Things to Know Before Starting Villa Renovation: Infrastructure Control Guide in Old and Old Buildings

Before renovating an unfinished or older villa, insulation, the outdoor manhole, fresh water, waste pipes, main power and floor levels are checked on site one by one. Room layout, paint and furniture wait until that list is clear. If a hidden pipe or cable is skipped, new finishes fail later and force demolition.

Two house types appear on site: an unfinished shell handed over by the builder, and a lived-in older villa. In an unfinished shell, pipes and cables often stop at the threshold without entering the rooms. In an older villa, lines look active, yet waterproofing may be tired, tree roots may block the garden drain, or street asphalt may have risen above the gate.

Umut GURLER Interior Architecture reads this infrastructure list on site before drawing room plans for villa renovations in Ankara. Villa interior design does not hold up when wall and floor services stay uncertain. Damp, backing-up drains and level gaps that threaten room layout are cleared in the order below.

1. Separate unfinished shells from older villas.
2. Check waterproofing at the basement, roof, window sills and garden door thresholds.
3. Inspect the main garden manhole and the street sewer connection for sagging.
4. Test whether fresh water, waste lines and main power actually enter the house.
5. If a lift shaft exists, check its pit for standing water and a pump line.
6. Measure indoor floors and street height with a laser before fixing the plan.

What is the difference between infrastructure checks on an unfinished villa and an older villa?

In an unfinished villa you look for missing pipes, cables and open waterproofing; in an older villa you look for worn waterproofing, cracked drains and a raised street level. In both houses the goal is the same: list every hidden risk on paper before ordering parquet, stone or cabinetry.

Because walls and screed are still open in a shell, lines are easy to see; the trap is a builder line that stops at the garden wall. In an older villa everything sits under plaster and tile, so faults are read from smell, blistering paint or a garage grate that overflows in rain. The table below sets both checks side by side.

This table works as a single-page site checklist. Skipping a row only hides the fault under new stone or wood until the first heavy rain or move-in week.

I bought an unfinished villa — what should I check?

Buying an unfinished shell lets you shape rooms around daily life, yet that freedom only turns into a safe renovation after waterproofing, manholes and main services are verified. From the street a shell often looks finished, while inside the pipes and cables stop at the site entrance.

The site order never changes: first check the roof, basement and window joints for water entry; next open the garden manhole; then confirm fresh water, waste and main power entry; finally inspect the lift pit if a shaft exists. Screed, plaster and tile wait until all four steps are signed off.

The advantage of a shell is moving bathrooms, a kitchen island or the main board without breaking finished walls. The trap is assuming a new structure has complete infrastructure. Umut GURLER Interior Architecture closes these four checks on site before locking the schedule and budget.

This initial survey also separates what belongs to site management, what requires municipal or utility approval, and what falls under the interior renovation contract. Drawing that boundary on day one prevents mid-site delays over who owns an unlinked pipe or meter application. The homeowner then moves into interior fit-out on a clean site without paying twice for demolition, debris removal or rework. The sections below explain each check in plain terms.

Is the insulation weak? Does water enter from outside?

In an unfinished villa, waterproofing gaps show up most on basement walls, the roof, window sills and the threshold where sliding doors meet the garden terrace. Plaster, paint and parquet laid before sealing those joints blister in the first winter and waste both money and time.

Missing roof membrane or a flat slope leaves yellow rings on top-floor ceilings right after rain. In the basement, concrete walls touching soil sweat indoors, leave white salt marks and smell damp when outer tanking is incomplete. Full-height living-room glazing that meets garden paving is another common leak line: without flashing tape, a sloped sill and a channel drain, wind-driven rain runs straight under the indoor screed.

Rooms below open terraces and balconies are checked one by one as well; when a floor drain collar is not bonded to the membrane, water travels under the tiles and stains the ceiling below. North-facing flank walls and chimney flashings are also tested before winter snow.

Site checks do not rely on guesswork: a moisture meter, a walk-through after rain and local water tests mark every weak joint. Screed waits until membranes are repaired and concrete dries. Room layout and woodwork start only on a dry shell. Following this order prevents ceiling stains in the living room and hidden damp behind skirtings when winter rain starts.

Are manhole and infrastructure connections in place?

