Every renovation estimate has a line item that the client sees but rarely understands: the rough-in stage. It accounts for 60 to 70% of the total cost of all work, and almost all of it later disappears under paint, tile, and flooring. The rough-in stage is exactly where it gets decided whether your walls will be flat, whether the breaker in the panel will trip, and whether you will have to dig up tile in two years because of a leak. In this article we break down what exactly goes into the rough-in stage of an apartment renovation, how much it costs in Kyiv in 2026 at real rates, and how to check the quality of the work while it is still visible. If you need the full structure of renovation costs, we already laid it out in our breakdown of a real estimate.
What the rough-in stage is and where the line with finishing sits
The rough-in stage covers all the work that prepares an apartment for finishing: replacing or installing the wiring, running water and drainage lines, plastering the walls, pouring the floor screed, and waterproofing the wet zones. A simple way to find the line: the rough-in stage ends where the materials you will see every day begin. Paint, tile, laminate, doors, and plumbing fixtures already belong to the finishing stage.
In practice the line often gets blurred, and that is a common source of disputes with contractors. Skim-coating walls for painting formally prepares the surface for finishing, but it is done after the plaster, and many companies count it as a separate block. In our estimates, bringing walls up to a paint- or wallpaper-ready finish is included in the rough-in package, so the client does not get an unexpected surcharge between stages. When you compare offers from different companies, the first question should not be "how much does it cost" but "what exactly is included in that figure".
What the rough-in stage includes: list of work
The basic makeup of an apartment rough-in is the same for most projects. Here is the list we build the rough-in package from:
- Electrical work. Full replacement or installation of the wiring, running lines through the rooms, back boxes, and mounting and assembling the electrical panel. The details of the process are described on the electrical work page.
- Plumbing rough-in. Water and drainage pipes to every point of use, the manifold, relocating risers where needed, and pressure-testing the system. More on this in the plumbing work section.
- Plastering walls to beacons. Leveling all walls into a single plane with a straightedge check. This is the largest block of the rough-in stage by volume, and we described it separately on the plastering work page.
- Floor screed. Leveling the base for laminate, tile, or parquet, with reinforcement and a perimeter damper tape.
- Waterproofing. Mandatory in the bathroom and other wet zones, carried up onto the walls where needed.
- Bringing walls up to finish. Preparing the surfaces for paint or wallpaper.
- Documentation of concealed work. Measurement records and photo documentation of all runs before they are closed up. Without this, a year later no one will remember where a cable runs.
On older housing, demolition gets added to this list: removing old coverings, screeds, and partitions, and hauling out debris. In a new build with bare walls, this block does not exist, and that is the main reason for the budget difference between housing types.
Order of work in the rough-in stage
The sequence of rough-in work matters no less than the list, because a broken order costs money and rework. The standard cycle looks like this: first demolition and building the new partitions, then marking out and running the electrical and plumbing lines, then plastering the walls, and only after that the floor screed. Waterproofing is done before the screed in the wet zones, and priming accompanies every transition between layers.
Why the order is exactly this: the chases and back boxes need to be covered by plaster, not cut into a finished flat wall; the screed is poured after the plaster so that the heavy wet processes do not damage a finished floor. Between the plaster and the screed there are technological pauses for the material to gain strength, and you cannot cut them short: a damp base under the finish leads to cracks and delamination. If a contractor offers to "speed things up" by skipping the pauses, you will save a week now and pay for redoing the finish later.
How much the rough-in stage costs in Kyiv in 2026
Our 2026 rate for the rough-in stage is UAH 6,000/m² for labor, or UAH 12,000/m² together with rough-in materials. The price is calculated from the apartment's floor area. For a one-bedroom apartment of 40 m² that comes to UAH 240,000 for labor, or UAH 480,000 with materials. The full makeup of the package is fixed on the prices and rates page.
So that you can check any estimate, here are real reference rates for 2026 on the key line items of the rough-in stage (labor, without materials):
| Work | Reference price (labor) |
|---|---|
| Plastering walls to beacons | UAH 380-390/m² of wall |
| Priming surfaces | UAH 30-40/m² per pass |
| Full-cycle electrical point | UAH 1,100-1,650 |
| Running water and drainage | UAH 35,000-75,000 per apartment |
| Wall soundproofing (optional) | ~UAH 1,650/m² |
The main trap in the math has to do with wall area. It is 3.5 to 4 times larger than the floor area: in a 37.5 m² apartment about 150 m² of walls get plastered. So a line item of "plastering at UAH 385/m²" in an estimate for a 40 m² apartment turns into UAH 55,000-60,000 for just one cycle, and primer is applied in several passes. Electrical work is counted by points, not by meters: a one-bedroom apartment has 35 to 50 of them, a large one around 110, so the electrical block costs from UAH 55,000 to 130,000 depending on the project. As shares of the budget it looks like this: general construction and finishing work take 75 to 80% of the labor cost, electrical work 11 to 13%, plumbing 10 to 13%. You can see real budget examples in our completed projects.
