Light, mid or deep renovation: how to choose the right level

Anyone looking into home renovation runs into the same three-step classification: light, mid and deep renovation. These are standard terms in the trade and it is natural for research to start there. What rarely becomes clear is where the boundary between one level and the next actually falls in practice, and it is that boundary which decides the budget, the timeline and the number of decisions you will have to make.

At ApartFix we work with those same three scopes, under our own names: Practical, Family and Signature. The correspondence is direct: Practical is the light renovation, Family the mid-level, Signature the deep one. This guide explains what concretely changes from one level to the next, how each sits against the figures charged in the Lisbon market, and what questions to ask yourself before deciding.

The three levels side by side

Generic level	ApartFix name	Scope	Price	End-to-end timeline
Light	Practical	Painting, flooring, lighting, simple kitchen work and spot bathroom work. No layout changes and no structural partitioning.	600 to 900 €/m²	5 to 8 weeks
Mid	Family	New kitchen, bathroom fully rebuilt, floors, ceilings and walls worked on, electrics and plumbing updated, non-structural partitioning for light layout changes.	900 to 1,600 €/m²	3 to 5 months
Deep	Signature	Dedicated interior design, bespoke joinery, premium materials (stone, wood, brass), technical lighting, home automation and VRV/VRF climate control.	1,600 to 2,400 €/m²	6 to 10 months

How to read this table The column that decides is the scope, not the price. What separates the levels is how deep the work goes: Practical stays at the surface, Family goes down to the infrastructure, Signature adds design and made-to-measure execution on top of all that. Price and timeline are consequences of that depth, not the starting criterion.

Light renovation (Practical level)

A light renovation deals with what you see and touch every day, without rebuilding what sits behind the walls. You paint, replace flooring, revisit the lighting, carry out simple kitchen work (which might be changing fronts, worktop and sink without moving the layout) and resolve the bathroom in a targeted way, for example with new fixtures and renewed tiling.

What stays out matters as much as what stays in: no layout changes and no structural partitioning. The plumbing and consumer unit remain as they are, on the assumption that they are functional. If they are not, this stops being the right level.

It makes sense in three concrete situations. First: adding value to a flat before putting it on the market, where the aim is for it to present well in photographs and viewings, with an investment recovered in the price. Second: preparing the property for long-term letting, where what matters is that everything works and stands up to use, not that it is designer. Third: preparing for short-term rental in the areas where that works, on the same logic of durability and presentation.

The timeline is 5 to 8 weeks end to end. It is the only category where the work can, in some cases, proceed with the flat partially occupied, though it is almost always faster and cheaper carried out with the property empty.

Mid-level renovation (Family level)

Here the nature of the work changes. The kitchen is new, the bathroom is fully rebuilt (including waterproofing and plumbing), the floors, ceilings and walls are properly worked on, and the electrical and water systems are updated at the same time. With non-structural partitioning it is possible to alter the layout lightly: opening a living room onto the kitchen, closing an opening, creating a dressing room out of a large bedroom.

This is the level for someone who will live in the flat for years. And the reason it makes sense is not aesthetic, it is about sequence: redoing pipework and electrical circuits means opening walls and floors, so it is work that can only be done economically at the same time as the finishes. Doing finishes first and infrastructure later means paying twice for the same covering.

The timeline jumps to 3 to 5 months end to end, and the jump is bigger than the difference in scope suggests. The cause lies in the number of trades involved and the compulsory order between them: the electrician has to come before the plasterer, the plumber before the waterproofing, and there are curing times that cannot be shortened. A delay on one front propagates to every one that follows.

This timeline is consistent with what the market shows: a mid-level renovation of a two-bedroom flat of around 80 m² typically sits at 3 to 5 months of execution, and it is rare to find a genuinely complete case delivered in much less.

