Residential work
House renovation in Abruzzo
We renovate houses and apartments across the provinces of Chieti and Pescara, from strip-out to handover. This page sets out the order of the work, what each stage depends on, and what falls outside our appointment.
The work
What a full renovation covers when we run it
EDIL NOZZI S.R.L., a building contractor based in Torrevecchia Teatina in the province of Chieti, carries out complete renovations of houses and apartments: site set-up, strip-out and demolition, chasing walls for services, structural works where the design calls for them, screeds, plaster, windows and doors, floor and wall finishes, second fix, cleaning and handover.
On site you deal with us and no one else. The specialist trades — electrical, plumbing and heating, sometimes drylining and joinery — go to qualified installers, and we sequence them against our own work so that nobody builds over somebody else's. The conformity certificates for the services are issued by the installer who fitted them, as Italian law requires, and we hand them to you with the rest of the paperwork.
Our quote is itemised: every operation with its quantity and its unit rate, written only after a site visit and a computo metrico — the measured bill of quantities that turns a set of drawings into countable work. We give no figure before seeing the building. A number invented at a distance is a number you pay for later, halfway through the job.
On site
The order of the work, and what has to be settled first
The sequence of a renovation barely changes from one job to the next. What changes is the timing and the surprises. This is the order we work in, and the condition that has to be met before each stage can start.
Site set-up and protection
Before anything is broken we protect what stays: floors that are being kept, staircases, doors, radiators, communal areas. We agree where material is stacked, where the trades walk, and which supply gives the site its water and power. If scaffolding goes up over the street, the comune has to authorise the occupation of public ground before we start, and that timetable is not ours to control.
Strip-out and demolition
Floors, wall tiling, failed plaster, old services and the partitions the design removes all come out. This stage depends on knowing which walls are load-bearing: if one of them is to be touched, that work moves into the structural stage and needs a design and a filing. If asbestos appears, that part stops and a licensed specialist firm deals with it, not us.
Chases and services
Walls are chased and the pipework, conduit and back-boxes for electrics, plumbing and heating go in. This depends on decisions already made: the position of every socket, light, drain, washing-machine point and boiler connection. Once the chases are filled, moving a point means opening a wall again, so this is the stage worth slowing down for.
Structural works where required
Openings in load-bearing walls, steel frames, floor strengthening, ring beams. This depends entirely on a design by a qualified technician and is carried out under that technician's direzione dei lavori; in a seismic zone, and Abruzzo is one, the required filings or authorisations must be in place before work starts. Without them we do not touch a structure, even with the site already open.
Screeds and floor build-ups
Chases are filled, insulation is laid and the screed is poured to its final levels and falls. This depends on the services being finished and pressure-tested: once the screed is down there is no going back. Drying time depends on thickness, screed type and season, and shortening it is paid for later in the floor above.
Plastering
New walls are plastered and every chase is made good. This depends on every wall-opening trade having finished: a change of mind after this point leaves a visible line. Drying has its own timetable here too, longer in winter and in closed rooms, and it has to be respected before painting or tiling.
Windows and external doors
Windows and external doors are measured once the openings are in their final shape, not before. This depends on the manufacturer's lead time, which on most renovations is the longest single wait on the job: ordering late moves everything that follows. Glazed openings are also what lets the internal trades work dry through the cold months.
Floor and wall finishes
Floor tiling or boarding, bathroom and kitchen wall finishes, thresholds and sills. This depends on a dry screed and on material already on site in the right quantity, wastage included. Format, laying pattern and grout change both the hours and the offcuts: a diagonal lay or a large-format slab is not the same work as standard porcelain laid straight.
Second fix and finishes
Painting, skirting, sanitaryware and taps, electrical accessories, internal doors, sealant. This depends on the services being complete and tested by their installers. It is the stage where the job looks finished and in fact needs more coordination than any other, because several trades are working in the same rooms at once.
Cleaning and handover
Builder's clean, a walk-round with you, and a signed record listing every item still to be put right and when it will be done. We hand over the paperwork: data sheets for the materials installed, the installers' conformity declarations, and the photographs of services and chases taken before the walls were closed. Those photographs are what somebody needs in ten years' time before drilling a wall.
The unseen half
The items nobody thinks of, written into the quote
A large part of a renovation is about what does not get touched: the floor that stays, the communal staircase, the neighbours, the dust, the waste. These are the items that cause the most argument, precisely because they are usually left unwritten. We write them down.
- Protecting what stays: retained floors, internal stairs, doors, radiators and sanitaryware covered and taped before work begins, not after the first chip.
- Access and communal parts in a condominio, the Italian apartment-block ownership structure: sheeting on the stair flights, lift car protected where the building rules allow it to be used, landing swept at the end of each day.
- Dust control: zipped sheeting between the work area and the rest of the property, extraction fitted to cutting tools, water damping during demolition.
- Waste removal: materials separated on site and collected by a carrier registered with the Albo nazionale gestori ambientali, the national register of waste operators, with the transport documents handed to you.
- Coordination with neighbours and the building manager: agreed working hours, notice before demolition and other noisy operations, the days when a passage has to be cleared or a car moved.
- Water and power for the works: which supply they come from and who pays for them. It is a small item that turns into an argument at the end if it is left unsaid.
- Keys and access: who holds them, who opens in the morning and locks up at night, and what applies while the property stands empty during the works.
