The order I'd renovate a house in, after doing some of mine in the wrong order

Why now: you can't make a proper plan until you know what's actually wrong with the house and what needs doing. The initial plan gets built around what you find, not the nice stuff like kitchens & paint colours. So get the right people out first: an electrician to check the electrics and maybe do an EICRElectrical Installation Condition Report. An electrician tests the whole installation & rates every fault. This report, not opinion, is what decides a rewire., a damp & timber surveyor if you spot anything of note or it smells musty & a structural engineer for any wall you're thinking of removing or any cracks you're worried about. For damp, use an independent surveyor who just sells reports, not damp proofing. A free survey from a company that injects walls for a living is basically a quote, not a survey.

The word survey gets thrown around a lot so it's worth clearing this up. Everything above is a specialist check for a specific worry. A house survey is the thing everyone should get. It comes in 3 levels, Level 1 is a quick once over for newer houses, Level 2 is the middle option for standard houses in a decent shape & Level 3 is a fuller breakdown. I'd always get Level 3 on anything old or in rough shape, but that's a personal preference. Mine was a Level 3 survey & it caught a few different problems in the house that I maybe wouldn't have previously been aware of.

Whilst organising your survey, it could also be good to look at your house's EPC online. It's free to view & it scores the house's insulation & heating, which is basically a preview of your future heating bills &/or any additional work you'll need to do to it to help retain heat.

Make sure you also get a Gas Safe engineer to check the boiler & gas pipework too and get their opinion on it, especially the longevity of it. Even though it may be more expensive in the short term, changing a boiler over whilst work is being done on the house may be better than the hassle of it years down the line when you're living there.

Your job here is looking round the house, writing everything down & taking photos of it all. The actual decisions come from people qualified to make them, so an electrician for the electrics, a structural engineer for anything you're thinking of knocking through & a surveyor for damp. Once their answers come back you'll have a much better idea of what the next few stages look like for your house.

Why now: the outside of the house is what protects everything you're about to spend money on inside it. So the roof, gutters, flashingsThe lead or metal strips sealing the joints of a roof, around the chimney & where roof meets wall. Where flashings fail, leaks start., soffitsThe boards tucked under the gutter overhang (the fascia is the one facing you). When they rot, water & birds get into the roof., anywhere causing leaks & any sources of damp all want sorting sooner rather than later.

The same goes for the windows & external doors. Changing them can make a mess of the reveals & the plaster round the openings, so if they go in after you've plastered you'll be patching up work you've already paid for.

Replacing windows is building regs work, so use a FENSAThe self-certification scheme for replacement windows & external doors (Certass is the other). The installer registers the job with the council & you get a certificate. No certificate = awkward questions when you sell. registered installer or go through building control & keep hold of the certificate, you'll get asked for it if you sell. Roof work can also fall under building regs depending on how much work needs doing.

That's the dry side of this stage. The safe side is anything that could hurt someone whilst the work is going on, so getting dangerous electrics made safe & any old gas appliances capped off properly. You'll have people in & out of the house from here on, so it wants doing before the work starts rather than part way through.

The decisions at this stage are yours, not theirs. A roofer can tell you what the roof actually needs, an independent surveyor can tell you where damp is coming from & a window company can price the job, but whether you repair or replace it, or spend now or wait, is down to you & your budget. Get their answers in first, then decide, because a lot of what happens after this gets built around these calls.

Why now: everything hiding behind wallpaper, under carpets & inside boxed in corners changes your plan, so you want to find it now rather than after the trades have started & you're having to try reorganise everything last minute.

But before you start anything, you need to have decided what's staying & what's going. Not every renovation needs to go back to brick and some areas are fine to be saved. You also need to consider your circumstances. If you're living in the house from day 1 you don't want to rip everything apart and leave yourself with no toilet, nowhere to wash, nowhere to sleep, so from here on out it might need to be a room by room job.

