We renovate villas, townhouses and village houses on the Costa del Sol, covering the interior and the envelope: façade repair, external wall insulation, roofs and windows. One contractor coordinates every trade, buys materials if you wish, works with authorised partner installers for electrics and gas, and hands the house back clean. Quotes are itemised and free; photos and the approximate built area, sent by email or WhatsApp, are enough for a first estimate.
What does renovating a villa actually involve?
A villa is a different job from an apartment. There is no community to look after the roof or the façade, so everything from the ridge tiles to the garden wall is yours. A renovation can therefore cover two layers: the interior — layout, services, bathrooms, kitchen, floors, staircases, finishes — and the envelope, meaning the roof, the external walls and the windows that keep weather out.
We plan both together, even when you only want to tackle one of them now. Knowing that the roof will need attention in a couple of seasons changes the order in which you spend money inside. Our villa renovation page explains how we scope a whole-house job.
- Interiors: strip-out, new layouts, plumbing and electrics through authorised partner installers, plastering, plasterboard ceilings, floors, tiling, painting.
- Envelope: façade repair and painting, external wall insulation, roof repairs and window replacement.
- Coordination: materials purchasing, scheduling of every trade, final clean.
Why deal with the roof, façade and windows before the interior?
Water always wins. A new plaster ceiling under a roof that still leaks will stain; fresh paint on an outside wall with cracked render will blister. When the envelope and the interior both need work, the outside is usually made watertight first and the inside finished afterwards.
The same logic applies to windows. Replacing frames disturbs the reveals around them, inside and out. If the plastering and painting inside are done before the new windows go in, you pay to repair the same surfaces twice. A sensible sequence is one of the main reasons owners choose a single contractor for the whole house rather than separate firms for the roof, the windows and the interior.
What is external wall insulation, and is it right for my house?
External wall insulation — called SATE in Spain, and often EWI or EIFS in English — is a layer of insulation boards fixed to the outside of the walls, then covered with a reinforced base coat and a finishing render. Because it wraps the house from outside, it does not take space from the rooms and it covers many of the cold spots where floors and walls meet.
It is not right for every house. The wall has to be sound, dry and able to take the fixings; window sills, eaves and junctions need detailing; and on a townhouse the community of owners has a say in any change to the outside. We explain the layers and the checks in our guide what external wall insulation is, and when it is not the answer in this article. We do not quote energy-saving figures: they depend on the house, the system and how you use it.
How do you approach a roof leak?
A stain on a ceiling rarely sits directly below the fault. Water travels along battens, slabs and insulation before it shows. The first step is therefore finding where it gets in: slipped or broken tiles, a failed joint at a parapet, a blocked gutter, a cracked roof-terrace membrane or a badly sealed skylight.
Many leaks are local and can be repaired. Some are a sign that the waterproofing has reached the end of its useful life, and a few point to structural movement. Where we see signs of the latter, we tell you plainly and recommend an architect or building surveyor (arquitecto or aparejador) before we touch anything. Our guide on roofs and leaks goes through the usual causes.
What is involved in replacing windows?
New windows are one of the most noticeable changes in an older villa: they affect light, draughts, noise and how secure the house feels. The job is more than swapping frames. The old frame comes out, the opening is checked and squared, the new frame is fixed and sealed, and the reveals and sills are made good inside and out.
Two practical points matter. If the size or position of an opening changes, the paperwork changes too; and on a townhouse, the style and colour of frames is often set by the community. Our window replacement page covers what to decide before ordering.
What does living near the sea mean for a house?
Salt-laden air, strong sun and wind-driven rain are part of life on the coast, and they show on the outside of a house: chalking paint, rusting balcony rails, cracked render around metal fixings. Spain’s structural code even treats reinforced concrete exposed to marine aerosols as its own exposure class, which tells you the environment is taken seriously.
For an owner, the practical consequence is regular inspection of the façade, railings, roof and joints, and repairs before small defects become water paths. Our guide on façade maintenance by the sea sets out what to look at and how often to look.
Do façade, roof and window works need permission?
Usually, yes — in some form. Andalusia’s planning law (Ley 7/2021, known as LISTA) separates works that only need a declaración responsable, a sworn notification filed with the town hall, from works that need a full licence. Municipal forms in Málaga province list façade, roof and window works as minor works, but some of them still need a short technical report signed by a qualified professional, and changing the size of an opening is treated differently from replacing a frame in the same hole.
Every town hall publishes its own forms, so we go through what usually applies to your scope before work starts (exact requirements in your municipality: to be verified case by case). We do not prepare technical projects or apply for licences on your behalf. The detail is in our guide on permits for façade, roof and windows.
Can I start the process while I am living abroad?
Yes, the first step works from anywhere. Send photos of the outside and every room, a few close-ups of anything that worries you and the approximate built area by email or WhatsApp, and we will come back with a first estimate and the questions we need answered.
The final itemised quote follows a visit to the house. Decisions on scope, materials and any surprises found during the work have to be taken by you or by someone you trust, so it is worth deciding early who that will be. Our guide on planning a villa renovation covers what to prepare.
What do you not do?
Being clear about limits saves everyone time. We renovate existing houses; we do not build new houses, extensions that need a project, swimming pools or air-conditioning systems, and we do not prepare technical projects, apply for licences or issue energy performance certificates. Those belong to architects, engineers and registered specialists.
- Old corrugated fibre-cement roofs or pipes may contain asbestos and must be removed by a registered firm — see retiradauralitamalaga.eu.
- Driveways, terraces and paving are handled by our sister site adoquinadomalaga.eu.
- For cost factors explained in depth, see presupuestoreforma.eu.
Is the garden part of the job?
Only as a finishing touch. Once the building work is over, we can clear overgrown ground, level and prepare beds, repair or replace simple fencing and lay lawn, so the house is handed back in a usable state. We are not landscape designers, and hard landscaping such as paving or concrete is outside this site. Details are on the garden page.
Where on the coast do you work?
From our office in Marbella we work along the western Costa del Sol and the hills behind it. Area pages cover Benahavís, Estepona, Nueva Andalucía, Elviria and Calahonda, and the full list is on our areas page. The housing differs from one urbanisation to the next — detached villas on sloping plots, terraces of townhouses with shared gardens, older houses in the villages — and so does the work.
