Comprehensive reform in Vitoria. Zaramaga neighborhood.

We are located in the city of Vitoria, Basque Country, in aa apartment located in the center, near to the Boullevard and between the neighborhoods of Zaramaga and Arriaga.

It was an old apartment with concrete structure and the following distribution: hall, a large kitchen, a bathroom, toilet, living room and three bedrooms. The toilet is quite peculiar: it is next to the pantry and is accessed from the kitchen. So it is decided to expand it into the bathroom space, taking the adjoining pantry space and some kitchen space. In addition, we bricked up the old access and placed the new one from the hallway, with a more logical and traditional distribution.

We protect the lift and the main entrance hall to the building. We also regularly sweep and clean the common areas. We want to avoid inconvenience to other neighbors who, may in turn, inconvenience the owner.

The buyer is encouraged by seriousness of our enterprise, our previous works, and the fact that he has complete freedom for the choice and purchase of materials. A relationship of trust and complicity was then established. The customer can choose the material wherever he want, and even make the purchase and benefit of possible discounts if there are. In this case, we collected the material and transported it up to the apartment and then installed it.

Once the new partitions are built according to the new distribution of toilet and kitchen, we focus on plumbing and electricity.

Plumbing.

As for the plumbing, the property does not have communal heating but has access to natural gas. So we install a new gas heater, we do the gas hitch (next to the kitchen window) and all the new distribution of the heating pipes to the new lacquered aluminum radiators.

Electricity.

The existing electrical installation is obsolete and dangerous because it does not comply with current regulations.

Regarding the new electrical installation, We start with the installation of new corrugated tube throughout the apartment (an independent and direct line for each service, be it this lighting, general plugs, oven, washing machine, etc.), embedded by the walls and hidden in the false ceiling.

We never use old conductions (sometimes in lead material) because we have neither guarantees of their condition or thickness, nor that the electrical wire can be torn, ripped or damaged when inserted through the old tubes.

Subsequently we introduce the new electrical wire, with different sections depending on its destination (lighting, oven, etc.).

Regarding the electrical panel, we install a new one with a differential circuit breaker (to protect people’s life) and its independent magneto-thermic circuit breakers (to protect electrical installation and household appliances) for each service, according to regulations.

Masonry.

As we went forward in previous paragraphs, in bathrooms and kitchen we gave the customer freedom (as we always do) to buy the tile and bathroom items (shower tray, screen, toilet, bidet, etc.) in the warehouse of his choice and get possible discounts; or we take care of the entire purchase process for the convenience of the owner. We take care of the haul (transportation to the house) and its subsequent installation.

Plumbing.

We make a completely new plumbing installation. In homes of this age it is very common for the sanitary supply pipes be already oxidized steel and completely corrupted and that the drains are lead or fibrocement (contained in asbestos). We replace everything with copper pipe for sanitary supply and PVC for drains.

Carpentry.

We also made the same with doors and lamínate flooring: an AC-5 laminate flooring chosen by the customer was installed. Underneath we placed the so-called "blanket", for thermal and acoustic insulation. Regarding the doors, we placed new pre-frames since the dimensions of the modern doors do not match the old ones and also the owners wanted to put wider doors.

False ceiling.

It is our recommendation in all works of integral or partial refurbishing (provided the height of the house allows us) to install a false ceiling of plasterboard for two reasons:first, it gives us absolute freedom when designing the lighting with spotlights (whether or not combined with hanging lamps and wall lamps); second, in addition to the aesthetic factor, there are the thermal and acoustic factors: on the plasterboard is placed "rock wool" or other materials as a thermal and acoustic insulator, which gives the apartment a plus of comfort.

Windows.

The original iron windows of the apartment presented a deplorable state. We changed them by modern PVC windows, with five insulation chambers, with triple glazing with butiral and argon, aluminum shutter and monoblock shutter drawer.

As we say, we have also changed the windows throughout the apartment. We have installed pvc windows of the SHÜCO leading brand with 5 insulating chambers, galvanized steel reinforcements and triple-glazed. Turn and Tilt wigwag system, hinges, ironworks and fittings Roto Frank of the highest quality that guarantee its perfect functioning for decades with a very comfortable degree of comfort.

To reduce the heat input from the outside we have installed glass with low emissivity treatment (glass treated with silver oxide) that reduce up to 80% the amount of heat (infrared rays) that enters the house. This treatment blocks the infrared radiations, that are the ones that transport the energy of sunlight, without limiting the amount or tonality of light that enters.

In addition we have used triple-glazed with ARGÓN gas, instead of air in the sealed chamber among the three glass sheets, in order to achieve a noticeable lowering of the coefficient μ. The explanation is simple physics: the transmission of cold - heat from one glass sheet to another is produced by the internal currents that exist in the sealed chamber among glazings. Argon is a heavier gas than air and, therefore, taking longer to heat up or cool down, currents and thermal transmittance will be lower. The result is that we get a coefficient μ significantly lower.

Painting.

The apartment featured a mixture of wallpaper in several layers and paint on wallpaper. In addition the walls were curved, with concavities.

We decided to remove the wallpaper layers, apply plaster on the walls to cover imperfections and cracks, polished and smoothed them in order to obtain a completely homogeneous surface. Previously, we have plastered all the gaskets of the plasterboards and the ceiling of the apartment, sanding everything afterwards. To carry out this work we have used an electric device called the giraffe.

When choosing the paint color we offer the customer a table of colors - from which two or three colors are chosen - and a sample is applied to the wall so that the customer gets a plausible idea of the colors and makes the final choice.

End of work.

Thus we reach the end point of the work which we deliver completely clean. Ready for start living.

The customer was completely satisfied with the final result, the fulfillment of the promised deadlines and the treatment received by our company.