About half our renovation clients stay in the flat through the work, usually because three months of rent costs more than the saving, and sometimes because moving out of a home held for thirty years is not a simple proposition. It is entirely workable. It changes the sequence, and it adds about two weeks.
How we phase it
The principle is that one bedroom and one bathroom stay usable at all times, and the kitchen goes last.
We start with the rooms you can most easily do without — typically the second bedroom and the living room — and complete them fully before opening the next. That means dust and disruption move through the flat rather than filling it, and you always have somewhere finished to retreat to.
The kitchen is deliberately last. A family can live without a spare bedroom for a fortnight but not without somewhere to cook, so we set up a temporary arrangement — usually an induction plate, a sink connection and a table in a finished room — before the existing kitchen comes out.
Dust control
This is what actually determines whether living in is tolerable, and it is where most contractors are casual.
We seal the working zone with a floor-to-ceiling barrier, not a hung sheet. Doorways get zipped access panels. Air-conditioning and any ducted route between zones is sealed off, because dust travels through it. Grinding and cutting happen outside the flat wherever possible, and where it cannot, with extraction at the tool.
Floors in the finished zones stay protected throughout, and the site is cleaned at the end of every working day rather than at the end of the week.
Grouping the wet work
The single most disruptive thing in a renovation is the water going off. Left unplanned it goes off repeatedly — once for the kitchen, once per bathroom, once for the utility.
We group all plumbing changes into a single block so the supply is interrupted once rather than five or six times, and we tell you the dates in advance so you can plan around them.
Noise
Demolition, chasing and core drilling are the loud phases, and they are front-loaded — usually the first ten to fourteen working days. If anyone in the house works from home or sleeps during the day, that is the window to be elsewhere if you can.
Societies frequently restrict noisy work to a narrower window than general working hours, commonly 10am to 5pm. See society rules for interior work.
What it adds
Roughly two weeks on a ten-to-twelve week programme. The time goes into sequencing that would otherwise happen in parallel, setting up and moving dust barriers, and the temporary kitchen arrangement.
We state this at quoting stage rather than discovering it in week eight. A contractor who quotes the same duration whether you stay or move out has not thought about the sequence.
What we ask of you
Pack and move what you can before we start — the fewer possessions in the working zone, the faster and cleaner the work. Anything fragile or valuable should be out of the flat entirely rather than covered.
Agree the noisy-work window with us so we can front-load it around your calendar, and be reachable for decisions during working hours. Most site questions need an answer within the hour.
When we recommend moving out
Honestly, there are cases. A full strip-out of a small flat where there is no room that can be completed and sealed first. A household with a newborn, or someone with a respiratory condition. And any project where the entire plumbing layout is changing, which makes a single wet-work block impossible.
We say so when it applies rather than taking the work on terms that will make everyone miserable.
Related
See renovating an older flat, how long a project takes and interior designers in Kothrud, where most of this work happens.
To talk through a renovation, call Pooja Dhoot on +91 82080 93011 or Dimple Marathe on +91 88881 77217.