Full home renovations in Xirivella, designed for the apartment block

Xirivella is one of those l’Horta Oest towns that are barely distinguishable from Valencia: its old centre sits so close to the city on the western side that the neighbourhood of La Llum is shared almost street by street with the city, and from the centre you can reach Valencia in a matter of minutes. It is a dense town of tightly packed blocks and narrow streets, where the overwhelming majority of homes are flats and where renovating every square metre well makes the difference between an awkward home and a house that is a pleasure to live in.

The urban fabric of Xirivella went up in a hurry between the sixties and seventies, when many people arrived from elsewhere to work in the metropolitan area and entire neighbourhoods of apartment blocks were built in very little time. That housing stock, spread across the Centre, La Llum and the neighbourhoods that grew up around them, is today the bulk of what we renovate: solid but dated flats, with closed-off kitchens, worn-out services and, in many buildings, no lift at all. Renovating them is no whim; it is what you need to live well today.

At Batecs we have spent more than 35 years carrying out full home renovations in Valencia and l’Horta, from our base in La Eliana. In Xirivella you mostly ask us for the same things: to open the kitchen onto the living room so light can come in, to redesign a flat that has become too small for the family, and to bring decades-old plumbing and electrics up to date. We tackle it as we always do, with our own in-house team, a fixed written quote and the coordination that working inside an occupied building in the centre of a dense town demands.

What is different here

What is special about renovating in Xirivella

Renovating a flat in a dense town that merges into Valencia has its own rules. These are the issues that come up most often in Xirivella and that are worth sorting out before the work begins.

The block flat of the sixties and seventies

The most common home in Xirivella is the block flat built during the great expansion of the sixties and seventies. They are usually well-oriented homes but with closed-off layouts: long corridors, kitchens tucked away at the back and rooms that steal light from the living room. The most common full renovation here involves redrawing that floor plan to achieve a generous living area, removing dead corridors and genuinely making the most of the metres you already have, without needing to extend anything.

Opening up the kitchen to gain light

In a flat between party walls, natural light is gold. That is why the star request in Xirivella is to open the kitchen onto the living room: taking down the partition that separates them so the brightness from the façade flows through the whole space and the home can breathe. We first study whether that partition is load-bearing and, when it is, we resolve it with the right structural solution, with no shortcuts. The change in feel is enormous and is usually what you notice most on walking in.

Older-building services

Buildings from that era come with original plumbing and electrics that are no longer up to the job: lead or iron pipes, electrical panels without the capacity or modern protections, and communal soil stacks that are worth checking. In a full renovation we renew all the interior services of the flat and leave the connection to the building’s risers ready, so you don’t get any nasty surprises two years later. It is an investment you can’t see, but it is the one that really takes problems off your plate.

Working inside an occupied building

In the Centre and in neighbourhoods like La Llum, the work is carried out in occupied buildings, with neighbours, narrow stairwells and, very often, no lift. That means carefully planning how rubble and materials go up and down, respecting the building’s quiet hours and leaving the property clean every day. We have it built into the way we work: we coordinate access, protect communal areas and keep a good relationship with the residents’ association throughout the project.

Permits and utility connections in Xirivella

Any renovation of a certain scale requires the relevant paperwork with Xirivella Town Hall: a renovation that touches neither structure nor façade is usually handled with a responsible declaration or works notification, whereas touching a load-bearing wall, altering the façade or changing the use calls for a licence. We take care of guiding you, preparing the documentation and coordinating the utility connections so the work moves forward without stoppages and always stays within the rules.