A single-room refurbishment takes four to six weeks on site. An apartment refit takes ten to sixteen weeks. A townhouse takes fourteen to twenty-two weeks. A full villa renovation takes sixteen to thirty weeks. Add four to eight weeks beforehand for design, approvals and procurement. Extensions and pools extend this because each carries its own approval cycle.
The bit before site work
Design and specification. Measured survey and bill of quantities. Authority submission and community NOC. Long-lead procurement.
This is four to eight weeks and it is not padding. Skipping it does not save time — it moves the delay into the middle of the project, where it costs more.
What actually sets the pace on site
Rarely the building work. Usually three things: long-lead joinery and stone, which run four to fourteen weeks from approved drawings; approvals for anything structural; and the curing and testing sequences that cannot be compressed — waterproofing flood tests, screed curing, pool shell curing.
A contractor who promises a dramatically shorter programme is compressing one of those three, and each of them shows up later as a defect.
Typical villa sequence
Weeks 1–2 strip-out and site protection. Weeks 3–6 structural alterations and first fix MEP. Weeks 6–9 waterproofing, screeds and plastering. Weeks 9–16 tiling, joinery installation and second fix. Weeks 16–22 decoration, glass, sanitaryware and fittings. Weeks 22–26 commissioning, snagging and handover.
External works usually run in parallel from around week 8 where access allows.
Why projects overrun
In our experience: joinery ordered after demolition rather than before; variations agreed verbally and priced later; approvals started late; and services discovered mid-project because nobody surveyed them.
All four are avoidable at the pricing stage, which is precisely why we price the way we do.
The part before anything visible happens
Survey, drawings and a measured bill of quantities take two to three weeks on a typical villa. Approvals — the community NOC and, where needed, the authority permit — take a further three to six, running in parallel rather than sequentially.
That is five to nine weeks before demolition starts, and it is the stage most often omitted from an owner's mental timeline. It is also the stage where compressing is most expensive, because an incomplete submission is returned rather than queried.
On site, stage by stage
Strip-out, structure and first fix: four to seven weeks on a villa. Second fix, joinery and finishes: five to eight. Testing, snagging and handover: one to two.
The long poles are rarely what people expect. Imported stone worktops run six to ten weeks and can only be templated after cabinetry is installed. Bespoke joinery is six to ten from approved drawings. Both sit on the critical path and both are plannable.
What actually causes delay
Approvals started late, almost always because the drawings were finalised first. Decisions not made — a tile not selected, a layout not confirmed — where the next trade cannot proceed without them. And discoveries behind walls, which is what contingency and a measured bill exist to absorb.
Weather is not a factor here in the way it is elsewhere, but Ramadan working hours and the summer are, and both are predictable.
Realistic totals
A full villa renovation, from first survey to handover: five to seven months. An apartment: three to five. A single bathroom: six to twelve weeks including approvals. An extension: nine to fifteen months, because the building permit alone takes six to twelve weeks.
Phasing extends all of these, because set-up and protection are repeated. It is sometimes necessary and it is never faster.
| Project | Realistic total |
|---|---|
| Single bathroom | 6 – 12 weeks |
| Kitchen | 10 – 18 weeks |
| Apartment, full renovation | 3 – 5 months |
| Villa, full renovation | 5 – 7 months |
| Villa plus pool and landscaping | 6 – 9 months |
| Extension | 9 – 15 months |
Related Questions
Can a renovation be done faster with more people?
Only up to a point. Trades work in sequence — you cannot tile before the screed has cured, or install joinery before walls are plastered and true.
Adding labour to a sequenced programme mostly creates congestion on site. What genuinely shortens a programme is earlier procurement and earlier approvals.
Should I expect the programme to slip?
A well-run project should finish within a couple of weeks of its programmed date.
Significant slippage nearly always traces back to late decisions, late procurement or variations. We issue a weekly written progress report against the programme, so any slippage is visible while it can still be recovered.
How long does a villa renovation take in Dubai?
Five to seven months from first survey to handover for a full renovation. That breaks down as two to three weeks for survey, drawings and the bill of quantities, three to six weeks for approvals running in parallel, then four to seven weeks of strip-out and first fix and five to eight of second fix and finishes.
What takes the longest?
Rarely the construction. Approvals account for three to six weeks before anything starts, and the two longest lead items are usually imported stone worktops at six to ten weeks and bespoke joinery at six to ten from approved drawings. Both are entirely plannable if they are acknowledged at the start.
Why do renovations overrun?
Approvals started after the drawings were finalised rather than alongside them; decisions not made when the programme needed them; and discoveries behind walls. The first two are avoidable. The third is what contingency exists for.
Can I speed it up by paying more?
Not the approvals, which run at their own pace, and not the curing and testing stages. You can sometimes shorten procurement by selecting from stock rather than ordering, and you can shorten decision time by making decisions. Those are the two genuine levers.
Does Ramadan affect the programme?
Yes, through working hours, which shorten. It is predictable and it belongs in the programme from the start rather than appearing as a delay. The summer affects external work more than internal, and both are planned around rather than ignored.
Is phasing faster?
No, and it is more expensive. Each phase repeats the set-up, protection and supervision, and the access needed for services work gets harder once finishes are in. Phasing is sometimes necessary for occupation or cashflow reasons, but it is never the quicker route.
When should I start the approvals?
Alongside the design, not after it. Finalising drawings first and then submitting is the commonest avoidable delay there is, because the community's view on a detail is far cheaper to accommodate at concept stage than as a revision after refusal.
What decisions hold things up most?
Finish selections, almost always — tiles, sanitaryware, worktops, ironmongery. Each sits in front of a trade that cannot proceed without it, and each is easy to defer. We issue a decision schedule with dates for exactly this reason, so that what is needed when is visible from the start.
Can work continue while I am away?
Yes, provided the decisions are made in advance and someone is authorised to act on the ones that cannot be. What stalls a programme is a question with no one to answer it, and a fortnight away at the wrong point can cost more than a fortnight.
How accurate are renovation programmes in practice?
More accurate than their reputation suggests, provided the approvals and long-lead items were in the programme from the start. The projects that overrun badly are almost always the ones that treated approvals as administration rather than as a four to six week critical path item, or that did not recognise a ten-week joinery lead until the walls were ready for it. Discoveries behind walls do happen and that is what contingency is for, but they account for far less slippage than the two avoidable causes. A programme that names its dependencies is one you can hold someone to.