Home renovation and fit out in Dubai, handled by one company
Home renovation and fit out in Dubai from a company with twenty-four trades on its own payroll: residential fit out contractors who quote the whole house renovation Dubai job on one contract, not three.
Villa renovation Dubai and apartment renovation Dubai
Abdulla Carpentry EST carries out complete home renovation in Dubai for villas, apartments, townhouses and penthouses. We handle the survey and drawings, the building and community approvals, demolition, electrical and plumbing alterations, waterproofing, tiling, ceilings, flooring, painting, glass and all the joinery — kitchens, wardrobes, vanities and panelling — manufactured in our own Ras Al Khor workshop. One contract, one supervisor, one fixed price, and a twelve-month workmanship warranty from handover.
Residential work in Dubai is not simply commercial work at a smaller scale. You are dealing with a building’s rules as much as the building itself: permitted working hours, lift bookings, protection of common areas, noise restrictions during Ramadan, deposits held by the owners association, and a community office that can stop the job on Thursday afternoon if the paperwork is not in order.
We do that paperwork. The NOC, the contractor passes, the insurance copies, the agreed hours, the Dubai Municipality or DEWA submission where the works need one. It is part of the quotation, not a surprise your side.
The other difference is that someone usually still lives there. That changes the sequence, the dust control and the daily clean-down, and it is why we phase most occupied jobs room by room rather than stripping everything at once.
Fixed priceAgreed before we startKitchen renovation, bathroom renovation, living room and bedroom renovation
You do not have to renovate everything. Roughly half our residential work is a single room done properly, from a butler’s pantry to a prayer room.
If you are staying in the property while we work
Most apartment owners and a good number of villa owners stay put. It is entirely workable, but only if the contractor plans for it rather than treating you as an obstacle.
We phase the work so you keep at least one functioning bathroom and a usable kitchen for as much of the programme as possible. Wet areas are done one at a time. If both bathrooms must come out together, we tell you that at quotation stage so you can decide whether to move out for those two weeks or accept the disruption.
The active area is sealed with dust screens and taped at the edges, not draped with a sheet. Floors on the route in and out are protected. The team cleans down at the end of every day, and debris leaves the building on the days the building allows rather than sitting in a corridor.
Working hours are agreed with you and with building management before we start, and we stick to them. Noisy work — chasing, breaking, core drilling — is scheduled into blocks so you know in advance which days are the bad ones and can arrange to be elsewhere.
From first visit to handing back the keys
Free site visit and survey
We measure the property, check the ceiling void, the riser and the drainage falls, and read the building rules.
Layout, visuals and a fixed quotation
Drawings you can actually read, 3D views of the rooms that matter, plus a quotation itemised by trade and area.
Approvals, protection and strip-out
We lodge the Municipality or DEWA submission, obtain the NOC, register the workers and agree the working hours.
First fix, waterproofing, then the finishes
Electrical, plumbing and AC works go in together, then waterproofing and a flood test before any tiling starts.
Joinery, paint and handover
Joinery is surveyed after ceilings and floors, then paint, final fix, both snag lists, a clean, and a handover.
Full home makeover and turnkey home renovation
Home renovation and fit out in Dubai lives in the detail, so here is what sits inside those five stages. At the survey we open the ceiling void, trace the riser, check the drainage falls, read the existing distribution board and read the building’s own restrictions, so you get a straight answer on the spot about what is easy, what is awkward and what your building will simply not permit. The quotation that follows is itemised by trade with quantities and named materials: remove an item and you see what it saves, upgrade a worktop and you see what it adds. That is what transparent pricing means on a renovation cost in Dubai.
Before anything comes off a wall on a home renovation and fit out in Dubai we lodge the Dubai Municipality or DEWA submission, obtain the developer approvals (Emaar, Nakheel, Damac, Dubai Hills, Arabian Ranches), register the workers and sheet the lobbies, lifts and retained finishes at our own cost. Wet areas are waterproofed and flood-tested for 24 to 48 hours, photographed and sent to you, before a single tile is laid. Our carpenters survey again after the ceilings and floors are finished, so every unit is scribed to the room as built.