In an unfinished villa, the garden manhole collecting all toilet and kitchen waste must connect to the street sewer with a clean, continuous slope. Even when indoor pipes are brand new, a crushed or unlinked outdoor line sends waste water back into the house on first use.

The manhole is the concrete or cast-iron cover in the garden. Lifting that cover lets the team check pipe entry height, flow direction and joint seals by running water through the line. Mortar dropped into pipes during construction, PVC crushed by site excavators, or a cover closed without ever joining the municipal sewer are common findings. When in doubt, a pipe camera inspects the full run.

Storm-water drains and foul-water drains are also checked on the same visit so they never share a single small pipe. If roof downpipes feed into the foul manhole, heavy rain surcharges the line and floods ground-floor toilets. Both networks must run through separate chambers.

Whenever a bathroom, laundry or kitchen is planned on the basement or garden level, floor drains must sit above the main manhole flow line. If gravity cannot clear the height, a backflow valve and macerator pump are designed before screed is poured. Garden turf, planting beds and driveway stone are laid only after this outdoor waste line passes a full flow test.

Are the main services (fresh water, waste, power) connected?

In unfinished villas, the builder often leaves the fresh-water pipe, main waste outlet and primary power cable at the garden wall or front threshold. Indoor distribution waits until the owner fixes the final positions of bathrooms, the kitchen and the main breaker board.

On site, the first check is main cable gauge and whether the fibre conduit enters the house intact. Second is load calculation if a heat pump, underfloor heating, EV charger, sauna or heavy kitchen appliances are planned. Third is municipal water pressure, meter hookup and garden irrigation separation. Even when handover papers say services are ready, nothing is assumed before valves and breakers are tested live.

The gas meter box, earthing rod, water storage tank, softener unit and booster pump room are fixed at the same time. Smart-home panels and boilers are never energised without an earth-loop test, and upper-floor showers lose flow if booster capacity is skipped.

This directly shapes schedule and cost: until threshold lines are brought inside and the main board niche, underfloor heating manifold cabinet and vertical risers are fixed, partitions and screed wait. Room layout locks around those three main arteries. Otherwise the team is forced to enlarge the breaker board or dig a new cable trench across the garden after walls are painted.

Is there a lift shaft, and does water collect under it?

When a multi-storey unfinished villa includes a lift shaft, the bottom pit sits below foundation level and acts as a separate water risk point. Ground water and rain seepage gather in that low pit first, turning the shaft into a damp reservoir inside the house if left untreated.

The pit slab and walls need interior and exterior waterproofing, plus a sump pocket and discharge pipe for a submersible pump. Without ventilation at the top of the shaft, trapped moisture also pushes into hall walls on every floor. Neither lift rails nor adjacent wardrobes, bathrooms or timber panelling are installed before the pit stays dry.

Even when the owner postpones the lift and uses the shaft as temporary storage or closets on each floor, the bottom pit is never decked over before tanking and a pump line are complete. Sealing a wet pit traps odour that spreads through the whole house and warps nearby flooring.

Pit depth, top-floor headroom, landing door openings and three-phase power required by the lift supplier are measured before screed is poured. Fixing dimensions during rough work avoids breaking structural concrete later. With these measures in place, rooms around the shaft stay dry, quiet and odour-free even if the lift cabin is installed years later.

I bought an older villa — what should I check?

When you buy an older villa, renovation starts not with kitchen cabinets but with basement damp, sewer health and street level changes. Pipes and cables already exist in an older home; the real risk is tired material failing beneath brand-new stone and parquet.

Earlier patch repairs often hid moisture behind fresh paint or wall panelling instead of fixing the source. Work therefore begins by reading the building: skirting blisters, low bathroom pressure, aged wiring in the fuse box and how garden drains behave in rain are all logged. Galvanised or brittle water pipes are replaced in full before new tiles go down.

Heating loops, radiator tails, roof gutters, window frame seals and garden retaining walls are inspected on the same visit. Refreshing only visible surfaces in a twenty-year-old house leaves ageing pipes under new parquet waiting to burst.

Umut GURLER Interior Architecture pairs strip-out with this infrastructure survey on older villa renovations so hidden demolition is resolved during design. Load-bearing walls and usable service risers are confirmed at the same time. The four checks below must close before finish work begins. Quotes given without this survey always grow mid-project, whereas reading the structure upfront protects both budget and handover date for the homeowner. Which items drive the budget is covered in what drives the cost of a villa renovation, and how many months the work takes in how long a villa interior architecture project takes.

