Interior renovation in Sofia: what it includes and what it costs

An interior renovation is all the work inside the home: strip-out, walls and ceilings, floors and tiling, doors, electrical points and plumbing. The facade and the roof are not part of it. On our price list, painting a 16 m² room costs €602.10 for labour, the same room with skim coat, a new floor, skirting boards, a door and electrical points €2,485.29 for labour, and a complete apartment renovation with the bathroom, kitchen and new wiring and plumbing usually €180–330 per m² for labour.

Materials are not included in these figures. The prices are as of October 2026 and may change; the current ones are in the price list. How we organise interior renovations in Sofia – from the site visit to the handover – is described on the service page.

What an interior renovation includes

An interior renovation means the work inside an apartment or a house – from the strip-out to the last socket:

• Strip-out and removal of old tiles, floor coverings, doors and walls, and taking the waste away – the prices are in our article on bathroom and wall demolition.
• Walls and ceilings: plaster, skim coat, paint or wallpaper, partition walls and suspended ceilings in plasterboard.
• Floors: screed, laminate, parquet or tiles, and skirting boards.
• Tiling in the bathroom, the toilet, the kitchen and the hallway.
• Interior doors and adjusting their openings.
• Wiring: points, chases, the consumer unit and lighting – see electrical work prices.
• Plumbing: the pipes and outlets to the bathroom and kitchen, and fitting the sanitaryware.

The bathroom and the kitchen have their own calculations. A complete bathroom renovation usually costs €4,000–6,000 including the labour and the construction materials, while you buy the tiles, sanitaryware and taps yourself. The breakdown is in our article bathroom renovation: labour costs, and for the kitchen in kitchen renovation: labour costs.

The last and most visible part – the skim coat, the paint, the floors and the doors – is often called finishing work; the individual trades are on our page on finishing works in Sofia.

What is not an interior renovation

The facade and the roof are external work with their own prices – see our pages on facades and common areas and roofing in Sofia. The risers (the vertical pipes shared by the whole block) are a common part of the building, and replacing them is agreed with the owners' association and the neighbours (replacing risers in an apartment block). Load-bearing walls are not touched without a structural engineer's opinion.

Three scopes and what each costs

Most interior renovations fall into one of three scopes. The first two are calculated for a 16 m² room; the third is a guide figure for a whole apartment.

The example room: 16 m²

The room is 4 × 4 m, with a 2.60 m ceiling, one door and one window. The dimensions are illustrative – for your home, the areas are measured at the site visit.

• Floor and ceiling: 4 × 4 = 16 m².
• Walls: (4 + 4) × 2 × 2.60 = 41.60 m². Minus the door (0.90 × 2.00 = 1.80 m²) and the window (1.20 × 1.50 = 1.80 m²), that leaves 41.60 − 1.80 − 1.80 = 38.00 m².
• Skirting boards: the 16 m perimeter minus the door and its frame – 15 linear metres.
• Electrical points: 6 – four sockets, a switch and a ceiling light.
• Waste: one tipper lorry trip to a disposal site.

Scope 1: refreshing a room – from €602.10 for labour

Paint only

When the walls are sound and have only small cracks, nail holes and marks, painting is enough: primer, minor repairs and two coats of paint – €11.15 per m² for labour, the same for walls and ceilings.

Paint without primer or repairs is a separate item, priced by the number of colours: ‘2 coats of paint – 1 colour’ is €6.44 per m² for labour, ‘2 coats of paint – 2 colours’ €8.05 and ‘2 coats of paint – 3 colours’ €9.13. You can see walls in a different tone in each room in the apartment with walls in colour.

Instead of paint, you can have wallpaper: ‘Hanging wallpaper’ is €11.00 per m² for labour and ‘Stripping wallpaper’ €4.60; how the wall is prepared is described in our article on wallpaper hanging.

Skim coat and paint

With cracks, flaking paint or waves, the walls are skim coated before painting. In the example, the walls get three coats of skim and the ceiling two.

The skim coat adds €1,421.76 − €602.10 = €819.66 for labour. How many coats are needed is decided at the site visit: if two are enough on the walls, the two-coat package (€22.55 per m²) gives 38 × €22.55 = €856.90 instead of €1,060.96. Very crooked walls need plaster – ‘Straightening walls – plaster + mesh’ is €26.59 per m² for labour (plaster prices).

Scope 2: a room with a new floor, skirting boards, a door and electrical points – €2,485.29 for labour

Here the room is redone: skim coat and paint, screed and laminate in place of the old floor covering, skirting boards, a new door and six electrical points.

The floor comes to €111.68 + €22.56 + €320.00 + €111.68 + €64.35 = €630.27 for labour, and the door, the points and the waste removal to €130.00 + €193.26 + €110.00 = €433.26. With the walls and ceiling (€1,421.76), the total is €2,485.29, or €2,485.29 ÷ 16 ≈ €155 per m² of floor, for labour.

What can change the total

• The old door: ‘Removing a door with its frame’ is €37.58 and ‘Adjusting a door opening’ €85.00 for labour.
• The screed: its thickness is measured at the site visit; ‘Self-levelling floor screed up to 2 cm’ is €15.18 and ‘Self-levelling floor screed up to 5 cm’ €30.00 per m² for labour.
• The floor covering: ‘Laying three-layer parquet’ is €14.50 per m² – €232.00 for the room instead of €111.68 – and ‘Tiling and grouting, floor’ €48.32 per m², or €773.12 for the room, for labour.
• The electrical points: if they go in new positions, the chases to them are added – €6.98 per linear metre in brick and €12.00 in concrete – and ‘Moving an electrical point’ is €32.21 for labour.

