Planning an apartment renovation in a Dubai tower

An apartment owner shares a slab, a drainage riser, a sprinkler main, a lift and a corridor with the neighbours, and each of those shared parts has a say in the renovation. Many towers in Dubai are jointly owned property: you own the inside of your unit, while the structure, the facade and the shared services are common property looked after by an owners association through its appointed manager. So the first step is reading the building's rules, not choosing tiles. The second difference is space: with no garden to spill into, the work is about using floor area and wall height well. The third is climate. Summer heat arrives through one wall of glass, humidity settles in bathrooms without windows and fine sand comes in through the balcony doors, so finishes and ceilings have to cope with all three. Our apartment renovation service is built around those differences, with the building's rules read first and the design agreed in 3D before anything is removed. The wet rooms carry the most trades, as in a villa; our guide to what drives renovation cost explains why a price needs a site visit rather than a phone call.

Draw a line early between the parts of the flat that are yours to change and the parts that belong to the building.

The logistics of a tower shape the programme as much as the scope does. Our apartment fit-out team settles these with the building before the first delivery instead of discovering them on the first day.

• Permitted hours for noisy workDrilling, breaking and cutting are usually allowed only within set daytime windows, often with a quiet period and restricted days, which is why a tower renovation takes longer than the same scope in a villa. We work within whatever hours the building permits.
• Service lift bookingsMaterials and waste travel in the service lift, which has to be booked and padded. Worktops and wardrobe carcasses are measured against the lift car before they are made, and anything too long is designed in sections.
• Corridor protection and wasteThe corridor from the lift to your door is common property and the building expects it boarded and cleaned daily. It also decides whether a skip may stand at the loading bay or whether waste goes down bagged within the permitted hours.

The sequence keeps each trade from undoing the last and puts the noisy work early, while the building is still expecting it.

• Strip-outOld tiles, cabinets, ceilings and floors come out in the first noisy window, with the stacks capped and the AC unit covered against dust. The real condition of the screed and pipes shows now, so the scope is checked again.
• MEP: pipes, drains, cables and ACNew pipes, circuits, data cabling and any ducting changes go in while walls and ceilings are open, and are tested before anything is closed, because a leak in a tower travels downwards.
• Wet areasBathrooms and the kitchen are waterproofed, tested, screeded and tiled before the rest of the flat, because they carry the most trades and the waterproofing needs curing time.
• Ceilings and partitionsGypsum partitions go up and the false ceiling is framed with its access panels, cove recesses and light positions, before the floors, so dust lands on the old screed rather than a new finish.
• FlooringTiles, wood, laminate or vinyl across the unit, with any underlay the building requires for footfall noise to the flat below, and the build-up checked against door thresholds and the balcony sill.
• Joinery and fittingsWardrobes, kitchen cabinets, TV units and vanities are fitted once floors and ceilings are finished. Joinery is made in our own workshop, designed to the millimetre for the walls.
• Paint and final finishesWalls and ceilings are painted last, after the joinery is in and the dust has settled. For a flat between tenants, our apartment painting service covers a single room or the whole unit within the building's rules.

An apartment cannot grow outwards, so the design effort goes into height, recesses and light.

The decisions that shape the experience of the renovation rather than its finishes.

• Stay or move outFor a single room it is often possible to stay, with the door sealed. For a full renovation it is usually easier to move out: the water is off while the wet areas are rebuilt and there is no separate wing to retreat to. Owners who cannot be on site can hand the keys to one team through a turnkey apartment renovation.
• Write the brief before the first quoteList the rooms in scope, what stays and what goes, how you cook, how much you store and whether the flat is for you, for sale or for letting, plus the building's contractor rules. A written brief makes quotes comparable.
• Agree who deals with the buildingSomeone has to make the NOC application, book the lift and answer the manager's questions. Make it the contractor's project manager, named in the contract, so you are not the go-between.
• What the handover should includeA walk-through with every outstanding item closed, then the paperwork: the building's sign-off if it inspects, the as-built positions of new pipes and cables, the access panel locations, paint and tile references, the appliance manuals and every key, with the corridors and lift cleaned to the building's standard.