Renovating a Finca / Cortijo in Andalucia
Once you have reached this stage, you will, of course, have a fairly good idea about (i) what you want to do and (ii) how much you can afford to do.
Whatever renovation work you do, you must have a licence from the local authorities, even (in theory) if you only want to paint the house ! There are two types of licences:
- A minor licence (Licencia de Obra Menor) which, depending on the local authority involved, will normally be for non-structural work up to a certain cost. This type of licence can be applied for by yourself and is fairly straighforward. The local authorities will often send somebody to the house to check the work when completed.
- A major licence (Licencia de Obra Mayor) which is required if the work requires structural changes and/or the cost of the work exceeds a given amount. This is more complex; you must engage an architect or a building technician to draw up the plans and the supporting documentation, and who will supply you with a completion certificate when the job is finished.
In either case, you must pay a fee (in Huercal-Overa, currently 3.6%) to the local authorities of the estimated cost of the work.
When looking at a major renovation, you must take the following aspects into account:
If work must be done on the roof, are the roof beams OK ? In this area, old roof beams will be either of almond or olive wood. Olive tends to have a longer life. If the beams need replacement in the next 5 years, do them now - it will be cheaper in the long run. If only a few beams need replaced it is possible to get new round, treated (damp and insects) beams that will not look out of place with the existing ones.
Often, during a renovation, the walls will be lifted and concrete I-beams used to replace the wooden beams. As this construction weighs considerably more than the original roof, you will probably need to install a ring beam. This will spread the load of the new roof evenly over the walls and, hopefully, prevent cracking.
The walls, if the house was built in the 1960s or later, will probably be made with concrete or ceramic blocks. The quality of some of the materials used in the 1960s and 1970s was not as high as it is today. Ceramic blocks, in particular, if not properly rendered on the outside, can rot and will need to be replaced.
The thermal properties of concrete block leaves a lot to be desired unless double walls with insulation are possible. If not even a minimal internal layer with high thermal properties is better than none at all.
Older houses will be built of stone, at least to some degree. Many houses will only have corners of stone, and the walls between them will be of mud (usually will small stones embedded in it) construction. Walls such as this are not generally strong enough to support a heavy roof, neither do they have sufficient strength to support an upper storey containing bathrooms, etc. Even if all walls are completely built of stone, some strengthening is normally required.
Many old cortijos have very little in the way of foundations. As soon as a renovation commences this is often quite apparent, as walls start to bulge and cracks appear where no cracks were before.
Just clearing the ground back away from the walls with an excavator can somethimes bring down these old walls, especially if they were originally only animal pens. I have know a stone wall come down because someone backed into it with an empty wheel barrow!
Strengthening of foundations can often cost a great deal of money; this aspect should be examined closely before committing to a major renovation project.