How long does a 300 m² villa renovation take: months by phase

How long does a full renovation of a 300 m² villa take?

In practice, 10 to 16 months from the first sketch to the keys: 2–4 months for design, from a few weeks to several months for the licence, and 8–12 months for the build itself. These are market benchmarks, not a company promise. An exact schedule is built after the technical survey and the execution project.

The range is wide because a villa has many variables. A 300 m² house on two or three levels with a garden and a pool is several projects in one: the building, the service networks, the external works, the pool. Each has its own schedule, and a slip in one drags the others. Three things weigh most on duration: how complete the design is before the start, how fast you make decisions, and how long the orders for stone, windows and lighting take. That is why renovating the same 300 m² house can differ by half a year between two owners.

How long do design and licence take before work starts?

Design usually takes 2–4 months and the licence from a few weeks to several months, partly overlapping. The licence time is set by the particular town hall and depends on the type of licence and the municipality, and the rules in Castelldefels, Sitges and Sant Cugat differ.

Design is made of successive steps. A survey and measurements of the house, a concept and agreement of the layout with you, a basic project for the licence, then the execution project with drawings and a specification. The longest stretch almost always depends on you: how many rounds of changes to layout and materials. Three rounds instead of one add weeks.

The licence runs in parallel with the execution project once the basic project is submitted. That window is the time to place long-lead orders and select contractors. There is a separate article on this site about the usual licence times in Barcelona; for your municipality, the time is confirmed with the town hall or a gestor. Do not plan a move-in date until the licence is granted.

How long does each construction phase take?

Benchmarks by phase for a 300 m² villa with a garden and a pool, as they are commonly assumed in the market and not as a BCN YARD schedule. Demolition and structure: 1–2 months. Rough services (electrics, water, heating and climate, low-voltage): 2–3 months. Interior finishes (plastering, screeds, tile, stone, joinery, painting): 3–5 months. Garden and pool: 2–4 months, largely in parallel. Final commissioning, snagging list and handover: 3–6 weeks.

These figures cannot simply be added up, because phases overlap. Together with design and licence they give the 10–16 month range.

What quietly eats time. Screed dries: by a common rule of thumb about a week per centimetre of thickness, and moisture before laying parquet is checked with a meter, not the calendar. Plaster and paint go on in coats with pauses. Stone and joinery need exact measurements from finished walls and are made from them, so part of the items cannot be launched early. Handover is not a one-day event either: first the snags, then their correction, then a re-check.

What can run in parallel and what cannot?

In parallel go the licence and the execution project, ordering long-lead items and demolition, services on different floors, finishes on floors where services are done, and the garden and pool once heavy machinery is no longer needed on the main site. In sequence go demolition, structure, rough services, network tests, screeds and plastering.

The rigid sequence is this. You cannot close walls before water pressure and electrical lines are tested. You cannot lay parquet on a damp screed. You cannot install fitted furniture or stone before wall geometry is finished. You cannot close in the climate system without running the routes before ceilings go up. Breaking any of these rules sends work backwards, and that is the costliest thing for the schedule.

The most flexible are the garden and pool: they can start when the bulk of the work is closed, so that machinery does not damage new surfaces. But if you want to use the house in summer with the pool, you need to start with margin. The cost and sequence of building a pool is covered in a separate article. Splitting a renovation into phases while living there is discussed in the article on renovating in parts.

What most often delays a house renovation?

Five causes move the schedule most often: client decision changes after work has started, long deliveries, the licence and additional municipal requirements, findings after opening up, and utility connections. The contractor controls only part of them.

Changing a decision with the walls closed means opening and closing again. Stone, windows, designer lighting and imported sanitaryware arrive on lead times that are better learned before the order is signed; the topic is covered in the article on long deliveries. Findings after opening up: damp at plinth level, old wiring, timber floors, termites; the older the house, the likelier. A new power rating or a new supply goes through the distribution company, and its timing is not set by the contractor.

Weather affects the garden, pool and facades. Another quiet source of delay: trades that arrive out of order. That is why a schedule is built with a margin, usually 15–20% for the unforeseen, and flags separately the stages that depend on you, on the town hall and on suppliers.

Can you live in the house during the renovation?

Only with a phased renovation, when part of the house remains isolated and habitable. In a full renovation of the whole villa, owners in practice move into a rental or a hotel for the active phase, because noise, dust, and water and power cuts make living there hard and slow the work.

If you still want to stay, three conditions are needed. A separate entrance and a plumbing-independent zone. Dust partitions between zones. A cut-off schedule agreed in advance. The renovation then goes in stages: one part of the house first, the other later. You pay with time: a phased renovation is usually longer than a single one, because the crew moves between zones and sets up protection twice.

The comparison of by parts versus all at once is worth running before signing: the cost of renting a home for twelve months is sometimes smaller than the time lost across phases. Working hours are set by the municipal rule and the urbanización statutes; confirm them in advance.

How do you build a schedule, and how does BCN YARD work with one?

A good schedule is split into stages with dates and owners: what the contractor does, what you decide, what depends on the town hall and on suppliers. Payments attach to it: payment by stage under the contract, not by calendar. BCN YARD names timelines after the survey, measurements and execution project, not before them.

What to ask for in a schedule. Critical items with order dates (stone, windows, lighting, sanitaryware). The dates of your decisions and the consequences of missing them. Time reserve and its size. The licence time as an external factor on its own line. A weekly report on what is done and what remains. If the schedule is one line saying renovation, 8 months, it shows nothing.

We run projects in Russian and Spanish, answer an enquiry within an hour, one person is responsible for the project, and we work with our own crew and trusted subcontractors. Indicative prices are from 1,000 €/m² (Premium), from 2,000 €/m² (Luxury) and from 3,000 €/m² (Signature), excluding VAT, with the exact price in the quote. Among our projects is a private house with a pool (2022–2024, full cycle, solar panels). Write to us and we will discuss the schedule for your house after the survey.