Finca Renovation in Mallorca
A finca is an old building in the countryside, and both halves of that decide what the work involves. Describe the property and what you want from it, and we pass the request to renovation and building companies on Mallorca that work on older rural property.
On a finca the question is what to keep
On a modern property a renovation is mostly a question of what to replace. On a finca it is mostly a question of what to keep, because the parts worth keeping are the reason to own one and they are also the parts most easily lost to a well meant repair.
Old stone walls move moisture rather than block it. A cement render or a sealed floor can trap damp that lime had been carrying away for two centuries, and the damage that follows appears years later somewhere else in the building. Timber beams may be sound, tired or gone, and it is rare to know which until a ceiling is open.
The rest of the cost is usually not the building at all. Water supply and storage, electricity, waste treatment and a track that a lorry cannot use are all normal on rural property, and any one of them can be the largest line in the job. They are worth establishing before the walls are priced, not after.
What a finca renovation request usually covers
- A condition survey of the stone, the roof and the timber
- Damp, and where it comes from before anything is sealed
- Repointing and rendering, and the choice between lime and cement
- Roof structure, insulation and reroofing in the original tile
- Windows, shutters and doors, repaired or replaced to match
- Electrical installation, often from almost nothing
- Water supply, storage, pressure and treatment
- Drainage and waste treatment where there is no mains connection
- Heating and cooling, and how a thick stone building responds to both
- Access for machinery and deliveries down a narrow track
- Kitchen, bathrooms and the finishes that go in last
How a finca renovation usually runs
The order matters more here than anywhere else on the site, because the building is older than the drawings of it.
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01
Survey
Someone reads the building: what is structural, what is original, what has already been repaired badly, and what the roof and the timber are actually doing.
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02
Deciding what to keep
Restoration and modernisation pull in different directions, and the split between them is a decision rather than a detail. It costs far less to make it once in writing than to make it again in every room.
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03
Site and services
Water, power, drainage and access are worked out before the building work is priced, because on rural property any of them can outweigh it.
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04
Permissions
What the work needs depends on what it touches, and rural property is not treated the same way as property inside a town. A company quoting the job says what it needs before it can price it.
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05
Structure and envelope
Roof, walls, beams and openings, in that order, before anything inside is finished.
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06
Installations and finishes
Electrical, plumbing and cooling, then plaster, floors, joinery, kitchen and bathrooms.
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07
Handover
Snagging, the certificates the installations need, and the paperwork for anything that was permitted.
Related work
Structural work
Finca restoration
Property buyers
How your request reaches a company
Mallorca Renovation is a comparison service. A request for a finca 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.
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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.
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02
We match it
The request goes to companies that work in your area and take on this kind of job at this size.
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03
They quote you
Each company contacts you directly with its own price, timing and approach. We do not set any of it.
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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.
Is it cheaper to restore a finca or to modernise it?
They are different jobs rather than two prices for one. Restoration spends on skilled repair of what is there; modernisation spends on new fabric and new services. Most finca projects do some of both, and the useful step is deciding which parts are which before asking anybody to price them.
What usually costs more than people expect?
The things that are not the building. Water, power, waste treatment and access on a property a long way from a mains connection carry a cost that has nothing to do with the walls, and it is worth having that figure early rather than late.
Can the original features be kept?
Often, and it is worth asking for specifically. Beams, sandstone surrounds, old tile and stone floors can be repaired, or lifted and relaid, but that has to be in the scope from the beginning. Once they have gone into a skip the decision has been made for you.
How long does a finca renovation take?
Longer than an equivalent job in town. The reasons are the survey, the unknowns behind old plaster, and the site itself: deliveries and machinery down a narrow track set a pace that no amount of planning removes.
Get finca renovation quotes you can compare
Describe the property once and let several companies price it against the same brief.