All trades · Paris
An exceptional renovation calls on dozens of artisans with very different crafts. Our role as general contractor: selecting them, coordinating them and answering for them — under a single contract. Here are the sixteen trades we lead.
Controlled strip-out, respectful of the existing structure.
Openings, structural repairs, masonry.
Partitions, ceilings, restored cornices and roses.
Fully renewed wiring, panels, architectural lighting.
Supply, drainage, risers.
Heating, ventilation, air conditioning.
Doors, windows, woodwork.
Wardrobes, bookcases, kitchens.
Gloss, matt or velvet finishes.
Tiling and faience.
Parquet, sanding, sealing.
Counters, basins, floors.
Glass partitions, railings, fine ironwork.
Single, double glazing, custom mirrors.
Bathrooms, terraces.
Lighting, blinds, moods.
The cards above summarise; here is the reality of the craft. Every trade has its rules of the art, its incompressible lead times and its precise moment in the sequencing of a project. It is this chain — who steps in when, after whom, coordinated with whom — that separates a controlled renovation from a project that drifts.
Every major renovation begins with a complete strip-out: removal of partitions, floors, obsolete networks and fittings, back to the bare shell. In a Parisian building, this trade demands careful protection of the common areas, rigorous rubble management and a phasing compatible with the life of the co-ownership. It is also the moment of truth: the strip-out reveals the true condition of the structure and lets us adjust the following trades before they commit the schedule.
Opening load-bearing walls, installing steel beams, repairing floors, creating shafts: structural works transform the plan before any other craft steps on site. In a Haussmann apartment such as our St Georges project — 145 m² restructured —, every opening is validated by a structural study and executed to the highest standard. This trade conditions all the others: until the structure is stabilised, no network can be installed.
Plastering redraws the volumes: partitions, linings, suspended ceilings designed to receive networks and recessed lighting. Ornamental plasterwork is another craft entirely: cornices, mouldings and ceiling roses restored or recreated identically, a savoir-faire inseparable from the Parisian apartment. This trade slots in between the routing of the networks — which it closes up — and the finishes, which demand perfectly true surfaces. A demanding plasterer saves the painter days of work.
In a full renovation, the electrical installation is renewed from scratch to the French NF C 15-100 standard: panel, circuits, sockets, equipotential bonding. In high-end work the difference is made in architectural lighting — light coves, wall lights, dimming — and in anticipation: every light point and every socket is positioned on plan before the partitions are closed. The electrician therefore comes in early, for conduits and boxes, then returns at the end of the project for fittings and adjustments.
Supply lines, drainage, riser repairs: plumbing plays out in two stages. First the roughed-in networks, embedded before walls and floors are closed; then the installation of the fixtures, once tiling and stonework are in place. The layouts — walk-in shower, concealed taps, double basin — are frozen at the execution-drawing stage, because every centimetre counts when the stonemason comes to cut his tops to measure.
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning form a discreet but structuring trade: the ducts of a concealed air-conditioning system or of mechanical ventilation dictate the suspended ceilings and soffits drawn by the plasterer. This dialogue between HVAC and plastering is settled on plan, never on site. On our Trocadéro renovation — 227 m², 10 months, sixteen trades —, the integration of the air networks was arbitrated at design stage so as to sacrifice neither ceiling height nor mouldings.
Full-height doors, restoration of period woodwork, skirtings, panelling: interior joinery gives the apartment its lines. In a Haussmann renovation it often means restoring the existing — moulded doors, espagnolette bolts, threshold parquet — and creating the new in the same vocabulary, so the eye cannot tell period from contemporary. The joiner works on surfaces finished by the plasterer and precedes the painter, who will unify the whole.
Bookcases, dressing rooms, kitchens, joinery-built bathrooms: millwork is the trade that separates a high-end renovation from a simple refresh. Every piece is drawn in execution plans, built in the workshop, then installed to the millimetre. It demands close coordination with the electrician — integrated lighting, invisible sockets — and with the plumber whenever the millwork receives a water point. It is also where a large share of the budget of an apartment renovation in Paris is decided.
Painting accounts for only a few weeks of the project, yet it carries the client's gaze: every flaw in the substrate shows through it. Hence the weight of preparation — filling, skimming, sanding — which matters more than the application of colour itself. Matt, velvet or lacquered finishes depending on the room, woodwork treated differently from ceilings: the painter comes in at the end of the project, after every other trade has passed, and signs the perceived quality of the whole.
Tiling and faience dress bathrooms and kitchens in accordance with the French DTU codes of practice: flat substrates, adhesive suited to the format, calibrated joints. On large formats or fragile stones, the layout plan — the distribution of tiles, cuts and joints — is drawn before installation, room by room. This trade immediately follows waterproofing, which it covers, and precedes the installation of sanitaryware and taps.
Parquet remains the emblematic floor of the Parisian apartment: restoration of period boards, sanding, sealing or oiling, or new installation in point de Hongrie or herringbone patterns. Laying requires a dry substrate and controlled humidity — the wood arrives among the last trades, once all wet works are complete. Junctions with marble or tiling are handled with discreet threshold bars or clean cuts, drawn in advance.
Worktops, basins carved from the block, stone floors, bathroom cladding: stonework brings the noble material. Every piece is templated on site, then cut and polished in the workshop before installation. The reservations — tap holes, drainage — are coordinated with the plumber upstream, because stone forgives no approximation. The stonemason comes in after the tiler and before the sanitaryware is installed.
Steel-framed glass partitions, railings, metal doors, fine ironwork: metalwork structures open volumes without enclosing them. The pieces are made to measure, from dimensions taken once the plastering is complete — an opening that shifts by a few millimetres is enough to throw a glass partition out of true. The finish, powder coating or paint, is chosen in coherence with the hardware and the light fittings to hold the decorative line of the project.
Full-height custom mirrors, shower screens, glazing for steel partitions, replacement of single glazing with double: glazing works from finished dimensions, at the very end of the project. Bonded mirrors demand perfectly flat substrates, delivered by the plasterer and the painter; shower screens are installed after tiling and waterproofing. A short trade, but one that tolerates no approximation when dimensions are taken.
Invisible once the project is delivered, waterproofing is nonetheless one of the most binding trades: liquid membranes or mats beneath the tiling of walk-in showers, treatment of terraces and balconies. It is executed between the roughed-in plumbing and the tiling, with incompressible drying times. It is typically the trade covered by our €5,000,000 ten-year warranty insurance: a defect here is paid for years later.
Scenario-based lighting, motorised blinds and shutters, programmed moods: home automation is decided at design stage, not at finishing stage. Every control and every scenario relies on cabling anticipated from the electrical trade onwards — impossible to redo once the partitions are closed. We have also deployed it in a professional setting, on a 210 m² medical office classified ERP5, where mood control had to coexist with operating constraints. Final programming happens at handover, with the client.
Sixteen trades, one schedule, one responsibility: that is precisely what our role of general contractor in Paris covers. To know what your project would represent — scope, duration, order of magnitude —, describe it to us: we provide a first estimate within 48 hours.
On our Trocadéro project — 227 m², 10 months — these sixteen trades followed one another without a single day of slack, because one lead carried the schedule, the budget and the result. That is the essence of the general contractor model: every trade is selected, coordinated and guaranteed by W.A.R.D, under a €5,000,000 ten-year warranty insurance.
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