A big rip out can be a lot more than just wallpaper. It's often better to start upstairs and work your way down. But I did the opposite due to upstairs being mainly cosmetic and downstairs being bigger works. My stairs also lead directly out my house so it meant I was never dragging anything dirty through any finished areas. When starting the actual work, it's important you know where stuff is connected and if it's structural. You can't just knock a wall down before you know if it's load bearing. You can't just remove an oven if it's still connected to the gas. If you don't know whether something is safe or not, the best thing to do is ask the professionals.

Waste is the part most people underestimate. I certainly did and regret it to this day. A skip fills quicker than you'd think & a house full of rubbish makes every other job slower. Figure out how you're gonna manage waste and stay on top of it, otherwise you'll be in a position like me where you're getting towards the end of the renovation and still have loads to get rid of. Keep in mind the cost of waste management too, because it all adds up. This includes access, if you can use skips or grab lorries on private land (e.g. put a skip or waste onto your driveway) this is often the most cost effective way forward. But if you don't have a front garden you may have to consider other avenues which may be more expensive, including roadside skips that require a permit from the council.

One way to earn some money back at the end of the rip out is to sell anything salvageable you don't want on eBay, Facebook Marketplace etc. I sold loads from leather chairs through to a TV, a washing machine and a tumble dryer. Also keep a hold of all your scrap metal, I did and it meant I was able to weigh it all in and get just under £200 back.

This is the stage where doing it yourself can save a lot of money, so if you're going to get properly stuck in anywhere it's here. There are some things I didn't and wouldn't touch though. I had a full asbestos survey before commencing properly with the rip out and anything you think is suspect you should get tested. I also wouldn't go anywhere near any gas, electrics and major plumbing works.

Why now: the heavy structural jobs happen whilst the house is already stripped back & before anything new starts. Everything after this builds on top of what gets decided and done here.

Before anything gets knocked through though, you need to know what's actually holding the house up. That's a structural engineer's job and it isn't expensive when comparing it to protecting the house you've just bought. I'd write a list of every wall you want gone & every opening you want made, then get an engineer to inspect everything at once. They'll check whether things are load bearing or not and if they are you'll be paying for calculations to be done for things like beam sizes to keep the house supported.

The majority of this work comes with waiting times. You have to wait for the structural engineer to do their calculations. Some structural work needs building control involved and depending on what work you might be doing and where sometimes things like the Party Wall Act may be needed. These things all take time, and if you're super organised then you may have already started the process for stage 4 whilst you're in stage 2 or 3 so you can get straight on with the works when you reach this stage.

If you're planning on adding additional insulation to the house then now is the time to be doing this, however some of it may also have to wait until after first fix work is done depending on the type of insulation and where it's going.

The house is yours and deciding what it should look like is your decision too. And once you've had a structural engineer do all the calculations, if something isn't load bearing you can do that job yourself if you want to. But anything structural is a different thing altogether. You need to follow the calculations and drawings to a tee, you need all the equipment like acro props to support the weight of the house whilst the work is being done and you need to move big heavy beams. It can be done yourself, but personally it's something I'd leave to the professionals who do it day in day out.

Why now: cables, pipes & heating runs all live inside walls & under floors, so they go in whilst everything is open & before the house starts getting put back together again. Once a wall has been skimmed, adding a socket or moving a radiator means cutting it back open again.

Before any of it goes in though, you need to make more decisions. If a new kitchen or bathroom is coming, the layout has to be decided now, so appliance positions, hob type, where the shower, sink, toilet etc go because the pipes, cables and sockets all get done based on that layout. Don't forget to think about any flooring & carpets at this point too. You will also need to keep in mind that measurements may adjust slightly with plastering and any boarding that needs doing. The same decisions need to be made about each room. The house should work for you, so if you've planned your living room, bedrooms & maybe office, you'll know where you'll need sockets, switches, pipes for radiators etc. Think about where you'll spend your time in a room, if you'll want somewhere to charge your phone close to the bed, if you're putting a telly on a wall and want to hide the cables behind it, what appliances you'll have on your kitchen worktop. Every decision you make now is one you won't regret later. A good rule of thumb I learnt from an electrician is at least 1 double socket on each wall. I've got more than that on some walls but it's a good place to start. Go around and mark on the walls where you want all your sockets and switches and get all your quotes based on how you plan to live your life in each room. You'll also want to consider the types of sockets and switches you want as some are only compatible with certain back box depths.

