Renovating a home in Dubai: what to do first, and in what order

Part two · HDi answers

The straight answer

Start with three things in the first two weeks, before any contractor gives you a price: the scope written down in one sentence, a measured survey of the house as it really is, and a total budget with 10 to 15 per cent held back that you do not spend. For a townhouse like yours, with a wall coming out and the kitchen and bathrooms rebuilt, allow roughly six to nine months from the first meeting to moving back in, and plan to live somewhere else for the three to five months the house is a building site.

On your other questions: hire whoever is going to do the design first, because nobody can price a job that has not been designed, and the cheapest route is one firm that designs, gets the approvals and builds under one contract. Of your AED 600,000, keep AED 60,000 to 90,000 aside as contingency, and plan the job on the remaining AED 510,000 to 540,000. The rest of this guide explains each step in the order it happens, and why that order saves money.

These are typical Dubai durations, not promises. The biggest variable is how quickly decisions are made in design; the second is approvals.

Step one: write down what you are actually buying

There are three different jobs, and most of the confusion you describe comes from contractors quoting different ones.

• A refresh. Paint, floors, lighting, new kitchen and wardrobe doors on the existing boxes, new taps and fittings on the same points. Nothing moves. Weeks, not months, and usually only a building or community work permit.
• A fit-out. New kitchen, new bathrooms in their existing positions, new joinery, new ceilings. The layout stays; everything inside it changes. A community NOC, and often a permit if electrical circuits or plumbing points move.
• A renovation. Walls move, bathrooms move, the electrical load changes. This needs structural drawings, a community NOC and an authority permit before anything comes down.

Yours is a renovation, because the wall is coming out. That one fact explains why the contractor who said he could start in two weeks was wrong, and why the one who said the wall was "no problem" had not looked at whether it carries the floor above.

Write one sentence: what you are doing, and what it is for. "Our family home for ten years" points at a different specification from "refresh to let". A contractor who does not ask is guessing.

Step two: survey before you design

What is inside the walls of a twenty-year-old house is rarely what is on its drawings. Before any design work, the house needs looking at properly:

• Leaks and old water damage, especially under the kitchen sink and around showers
• The electrical board, the condition of the wiring and whether it will take a modern kitchen
• Drainage falls and where the waste pipes actually run
• Air-conditioning capacity, the age of the units and where the ducts really go
• Waterproofing in the wet areas
• Any change a previous owner made that was never approved, such as an enclosed terrace or a moved wall

That last one matters. If the house does not match its approved drawings, the community will want the old change regularised before it looks at yours. Found in week one, it costs nothing; found at submission, it costs a month.

The survey also answers the wall question. If it is load-bearing it can still come out, but with a beam, stamped structural calculations and a permit, and you want to know that before the design is built around it.

Step three: set the budget, and the contingency with it

Hold back 10 per cent on a newer property and 15 per cent on anything with age to it. On a 2005 townhouse, plan on the higher end. This is not padding. It is the line that pays for what demolition finds: a leak into the screed under the kitchen, wiring that will not carry the new load, a waste pipe in the wrong place.

Then budget the costs that are not building work at all, because none of them belong to the contractor and all of them are real:

• Rent and moving, twice, plus storage for what you are not taking
• Community NOC fees and the refundable security deposit
• Service charges and utilities on the house while it is empty
• Appliances, unless the quotation names them
• Curtains, blinds and loose furniture
• VAT at 5 per cent, if a quotation is shown without it

For a sense of what the work itself costs, what a renovation costs in Dubai sets out real figures. As a starting point, HDi's own investment guide puts bespoke kitchens from AED 40,000, up to AED 140,000 for premium ranges, and apartment renovations from AED 200,000. Your AED 600,000 is a realistic budget for what you describe, provided the scope is fixed before it is priced.

Step four: designer first, or contractor first?

This is the question your three contractors disagreed about, and the answer is simple. Whoever designs the job should come first, because a price is only as good as the drawing it was priced from. A number given on the spot, from a walk-through, is a number to win the meeting. It will grow.

You have two sensible routes:

1. An independent designer, then a contractor. You take the drawings to two or three contractors and compare like with like. It works, but it puts a handover between two companies in the middle of your job, and each can blame the other for a delay.
2. One firm that designs and builds. The people who design it are the people who price it, get it approved, make it and fit it. One contract, one programme, one number to call. This is usually faster, because the approval drawings and the factory drawings are the same drawings.

The route that does not work is a contractor's price first and design afterwards. That is how a quotation for "kitchen and bathrooms, wall no problem" becomes a different job three weeks in. How to choose an interior designer explains the difference between the two kinds of firm, and how to choose a fit-out contractor is the checklist for either route.

Step five: design the layout, then freeze it

Circulation, storage and lighting decide whether a home works. Finishes decide what it looks like. Take them in that order. Your folder of kitchens is useful, but it belongs to week four, not week one.

For your house that means where the island sits once the wall is gone, whether the guest toilet stays, and how the children reach the stairs without crossing the cooking. Then storage, then lighting, and last the doors, worktops and tiles.

