is why protection and timing are agreed first.

  5. 05

    First fix

    Plumbing, drainage, electrical and the air conditioning routes, before anything is closed up.

  6. 06

    Second fix and finishes

    Kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, plaster, paint and joinery.

  7. 07

    Handover

    Snagging, the certificates the installations need, and the common areas put back as they were.

Often part of the same project

Structural work

When a wall inside a flat turns out to be holding something up.

House renovation

The same island, an attached house rather than a flat inside one.

Palma

Flats behind a facade nobody may widen, down a street a lorry will not enter.

How your request reaches a company

Mallorca Renovation is a comparison service. A request for an apartment renovation goes to the renovation and building companies on our list; they quote the work and carry it out, and any agreement is between you and the company you pick.

  1. 01

    Describe the job

    Tell us the property, roughly what you want and where it is. Photographs and a rough plan help, though neither is required.

  2. 02

    We match it

    The request goes to companies that work in your area and take on this kind of job at this size.

  3. 03

    They quote you

    Each company contacts you directly with its own price, timing and approach. We do not set any of it.

  4. 04

    You compare and choose

    Put the quotes side by side and take the one you want, or none of them. Using the site costs you nothing.

Do I need permission from the community of owners?

For anything touching the structure, the facade, the roof or a common area it is normally raised with the community first. Work contained inside the flat usually is not, although the building may still set hours and access rules. Ask early, because this is the step that moves start dates.

Can a bathroom or a kitchen be moved?

Sometimes, and the answer is about drainage rather than about walls. Waste needs a fall to a riser and the risers are fixed. A company that has worked in buildings of the same age will tell you quickly whether the move is simple or structural.

Can I live in the flat while the work happens?

On a small job sometimes. On a full renovation with the services replaced, generally not, and the neighbours are usually happier with a short intense programme than a long quiet one.

How is a penthouse different?

Mostly the terrace and the roof. Waterproofing, drainage and insulation above the living space are where the cost and the risk sit, and they are also the parts the community is most likely to have a view on.

Get comparable apartment quotes

Describe the flat once and let several companies price it against the same brief.

Mallorca Renovation