Pre-Renovation Checklist

Nothing on this list is urgent yet, which is exactly why it gets skipped. Every item here is cheap now and expensive once a crew is standing in your kitchen waiting on an answer.

• Contract signed, carrying the scope, the price, the payment schedule, and the start and substantial completion dates.
• Permits confirmed: which ones the job needs and who is pulling them.Work should not begin before they are issued.
• If the property sits in a local historic district, CHAP approval in hand.Exterior work in a CHAP district needs an authorization to proceed before the building permit can be issued, and it reaches further than people expect: paint, storm windows and roofing material can all be in scope.
• Financing approved or drawn, with the draw schedule matched to the contractor's payment schedule.
• Every finish selected and confirmed in writing: cabinets, counters, tile, flooring, paint, plumbing fixtures, lighting, hardware, appliances.
• Long lead items ordered.Windows, custom cabinetry, specialty tile and appliances routinely run six to twelve weeks. One late item can hold a whole trade.
• Anything you are supplying yourself agreed in writing, with delivery dates that land before the trade needs it.
• Certificate of insurance received from the contractor's insurer, covering your project dates.
• Your own insurer notified.Ask what changes if the house is unoccupied during the work, and whether the policy has anything to say about renovations.
• Change order process agreed: written, priced and signed before the work happens.
• The daily point of contact named on both sides, with a phone number that gets answered.
• Weekly walkthrough set for a fixed day and time.

Work out where your life happens while the work happens. This is the part people underestimate, and it is the part that decides whether the job is tolerable.

• Decide whether you are staying or moving out.A kitchen out of service for six weeks is a different proposition from a bathroom out for two.
• Temporary kitchen set up somewhere else: microwave, kettle, toaster oven, coffee, a folding table, and the fridge relocated if it is coming out.
• Bathroom plan agreed if the only full bath is in the scope. Work out where everybody showers before you need to.
• Laundry plan agreed if the machines are in the work zone or behind it.
• Pets sorted: boarding, day care, or a room with a closed door, a sign on it, and the crew told.
• Children accounted for: nap times, school runs, and where homework happens once the dining table is a staging area.
• Home office relocated, with the noise and the video call background tested before day one rather than during.
• Deliveries redirected or a drop note left. A front door behind dust sheets is not a safe place to leave a parcel.
• Medication, documents, jewelry, cash and backup drives moved somewhere locked and well outside the work zone.
• Neighbors told: dates, hours, noise, and your phone number.In a row home your demolition is their demolition. The call you want is to you, not to 311.
• Parking worked out for the crew and for material deliveries.
• If a dumpster or container is going on the street, the Baltimore City right-of-way permit applied for.Apply around fifteen business days ahead, budget roughly sixty-five dollars a week, and note that the no-parking signs have to be posted at least seventy-two hours before the start date. On private property, no permit.

Anything still in the room on day one either gets moved by somebody who does not know what it is worth, or gets covered in dust.

• Work zone emptied completely: cupboards, drawers, wardrobes, the backs of shelves, all of it.
• Rooms next door and the room directly below cleared too.Vibration travels through a house. Demolition takes pictures off walls two rooms away.
• Mirrors, art, shelves and anything hanging on a shared wall taken down.
• Everything packed in labeled boxes by room, with a separate box of what you actually need in week one.
• Storage or a container booked if the volume is beyond a spare room.
• The route the crew walks agreed, and floor protection laid on every surface between the entry door and the work zone.
• Stairs, banisters and door frames on that route protected, and it is clear who is doing it.
• Dust containment confirmed: sealed barriers at the openings, not a bedsheet taped to a frame.
• HVAC vents in and around the work zone sealed, and a filter change booked for the end of the job.
• Window treatments removed or protected, and anything hanging from a ceiling taken down.
• Vehicles, bins, garden furniture and anything else moved out of the drop zone outside.
• Every room in and around the scope photographed, existing damage included.Dated photographs settle almost every end-of-job disagreement about who scratched what.

Ten minutes of this on the first morning prevents most of the phone calls you would otherwise get in week three.

• Access agreed: key, lockbox or door code, and a clear answer on who holds it.
• Alarm handled, and the monitoring company told what to expect.
• Crew lead shown the water shut-off, the gas shut-off and the electrical panel.
• Panel labeled, or at least the circuits serving the work zone identified.
• Agreed which bathroom the crew uses, and whether it is one of yours.
• Working hours confirmed, along with any day or time that is off limits.
• Agreed where the dumpster sits and how often it is emptied.
• Agreed where materials get stacked, inside and out.
• Permit card posted where an inspector can see it.
• Wifi decided either way.Give the crew a guest network or do not, but decide it rather than leaving it open by default.
• Smoke alarms in and near the work zone accounted for, with a clear answer on when they come back.
• If the house predates 1978 and paint will be disturbed, the EPA Renovate Right pamphlet received and signed for, and the lead containment explained to you.Most of Baltimore's housing stock is older than 1978, so assume this applies until somebody tells you it does not.

Fifteen minutes with the crew lead, standing in the rooms rather than looking at a drawing.

• Full scope walked with the crew lead, in the rooms, out loud.
• What stays is marked. Tape and a label on anything that could plausibly be read as demolition.
• Demolition boundary confirmed wall by wall.
• First week's sequence agreed, and what finished looks like at the end of it.
• Confirmed where you will find them and how they reach you.
• Photo log started. One folder, dated, updated weekly.
• Emergency numbers on the fridge: contractor, plumber, electrician, and your own utility numbers.

The paperwork you will want at the end is the paperwork nobody collects at the time.

• The signed contract and every change order, one folder, in date order.
• Permit numbers and the inspection schedule.
• A running punch list, started in week one rather than at the end.
• Receipts for anything you supplied yourself.
• Photographs of the open walls before drywall goes on.Knowing where the pipes and wires run is worth more than you expect, the first time you want to hang something heavy.
• Lien releases collected with each payment rather than chased at the end.