Fit out and renovation projects in Dubai, forty years of finished work

We are rebuilding this section into full project case studies — scope, duration, materials and before-and-after photography for each job. In the meantime, here is a cross-section of completed work by type.

This is our renovation portfolio Dubai clients ask for before they sign: completed fit out projects Dubai wide, residential and commercial projects, each one photographed after handover rather than rendered beforehand. Every entry names the scope of works, so you can see what a full home renovation or a full apartment renovation actually covered.

Across these projects the same trades recur: custom joinery, wardrobes, TV units, doors, panelling from our own workshop, then flooring, painting, false ceiling and MEP works by our own teams. Each was a turnkey project delivered under one contract, completed on time and within budget, in Dubai and across the UAE.

Villas, apartments and townhouses, whole-property and single-room. Around eight in ten of our residential projects are in Dubai, with the rest spread across Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates.

Full apartment renovations make up the largest share. A typical job is a two or three bedroom unit in Marina, Business Bay, Downtown or Sobha Hartland, stripped back, rewired where the age of the building justifies it, with new bathrooms, a new kitchen, gypsum ceilings set out around a proper lighting plan, and fitted joinery throughout. Eight to fourteen weeks on site, with the owner usually staying in the property for at least part of it.

Villa refurbishments run longer and wider. Arabian Ranches, Damac Hills, Mudon, Dubai Hills and Al Barsha are regular ground for us. These bring in work that apartments rarely do — staircases clad in oak with glass balustrades, majlis joinery and panelling, external terraces and pergolas, landscaping, garage conversions and home gyms or cinemas carved out of rooms that were doing nothing.

Single-room projects are roughly half of everything we do, and we price each as a fixed package. One bathroom stripped to slab and rebuilt. One kitchen replaced. A walk-in wardrobe made from a spare bedroom. A media wall combining joinery, stone and concealed lighting. These run three to six weeks and are often how a client tests us before handing over the rest of the property.

Villa renovation projects in Damac Hills, Arabian Ranches, Dubai Hills, Mira Oasis, Mudon and Town Square sit alongside apartment renovation projects in Business Bay, Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai, JVC and JLT. Ask for the before and after renovation photographs of any of them and we will send the full set, along with the client testimonial where the client agreed to give one.

Clients ask for a programme and get a bar chart they cannot read. Here is the same thing in plain terms, using a full apartment renovation as the example.

Weeks 1 to 3, before anyone is on site. Survey, drawings, quotation, contract. Then the approvals: the Dubai Municipality or DEWA submission where the works need one, the building or community NOC, contractor passes, insurance copies and the agreed working hours. Nothing visible happens in this period and it is the part most likely to slip, which is why we start it the day the contract is signed rather than when the site is free.

Week 4, protection and strip-out. Lift lobby, corridor and retained finishes sheeted at our cost. Then the strip-out, fully rather than partially, so the condition of the slab, the chases, the drainage falls and the riser are visible while it is still cheap to react to them.

Weeks 5 to 6, first fix. Electrical, plumbing and any HVAC alterations installed together as one coordinated exercise. This is where having the trades employed rather than booked earns its keep — a duct and a drainage run competing for the same ceiling void gets solved on site that afternoon by two of our own men.

Week 7, waterproofing and the flood test. Membranes to the wet areas, taken up the walls to the correct height and detailed at the drains and thresholds. Then 24 to 48 hours of standing water, photographed and sent to you. Nothing else happens in those rooms until it passes.

Weeks 8 to 10, screeds, tiling and ceilings. Levelling screeds so large-format tiles do not lip, then tiling set out from the visual centre of each room, then the gypsum ceilings closed against the finished floor level so the shadow gaps run parallel to something real.

Weeks 10 to 12, joinery. Our carpenters survey the built rooms, manufacture in the workshop, then deliver and install. Kitchens, wardrobes, vanities, panelling and media walls.

Weeks 12 to 14, paint, second fix and handover. Finish coats, then sockets, switches, sanitaryware, door furniture and glass templated against what was actually built. Our snag list, then yours, then testing, final clean and handover.

A villa runs the same sequence over three to six months. A single bathroom compresses it into three to five weeks. What does not change is the order — and almost every renovation disaster we are called in to rescue is a job where somebody changed it.

Specification is where a quotation becomes comparable or meaningless. Everything here is named on our quotations by brand and grade, so you can check it against anyone else’s number.

Where your budget does not stretch to the upper option we will say so and specify down honestly rather than quietly substituting on delivery day. And where you would rather buy your own tiles, sanitaryware or appliances, we will fit them and price the labour only.