Full home renovations in Silla, from the old town to the classic flat

Silla is one of those towns in l’Horta Sud that live with one foot in l’Albufera and the other in the big city. It has its own port and jetty looking out over the lagoon, surrounded by rice fields, and at the same time it is a genuine transport hub: the A-7, the V-31 and the old main roads all pass through here, and the Cercanías commuter station leaves Valencia barely ten minutes away. That dual character — part wetland, part crossroads — explains its housing stock and, in turn, the kind of renovations it calls for.

In the town you will find the old town, with terraced houses of one or two storeys, alongside the blocks of flats that grew up from the 1970s onwards, when Silla became a town closely tied to Valencia. Add to that the detached and semi-detached homes in the newer districts. Each one starts from a different point: the old-town house is about structure and old damp; the flat, about worn-out services and a lack of light; the detached home, about bringing bathrooms, the kitchen and insulation up to date.

We work in Silla from our base in La Eliana, in the Camp de Túria, and we get there easily along the very road network that defines the town. We are not from here, but we have spent three and a half decades renovating homes across Valencia and l’Horta, and it shows in how we approach every job: with our own in-house team, a fixed quote and the reassurance of dealing with real people who stand by their word, not a phone number that never answers.

What’s different here

What’s particular about renovating in Silla

The municipality of Silla mixes an old town, blocks of flats and detached homes, and it also sits in a low-lying, damp area beside the l’Albufera wetland. These are the aspects that most shape the work and the budget in the town.

The old town versus the newer flats

In the old town of Silla there are plenty of terraced houses of ground floor plus one storey, many of them dating back well into the last century, where the first thing is to understand the structure, the floor slabs and the load-bearing walls before moving anything. In the blocks that grew up from the 1970s onwards, on the other hand, the starting point is usually different: plumbing and electrics that have already had their day, compartmentalised layouts and little natural light. Thinking carefully about whether to open the kitchen to the living room, rework the hallway or group the bathrooms together completely changes the result, and it is not the same in a town house as in a seventy-square-metre flat.

Damp from low-lying ground and the nearby wetland

Silla sits very close to sea level, with the rice fields and the lagoon right beside it. On ground floors and in older buildings, that often shows up as rising damp coming up from the ground, leaving crumbling skirting or blistered paint. It is worth diagnosing the source before covering it up, because painting over the top without treating the cause only postpones the problem. We tackle it with remedial work, barriers and breathable materials, so that the renovation really lasts and doesn’t have to be redone within a couple of winters.

Paperwork and working in a busy town

Any renovation of any size goes through Silla Town Hall: work that doesn’t touch the structure or the façade is usually resolved with a responsible declaration or works notification, while taking down load-bearing walls, extending or working on the façade requires a licence. We guide you and handle the paperwork so that everything is in order. What’s more, in such a busy town, with narrow streets in the old quarter and a lot of through traffic, we organise the deliveries, skips and unloading properly so as to disturb neighbours and shops as little as possible.