We renovate detached villas on the western Costa del Sol as single coordinated projects: interior layout, services, bathrooms, staircases and finishes, plus façade, external insulation, roof and windows where needed. One contractor sets the sequence, coordinates every trade, buys the materials if you wish and hands the house back clean. Quotes are itemised and free, and a first estimate can be prepared from photos and the approximate built area.
What is different about renovating a villa?
In an apartment, the community of owners looks after the roof, the façade and the main drains. In a detached villa, all of it is yours. That changes the job in three ways. First, the scope can reach from the ridge of the roof to the boundary wall. Second, problems outside the house — a tired roof terrace, cracked render, leaking window seals — show up as damage inside. Third, there is usually more space to work with, but also longer runs of pipework and cabling, more glazing and more surface to finish.
Many villas on the coast were built in stages, extended over time or adapted by successive owners. Floor levels change between rooms, services were added piece by piece, and the original drawings are often missing or no longer reflect what was built. A good renovation starts by understanding what is actually there.
What can a villa renovation include?
The scope is set after the visit, but most whole-villa projects draw on the same list:
- Strip-out of old kitchens, bathrooms, floors and finishes, with debris removed from site.
- New layouts: opening up living areas, moving a kitchen, adding an en-suite. Load-bearing walls are never touched without a technician’s design.
- Services: plumbing, drainage and electrics renewed by authorised partner installers under our coordination; underfloor heating where floor heights allow.
- Masonry and plasterboard: partitions, plastering, suspended ceilings with indirect lighting, built-in storage.
- Finishes: floors, tiling, staircase cladding, painting, interior joinery.
- Envelope: façade repairs, external wall insulation, roof work and new windows.
- Close-out: fitting of sanitaryware, taps, switches and lights; final clean; a light garden tidy-up if wanted.
Bathrooms and kitchens are part of many villa jobs. If that is all you need, our sister site on bathroom and kitchen renovation covers it in more depth.
In what order is the work done?
The guiding rule is that water and services come before finishes. A typical sequence looks like this:
- Survey and decisions: what stays, what goes, what needs a technician.
- Strip-out and protection of anything being kept, such as stone walls or a staircase.
- Envelope repairs: roof leaks, cracked render, window openings.
- First-fix services: pipes, drains and cables run in walls, floors and ceilings.
- Masonry, plastering and plasterboard ceilings.
- Floors, tiling and staircase finishes.
- Painting, joinery and second-fix fittings.
- Final clean and a walk-round of the whole house with you.
Our guide on planning a villa renovation explains how to break a large job into decisions you can take one at a time.
How do you quote a whole villa?
We start with a first estimate from photos and the approximate built area, sent by email or WhatsApp. That tells you quickly whether the scope you have in mind is realistic. The final quote follows a site visit, where we look at the roof, the façades, the windows, the fuse board, the visible plumbing and any signs of damp or movement.
The quote is itemised: each task appears on its own line, with a description, a unit and a quantity, grouped by trade. Exclusions are listed too — furniture, appliances, technical projects, licence fees — so you can compare our quote with others on the same basis. We do not publish prices, because two villas of the same size can need very different work; the factors are explained in our article on what drives villa renovation cost.
Can original features be kept?
Usually, and often they should be. Stone feature walls, timber ceilings, terracotta floors, carved doors and wrought-iron work give an older villa its character and are hard to replace like for like. Before strip-out we agree with you what stays, then protect it for the duration of the job: boarding over floors, sheeting over stone, temporary removal of doors and ironwork for storage. Where an original element is damaged, we tell you whether it can be repaired or whether a sympathetic replacement is the better option, and the quote shows each choice separately so you can decide item by item.
When does a villa need an architect rather than a builder?
Some things are outside a renovation contractor’s remit, and we say so at the visit rather than halfway through the job:
- Removing or altering load-bearing walls, pillars or beams.
- Cracks that suggest movement of the structure or the ground.
- Damp rising from the ground through the walls.
- Extensions, new storeys or changes to the building’s volume.
- Any work for which the town hall requires a project signed by a qualified professional.
In those cases you need an architect or building surveyor (arquitecto or aparejador). Once their design or report is in place, we can carry out the building work it describes. We do not prepare technical projects, apply for licences or issue energy performance certificates.
What do you need from me during the job?
A villa renovation involves decisions: finishes, fittings, what to do when an old wall turns out to hide a surprise. Those decisions have to be made by you or by someone you trust, and the job runs best when the person is reachable and decides promptly. We present any unforeseen item with photos and its own line in the quote, and that point does not go ahead without your approval.
You will also need to agree access with any urbanisation management and, if the house is on a community, check which parts of the outside are subject to its rules. Read our article on how we work on a villa for the day-to-day picture.
Bauman Raymond Attila · Reforma Villas Costa del Sol · Avenida Antonio Belón 3, Marbella. Last reviewed: 05/11/2026.
