There are no absolute definitions of conversion, restoration and renovation and there is inevitably some overlap between the three.
For the purposes of this blog I have defined these as follows:
A wreck. Fairly obvious really, but a (very) old building which has fallen down and even if the rubble is used, is essentially a new build
Renovation: upgrading of a building which is habitable but needs work on kitchens, bathrooms, heating systems, flooring and doors, finishing with redecoration. Much renovation is a question of personal taste so I have not described this in any detail apart from an example of a recent project where we renovated in order to give some examples of how a good finish can be achieved minimising the overall cost.
Conversion: starting with a non-residential building, typically an old barn but also including former industrial buildings (in our case, one project involved a disused watermill). Services water and electricity are available or nearby. This process will involve complete works to create a residential property inside the original walls, creating rooms and other areas, overhaul of roofing, and wall finishes, and complete internal joinery and ending with internal installations such as kitchen, bathrooms and decoration, and external groundworks.
Restoration: starting with an old lived-in building in poor general state needing extensive internal and external work. Electricity, water and sewage services are present. The building has defined rooms and entrance halls etc. but may need some structural work and repairing or replacing flooring, damp-proofing, redoing external and internal wall coverings, upgrading plumbing and electrical wiring, insulating, repairing or replacing staircases and other joinery and finishing work on new decoration, bathroom and kitchen fittings and external groundworks (garden areas etc.),
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