What to renovate before you move in

Before you move, schedule the work that is most disruptive once you are living there: demolition, altering pipework, plastering, and large stretches of flooring and painting. Not every room has to be finished at the same time.

For each job, ask whether it is technically needed before you use the room, or mainly nice to have. A working old kitchen can sometimes stay while you prepare the new one.

Investigate structure and demolition first

Removing a wall, extending, or chasing channels takes preparation. Check permits and notifications and have someone assess which investigation is needed.

Plan the repair of the substrate as well. The new finish can only go ahead once that work is done.

Leave room for drying

Walls and ceilings follow the pipework and the structural work. Ask the plasterer which drying time the chosen coat and the conditions require.

Where you can, paint before the large furniture and the fitted cupboards arrive. Walls you will not be able to reach later, and rooms you use from day one, come first.

Coordinate the floor and the kitchen

The type of floor helps decide whether the floor runs underneath the kitchen. Check the subfloor, the drying, the acclimatisation and any underfloor heating before you fix a date.

The detail is in kitchen, plastering and flooring. Have the floor fitter and the kitchen supplier work to the same schedule.

A bathroom needs to stay usable

If the only shower or toilet is being taken out, allow for staying elsewhere for a while or for another solution. Agree before the strip-out where you will shower and use a toilet in the meantime.

Put the delivery dates, the availability of the trades and the order of work side by side. Keeping one room working can make a move possible while later work still waits.

Plan what can wait

Loose furniture, decoration, the garden and unused rooms can usually come after the move. By living there first you notice which routes through the house, which light points and which storage actually matter.

Note per job which preparation it needs and what a delay means for whatever follows. Use the renovation checklist to keep those arrangements legible.

What to do now

• put structure and demolition first, because everything else hangs off them
• plan the painting of hard-to-reach walls before the move
• agree with the floor fitter and the kitchen supplier whether the floor goes in before or after the kitchen