Renovating in Barcelona from abroad: how to run it remotely

Can you renovate in Spain without being there all the time?

Yes, if a system is in place: one person responsible on site, approval through drawings and samples, regular video walk-throughs and photo reports, a representative with clear powers and one or two visits at the key moments. Without those elements a remote renovation turns into endless correspondence.

Renovating from a distance is neither better nor worse than doing it in person: it demands a different organisation. An owner who lives abroad receives the same documents and goes through the same stages, but decides on materials not by hand but through a screen, so the process rests on records and order. This article is the starting point: the details of power of attorney, payment, keys, insurance and trips are in separate guides.

Who accepts the work on your behalf?

Three roles: the contractor's person responsible on site, the project's technical professional and your representative. The person on site runs the daily work and answers for the programme. The technical professional (the architect or technician who signed the project) checks compliance with the project and the regulations. Your representative decides within his powers and checks the result.

The representative may be a designer, a trusted relative, a lawyer or an independent technical supervisor. What matters is that his powers are written down: what he may approve (replacing a material with an equivalent, moving a socket) and what he may not without you (changing the estimate above a limit, signing the completion certificate). If legal acts are needed in your name, a power of attorney is granted; how that is done is covered in our guide to power of attorney.

Independent supervision is worth considering when the project is complex or you do not know the contractor: it looks at the works through the client's eyes. How quality is checked and what the direcció facultativa does is explained in a separate guide.

How do you approve samples without seeing them in person?

Through physical samples sent by courier, not through photos. Tile, stone, fabric, paint and wood are sent to you in a large format, about 30 × 30 cm or more, marked with the item number. The samples are viewed at your home in daylight and evening light but are not accepted finally: the last word belongs to how they look in the room itself.

For stone and large planes a separate check is made: photographs of the slabs with a tape measure in frame, video in natural light, photos of the wet surface and of the cut edge. Video shows the pattern better than a still image. For paint, a sample of at least 1 × 1 m is painted directly on the wall on site and you view it on a video call at different times of day.

Samples are logged in a table: item, make, batch number, photo, date of approval. This is protection against substitution and ordering errors; the procedure is covered in our guide to sample approval and material changes in our guide to material substitution.

How do video walk-throughs and photo reports work?

A weekly video walk-through following a plan with you taking part, and a photo report by room with dates. The video call follows an agreed route: the entrance, rooms in order, then specific points that need showing up close. Photos are taken with a tape or level in frame so that dimensions can be read from the picture.

A special case is concealed work. Before the walls are closed, services in section, waterproofing, blocking and reinforcement are photographed. These photos are your archive for many years; they will help with a neighbour's works or an insurance claim. This kind of report is described in our guides to the construction photo record and to the progress report.

A good report is short and unambiguous: what was done during the week, what is planned, which decisions are needed from you and by when, what is off plan and why. Everything else can go in appendices.

How many times will you have to travel?

One or two visits are usually enough, but not fewer. The first is useful just after demolition, when the real space can be seen and stone and the key decisions on lighting and sockets can be approved. The second is needed for the final handover. If the renovation is large, a third visit is added before the walls are closed.

Everything that cannot be approved from photos is gathered into these trips: choosing slabs at the warehouse, mock-ups of tile and light, the height and position of sockets, the feel of the space. The detailed list of five checkpoints is developed in our guide to owner site visits. Never travelling is possible, but the risk is higher: some decisions are made blind and the handover falls to a representative.

Prepare the trip in advance: a list of questions, a pack of samples, supplier meetings on the same day, agreements on access times. Two or three working days with a good plan achieve more than a week without one.

What else needs preparing: documents, payment, keys and insurance?

Four things: powers, money, access and insurance. Powers are formalised through a power of attorney in favour of the representative, and for personal online procedures with the administration, digital access is needed; the certificate is covered in our guide to idCAT Mòbil and Cl@ve. Money: the NIE and the way stages are paid, in our guide to bank accounts and payments. Access: who holds the keys and how the crew's entry is recorded, in our guide to keys and security. Insurance: what to check with your insurer, in our guide to home insurance during a renovation.

The most common causes of a remote renovation stopping are: no power of attorney granted, no NIE to pay with, nobody able to open the property and a representative who does not answer. All four are solved in advance and cost little compared with an idle crew.

How does BCN YARD organise renovations for owners abroad?

We run projects in Russian and Spanish, with one person responsible for the site who remains your single point of contact. We reply to an enquiry within an hour; after the visit and survey we prepare the estimate. Payment follows the contract, by stages. Our own crew and trusted subcontractors work to a programme you see in advance. Write to us and we will tell you which decisions we will need from you in the first weeks. As a guide, the Luxury level starts from 3,000 €/m² excluding VAT.