What a renovation price is made of
A renovation price has three parts: materials, labour, and organisational costs (delivery, carrying materials up, waste removal, protecting shared areas, project management, insurance). The balance differs for every item: in a bespoke kitchen most of the cost is the product itself; in herringbone parquet or a paint-grade plaster finish, labour weighs more. Our guide price for a full renovation, covering all of that, starts at €1,000/m² excluding VAT for Basic, €2,000/m² for Standard and €3,000/m² for Luxury.
Understanding this split is not a matter of curiosity. It explains why two quotes with the same tiles differ, why an expensive material laid badly gives a poor result, and where saving money actually makes sense.
Where labour outweighs materials, and the other way round
Labour weighs more wherever the result depends on skill and time: herringbone parquet with perimeter cuts, large-format porcelain with minimal joints, microcement, plaster finished flush around concealed doors, tricky junctions. The herringbone floor in the Urgel flat in the Eixample is a good example: you can buy the parquet from several suppliers, but the quality of the laying shows from the doorway.
Materials weigh more in anything made in a factory or workshop: the kitchen, fitted wardrobes, windows, sanitaryware, appliances. Installation matters, but most of the cost is the product itself.
Wastage needs counting too. Herringbone, diagonal laying or patterned tiles all require more material than the floor area, because some is lost to cuts. If the quote lists exactly as much material as there is floor, either the allowance was forgotten or you will be buying the rest yourself.
Who buys the materials
Option one: the contractor buys materials and includes them in the quote. The advantage is that they answer for lead times, quantities, wastage and compatibility, and a problem with a batch is their problem. Option two: you buy some items yourself, such as tiles, sanitaryware or light fittings. You gain control over the choice, but a late delivery or one missing box becomes your responsibility, and the crew waits in the meantime.
A mixed arrangement works too, as long as it is written down who buys what, by which date and who takes delivery on site. What matters is that the quote shows which items include material and which are labour only.
On mark-up: a contractor who buys materials usually gets them below retail and adds a charge for purchasing, logistics and taking delivery. That is fine as long as the quote says exactly what is being bought. The problem is when no model is named and nothing can be checked.
Where saving on labour costs you more
Bathroom waterproofing, floor substrate preparation, wall levelling, and the electrics and plumbing inside the walls. This work is hidden under the finishes, and its mistakes show up later and cost the most to fix, because whatever sits on top has to come off first. Expensive tiles on a badly prepared wall come loose; expensive parquet on an uneven screed creaks.
If the budget needs trimming, it makes more sense to choose a simpler material for the visible finish and keep proper work in the substrate than the other way round. A material can be swapped later. The substrate and hidden services only with demolition.
An example from our own work: the 250 m² child psychology centre in the Eixample had 24 concealed doors. Door leaves and frames are products, but getting wall and door to sit in one plane with no gap takes precise plastering and many hours. On items like that, labour easily outweighs the material.
How to read a quote with this breakdown
A good quote shows, for every item, the quantity, the unit price of the material and the unit price of the labour, with organisational costs listed separately. That lets you compare properly: the same material with different workmanship, or the same work with materials of a different level. If one contractor is noticeably cheaper on labour specifically, ask who will do it and how much time they have allowed.
We prepare our quote after a site visit and measurements, with materials and labour split item by item. Our own crew does the work, specialist tasks go to trusted subcontractors, one person is in charge of the project, and payments follow the contract stage by stage. Send us a description of the flat or house and we will reply within an hour.