RatebeeHow to hire for a home renovation in Tallinn
By Ratebee · Published August 25, 2026
A renovation is not one contractor. How to split the job, how to make quotes comparable, what belongs in the contract, and the money traps that cost the most.
A renovation is a chain, not a single company
The first mistake is looking for “a renovation company” as if the whole job were one purchase. Almost every flat or house renovation is really a chain: someone who draws and specifies the work, the trades who execute it — electrics, plumbing, walls and floors, tiling, windows and doors — the merchants the materials come from, and the container and haulage firms that take the old bathroom away. On a small job one crew may cover several links; on a big one they are separate contracts.
That matters because most disputes happen at the joints between links, not inside them. Who orders the tiles, who checks that the floor is level enough to lay them on, who pays when the wrong batch arrives — those are the questions that turn into a fight three weeks in.
Decide early: turnkey, or you manage the trades
Turnkey means a main contractor takes the whole scope, coordinates the trades and carries responsibility for the result. It costs more, and it is worth it if you are working, do not know the sequence of trades, or cannot be on site on a weekday morning when a decision is needed.
Managing the trades yourself is cheaper on paper and only cheaper in reality if you can hold the schedule. Trades are booked weeks ahead; if the electrician finishes and the plasterer cannot start for ten days, you are paying rent or a mortgage on an empty flat for those ten days. Count that before you count the saving.
A middle path works well for many people: a designer or architect produces the drawings and the specification, and you use that document to buy the execution — either as one turnkey package or trade by trade. The drawings are what make competing quotes mean the same thing.
Fix the scope before you compare prices
A quote without a scope is not a price, it is a mood. Before asking for numbers, write down room by room what is being done, what is being kept, and what the finish is — down to the level of “tiles up to the ceiling in the shower, half height on the other three walls”.
Then require every bidder to price that same list, itemised: labour separately from materials, with quantities. When one quote is dramatically lower, itemisation shows you why. Usually it is not efficiency; it is a line the others included and this one left out, or a materials allowance so thin it will be revised upward the moment work starts.
Ask each bidder what they think is missing from your list. A contractor who reads a scope carefully and comes back with three sharp questions is worth more than one who returns a round number the same afternoon.
From the Ratebee catalogue
“Renovation & construction”, Tallinn — in the catalogue: 41, with ratings so far: 0. The list is live: it changes as businesses are added and rated.
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What belongs in the contract
Put it in writing even for a small job, and make sure it covers the following. Every one of these is on the list because leaving it out is what people regret:
Payment schedule deserves its own sentence: pay against completed stages you can look at, not against dates in a calendar, and keep a retention — a final slice released after the snag list is closed. A large prepayment before anything happens on site is the single most expensive habit in this industry.
- The scope and the drawings, attached as part of the contract rather than referred to vaguely.
- Who buys materials, and whether the contractor’s markup on them is disclosed.
- Start date, an end date, and what happens if it slips.
- A payment schedule tied to completed stages, with a final retention.
- Acceptance of hidden work — pipes and wiring photographed and signed off before they are closed up.
- The guarantee period on the work, and how you call it in.
- Who removes waste, and whether cleaning and protecting the rest of the home is included.
Permits, the building register and the housing association
Cosmetic work is your own business, but structural work is not. Touching load-bearing structures, changing the layout, moving wet rooms, altering the facade or the ventilation generally requires a notice or a building permit registered through the state building register, and often a design prepared by a qualified engineer. Doing it quietly is not a saving — it surfaces at the next sale, when the registry and the flat do not match.
In an apartment building the housing association is a second gatekeeper with its own rules: approval for anything touching common parts or risers, working-hours limits, how the lift and stairwell are protected, where a container may stand. Ask for those rules in writing before the contract is signed, because they change the price and the schedule, and get the contractor to confirm they can work inside them.
Money traps and red flags
The expensive traps are boringly consistent: an hourly rate with no cap and no estimate of hours; a materials budget left open-ended so it can only grow; unclear treatment of VAT between quote and invoice; the “cash discount”, which is simply the price of having no warranty and no proof; and a budget that forgot waste removal, delivery, protection and the final clean — a renovation produces a startling volume of rubble.
Red flags to walk away from: no written contract, no registry code, a demand for a large payment before work begins, refusal to attach the scope to the contract, no fixed address or legal entity behind the brand name, and unwillingness to name any completed job you could look at. Checking the company in the business register takes a minute and shows how long it has been trading and who is behind it.
Finally, keep a record while it runs: photographs of hidden work before it is covered, invoices, and the dates of each stage handover. It resolves arguments during the job, it supports a guarantee claim after it, and it is exactly what you will want when you eventually sell.