Plan your renovation
Renovation project planner
Keep the brief, numbers and decisions together. These ten templates help you prepare a house, flat, bathroom or bespoke joinery project and discuss it with your appointed team.
Template reviewed .
Your entries stay in this tab. The planner does not send them to Hampstead Renovations or save them automatically. Download an editable HTML copy to keep your work, then open that file in your browser to continue. Each save creates a new file; it does not update a previous download.
One project, one current revision
Use a project nickname rather than personal details. These fields appear in every CSV export. Keep supporting documents in your own project folder and refer to them by name or reference.
Numbers: use a decimal point and no currency symbols or commas. Amounts allow two decimal places; quantities and percentages allow four. Budget amounts cannot be negative. Record credits in the change log and revise the relevant allowance once agreed.
1. Project brief
Start with what the home needs to do. Separate essential work from options, and record what is still unknown before asking anyone to price it.
Use the same room and scope references in your budget and approval register. Update the shared revision when the agreed brief changes.
2. Budget worksheet
Use one row per cost item, including professional fees, surveys, approvals, temporary accommodation and other costs that apply. Enter your own quantity and unit allowance or quotation. A blank amount is unknown; zero means an intentional zero. Select the VAT basis and enter the rate confirmed for that item. No rate or project price is assumed.
The subtotal includes only rows with complete valid amounts and VAT information. Incomplete rows remain visible and prevent a complete project total. Contingency is a separate cash reserve calculated on that subtotal; it does not determine the tax treatment of later work. CSV exports are value snapshots; use this HTML planner for recalculation.
Budget summary
- Net subtotal of complete rows
- Not calculated
- VAT on complete rows
- Not calculated
- Subtotal including any VAT
- Not calculated
- Contingency reserve
- Not calculated
- Total including contingency
- Not calculated
3. Approval register
List each proposed work item and ask the appropriate adviser which routes apply. Landlord consent, planning permission, listed-building consent, building regulations, any applicable Building Safety Regulator route and party-wall matters are separate checks. This register records advice and decisions; it does not grant permission to start.
Record conditions and the evidence needed before affected work starts. An approval can still have outstanding conditions. Carry those dependencies into your decision tracker.
4. Decision and programme tracker
Agree real decision deadlines with the person coordinating the work. Work back from procurement, manufacture, inspections and installation dependencies rather than using a universal renovation timetable.
Reference the drawings, approval and budget items each decision affects. When an agreed decision changes, open a change record before it becomes an instruction.
5. Change record
Record a requested change separately from its approval and the formal instruction. Ask the appointed team to confirm cost, time and consent implications under your contract before affected work proceeds.
Once instructed, update the brief, budget and programme to the same revision. Record a reduction or credit explicitly and say whether it includes VAT; this log does not automatically change your budget.
6. Handover checklist
Agree the applicable handover documents with your team while the work is being planned. Review commissioning, operation and care alongside the paperwork and snag list. Record any open issue and who will resolve it.
Consider completion and compliance records, relevant installation certificates, commissioning results, as-built information, manuals and care instructions, product warranties, consent close-out and common-area restoration. Applicability depends on the work and appointments.
7. Tender comparison
Compare bidders against the same brief, drawings and revision. Use a row for each bidder and scope item so an exclusion or provisional allowance cannot disappear inside a headline total.
Resolve differences in scope, VAT, provisional allowances, design responsibility, access, protection, programme, payment and contract terms before selecting an offer. This template deliberately does not rank contractors or add unlike quotations together.
8. Managing-agent checklist
Ask for the rules and documents that apply to your building and proposed work. Share of freehold does not by itself remove lease obligations. Record permission, conditions and site arrangements separately.
Discuss the lease and Licence to Alter, drawings and professional reports, fire/acoustic/shared-service interfaces, deposits and insurance evidence, permitted hours, lift bookings, deliveries, waste routes, neighbour communications and final inspection. Do not assume another building's rules apply.
9. Bathroom room sheet
Prepare one sheet for each bathroom. Give your designer and installer the room requirements and the questions to resolve before products are ordered. The sheet is a brief for professional design, not installation instructions.
Coordinate layout, drainage, ventilation, waterproofing, structure, electrical work and service access as one design. Keep system-specific instructions and inspection records in the handover file. Link changes to the budget and decision tracker.
10. Bespoke joinery brief
Define the purpose and interfaces of each bespoke joinery element. Record the measured survey, design and sample approvals before manufacture is instructed. Keep unresolved details visible.
Confirm design, materials and installation scope with your team before instruction. Carry the approved drawing revision and finish sample reference through installation and handover.