Renovating a Paris apartment

Two apartments of identical size, on the same street, can be quoted at twice the difference. The gap almost never comes from the materials. It comes from three surveys that no one can carry out from photographs.

First, the electrical panel and whether every circuit has a protective earth conductor. In a flat never rewired since it was built, replacing the panel and the circuits is a full line item that is invisible during a viewing. Second, the position of the drainage stacks, which governs where the kitchen and bathrooms can go far more than any floor plan does. Moving away from a stack means creating a fall, so raising the floor and losing ceiling height, or installing a lifting pump with its noise and its maintenance.

Third, which walls carry load. In a concrete-framed building many partitions carry nothing and come down easily; in older masonry a cross wall may be structural, and opening it requires an engineer's assessment, a reinforcement and the co-ownership's consent.

Distance is not the difficulty. The difficulty is the written record. Without dated photographs and written approval for every deviation, an owner abroad learns about a problem when it has already become expensive to correct.

LUPOQ Rénovation works as a general contractor across Paris and the Île-de-France region, with every trade under a single contract. Where a discovery is made behind a wall or under a floor, the area is stopped, photographed and dated the same day, and work resumes only after written agreement on the solution and its cost.

The quotation carries quantities item by item and its written exclusions, and the price holds firm on that scope. The technical visit and the written survey are free and carry no obligation.