How to put together a budget for a flat renovation
The Abimeister team · Updated · 5 min read
A flat renovation rarely goes wrong because of one expensive surprise. It goes wrong because nobody added up the small jobs alongside the big ones, or left any room for what turns up once the walls are opened. Before you ask anyone for a price, it helps to have your own working budget: which rooms, which trades, what's worth a fixed quote and what's better priced by the hour. This guide sets out a method you can use on a full renovation or a single room, whether you're doing some of the work yourself or having it all done for you.
Break the renovation down by room and by trade
Start with a list of rooms, not a lump sum. Kitchen, bathroom, hallway, bedrooms, living room — each gets its own line, because each has its own mix of work and its own likely cost.
Within each room, separate the trades: electrics, plumbing, flooring, painting and plastering, carpentry, fitting furniture or fixtures. A bathroom might need an electrician, a plumber and a tiler; a bedroom might need nothing more than painting and a new door.
This breakdown does two things. It stops you thinking of the renovation as one unpriced blob, and it lets you decide, room by room, what needs a proper quote and what's a couple of hours' work.
When to ask for a fixed price, when to budget by the hour
For anything with a clear scope — retiling a bathroom, replastering a room, fitting a kitchen — ask for a fixed quote once you can describe the job or send photos. A fixed price, valid for 30 days, is what you actually pay, and it's easier to plan a budget around than an estimate.
For smaller, open-ended jobs — hanging shelves, adjusting a door, patching a wall, assembling furniture — an hourly rate makes more sense, since the job is quick and a fixed quote would take longer to arrange than the work itself. Odd jobs of this kind start from 39 € an hour, minimum one hour, then billed in 30-minute steps.
A full or partial flat renovation handled as one project is usually quoted as a fixed job, from around 180 €, once the scope is clear. Mixing the two — fixed prices for the big trades, hourly rates for the loose ends — is normal and often the most economical way to budget.
What affects the price the most
Labour hours are the biggest factor, and they depend on condition as much as size. Stripping old wallpaper, chasing out Soviet-era wiring, or levelling an uneven panel-block floor all take time before any new finish goes in.
Materials are the second variable. Tiles, flooring, paint and fixtures range enormously in price, and if you buy them yourself you avoid the 10 % handling fee that applies when we source them for you — worth deciding room by room.
Access and building type matter more than people expect. A ground-floor flat with a lift is straightforward; a fifth-floor walk-up in an old Kalamaja building, or a flat where materials have to go up in a small lift, adds time and sometimes an extra pair of hands.
Anything behind the walls is the wildcard. Old plumbing, unknown wiring, or plaster that turns out to be in worse condition than it looked from the surface all push a job from routine to unexpected — this is what a contingency is for.
How to sequence the work — what to tackle first
Work in the order the building would if it could talk to you: structure and services first, finishes last. Anything electrical or plumbing that needs opening up walls or floors comes before any plastering, tiling or painting, since redoing finished surfaces afterwards costs more than doing them once.
Within that, prioritise rooms by use and by risk. A bathroom with a slow leak or a kitchen with unsafe wiring outranks a spare room that only needs paint, even if the spare room is cheaper and quicker.
If money is tight, it's reasonable to renovate one room properly and leave others for later, rather than spreading a thin budget across every room at once. A half-finished bathroom is more of a problem than an unfinished bedroom.
How much contingency to leave in the budget
A renovation budget without a contingency line is really just a wish list. Set aside a portion of the total for the unexpected — more for older buildings and anything involving opening up walls or floors, less for straightforward cosmetic work like painting.
The contingency covers things a fixed quote couldn't have priced in advance: rot found under old flooring, wiring that doesn't match the building plans, a wall that needs more preparation than expected. It is not there to cover scope you decide to add halfway through — that's a new quote, not a contingency.
If the contingency goes unused, that's a good outcome, not wasted money. If you don't set it aside and it's needed, the renovation stalls at the worst possible moment — mid-job, with a room already opened up.
What to write down before you ask for a quote
Before contacting anyone, put together a short brief for yourself. It doesn't need to be formal, but it should cover enough that a fixed quote can be given accurately and compared fairly against any other price you get.
The more precise this list is, the faster you'll get a usable quote back, and the less likely you are to be surprised by extras once work starts.
- Room-by-room list of what's changing: full renovation, partial, or finishes only
- Trades involved in each room: electrics, plumbing, flooring, plastering, painting, carpentry
- Who is buying materials — you, or the company with the 10 % handling fee
- Access details: floor, lift, any restrictions on working hours in the building
- Rough timeframe and whether the flat is occupied during the work
- Any known issues — old wiring, damp, uneven floors — even if not yet assessed
Budget room by room and trade by trade, fix the price on clear-scope jobs, keep hourly work for the small ones, and always leave a contingency for what the walls are hiding.