Scope 3: a complete apartment renovation – €180–330 per m² for labour

A complete renovation covers everything: strip-out, new wiring and plumbing, walls and ceilings, floors, the bathroom, the kitchen and the doors. The labour usually costs €180–330 per m², excluding materials – for 70 m², that is from 70 × €180 = €12,600 to 70 × €330 = €23,100 for labour. The calculator also gives a guide figure based on the floor area.

The room in scope 2 comes to about €155 per m² – below the lower end of the range, because it has no bathroom, kitchen or plumbing, and the bathroom is the most expensive room per square metre. An old 4 m² bathroom usually comes to €4,500–5,500 including the labour and the construction materials.

What moves the price between €180 and €330 is explained in our article how much an apartment renovation costs in 2026, and a line-by-line calculation for a two-room apartment is in renovating a 60 m² two-room apartment. How we work is on our apartment renovation page.

Prices of the most common interior renovation tasks

The most common tasks, with their names and prices from the price list as of October 2026 – all for labour, excluding materials.

A plasterboard suspended ceiling is €18.79 per m² for labour, and ‘Plasterboard suspended ceiling with hidden lighting on 2 levels’ €37.58; the types and a worked example are in our article on suspended ceilings with LED lighting.

What makes an interior renovation more expensive

For the same floor area, two interior renovations can differ by thousands of euros. Most often because of:

• The walls: a sound wall needs only paint, a flaking or crooked one skim coat or plaster.
• The floor: an uneven floor needs screed, and tiles cost more to lay than laminate.
• The wiring and plumbing: if the old wiring needs replacing, the chases and a new consumer unit are added – ‘Replacing a consumer unit, up to 8 fuses’ is €143.16 for labour (when it is time to rewire).
• Decisions made on the go: a socket moved after the skim coat is paid for twice. The positions of the furniture, sockets and lights are decided before the start.
• The unexpected: in older buildings, damp, old pipes or cables sometimes come to light after the strip-out. We only do extra work with your written consent and a price, before it starts.

How an interior renovation is done

First everything that raises dust or needs to dry, then the floor coverings and the second fix:

1. A free site visit and measurements.
2. A written quote with the tasks, quantities and prices, and a contract with a fixed budget.
3. Strip-out and waste removal, then the wiring and plumbing – before the walls are closed up.
4. Plaster, plasterboard and skim coat, then screed.
5. Tiles and floor coverings, paint, doors, skirting boards and fitting the switches, sockets and lights.
6. Cleaning, handover and a written warranty: 24 months for the renovation and 72 months for the plumbing and electrical installations.

The timescale depends on the scope and on the drying time for the skim coat and screed, which follows the manufacturer's instructions; the stages are described in our article major apartment renovation: stages and timescales.

How to choose an interior renovation company

Quotes are compared line by line, not by the total. Ask every company for:

• A site visit. From photos, for example through our photo estimate, you get a guide figure; the exact price comes after the site visit.
• A written quote with the tasks, quantities and unit prices, with labour and materials shown separately.
• A clear statement of what is not included in the price.
• A contract with a fixed budget; extra work only with written consent.
• A schedule by stage and a written warranty.

That is how we work too: the RemontS brand has been working since 2019, with a full-time team and over 180 completed projects, in Sofia and up to 80 km around it. There is more advice in our guide how to choose a renovation company and our article why a written quote matters more than a low price.

Frequently asked questions

What does an interior renovation include?

Everything inside the home – from the strip-out to the paint, the doors and the wiring and plumbing, with the bathroom and kitchen. The facade and the roof are not included.

How much does an interior renovation cost per m²?

A complete apartment renovation usually costs €180–330 per m² for labour. A single room with skim coat, paint, a new floor, skirting boards, a door and 6 electrical points comes to €2,485.29 for labour in our example – about €155 per m².

Are materials included?

No, the prices are for labour. Construction materials appear in our quote on a separate line; who supplies the laminate and the doors is agreed in the quote, and you buy the tiles, sanitaryware and taps yourself. The exception is the guide figure for a bathroom, €4,000–6,000: it includes the construction materials.

How long does it take to renovate a room?

It depends on the scope and on the drying time for the skim coat and screed, which is not cut short. The schedule by stage is in the quote.

Can we live in the home during the renovation?

When one or two rooms are being renovated, usually yes: the work area is closed off, the furniture is covered, and the waste is taken out every day. In a complete renovation, with demolition and the water and electricity switched off, it is difficult. When noisy work is allowed is explained in our article on renovation rules in apartment buildings.

What is the warranty?

In writing: 24 months for the renovation and 72 months for the plumbing and electrical installations.

If you would like a calculation like this for your home, book a free site visit or call +359 888 802 618 – the quote is in writing, with the tasks, quantities and prices, and we reply to enquiries within 3–4 hours. For contracts signed by 31 December 2026, the whole quote – labour and the materials we supply – is 10% off, including quotes we have already sent.