Villa extension and layout changes
Knocking through, moving a wall or adding a room where plot and authority allow. Drawings and permits included.
Custom joinery and carpentry for homes
Wardrobes, kitchens, TV units and feature walls cut and sprayed in our own Ras Al Khor workshop, not bought in.
Flooring, tiling and painting
Porcelain, marble and SPC flooring, full tiling, plus painting and wall finishes in the paint system you chose.
Wardrobes, closets and storage
Built-in wardrobes, walk-in closets, maid’s room and storage conversions, and a balcony or terrace upgrade too.
Why home renovations in Dubai go wrong
We are called in to finish other people’s jobs often enough to see the same four causes repeatedly. None of them are about craftsmanship.
A quotation that was never real. The single most expensive decision in a Dubai renovation is accepting the cheapest number. It is cheap because something is missing — the waterproofing, the making good after chasing, the protection of common areas, the approvals, the debris removal. Each one comes back as a variation at a moment when you cannot walk away, and the final figure routinely lands above the honest quotes that were rejected at the start. Ask any contractor to itemise by trade with quantities. If they will not, that is the answer.
Nobody owning the sequence. When the joiner, the tiler, the electrician and the painter are four separate companies, no one is accountable for the order they work in. The joinery is measured before the screed is down, so the wardrobe does not meet the floor. The ceiling closes before the ducts are final, so it opens again. Each firm is individually competent and the result is still a mess, because the gaps between them belong to nobody. This is the whole reason we employ the trades rather than book them.
Waterproofing rushed to save three days. A membrane needs the correct upstand height, proper detailing at the drain and the threshold, and a genuine 24 to 48 hour standing-water test before tiling. Skipping the test saves two days and risks the ceiling of the apartment below yours — which is not your contractor’s problem to pay for once the twelve months are up, but it is very much yours. We test every wet area and send you the photographs.
Approvals treated as the owner’s job. A contractor who tells you to “sort the NOC yourself” is telling you they intend to start without one. Buildings in Dubai stop jobs, impound tools and withhold deposits over this, and the delay is charged to the programme. Approvals belong in the contractor’s scope, and in ours they are.
Home renovation prices in Dubai, without the vagueness
Residential renovation in Dubai is usually quoted per square foot of treated area. These are the ranges we actually work to. A firm number comes after a free site visit, because access, building restrictions and how much of the existing installation can be kept move the figure more than the finishes do.
| Scope | Typical range | Indicative duration |
|---|---|---|
| Cosmetic refresh (paint, flooring, light joinery) | AED 300 – 500 / sq ft | 3 – 5 weeks |
| Full apartment renovation | AED 500 – 750 / sq ft | 8 – 14 weeks |
| Full villa renovation | AED 500 – 900+ / sq ft | 3 – 6 months |
| Single bathroom, stripped to slab | AED 22,000 – 60,000 | 3 – 5 weeks |
| Kitchen, supply and install | AED 25,000 – 120,000+ | 4 – 8 weeks |
| Fitted wardrobe | AED 1,100 – 2,600 / sq m face | 3 – 5 weeks |
| TV and media wall | AED 9,000 – 45,000 | 2 – 4 weeks |
| Full repaint, occupied property | AED 12 – 22 / sq ft | 1 – 2 weeks |
A word on the low end of the market. If a quotation comes in well under these ranges for the same written scope, something has been left out — usually the waterproofing, the making good, the protection, or the approvals. Those items do not disappear; they reappear as variations once your bathroom is already stripped and you have very little negotiating power left.
Our quotations are itemised by trade with quantities and named materials so you can check exactly that. Once signed, the figure is fixed for the scope described. Variations arise only if you change the scope or if something genuinely hidden appears behind a wall, and we price those in writing before proceeding.
Check the rules before you start knocking walls
Home renovation in Dubai runs on permits and developer NOCs. These are the bodies whose approvals every villa renovation and apartment renovation on this page is delivered against.
