Renovation is harder to price than new build. A new house starts from a clear lot and a drawing. A renovation starts from whatever the last three owners did, some of it on no plan at all.
So we survey before we price: opening inspection points, tracing where the drainage actually runs, looking at the roof structure rather than the ceiling under it.
A suspiciously low renovation quote usually priced the drawing rather than the building. It holds until the first wall opens, then arrives as variations you did not budget for.
Older houses around Batangas throw up a predictable set: hollow block never fully grouted, termite damage in roof framing, circuits extended over the years but never upgraded, downspouts quietly undermining the foundation.
Most families cannot move out, and renting elsewhere changes the economics entirely. Where the structure allows it, we sequence the work so the house stays usable.
Sometimes the honest answer is that you should move out: a whole roof, a full rewire, or anything that takes the water off for days.
Knocking two rooms together is one of the most common requests and one of the easiest to get wrong. A load-bearing wall needs a designed beam and a load path an engineer will sign.
Extensions raise setbacks, allowable lot occupancy, and whether the foundation can take another storey. That is a calculation, not an opinion.
A first visit runs about two hours and tells us whether the idea is sound. For a full refurbishment we usually want a second visit to open inspection points before we put numbers on paper.
Yes, with the tenant's agreement and a written schedule of interruptions. It constrains what we can do in a day, which we price honestly rather than discovering later.
Structural work, extensions and changes to the building's footprint or use generally do. Repainting and replacing finishes generally do not. We will tell you which side of the line your project falls on at the first visit.
We stop, photograph it, price it, and bring it to you before continuing. You will not find it on the final invoice as a surprise.
Call the office between 8:00 AM and 7:00 PM, Monday to Saturday, or message the Facebook page any time. Send drawings or a rough scope and a written, itemised estimate comes back.
