Apartment Renovation

convo25

Hi all! I'm soon to be an owner of a one bedroom apartment (60 m2) in Dublin in a rather old, badly upkept building complex (yay!). It will need to be renovated, and I was wondering how much it's going to cost me (just an approximation) and if you had any recommendations regarding the renovation companies who would do a good job.

So what I would like changed is:

-completely renovate bathroom (knock off all the old tiles, replace them with new ; change all the bathroom fittings, instead of bathtub install double shower cabin ; install wall mounted toilet and basin - currently there are the regular floor ones ; install a large wall mirror)

-completely renovate kitchen (knock off all the old tiles, replace them with new ; install new kitchen (new kitchen is 5,000 euros on it's own)

-replacing carpets in the apartment with laminate flooring (two large rooms)

-sanding and re-coloring of the hardwood flooring in the apartment (one large room)

-removal of all the wall heaters (instalment of few electric ones)

-change of the current regular lights with the ceiling led lights with dimmer

-painting the walls in the entire apartment

-replacing all the doors

Also there is a thought to replace the current water boiler with the modern one that goes in the bathroom, mounts on the wall.

That means we will get a whole new room from where the old water heater was.
Can we knock the back wall of that room (the living room is behind it) and make a small guest bedroom out of it? It would take a small chunk out of our living room but we would gain a place to settle a guest for a few days over.

I've been reading that we will need to fill some paperwork regarding the regulations on changing the layout of the apartment in a building, and it will have to be approved by both the complex management and whoever issues the fire safety certificates.

If you know more of this, please say. No 'thinkers' please.

hedkandigirl

are you able to tell me about where you read about getting approval re fire safety etc

did you get any replies

convo25

I've just googled the question. There were not many posts related to Irish laws, but there were plenty for US. Considering the few I've read that were talking about state of the issue in Ireland, the same papers are needed before any change to the layout of the apartment. In the case of fire in the apartment complex, the firebrigade receives the layouts of each apartment, and if they're not updated with the current status (if you've been adding walls, rooms, etc) they might not be able to save you if they don't know where to find you. Couple of firemen lost their jobs during such fire in US, that's why those laws were brought forward.
There's also an issue with the management company since they would rarely approve such change, but I'm holding my fingers crossed

No replies so far..