Then freeze it, with the appliances and sanitaryware chosen so the services drawings carry real positions and loads. A change after the permit means a revision, a fee and another review; a change once the joinery is in production means paying twice.

Planning a kitchen and renovating a bathroom go deeper on the two rooms that take the most decisions, and designing an interior that still works in ten years covers the room-by-room thinking.

Step six: approvals, started early

The Springs is an Emaar community, so you need Emaar's home modification NOC first, then the building authority's permit, submitted by a registered consultant or contractor. With a wall out, plumbing changes and electrical changes, expect six to ten weeks. Start the moment the layout is frozen, not when the finishes are chosen, because the authority needs the layout and the services, not the colour of the tiles.

Your friend's four-month overrun usually starts here: strip-out before the NOC, a stop at the gate, and the job on the community's timetable instead of hers. The order, the documents, the fees and who governs which community are all in renovation approvals in Dubai, and how many approvals will I need answers it for each kind of job.

Step seven: specify for this climate

Dubai is hard on finishes, and your swollen kitchen doors by the sink are the proof. Moisture-resistant board in kitchens and bathrooms is the minimum, not an upgrade. Direct sun yellows resin-based surfaces, where porcelain and sintered stone hold their colour. Poorly made boards move in the heat, and dust shows on open shelving and very dark matt finishes. Look at every sample in the actual room at the time of day you use it; choosing colours for your home explains why a sample lies under showroom lights.

Step eight: get it in writing

Before anybody starts, the contract should name:

• The scope, and what is excluded from it
• The specification and the named products, or clear allowances where you have not chosen yet
• The programme, with dates for each stage
• The payment schedule, tied to stages finished rather than dates on a calendar
• How changes are priced, and who can approve them
• Any retention held back, and when it is released
• Insurance, including third-party liability
• The warranty, and how long defects will be put right for free

The advice never to pay more than ten per cent up front is well meant, but bespoke joinery needs material bought for your job before anything is installed. What protects you is a schedule where every payment matches work done or material bought, and a last payment large enough to matter at handover. Why one quotation is 400,000 higher than the other shows how to read a quotation line by line before you sign it.

Step nine: build, in the right order

Once the permit and the gate pass are in place, a well-run job goes: protection, strip-out, structural work, first fix of services, screeds and waterproofing, ceilings, tiling and floors, joinery, second fix, paint and the final clean. The joinery decides the end date on most jobs, because kitchens and wardrobes are made, not bought. Have it drawn and in production while the permit is with the authority. Starting on site early saves nothing; overlapping approvals and manufacture saves weeks.

Step ten: snag it before the last payment

Walk the house with the contractor and write one list: doors and drawers aligned, silicone straight, paint checked under raking light, shower falls, every socket and light tested, every appliance run, every warranty and as-built drawing handed over.

Hold the final payment until the list is cleared, and expect at least twelve months in which defects are put right for free.

Your questions, answered one by one

Where do we start, and with whom?

With the one-sentence scope, a measured survey and the budget split into job and contingency, then whoever will design it. Never a contractor's price before the design.

How long until we move back in?

For your townhouse, roughly six to nine months from the first meeting, of which three to five months are building work. If the wall turns out not to be load-bearing and decisions are quick, the lower end is realistic.

How much do we hold back?

AED 60,000 to 90,000 of your AED 600,000, untouched unless demolition finds something. If it is still there at the end, it is money saved, not money to spend on nicer taps in week ten.

Can we live there during the work?

Not for this scope. With the kitchen out, the bathrooms stripped and a wall coming down, there will be days without water, power or a working toilet, and fine dust everywhere for weeks. A simple refresh can sometimes be done room by room with the family in. A renovation like yours cannot, and trying usually makes it longer.

How HDi handles it for you

We are a design-and-build company, licensed for design, fit-out and manufacturing under trade licence 1298938 with the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, with Contractor's All Risks insurance including third-party liability on every project. The people who design your home are the people who price it, make it and fit it, and nothing is handed to another company.

It runs in six steps: a design consultation, a measure and 3D design so you see the house before anything is made, a detailed itemised quotation, drawings and approvals, manufacture of the joinery in our own Dubai Production City factory, then installation and handover with a joint snagging walk. Before we start you receive your schedule from our portal, covering approvals, design, samples, strip-out, factory production, installation and handover, with the key milestones and when each payment falls due. You get a named project manager, daily photos and videos in your project's WhatsApp group, and weekly site visits whenever you want them.

After handover, the fit-out carries a one-year warranty and our handmade cabinetry three to five years depending on the finishes, plus the manufacturers' warranties on appliances, worktops and hardware, which we handle for you.

It starts with the initial design consultation, AED 5,000 and credited in full against your project when you approve it. It covers the site measure, the concept layout and the first 3D visuals, and it is where we tell you whether your wall is structural, which approvals your scope needs and how long to plan to be out of the house.

Ready to start, or not sure which of the three jobs yours is? Book a consultation or call 050 578 1086, and at the first meeting we will tell you what your scope needs, roughly what it costs and how many months to put in the diary.