House Renovation Order of Works: The Right Sequence (2026)

Most renovation disasters are not about bad workmanship. They are about the right work done in the wrong order: a kitchen fitted before the rewire, a floor laid before the plasterer has finished, a bathroom tiled before the pipework was moved. Each one means paying twice. This guide sets out the house renovation order of works that experienced builders follow, in eleven stages with realistic durations, what first fix and second fix actually mean, the common sequencing mistakes, and a checklist you can copy. It applies to a full renovation of a typical UK house; a lighter refurbishment follows the same order with stages skipped.

The order of works at a glance

A standard three-bedroom renovation runs four to six months on site; add structural work or an extension and it is six to nine. The drying stages are the ones that cannot be rushed, and a good programme runs other work around them.

Why sequence matters

Three reasons. Dependencies: you cannot plaster until the cables and pipes are in the wall, and you cannot fit a socket until the plaster is dry. Protection: finishes go in last because everything before them makes dust, drips and damage. Drying: plaster, screed, damp treatment and lime work all need weeks to dry, and painting or tiling over damp material fails. Get the order wrong and you either do the job twice or live with the compromise for years.

Stage 0: planning, surveys, design and permissions

Everything on site depends on decisions made here. A building survey establishes the condition of the roof, structure, damp, timber and services. A design fixes the layout, and a structural engineer designs any steels and openings, which building control will want calculations for. Consents: planning permission if you are extending or in a conservation area, a building regulations application for structural, drainage and thermal work, party wall notices on a semi or terrace. Then the budget with a 10 to 15 per cent contingency, and the long-lead orders: kitchens, windows and bespoke joinery run six to twelve weeks and should be ordered before the strip-out so the site never waits for a delivery.

Stage 1: strip-out and demolition

An asbestos survey comes first on any house built before 2000, because textured ceilings, floor tiles and old boards are exactly what gets ripped out. Then the strip-out: old kitchen and bathrooms, floor coverings, plaster that has failed, non-structural partitions, and anything else that is going. Salvage what is worth keeping, from original doors to fireplaces, and label it. Skips: a full strip-out of a three-bed house fills three to five.

Stage 2: structural work

Steels go in for new openings, load-bearing walls come out under temporary support, chimney breasts are removed with the stack above supported, and any underpinning or bay repairs happen now. Building control inspects the steel bearings and foundations before they are covered. This is the messiest and most disruptive stage and the one that cannot be revisited once the house is finished.

Stage 3: roof, windows and external envelope

The aim is a weathertight shell before anything inside is finished. Roof repairs or re-covering, new fascias and gutters, replacement windows and external doors, repointing and external repairs. Scaffolding is up for this stage, so any external insulation, render or chimney work is done at the same time. Once the house is dry, the internal programme can run without weather risk.

Stage 4: damp, drainage and the ground floor

Fix the cause of any damp: ground levels, gutters, bridged damp-proof courses, cement render on solid walls. Alter drainage now, before floors go down, including new soil stacks for a moved bathroom and any build-over agreement with the water company. Repair or replace ground floors: rotten joists, sub-floor ventilation, insulation between joists, or a new screed over insulation where a solid floor is going in. Screeds need drying time, roughly a day per millimetre, so pour them early.

Stage 5: first fix

Everything that lives inside the walls, floors and ceilings:

• Carpentry: stud walls, door linings, ceiling and floor structure, boxing-in, loft hatches
• Plumbing and heating: hot and cold pipework, waste runs, radiator tails, boiler position, underfloor heating pipes, all pressure-tested before they are covered
• Electrics: cables run to back boxes for every socket, switch and light, consumer unit position, data and TV cabling, extractor fan ducting
• Insulation: between studs, in ceilings, under floors, with any vapour control layer

The rule at first fix is to over-provide: an extra socket or a cable for a future light costs pounds now and hundreds later. Get the design of the kitchen and bathrooms finalised before this stage, because the pipe and cable positions are fixed here.

Stage 6: plastering and screeds

Walls are boarded or dubbed out, then skimmed, and any remaining screeds are laid. Then the house dries: two to four weeks for gypsum plaster, longer for lime and for thick screeds. A mist coat of watered-down emulsion goes on as soon as the plaster is dry enough, and no finish goes near a wall that is still drying out. This is the stage that stretches programmes, and the one a good builder plans other work around: external works, joinery in the workshop, garden.

Stage 7: second fix

The trades come back to fit the visible parts:

• Electrics: sockets, switches, light fittings, consumer unit connections, fans, testing and the Part P certificate
• Plumbing: radiators or underfloor manifolds commissioned, boiler fired, sanitaryware connected, Gas Safe certificate
• Joinery: internal doors hung, skirting, architraves, window boards, staircase parts, built-in cupboards

Stage 8: kitchen and bathroom fitting

Kitchen: units fixed and levelled first, then the worktop template, then worktops fitted a week or two later, then appliances, splashbacks and tiling. Flooring goes under the units for tiles and stone, or up to the plinths for timber and laminate.

Bathrooms: tanking and floor tiling first, then bath and shower tray, then wall tiling down onto them, then wall-hung sanitaryware onto concealed frames, then brassware, glass screens and silicone. Underfloor heating mats go under the floor tiles. Our bathroom cost guide covers the day-by-day sequence for a single bathroom.

Stage 9: flooring and decoration

Which comes first is a genuine debate. The safe answer: ceilings and walls fully decorated except the final wall coat, then flooring laid, then the final coat and the skirting painted, so the floor is protected from the messy work and the last coat covers any scuffs. Carpets go down last of all.

