Apartment and house renovation in Kleisti - for detached houses and apartments in a former manor building

Detached houses among forests and apartments in a manor house

At 1,873 ha, Kleisti is the largest neighbourhood of Riga by area, incorporated into Riga in 1924 together with Bolderāja, Daugavgrīva, Šampēteris and other manor lands on the left bank of the Daugava. It is sparsely built up, with forests, meadows and separate residential areas, where alongside detached houses there are farm properties and riding and sports areas. In the former Kleisti manor house, apartments were created in Soviet times.

These two types of building call for a different approach in a renovation. In a detached house the owner manages the whole building and decides about heating, floors and the installations. In a historic building divided into apartments, the external walls, the roof, the load-bearing walls and the floors between storeys are the common property of all the owners, while the apartment property includes non-load-bearing partition walls, the finishing, the doors and the utilities up to the shared risers.

The Kleisti manor complex at Kleistu iela 65, Kleistu iela 75 and Rātsupītes iela 2 is an architectural monument of regional importance (state protection No. 6615), and its values to be preserved are the roof shape, the arrangement of the building masses and the original external doors. If your apartment is in this complex, the solution for window, door or facade work is agreed with the National Heritage Board, so start any plan for external doors or the roof with that question, not with choosing materials. For other buildings in Riga that are older than 50 years and not state-protected, the City Development Department can determine the cultural and historical value when reviewing the proposal.

The manor house is a single-storey log building from the end of the 18th century on a high masonry foundation with a mansard roof, later clad with tongue-and-groove boards. In a log building the walls are wooden, so before fitting out a bathroom or insulating from the inside you need to know what rigid base will go under the tiles and how the walls will be insulated. See wooden house renovation and internal wall insulation in Kleisti.

Kleistu iela and what to tell about the house

Kleisti is reached along Kleistu iela and the local road network, and the street and public transport network is sparser than in the city centre. The distances between houses are large, so in the request give the exact address, whether a lorry can reach the house and where materials can be stored. If the house is not occupied during the renovation, write whether it has electricity and water, because part of the work cannot be done without them.

• a detached house or an apartment in the manor building;
• approximate year of construction, number of floors, area in m²;
• type of heating: boiler, stove, heat pump or other;
• whether you plan underfloor heating and in which rooms;
• when the wiring was last changed or checked.

Detached house interior work: order of work and documents

In a detached house the order of interior work can start with what is hidden behind the finishing: first the wiring, water and sewage, then the screed or the floor base, then walls and ceilings, and last the floor covering and doors. If the house will be lived in all year round after the renovation, also decide about insulation, because it changes the thickness of walls and ceilings. In a bathroom, before tiles, waterproofing is applied to the floor and to the walls in the shower area; the manufacturer Ceresit CL 51 recommends at least two coats and tape in the corners.

For an interior project that does not include renovation, reconstruction, restoration or demolition work, no construction proposal documents are needed. If the volume of the house changes, for example when an extension is built or the roof is raised, it is a reconstruction. In Kleisti, 25.3% of the territory must have engineering preparation before construction, so before an extension the designer also checks the conditions of the plot, and approval of a reconstruction in Kleisti goes through the City Development Department of the Riga municipality (formerly the Riga City Building Board). See private house renovation in Kleisti, private house renovation and sauna finishing.

Underfloor heating and screed in a house

In a detached house underfloor heating can be electric or water, connected to the house's heating boiler. For electric underfloor heating, when the installation is reconstructed, residual current protection must be installed, and it is connected by a qualified electrician. With underfloor heating, the manufacturer Quick-Step requires the surface of the base under laminate not to be warmer than 28.8 °C and the moisture of the cement base to be below 1.5%.

For a screed over heating, manufacturers give different conditions: with underfloor heating Ceresit CN 76 permits a cement base moisture of up to 1.8%, and in large rooms movement joints are left in the levelling layer. See underfloor heating in Kleisti, floor screed and drying times.

Wiring in a manor building apartment and in an old house

In an apartment created in a historic building in Soviet times, the wiring can date from the same period; the LV portāls explains that in many homes the wiring is 30–50 years old and worn. The Fire Safety Regulations currently in force provide for a check once every 10 years. In an apartment building the user is responsible for connecting their own equipment and for its technical condition, while the electricity supply of common property is provided as part of managing the building. So the apartment owner is responsible for the apartment's wiring from the distribution board to the sockets, but for the stairwell's distribution board and the service entry, talk to the building manager. In a detached house the owner is responsible for the whole installation.

The installation is carried out under the supervision of a construction specialist, and the wire resistance, earthing and loop resistance are checked by a certified electrical specialist. See rewiring in Kleisti and old electrical wiring.

Prices for a house and an apartment in Kleisti

• Laying underfloor heating: from €16/m²
• Floor levelling, pouring or screed: from €6.50/m²
• Rewiring in an apartment: from €20/m² of apartment area
• Painting walls or ceilings: from €4/m²

Prices are for labour. Materials are calculated separately in the estimate. Example: underfloor heating in a 20 m² living room: 20 × €16 = from €320 and a screed in the same room 20 × €6.50 = from €130. A manor building apartment of 50 m², new wiring: 50 × €20 = from €1,000. For a detached house renovation the price is by estimate, determined by the area, the number of rooms, the condition of the walls and floors and the chosen finishing. An exact estimate can be made after seeing the property. All prices: renovation prices.