Where to spend, and where you can hold back
Nobody has an unlimited budget. After forty years of these jobs, this is where we tell clients the money actually earns its place, and where it quietly does not.
Spend on what is buried. Waterproofing, pipework, cabling and the substrate under your floor are the only parts of a renovation you cannot upgrade later without demolishing what sits on top. A better membrane costs a few thousand dirhams; redoing a bathroom because the cheap one failed costs the whole bathroom again, plus the ceiling below. The same logic applies to rewiring an older apartment: doing it while the walls are already open is a fraction of doing it as a standalone job in three years.
Spend on the things your hands touch every day. Drawer runners and hinges are the clearest example. Blum or Hettich hardware across a full kitchen adds perhaps three to five per cent to the cost of that kitchen and is the difference between doors that still close softly in year eight and doors that sag in year two. Door handles, taps and shower mixers are the same — used dozens of times a day, and the cheap versions announce themselves immediately.
Spend on lighting, because it costs less than you think. A considered lighting layout — downlights positioned against the furniture plan, cove lighting where the ceiling allows, dimming on the living areas — transforms how a finished home reads for a relatively small sum. It is also almost impossible to add properly once the ceilings are closed and painted.
Hold back on surfaces you will tire of. The most heavily patterned tile, the strongest feature wall and the most fashionable cabinet colour are the elements clients most often ask us to change out five years later. Putting the budget into the carcass, the hardware and the layout, with a calmer finish on top, gives you something you can restyle cheaply rather than rebuild.
Hold back on full replacement where a refinish will do. Solid doors, a sound kitchen carcass, a decent staircase and older furniture can often be stripped, repaired and resprayed in our own booth for a fraction of replacement cost. We will tell you when that is the better option, even though it is the smaller invoice — a client who is still happy in five years is worth more to us than the difference.
And be honest about how long you will stay. If the property is an investment you will exit in two years, the specification that maximises resale is not the specification that suits a family settling in for a decade. Tell us which it is at the first visit and the quotation will reflect it.
Communities we are in most weeks
About home renovation in Dubai
Do I need approval to renovate my apartment or villa in Dubai?
Usually yes, at some level. Cosmetic work such as painting or flooring generally needs only a building or community NOC. Anything touching walls, plumbing, drainage or electrical distribution needs a Dubai Municipality submission, and DEWA involvement where supply is altered. We prepare and lodge all of it as part of the job.
How long does a full apartment renovation take?
Eight to fourteen weeks for a two or three bedroom apartment stripped and rebuilt, assuming approvals are in hand. Villas run three to six months. The building work is rarely what delays a programme — approvals and client decisions on finishes are.
Can I keep living there during the work?
Yes, and most apartment clients do. We phase it room by room, seal the active area with taped dust screens, keep a bathroom and kitchen usable wherever possible, and clean down daily. If both bathrooms must come out at once we tell you at quotation stage, not halfway through.
Can you renovate just one room?
Yes. There is no minimum contract value. Single bathrooms, single kitchens, one wardrobe or one TV wall are a large share of what we do, and each is priced as a fixed package.
Do you supply the materials or do I buy them?
Either. We buy on our own trade accounts, which is usually cheaper, and every material is named on the quotation. If you prefer to buy your own tiles, sanitaryware or appliances, we will fit them and price the labour only.
What if my building only allows work at certain hours?
Almost all of them do. We agree the permitted hours with building management before mobilising and build the programme around them. Where a building allows extended or weekend hours, we will tell you what that could save on the duration.
Is there a warranty?
Twelve months on workmanship from the date of handover, written into the contract. Manufacturer warranties on appliances, hardware and sanitaryware are registered in your name and passed to you in full.
How are payments staged?
Against completed work — typically mobilisation, first fix complete, joinery delivered and handover. We never ask for the full contract value up front, and each stage is invoiced only once the work it covers is finished.
Book a free site visit
We will measure the property, tell you what is possible and what your building will allow, and send an itemised quotation — usually the same working day. No charge and no obligation.