Stage 10: snagging, certificates and handover

A walk round with a snagging list, every item fixed, then the paperwork: Part P electrical certificate, Gas Safe, FENSA or CERTASS for windows, building control completion certificate for structural, drainage and thermal work, warranties for the boiler, appliances, tanking and roofing. A deep clean, and the keys back.

How long does a full renovation take?

Living in the house adds 20 to 30 per cent to the programme.

Common sequencing mistakes

1. Fitting the kitchen before the rewire or replaster. It comes out again.
2. Laying flooring before decoration. Every drip and scratch is on a floor you paid for.
3. Plastering before first fix. The new plaster is chased for cables and done twice.
4. Tiling a bathroom before the pipework is moved. Tiles off, pipes moved, tiles on again.
5. Ordering the kitchen late. The site stops for eight weeks waiting for units.
6. Decorating over wet plaster. Paint peels within months.
7. Skipping the survey. The budget is a guess and every surprise is a crisis.
8. Changing the design after first fix. Every moved socket or basin now costs three times what it would have on paper.

Living in the house during the works

Possible for a refurbishment, hard for a full renovation. If you must, sequence the work floor by floor, keep one bathroom and a basic kitchen usable, seal off the working areas, and move out for the first fix and plastering weeks if there is any way to. Our full house renovation cost guide weighs the cost of alternative accommodation against the longer programme.

The renovation checklist

Copy this and tick it off:

• Building survey done and read
• Layout and design agreed; kitchen and bathroom designs finalised
• Structural engineer's drawings and calculations
• Planning permission, building regulations application, party wall notices as needed
• Budget with 10 to 15 per cent contingency (15 to 20 on a period house)
• Kitchen, windows, doors and bespoke joinery ordered
• Asbestos survey; strip-out; skips
• Structural work inspected by building control
• Roof, windows, gutters: weathertight
• Damp cause fixed; drainage altered; floors repaired or screeded
• First fix carpentry, plumbing, heating, electrics; pressure test; insulation
• Plastering and screeds; drying time; mist coat
• Second fix electrics and plumbing; boiler commissioned; doors, skirting, architraves
• Kitchen units, template, worktops, appliances; bathrooms tanked, tiled, fitted
• Flooring; decoration; carpets
• Snagging list cleared; all certificates and warranties collected
• Deep clean and handover

Order of works on a Victorian or period house

The same sequence with more drying time and more care at stages 3 and 4: lime pointing and lime plaster dry slowly, damp has to be cured by removing cement and restoring ventilation rather than by sealing, and original features are removed at strip-out for restoration and refitted at second fix. Our guide to renovating a Victorian house covers the differences in detail.

How we run it in Southampton

This order of works is what a full house renovation with us looks like in practice: one in-house team, one programme with every stage dated, weekly updates, and no trade waiting on another because they are all ours. Where a project is a lighter house refurbishment, the same sequence applies with the structural and envelope stages skipped, which is why a refurbishment of a sound house takes six to twelve weeks rather than six months.

Order of works for a kitchen renovation

Within the wider sequence, a kitchen has its own order: design and order the units first (six to twelve weeks' lead time); strip out; move plumbing, gas and electrics at first fix, including a new circuit for the oven and hob and sockets above the worktop; plaster; floor tiles if they run under the units; fit and level the base units; template the worktop; wall units; worktop fitted a week or two later; sink, taps and appliances connected; splashback and wall tiling; plinths, cornice and pelmet; decoration. Fitting units before the plaster is dry, or before the new sockets are in, is how kitchens get taken out twice.

Order of works for a bathroom

Strip-out; first fix plumbing to the new positions and electrics for the extractor, lighting and underfloor heating; plasterboard and tanking to the wet areas; underfloor heating mat; floor tiles; bath or shower tray; wall tiles down onto the bath and tray; concealed cistern frames and wall-hung sanitaryware; brassware, screen and mirror; silicone; decoration. The tanking and the floor go before the wall tiles, and the wall-hung sanitaryware goes after them. Our bathroom cost guide covers the day-by-day timings.

Order of works with an extension

If the renovation includes an extension, the extension shell runs ahead of the internal work: groundworks and foundations, walls and steels, roof, windows and doors to weathertight, then the knock-through into the existing house. From that point the extension joins the main sequence at first fix, so the new kitchen and the rest of the house are plastered, second-fixed and finished together. Building control inspects foundations, damp-proof course, drainage, structure and insulation before each is covered. Our extension cost guide sets out the extension programme.

What building control inspects, and when

Missing an inspection means opening the work up again, so the programme is built around the inspector's visits.

Trade dependencies: who waits for whom

The electrician cannot second fix until the plasterer has finished and the plaster has dried. The plasterer cannot start until the electrician, plumber and carpenter have finished first fix and the building control inspector has seen the insulation. The tiler needs the tanking cured and the bath in. The kitchen fitter needs the floor, the plaster and the electrics. The decorator needs everyone else out. One team with one programme resolves this every morning; separate trades on separate diaries are where the gaps of a week here and a fortnight there come from, and why a self-managed renovation of the same house often takes considerably longer.

A sample week-by-week programme for a three-bed house

Twenty-two weeks is a comfortable programme for a standard three-bed renovation with no extension; a tight one runs eighteen, and structural or period work pushes it towards thirty.

The right sequence is not complicated, but it is unforgiving. Follow it and a renovation is a long, predictable process; skip a stage and it becomes an expensive one. Guidance correct as of August 2026.