Apartment and house renovation in Kundziņsala - for detached houses on a port island

Over 100 residential houses next to the port

The inhabited part of Kundziņsala has over 100 residential houses, while the western part is occupied by the port complex. Houses began to be built here together with the “Provodņik” factory, whose management gave workers loans to build houses. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, when the container terminal and the railway were built, the old development was demolished, including on the 1st and 2nd Line along Sarkandaugava. The residential area (34.7 ha) has the status of mixed development in the territory plan, and almost all the rest of the land is a production area within the boundaries of the Freeport of Riga.

For a renovation, this means the job here can be in a private house rather than in an apartment building. A private house has no common property and no building manager, so the owner decides about pipes, heating and wiring. On the other hand, all the responsibility for the technical solutions is his or hers: where the sewage runs, how the bathroom is ventilated, what the capacity of the electrical service entry is. If the house was built several decades ago and has been rebuilt several times since, start with this list of questions, not with choosing tiles.

If your apartment is in a low-rise house with several apartment properties, the situation is different: the external walls, the roof, the load-bearing walls, the floors between storeys and the building's engineering systems are common property. Work that affects them needs the apartment owners' association's consent, and if the work affects a neighbour's apartment, the neighbour's consent as well. The finishing, non-load-bearing partition walls and utilities up to the shared risers are part of the apartment; according to the Riga municipality's explanation, demolishing a non-load-bearing wall needs a plan by a certified architect and a construction notice in the BIS.

In Riga, for buildings older than 50 years that are not state-protected, the City Development Department, when reviewing a construction intent, can determine the cultural and historical value. For painting or changing the floor covering, no documents are needed.

Port roads and the overpass: how to describe access

Kundziņsala is reached by port roads, and port security regimes can restrict access. An 863 m long overpass connects Tvaika iela in Sarkandaugava with Kundziņsala; it was planned to open to traffic on 1 November 2026, with a separate turn to the residential area. In the request, describe the route to the house: which street to approach from, whether there is a checkpoint or a barrier on the way and whether a vehicle with materials can be parked by the house.

• The age and material of the house: wooden, masonry or mixed.
• The number of floors and the total area in m².
• Which rooms to renovate and whether the bathroom already exists or has to be fitted out.
• The type of heating and whether you are changing it.
• Whether you plan an extension or building out a roof storey.
• The condition: rooms, floors, the electrical panel, the outside of the house.

Floors in an old detached house: levelling and underfloor heating

If in an old private house the floor is uneven, it is levelled before a new covering. On a concrete base a self-levelling compound is used: the manufacturer states that Ceresit CN 76 is applied at a thickness of 4 to 50 mm, can be walked on after 3 hours and tiled after 3 days. In large rooms movement joints are needed: the manufacturer recommends an area of up to 36 m² and joints also at room thresholds.

Throughout Kundziņsala the groundwater is shallower than 1.5 m, so for a ground-floor slab it is worth knowing the moisture of the base before a new covering: under laminate Ceresit permits a cement base moisture of up to 2.0% without heating.

If you are laying underfloor heating at the same time, in a private house it is not a common property question, but for electric heating, when the wiring is reconstructed, residual current protection is needed. According to Ceresit, the moisture of the base with floor heating under laminate or parquet must not exceed 1.8%. See floor levelling, floor screed and underfloor heating.

Fitting out a bathroom and a kitchen in a house

If in an old house a bathroom is fitted out from new or moved elsewhere, you need to plan the sewage fall, the water supply and the ventilation. In a residential building the kitchen, toilet and bathroom are ventilated through natural exhaust ducts. In the wet zone, waterproofing is applied before tiles; the Ceresit CL 51 manufacturer recommends at least two coats and tape in the joints between walls and floor. For tile adhesive the manufacturer requires the mortar to cover at least 65% of the underside of the tile, and in corners, at the floor and at the sanitary ware the joints are filled with silicone, not grout.

A gas cooker may be replaced or moved within one room, in agreement with the gas supplier; for an appliance with a flue, even in the same room, the supplier's permission and a report on the condition of the flue and ventilation ducts are needed, and for moving it to another room the supplier's technical conditions, a report and a building design are needed. Gas work is not part of the renovation estimate. More: bathroom renovation, kitchen renovation and private house renovation.

Wiring and the electrical panel: when to replace them

The LV portāls explanation states that in many homes the wiring was installed in Soviet times and is 30 to 50 years old. The Fire Safety Regulations currently in force require a check of the wiring once every 10 years, with an inspection report. If the check shows that the wiring has to be replaced, this is done before plastering and skimming. For a reconstructed installation, the socket and lighting circuits need residual current protection with a tripping current of no more than 30 mA. The work: rewiring.

Prices for a Kundziņsala house

• Cosmetic renovation: from €100/m² of apartment area.
• Floor levelling, poured compound or screed: from €6.50/m².
• Laying underfloor heating: from €16/m².
• Rewiring in an apartment: from €20/m² of apartment area.

Prices are for labour. Materials are calculated separately in the estimate. Example: floor levelling of 40 m² on the ground floor: 40 × €6.50 = from €260 (labour); a thicker layer changes the price. For a house, the total is determined by the area, the number of rooms, the condition of the walls and floors and whether wiring and pipes are changed. An exact estimate can be made after seeing the house.

Work: house renovation in Kundziņsala, floor levelling in Kundziņsala, bathroom renovation in Kundziņsala, rewiring in Kundziņsala.