Full renovation of Portuguese houses
An old Portuguese house or a quinta sounds romantic until you pull a socket out of the wall and the wiring from the seventies comes with it. Most of the houses we take on share the same list of problems: outdated electrics, leaking pipes, no insulation, and damp that has been working its way into the walls for decades.
We do full renovations from Fundão. Not just a fresh coat of paint, but rebuilding kitchens and bathrooms, insulating, re-plastering, tiling, joinery and checking roofs — and we arrange the qualified electricians and plumbers so the wiring and pipework are renewed properly alongside the building work, preparing the house for the next thirty years of use.
What a full renovation involves
You do not renovate a Portuguese country house in pieces. If you open the electrics, you do the plumbing while you are in there. If you strip out the kitchen, you want to know what is behind the wall before you tile it back up. That is why we work from day one with a fixed scope, a fixed price and a schedule you can actually plan around.
- Kitchen and bathroom rebuild with tiling, built-to-measure cabinetry and finishing (the plumbed sanitary connections are made by the plumber)
- Insulation in roof, walls and floor — almost always completely absent in older houses
- Damp treatment at the source, not just plastered over
- Plastering and painting inside and outside
- Carpentry and joinery: doors, frames, floors and fitted woodwork
- Electrical and plumbing work (rewiring to RTIEBT, new pipework, water heater or solar thermal) is carried out by qualified TRIE-registered electricians and qualified plumbers/installers that we arrange and schedule for you
Typical issues in older Portuguese houses
Three things show up in nearly every house older than forty years. First, the electrics: loose conductors, no earth, a fuse board originally meant for one light and a radio now trying to run a dishwasher, oven and water heater. Second, the plumbing: galvanised steel that calcifies and leaks, or worse, lead sections still in service. Third, damp — rising through granite walls without a barrier, or rainwater finding its way through worn roof tiles. We tackle these three first, because without that base layer a beautiful kitchen is just expensive decoration.
Permits and paperwork
A real renovation needs a permit from the Câmara Municipal. We sort the paperwork together with a local arquiteto. For structural changes that legally require a registered empreiteiro or sign-off by an engineer, we work together with a licensed local contractor/engineer who deliver the project legally; we carry out the renovation and finishing work. Registered as a sole trader (trabalhador independente) in Portugal — NIF 309729211. Every invoice carries our NIF, so everything is properly accountable and you do not run into trouble later with insurance, resale value or any official inspection.
Service area
We work from Fundão across Covilhã, Castelo Branco, Belmonte, Penamacor and Idanha-a-Nova. Further afield on request, and we are straightforward about travel costs and how we group visits so we do not drive half a day for a single measurement.
Why Gerardus Koetje?
- Dutch, English & Portuguese
- Registered as a sole trader (trabalhador independente) in Portugal — NIF 309729211
- Years of experience in Central Portugal
- Honest and transparent — no surprises
Photos of our work
What our clients say
Service area
- Fundão
- Covilhã
- Castelo Branco
- Belmonte
- Penamacor
- Idanha-a-Nova
- Sertã
- Oleiros
- Guarda
- Sabugal