This is also the stage where you think long term. Some costs like a full re-wire and a new boiler may be pretty expensive up front, but if you may have to get it done in a few years time anyway, and you've got to start drilling into a finished house, is it really worth waiting? And don't forget about everything to do with safety, smoke alarms, heat alarms, carbon monoxide alarms etc. I got my smoke and heat alarms wired in as part of my first fix and have a standalone carbon monoxide alarm.

A lot of this first fix work also needs sign off. Your electrician and plumber can typically give you the relevant certification though.

I took my own downstairs plasterboard ceilings down before first fixes started & my trades were able to work quicker because of it + it meant I was able to add in insulation after. Most prep and labour work can be done by you, just ask ahead what is wanted by those doing the work, but leave the main things to the professionals.

Why now: the walls need finishing before any other stages can start. And everything after, kitchens, tiling, decorating, needs the flat, true surfaces this stage creates. If it's hidden by a unit, you may be able to leave parts open, but anything on show will need patching in and making right. Many people try DIYing plastering, and you can do it the proper way with a hawk, trowel, bonding and multi-finish or there's now systems out there like Dalapro Roll Nova but they're only really suitable for making existing walls flat. If I had one or 2 walls to do I'd have attempted plastering my house, but because I had to get practically my whole house done I left it to the pros.

Even if you're DIYing, if you don't know much about walls and plastering it's worth getting a plasterer in to come inspect the house so you know what needs doing and getting a quote from them just in case you decide you don't want to do it. Even though this is stage 6, the earlier you can do this, the better so you know what you're working with. But if you don't get someone in, you will want to go round wall by wall and give them a tap. Anything that sounds hollow or moves may need to be taken back to brick, but good walls (ones without a hollow sound) can usually just be skimmed overSkimming is the thin finishing coat of plaster that makes a wall glass-flat. Looks easy on video. It is a years-of-practice trade skill. if they need it. Some walls may need to be boarded to give a surface suitable to be skimmed and this is typically done by either dotting and dabbingSticking plasterboard to masonry on blobs of adhesive. Quick, and handy for hiding pipes or cables, but it leaves a void behind the board, so heavy fixings need to reach the brick & on a damp-prone wall moisture can sit in there out of sight. or screwing the boards into joists, depending on the type of wall. Another thing that will impact the types of materials you use is the construction of your house. Some older houses need lime plaster to be able to keep them breathing and not cause damp.

You've also got to decide on what boards you want to use. Bathrooms normally want at least moisture resistant boards and around things like baths and showers you're going to likely want something like tile backer board.

All the prep work like the boarding & bonding out and patching in is very important to getting that final flat surface you want when it comes to skimming.

I left the plastering to the pros but I did a lot of the prep work beforehand like SDSing off old plaster on areas that needed to go back to brick, bonding in some of the sockets that had been chased out & blue grittingRolling a gritty bonding agent onto smooth or non-porous surfaces so fresh plaster has something to grip. Skip it on the wrong surface & the skim can let go later. relevant surfaces (anything not boarded) ready for the plasterers to skim over. All of this was agreed with my plasterers beforehand though.

Once the plastering is finished, then comes the boring part, the wait. Plaster needs some level of heat and ventilation to dry, but you don't want to give it too much heat too quickly or it can crack. You need to wait until all the plaster has dried out before you can mist coatA watered-down first coat of emulsion that soaks into new plaster & seals it. Skip it & your proper coats can peel off in sheets. it, which can take a couple of weeks, but you must 100% wait until the entire wall is a uniform pale colour with no damp spots. Try to mist coat too early and you can cause cracks, blistering or flaking.

At this point you will also want to remeasure your kitchen & bathroom spaces to make sure everything still fits.

