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Project background
Full renovation of a Haussmann apartment held as a patrimonial asset.
In the 9th arrondissement of Paris, W.A.R.D is carrying out the complete renovation of this 145 m² Haussmann apartment held as a long-term family asset. The works, currently under way, bring together 8 craftsmen over a planned duration of 5 months.
A renovation with a patrimonial purpose calls for a particular balance: modernising the apartment — comfort, services, uses — while preserving what gives it lasting value. Decisions are made room by room, with constant demands on the quality of execution. In a 9th-arrondissement building, that means working with a structure on which every era has left its mark: the surveys carried out beforehand guide the choices, but it is often the opening-up of the works that reveals the true condition of the structures and services.
The programme for a complete 145 m² renovation is built backwards: you start from the target handover date, work back trade by trade, and check that each intervention has the real time it needs. Here, five months separate site set-up from the handing over of the keys, with eight craftsmen whose periods on site partly overlap.
The first sequence is the strip-out. Protecting the common areas and the elements being kept, removing the finishes, the added partitions and the outdated installations: it prepares the ground and, above all, it informs. In an older building, this is the moment when the gap between the survey and reality is measured — the condition of the floors, the exact run of the drops, the nature of the substrates.
The second sequence, the densest, brings together the technical trades: new electrics and plumbing, ventilation, linings and plasterwork. It concludes with a point of no return, the closing of the partitions, beyond which any change is paid for in time. The third is that of the finishes — joinery, parquet floors, painting, electrical accessories — carried out in an order that protects the most fragile work until the last moment. The site will end with a room-by-room inspection and the clearing of snagging items.
Two sets of constraints frame an operation of this kind. The first come from the fabric of the building. A renovation with a patrimonial purpose means deciding, element by element, what is kept, what is restored and what is replaced. An old parquet floor can often be sanded and made good rather than lifted; original joinery can be overhauled; conversely, some substrates are too degraded and call for complete replacement. Each of these decisions carries a cost and a lead time, and is taken in full knowledge of the facts rather than on principle.
The second come from the building itself. A site in the 9th arrondissement takes place among neighbours who live there: working hours, restricted use of the lift, parking for delivery vehicles, removal of rubble, daily cleanliness of the common areas. These rules are not to be got around, they are to be planned for. In practice, that means grouping deliveries, setting the noisy work within the permitted windows, and keeping both the managing agent and the residents informed. This work will appear in no end-of-project photograph, but it determines whether the five months announced hold. The same reflexes apply to larger patrimonial operations, such as the renovation of an hôtel particulier, and belong squarely to the role of the general contractor.
The complete renovation of a Haussmann apartment typically calls on every trade: strip-out, plastering, new electrics and plumbing, joinery, parquet floors, painting and finishes. In an old building, the sequencing of interventions and respect for the life of the co-owned building — nuisance, common areas, working hours — matter as much as the technique. Centralised management makes it possible to absorb the contingencies inherent in old buildings without letting the schedule drift. Added to this is the patrimonial dimension: preserving and restoring the features that give a Haussmann apartment its character — ceiling height, joinery, period floors — wherever their condition allows, rather than replacing them systematically.
To understand our method on this type of operation, see our page devoted to apartment renovation in Paris, or get an estimate right away.
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"Many thanks to Anthony and his team for their professionalism, their advice and the quality of the work. The result is refined and exactly what I expected." (translated)Adrien A. · Google review
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