Renovating a Second Home in Mallorca
Most of the work will happen while you are somewhere else. That single fact shapes the scope, the schedule and who you should be talking to. Describe the property and how much of the year you are on the island, and we pass the request to renovation and building companies that are used to working this way.
The distance is the project, not a detail of it
A renovation run from another country is not a normal renovation with travel added. The thing that changes is decisions. On any site there are questions that have to be answered within a day or two, and on a second home those questions arrive when you are at work in another time zone and cannot see what is being asked about.
Almost everything else follows from that. It is why the scope has to be more completely decided before work starts than it would be if you were nearby, why choices should be made and ordered in advance rather than as each trade reaches them, and why one named person on the island being responsible matters more than any individual line in the quote.
It also changes what a good company looks like for you. The best builder on the island is the wrong choice if nobody there answers email. A company that reports on a rhythm, sends photographs at agreed stages and tells you early when something has slipped is worth more than one that is marginally cheaper and silent for three weeks.
What to settle before you fly home
- Who on the island holds keys, and who else is allowed in
- The single named contact, and who covers when they are away
- How decisions reach you, and how quickly you undertake to answer
- Which choices are already made, and which are genuinely still open
- The reporting rhythm, and what a report contains
- What happens when something is found behind a wall and you are not there
- Who receives, checks and stores deliveries
- How payments are staged, and against what evidence of progress
- Whether the property is used, let or empty during the work
- What condition the house is left in between phases
Running it from a distance
The visits are worth planning around the work rather than around the calendar.
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01
Use one visit for the scope
Walk the property with the companies while you are there. This is the visit that is genuinely hard to replace with a call, and it is worth arranging the trip around it.
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02
Decide the choosable things early
Tiles, sanitaryware, kitchen, ironmongery. Late decisions are what stall a programme run from abroad, and they stall it by weeks rather than days.
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03
Agree how you will hear about it
Photographs at named stages, a written note at an agreed interval, and a rule for what counts as urgent enough to interrupt you.
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04
Plan one visit into the middle
Somewhere around first fix, before anything is closed up. It is the point where seeing the building in person still changes what happens next.
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05
Keep the last visit for handover
Snagging is much easier standing in the room. Arrive expecting a list rather than a finished house and both sides do better.
What this usually turns into
Turnkey renovation
Property managers
How your request reaches a company
Mallorca Renovation is a comparison service. A request for a renovation you will not be on the island for 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.
Do I have to be there at all?
It is possible not to be, and it is better to be there twice: once for the scope and once at handover. Everything in between can be run remotely by a company set up for it, but those two moments are where being in the room is worth the flight.
How often should I expect to hear anything?
Agree it in writing before the work starts rather than discovering it afterwards. A fixed interval with photographs is common and costs nothing to ask for. What you are really buying is the promise that silence means progress rather than a problem.
Should the work happen while the house is empty?
Usually yes, and for a second home that is easier to arrange than for anybody else. Ask each company when it has capacity, and book the empty months you have rather than the ones you assume are quiet.
Can somebody local act for me?
Many owners arrange exactly that, whether a manager, a technical adviser or a friend with keys. Say who it is at the start and say what they can decide, because an unclear answer to that question is where remote projects go wrong.
What happens if something is found behind a wall?
It is found on almost every older property, so agree the rule in advance: who assesses it, what it costs to look further, and what size of change you want to approve rather than be told about.
Get quotes you can compare from anywhere
Describe the property once and let several companies price the same scope.