Have the basement floors taken water?

In an older villa, failed foundation waterproofing reveals itself through a musty smell at the door, crumbling plaster along skirtings and swollen floor boards. Any fresh paint, drywall or joinery installed over a damp basement pushes the same moisture back out within months.

Scraping and repainting the inner face alone never solves the leak; the team separates garden soil seepage, broken rainwater downpipes and rising slab moisture. Where needed, perimeter land drains are renewed outside and negative-side waterproofing mortars are applied inside. Existing timber panelling or stone cladding on basement walls is never trusted without checking behind it.

Lawn sprinklers spraying directly against the plinth or concrete walkways that have settled toward the house also feed water into the basement. Re-grading that outer apron relieves pressure on the interior membrane.

Basement lightwell drains often clog with leaves and soil as well, pouring storm water indoors through hopper windows until their grates are cleared and piped away. When the lower floor will serve as a media room, gym, laundry or plant room, fresh-air supply and dehumidification are sized at the same stage, and layout locks only after walls read dry. Once tanking and drying finish, the basement stops being a damp storage corner and works as a healthy, odour-free living floor like the storeys above.

Is the manhole connection still sound?

Over the years, soil settlement and growing garden tree roots in an older villa can crack underground waste pipes and the main manhole joint. Running a camera through the outdoor line before rebuilding indoor bathrooms prevents sewage backflow after move-in.

Old concrete collars and brittle PVC open at the joints; water-seeking roots from pine, willow or fig trees enter those gaps and choke the pipe completely. Lifting the manhole lid alone is not enough, because mid-run sags only show up on a flexible pipe camera, which marks the exact metre of any break or reverse slope.

Buried inspection chambers hidden under later turf or garden paving are located during the same survey and brought back to surface level. Hardened kitchen grease is jetted clean so the true pipe diameter can be checked.

Damaged sections are dug up and replaced with ring-seal pipes before garden landscaping, irrigation and stone paths are laid, and a non-return valve is added where needed. Neither basement bathrooms nor terrace paving close until this line runs clear, saving the garden from being dug up again next winter. A recorded camera check and renewed pipe run give the homeowner long-term confidence that drains will not back up or smell after move-in.

Are there level changes inside the building?

In an older villa, natural building settlement and layered past refurbishments create noticeable floor height differences between rooms and corridors. Before laying large-format porcelain, marble or engineered wood, every storey must be read with a laser level and brought to a true plane.

Level drift shows up as trip steps at doorways, uneven gaps under door leaves, or wardrobes that lean away from walls. Once old finishes are stripped, one room may reveal thick mortar while the next has thin adhesive. Adding underfloor heating also raises screed height and affects the first stair riser and entrance door.

Rooms where new tile was previously glued on top of old tile carry extra dead load and sit two centimetres above the hall. Stripping those layers back to the structural slab avoids an unsafe step at the stair landing.

A single datum line is marked on the walls of each floor so balcony thresholds, walk-in shower channels, skirting lines and room transitions are levelled together with screed. Door frames, stair balustrades and fitted joinery never go to production before that plane is locked. Once the levelling screed cures to a single plane, doors swing clear without scraping, large tiles sit flat without lippage, and wardrobes meet the walls cleanly.

Is there a level gap between the road and the house entrance?

Every new layer of municipal asphalt and kerb laid since the villa was built can raise the street above the garden gate and garage. If that level change is ignored, heavy rain sends street runoff straight into the garden, garage and entrance hall.

On site, the road crown, kerb, gate threshold, garage ramp and front step are read on one laser survey. When the street sits higher than the plot, a narrow slot drain at the gate cannot hold storm water alone; wide channel grates, re-graded paving, a sump chamber and a duty pump are installed together, or the threshold is raised to block surface water.

Because the grate at the foot of a garage ramp clogs quickly with leaves and silt, a sediment bucket and a battery-backed pump are added for power cuts during storms. Runoff from neighbouring plots along the boundary wall is channelled into the same drain.

Even the finest stone or joinery falls short when infrastructure stays exposed. Umut GURLER Interior Architecture closes this site checklist first, then moves on to villa interior design and villa decoration examples to shape the rooms. When the gate and garage ramp have proper drainage, even a cloudburst is carried to the storm main before surface water reaches the front threshold.