I'm putting this one here because there's nowhere else really for it to go. Once the plaster is dry it might be time to get your woodwork on, your skirting boards and your architravesThe trim framing a door. With skirting, it's the finish line where walls meet floors & openings & where mitred corners test your patience. etc. The problem with this stage is, the actual moment you do it depends on what flooring you're going with. If you're having a hard floor like LVTLuxury vinyl tile, a hard floor made of click or glue down planks that look like wood or stone. Thinner than laminate or engineered wood & usually warmer underfoot., you will want to hold off, lay the flooring first, and then the skirting covers the expansion gap the flooring needs. If you're having carpets, you're fine to push ahead as soon as the plaster is dry as carpets go up to the skirting not underneath it. I personally have LVT downstairs & carpets upstairs so I did some at this stage and some during stage 8 after my kitchen went in. If you don't fancy doing your own woodwork, it's a job for a carpenter.

Doing the basic, boring work & paying for the skilled labour is what I did when it came to plastering. But if you go down this route ask whoever is plastering what prep they want before you start any of it. Different plasterers have different ways of working and different ways to prep. Don't make them have to do what you've already done because you didn't do it right. When it came to the skirting boards and architraves, that was a job I took on myself.

Why now: dust before decoration, paint comes after every dusty and messy trade is pretty much finished. The stage goes in three parts though, and the order of them matters. The mist coat goes on first, then you find and fix what it shows you, then you get it painted.

Before any of that though, there are some decisions to make and it's more than just what colour. Colour is the obvious one, and when choosing put tester patches on the actual wall & look at it in different lights over multiple days to see whether you actually like it or not. Even better if you move it around the room too. You also have to consider the paint type. There's the finish to think about, which matters as much as the colour. A flat matt hides imperfections but can mark easier. Bathrooms and kitchens want something that can handle moisture in the air. There are specific paints for woodwork. So it's important to take your time to make the right decisions for the best finish in each room. Personally, I took the easy route and colour drenchedPainting the walls, ceiling & woodwork of a room in the same colour instead of a white ceiling & white trim. Less taping up, and it makes a small room feel bigger rather than boxed in. almost everywhere as I love the way it looks.

Once the decision making is underway, it's time to begin the mist coat. A mist coat is a watered down layer of emulsion paint applied to bare plaster. It helps seal the surface and stops the plaster sucking all the moisture out of your final paint finish which could cause it to peel or flake. I used a white contract matt mixed about 50/50 with water and used a paint sprayer for most of the work. Different people use different paint to water ratios, you just have to find what seems to work for you and your application method, because you can also just do the traditional rolling onto the surfaces. When painting it's typically best to start with the ceilings and then move onto the walls after.

After the mist coat has dried, you'll be able to see more imperfections in the walls and ceilings. Now is when you do all the boring prep work to make sure the final finish is good. Filling in holes, sanding areas down to make them flat, caulkingFlexible filler for the gaps where surfaces meet (door frame to wall, window board to wall & later skirting to wall). Paint over it & the joints look seamless. any joins etc. A raking lightLight skimmed across a surface almost flat to it, like a phone torch held against the wall at night. It throws a shadow off every bump & hollow you cannot see head on. is the quickest way to find them. Once all the prep work is done, it's then time to re-mist coat all of those areas. Take your time here, I hate this work but the more time you spend getting it right the happier you'll be with the final finish.

Then it's onto the actual painting. A good rule of thumb is start at the top and work your way down. Begin with ceilings, then do your walls and then onto your woodwork. I was fortunate, because I colour drenched everywhere it meant I was able to just do everything in 1 colour without having to worry about doing much taping up.

You typically want 2 coats of paint on each surface and each paint will tell you how much time you need to leave it to dry before you can apply a second coat. It's worth working out how much paint you need before you start too. A paint will typically tell you how many metres squared it'll cover, so if you work out your total wall area you should be able to figure out how much to order. It's always worth having a bit more than you need too for all the touch ups during the snagging in stage 9.

