How long does an apartment renovation take?

How long does an apartment renovation take? No UAE company publishes a programme length for a whole apartment, and one number would hide what sets the pace in a tower. Three clocks do: the approvals before work starts, the building's daily windows for noisy work, and the close-out after it ends. Each is published manager by manager, and each is set out below.

How long do the approvals take?

Most refreshes need only a building NOC and contractor passes, because painting, floors, doors and ceilings are basic maintenance with no Municipality permit. Dubai Holding publishes no issuance time at all; its rulebook promises a decision within a reasonable period. Leave float for queries, because Emaar's 3 days only start once the documents are complete and correct.

How many working hours does a week hold?

Count it in noisy hours. An Emaar apartment tower allows power tools in two windows, 9 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM to 5 PM, and contractors on site every day but Sundays and public holidays: at most 36 hours of drilling, cutting and breaking in a week. A Dubai Holding minor-works job gets the same six noisy hours inside a Monday to Saturday day of 8 AM to 6 PM. Town Square allows work from 9 AM to 5 PM on business days. Demolition and tile cutting live inside those hours; painting and cleaning can use the rest.

Night work is possible, but it is an approval of its own: a Dubai Municipality night work permit for noise between 8 PM and 6 AM, and a night-shift NOC from Dubai Holding. The hours comparison lists every clause with its date.

Which rooms set the pace?

The kitchen and the bathrooms, because they carry the approvals and the trades. The only published duration for a room is First Unicorn Interiors' budget kitchen tier, AED 35,000 to 55,000 over 3 to 4 weeks. In a tower the building also shapes those rooms: Emaar does not allow MEP and fire-fighting systems to be moved or covered in apartments, and Town Square treats replacing kitchen counters as a major alteration with a 5 working day review. A like-for-like bathroom refit is largely maintenance in the Municipality's terms, while a layout change is not.

Painting, floors laid over the old tiles, doors and ceilings are the fast part, limited mainly by the noisy-work windows. Kitchen specialists and bathroom specialists take those rooms on as projects of their own when the rest of the flat stays as it is.

Can you live in the apartment during the renovation?

It depends on how many rooms are out of use at once, and the rules shape the day. Noisy work runs through the middle of it, 9 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM to 5 PM in Emaar and Dubai Holding towers. If power has to go off at the unit's panel, DEWA's Temporary Power Disconnection needs the account holder's request 5 working days ahead. In a tower on district cooling, the chilled-water connection stays with Empower, so the contractor cannot interrupt the cooling supply. And Dubai Holding forbids housing workers in the unit, so a crew that finishes at 6 PM leaves the flat to you each evening.

If you stay, plan the rooms in sequence: one bathroom kept working, the kitchen replaced while the other rooms are finished, dust screens between zones. Ask the contractor to put that sequence and the dates for each room into the programme.

Ask for a programme

How long does an apartment renovation take to close out?

Longer than the last day on site. In Dubai Holding communities the owner notifies completion, the manager inspects within about 21 days, and any non-compliance has to be fixed within 30 days. The DDA's fit-out completion certificate takes 2 working days and needs Dubai Civil Defence's completion certificate first. On Trakhees land the Modification Completion Certificate has a 3 working day target, and the unit may not be used until it is issued. In Town Square, keep the completion photographs and receipts for the AED 5,000 deposit on a major alteration.

There are outer limits too. Dubai Holding requires approved works to finish within six months of approval, a DDA fit-out permit is valid for 6 months, and a Trakhees Modification Permit has to be revalidated if work has not started within six months of issue.

Outside Dubai: the published clocks

Abu Dhabi's maintenance permit, the route for cosmetic work, has a service time of 7 working days, 2 for review and 5 for the site inspection, and the contractor files it. A building permit for a layout change takes 10 working days and is filed by a design consultant. Ajman's maintenance permit has a stated duration of 2 days and costs AED 1,000. Sharjah publishes no processing time for its maintenance permit, so ask the contractor to put the expected days into the quote. The Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman pages carry the rest.

What a programme in a quote should show

• The approvals in order, with the date each one is applied for.
• Each room's start and finish, and which rooms stay usable.
• The noisy days, placed inside the building's windows.
• Deliveries, lift bookings and waste removal dates.
• Snagging, the completion notice and the manager's inspection.

We ask contractors for that shape of programme before a quote reaches you, beside the price. The budget bands start at AED 15,000 for a basic one or two-bedroom refresh, and our renovation service writes the brief.