Porto is rightfully one of the most beautiful cities for tourism and usually in its very center the influx of tourists is most felt. That is why in this part of the city there are so many AL - apartments rented daily for tourists. Repairs in AL - is the largest part of all repair work carried out in the historical part of the city.
The first feature of the renovation in the historical part is, of course, the very poor condition of all communications, the unevenness of the walls, many of which are soaked with moisture, as well as the absence of normal windows, doors, etc. All this clearly does not meet modern housing requirements.
Therefore, when possible, we recommend completely replacing plumbing pipes, as the old ones are made of metal and can rot inside the walls, causing moisture to enter the walls and they will simply swell and fall off. Also, special attention should be paid to the roof, as in old houses they can present many surprises to the owners.
External walls are usually not insulated from the outside. And windows can leak. Therefore, we recommend replacing the windows, drying the walls and, if necessary, insulating them from the inside. But the most important thing is to ensure tightness, that is, to make sure that water will no longer penetrate into the room. We also recommend insulating the ceilings from the inside. Ideally, they are covered with plasterboard and mineral wool is laid inside.
Very often our customers ask to preserve the stone walls so that tourists have a sense of Portuguese antiquity. So in the rooms one wall is left untouched, and the rest are completely finished and leveled. In this case, the plinth is brought to the stone wall, and then the gaps between the plinth and the uneven stones are filled with a special solution to give the room an aesthetic look.
Often in the houses in the historical center you can find apartments with high ceilings, which can be 3 meters high or more. This is very cool, since most housing in Portugal is 2.5 meters high and only the most recent new buildings can boast a height of 2.6 meters. Which is not much. And if you hem such ceilings with plasterboard, the height will become very small.
It is worth remembering that in the historical part of Porto, work can be carried out with a VAT of not 23%, as in the rest of the city, but only 6%. This is one of the factors stimulating the repair of the historical part of the city.
Very often, during renovations in this part of the city, natural wood is used as a finishing material, for example, for floors, stairs, railings and other interior items. It looks very cool in the interior and gives a sense of coziness to the apartment. Sometimes you can find objects where the lion's share of all renovation work is the restoration of old wood.
But the most common type of work in the historical center is certainly painting walls and ceilings with minor work to eliminate cracks and minor defects. You can read more about these works in our article «painting ceilings and walls».