This is a stage most people can undertake, but it's also one where if it's done badly you'll know. The prep is what separates a good job from a bad one, and the prep takes time. It normally takes more than just 1 go over of each imperfection before it's looking right. I used both paint sprayers and paint brushes + rollers throughout my painting and decorating, you can use what you feel most comfortable with.

Why now: the majority of the work is done and now it's time to start putting the house back together. The layouts of the important rooms should've already been settled back by stage 5 and you've already re-measured after plastering to make sure everything fits as it should. Now it's all about making sure you have everything lined up to make this section as smooth as possible.

A kitchen can go on top of glue-down floors but it's not best practice for them to go on top of floating floors. So the floor you're having matters for when it goes in.

I fitted my own floating LVT floor but I didn't fit my kitchen and left it to a pro. At the time I didn't feel like I had enough skills to get it right, but since then I have fitted a kitchen on an Aeterna Developments project and it came out very well. If you're going to fit your own kitchen the installation instructions are pretty simple to understand, it's just about making sure everything is right to the millimetre.

In the bathroom it's very important that any wet areas are sufficiently tankedTanking is waterproofing the shower & bath zones before tiling. Tiles & grout are not waterproof on their own, the membrane behind them is what stops next year's leak. and waterproofed. Your bath and/or shower tray should've already been fitted at the end of your first fix and now it's time for the rest of the bathroom to be fitted. I went for moisture resistant LVT and fitted that myself and also tiled all my bathroom walls myself and did a good amount of the siliconing but left the actual fitting to a bathroom fitter.

Around this time you will also have your plumber and electrician back to do their final bits of work. This is stuff like putting on sockets and switches, connecting up appliances and commissioning their work.

Kitchen fitting, electrics & plumbing were 3 things I left to the professionals. Tiling I did myself including all the waterproofing and prep work beforehand. The tiling itself was the hardest skill of the whole reno. You can do lots in this section, but much of it is intricate work and the final finish really matters. Make sure you give stuff way more time than you think it needs.

Why now: almost everything is done and it's time for the final few bits that push you over the edge. There's 2 ways to play this, you could put carpets in and then do the touch ups or snagging, which means you may have to cover the carpets. Or you can do the touch ups and snagging then get the carpets laid. I personally got the carpets done as soon as possible because I was tired of walking on bare floorboards with my crocs on.

Let's imagine you start with snaggingThe end-of-job list of small defects & unfinished bits. Written down room by room, it gets done. Kept in your head, it doesn't. though. This is the point where you walk around every room and point out every imperfection. A good way to keep track of them is to put a small post it note on the wall as well as write a list of what each thing is. You'll also want to decide who's doing what at this point. I personally do most of my own snagging on my house but some things you may need a trade for, especially if you used them for the job in the first place e.g. a decorator. It's also important you discuss with your trades early about snagging so you can work out payment terms. Trying to get someone back for a couple of hours work when you've already paid them will be a nightmare.

If you're changing your doors you will likely want to do it before you get your carpets laid, but it would be a good idea to know the thickness of your underlay and carpet so you know how much clearance you need.

Carpets typically have lead times of 2-4 weeks depending on their manufacturing process, how much they hold in stock, when fitters have availability etc so it would be good if you had already planned this out alongside the rest of the planning in stage 5 and had a carpet measure done by the time you were at stage 6/7. If I wasn't having my whole upstairs & stairs carpeted, I might've considered having a go myself but this is something I just left to the pros.

Expect to find at least some cracks over the coming weeks too. Most of them are natural and nothing to worry about. If there's any of concern keep an eye on them, measure & photograph them, and discuss them with the relevant people like a structural engineer or a builder. Everything else not of note can just be properly fixed and patched up.

By the time you've done all of this work, across these 9 stages, the house will pretty much be finished. Congratulations, you've renovated a house!

A lot of this stage could be done by yourself if you want to. If you've already got stuck in throughout the rest of the renovation, you may be feeling relatively confident in your skills and ability to pick things up. I certainly am a lot more confident than I was when I first started, but there's still some things like the carpets I left alone.