Cost
What actually drives the cost of a renovation
The cost of a renovation does not follow the floor area. It follows a small number of variables, and nearly all of them can be settled before anything starts. These are the ones that carry real weight, and how each is brought down without giving up what matters.
| Driver | Why it matters | What brings it down |
|---|---|---|
| Condition of the building | An apartment lived in until last month needs far less taking out than one shut up for twenty years, where services, screeds and plaster are all renewed. | A survey that opens a few exploratory holes before the quote. What is found then is a priced line in the bill, not a surprise with the site already open. |
| Structural alterations | Opening or moving a load-bearing wall brings a design, a filing, propping and slow work, and it delays every stage that follows it. | A layout that works with the openings already there, settled with your technician before the design is finalised rather than on site. |
| Renewing the services | Rewiring and replumbing means chasing nearly every wall, making good afterwards, new terminal units, and more trades to sequence. | Keeping bathroom and kitchen water points close together or aligned, and fixing every electrical position before the chases are cut. |
| Level of finish | Standard porcelain laid straight and a large-format slab cut to size are different materials, but above all they are very different numbers of hours. | Standard formats and simple laying patterns where nobody looks, with the spend concentrated on the two or three surfaces seen every day. |
| Site access | An upper floor with no lift, a narrow street or a historic centre with restricted vehicle access stretches every movement of material and waste. | Somewhere close by to park and unload, and time windows agreed in advance with the comune or with the building's management. |
| Changes once work has started | Every variation decided with the site open undoes work already done and reshuffles the trades, even when the new operation is short in itself. | Closing the choices and the capitolato — the written specification — before starting. Any later variation is priced in writing before it is carried out, never after. |
| Season and drying times | Screeds and plaster dry more slowly in cold, damp weather, and compressing the wait produces defects that are paid for a second time. | Scheduling the wet trades for the right part of the year, wherever the overall programme allows it. |
None of these has a standard price, and you will find no figures on this site. The number comes out of the computo metrico after the site visit: every operation with its quantity and its unit rate, so you can check it line by line against what is actually built.
A practical question
Can you live in the property during the works?
Staying in the property during a renovation is realistic only when the work can be split into zones and there is always a working bathroom, somewhere to cook and a room to sleep in that stays out of the dust. One bathroom rebuilt at a time, a window replacement, a living area reworked while the bedrooms stand still: those jobs can be lived through.
It is not realistic when the services are being renewed throughout, because water and power go off for days at a time and the chases run through every wall; when screeds are poured across the whole floor area, because nobody walks on them for days; or when demolition is widespread. If there are small children, elderly people or anyone with a respiratory condition in the house, the fine dust from demolition is reason enough not to stay.
The other side has to be said as well: living in the property makes the job longer and more expensive. Work is broken into zones, protection is built and dismantled several times, there is a clean-down every evening, and some operations are done twice over. If you choose to stay, we write it into the capitolato — which zones remain in use, which days water and power are off, where you sleep while we work — and the quote is built around that way of working rather than discovering it afterwards.
Questions
What people ask before signing
How long does renovating an apartment take?
The duration depends on the floor area, how much of the services is renewed and whether the structure is touched at all. We do not give a duration before the site visit and the computo metrico, because it would be a made-up number. The contract carries a programme with the stages and the dates, and names the causes that can legitimately move it: variations you ask for, conditions found during demolition, supplier delays, decisions of the authorities. Screed and plaster drying times stay what they are.
What happens if something unexpected is found during the works?
If demolition uncovers something that was not visible — a decayed floor structure, an unrecorded flue, rising damp, wiring that is not to standard — we stop that operation, record it with photographs and measurements, and discuss it with you and your technician before going further. If it means additional work, we price it as a written variation, with quantities and unit rates, and carry it out only once you have approved it. Where asbestos is present, a licensed specialist firm takes over that part.
Do I need my own technician, and who files the paperwork?
EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. carries out the works. Almost every renovation needs at least a CILA or a SCIA — the standard planning notifications — signed and filed by a qualified technician you appoint. Design, direzione dei lavori and permit filings are a separate professional appointment that stays with you and does not pass through the contractor. We build to your technician's design and under their supervision. Ing. Ivan Nozzi practises from the same address, but engaging us places you under no obligation to engage him.
Can I supply some of the materials myself?
Yes, and it is common with floor finishes, sanitaryware and windows. We write it into the quote, because it moves the responsibility: if you buy the material, the choice, the quantity, the delivery date and any supply defect stay with you, while the installation stays with us. We ask you to order the quantities we calculate, wastage included, and to have the goods on site before the stage that needs them. One late delivery holds up every trade behind it.
What guarantees do I have on the work?
The works are covered by what Italian law gives against any contractor: article 1667 of the civil code governs defects and departures from what was agreed, with the notification and limitation periods it sets out, and article 1669 covers serious defects affecting the stability or the usability of the building for ten years from completion. We do not present these as a benefit, because they apply in any case. At handover we sign a joint record listing the items still to be put right and the time allowed for them.
First step
Tell us about the property
To know whether we can be useful to you we need the comune, the rough floor area, the condition of the building and what you have in mind. If you already have drawings or a computo metrico, say so in the form: the quote becomes far more precise. We normally reply within two working days and, if the property is within the area we cover, we arrange a site visit.