Deep renovation (Signature level)

A deep renovation is not a mid-level one with better materials. It is a different process, because it begins before the work: there is a dedicated interior design project, with each room drawn, materials specified and suppliers coordinated. The joinery is made to measure, the materials are high end (stone, solid wood, brass), the lighting is technical rather than decorative, and systems such as home automation and VRV/VRF climate control come into play.

The client profile is clear: someone who wants a designer project, with a result that cannot be achieved by picking catalogue solutions. It is also the appropriate level when the building is old and the work amounts, in practice, to rebuilding the interior of the flat from scratch.

The timeline, 6 to 10 months end to end, reflects three things at once: the design phase before work starts, the manufacturing lead times for joinery and the delivery times for materials that are not held in stock, and the execution itself, which is slower because the tolerances are tighter. In deep refurbishments of older buildings, where the structure and the building’s own services are involved, the process can stretch to 8 to 12 months, a level that already falls outside the ordinary scope of renovating a single flat. Listed heritage property is quoted separately, because heritage constraints change the working method.

Where these figures sit in the Lisbon market

The ApartFix ranges are not a closed system: they correspond, with small variations, to the bands other companies in the region charge for the same three scopes. Renovation companies working in Lisbon publish execution cost bands in the order of 600 to 800 €/m² for light work, 800 to 1,200 €/m² for mid-level work and 1,200 to 2,200 €/m² for deep work with quality materials.

They are not identical to ours, and they should not be. Each company draws the boundaries of its levels slightly differently: what one includes in the mid level, another pushes into the deep one, and that shifts the bands. What matters is that our ranges sit inside what the regional market charges, with no figures out of line either below or above.

From this follows the only sensible way to compare proposals: compare scopes before comparing totals. Two quotes with very different per-m² figures are almost always describing different jobs. Confirm whether both include a consumer unit and new circuits, replacement pipework, bathroom waterproofing and debris removal. When those items appear in one and not the other, the price difference is already explained.

When an architect becomes involved, and why that adds time

There is a point beyond which the job stops being only execution. If the work alters the structure of the flat, meaning it touches elements that hold the building up, the process comes to include an architectural design and validation by a qualified professional before any work begins. Removing an interior wall that is not structural does not follow that route and is resolved within the normal scope of the work.

This is one of the practical reasons a deep renovation takes longer than the sum of its tasks: there is a phase of design, of coordination between different people and of approvals, that runs before the first team sets foot on site. It is not wasted time, but it is time that has to be in the calendar from the outset.

How to decide which level is yours

Before looking at prices, answer these questions. They identify the level more reliably than the available budget does.

How many years do you plan to keep this flat? Under three, or if it is for selling or letting: the light level resolves it. Over ten, and today’s saving on the infrastructure comes back as building work a few years from now.

Are the kitchen and bathroom functional and watertight? If they are, you can stay at the light level with a clear conscience. If there is old iron or lead pipework, damp in walls or a consumer unit without separate circuits, the mid level stops being a choice and becomes the reasonable minimum.

Do you want to change the layout? If the answer involves merging rooms, moving the kitchen or relocating the bathroom, you are no longer at the light level. Moving water and waste points is the single factor that most pushes any quote towards the top of its range.

Will you be living there during the work? A mid or deep renovation with the home occupied is possible, but it costs more and takes longer, because it forces the work to be phased and the areas in use to be protected.

Do you want to choose everything, or do you want it resolved for you? If you prefer to be shown options and pick between two or three, the mid level works well. If you want every piece of furniture, every material and every light point designed for your flat, you are describing the Signature level, and the design timeline is part of the package.

What share of the property’s value are you willing to invest? Multiplying the floor area by the range for each level gives an immediate order of magnitude. If the result for the level you had in mind is disproportionate to the value of the flat in that area, the right answer is usually to reduce the scope deliberately rather than to look for someone who will do the same scope for less.

Once the level is identified, the next step is a visit to the property. That is where the state of the electrical installation, the condition of the floors and the building’s constraints are confirmed, and those decide whether your job lands at the bottom or the top of the range. The figure is fixed in writing before the work starts.