Home renovation planner
A renovation planner as a board, with 5 columns: Ideas, Getting Quotes, Booked, In Progress and Finished. Each job is a card with its quotes, contacts and dates on it. Below is the usual order of works, so the plasterer doesn't turn up before the electrician has finished.
Free for 3 projects, forever. No credit card.
Open up the kitchen wall
New bathroom suite
Rewire, 3 quotes
Plasterer, week of 14 June
Bathroom first fix
Loft insulation
The 5 columns
What each one is for. Rename, reorder or add columns whenever the work needs it.
- Ideas
- Everything you might do, room by room. Tag each card with the room.
- Getting Quotes
- Asking trades for prices. Keep each quote and contact in the card's comments, and files on Pro.
- Booked
- A trade is booked with a start date. Put the date on the card.
- In Progress
- Work under way. Use a checklist on the card for the stages and any snags.
- Finishedcounts as done
- Done and paid. Counts as done.
The usual order of works
Every project is different, but most follow this sequence. Getting it wrong means undoing finished work.
1. Plan
- Decide what you want, room by room, and what matters most
- Set a budget, with 10 to 20% kept back for surprises
- Check whether you need permission or building approval for structural work
- Get quotes from at least 3 trades for each big job
2. Structure and outside
- Structural work: walls, beams, extensions
- Roof, windows and doors, so the inside stays dry
- Damp proofing
3. First fix
- Plumbing pipes and drainage
- Electrical wiring
- Heating pipes
- Insulation
4. Walls and floors
- Plastering
- Screed or subfloors
- Let it dry before decorating
5. Second fix
- Kitchen and bathroom fitting
- Sockets, switches and lights
- Radiators, taps and sanitaryware
- Doors, skirting and architraves
6. Finish
- Decorating
- Flooring
- Snagging: a walk-round to list anything not right, before the final payment
How to run a renovation on a board
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Step 1
List every job as a card
One card per job, tagged by room. Use the order of works above to see what's missing.
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Step 2
Get quotes in Getting Quotes
Move a card here when you ask for prices. Add each quote as a comment, so you can compare in one place.
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Step 3
Book in the right order
Give each booked job its start date. Check the order of works before you agree dates, so each trade follows the one it depends on.
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Step 4
Track snags on the card
When a job is in progress, add a checklist for its stages and anything that needs fixing before you pay.
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Step 5
Move to Finished when it's paid
A job is finished when the snags are fixed and the invoice is paid.
With your AI agents
An agent can turn your wish list into cards in the right order, tag them by room, and tell you each week which trades are due and what's still waiting on a quote.
Agents connect over MCP or the REST API, on every plan, and act as you.
agentcreate_project("Kitchen and bathroom", template: "renovation")
agentbulk_create_cards("Kitchen and bathroom", 25 jobs, tagged by room)
agentget_focus()
Keep it working
- Write what's included in each quote, not just the price. The cheapest quote often leaves out the waste removal.
- Keep the contingency. Old houses almost always hide something.
- Photograph pipes and cables before the walls are closed up, and add the photos to the card.
- Share a read-only link with a partner or builder who wants to follow along.
Questions
About this template
Is the home renovation planner free?
Yes. It's on the Free plan: 3 projects with unlimited cards, forever. No credit card. For a partner to edit the board too, it needs Pro.
Does it track the budget?
No. There's no budget column or totals. Write each quote's price in the card, and keep the budget itself in a spreadsheet.
What order should renovation work be done in?
Usually: planning and permissions, structural and outside work, first fix (pipes and wiring), plastering, second fix (kitchens, bathrooms, sockets), then decorating and flooring.
What is snagging?
A walk-round near the end of a job to list everything that isn't right yet, like a chipped tile or a door that sticks. The trade fixes the list before the final payment.
Other templates
Start from this template
Free for 3 projects, with no credit card to enter. Every board exports as JSON or CSV whenever you want to leave.