What does renovate mean in simple words?

To renovate means to fix something old so it works and looks good again. That is the whole idea. You take a thing that is worn out, mend what is broken, and freshen up the rest.

Picture a house nobody has touched for thirty years. The bathroom leaks. The kitchen doors hang off their hinges. The wallpaper is peeling and the wiring belongs in a museum. Renovating that house means fixing the leaks, fitting a new kitchen and bathroom, rewiring, plastering and painting. Same house, same walls, same roof. Just made good again.

We do this on real streets every month, mostly Victorian terraces and 1930s houses around Crystal Palace, Lewisham and Bromley. The owners keep the building they have and bring it back to standard, room by room. If you only remember one thing, make it this: renovate means make an old thing good again, and for most people the old thing is their house.