Post-Renovation Support & Maintenance Planning

Handover is a milestone, not an ending. A newly renovated house dries out, timber moves, sealant settles and new equipment has to be commissioned into a routine. What happens in the first year decides whether a project still looks right in its fifth.

We close projects properly — snagging, certificates, documentation and training — and set out a maintenance plan so that the investment is protected rather than quietly eroded.

How we approach it

Snagging starts before you move back in. We walk the property with you, list every outstanding item, agree who is putting each one right and by when, and complete the list rather than letting it fade. A defects period follows handover, during which anything that appears in normal use is returned to and resolved.

You then receive a handover pack: as-built information, manufacturer manuals and warranties, paint and material schedules with product names and codes, appliance and system details, and the statutory certificates relevant to your project — building control completion, electrical installation certificates, gas safety documentation and any other sign-offs the work required. Those documents matter twice: once when something needs servicing, and again when the property is sold.

Finally we walk you through the house. How the heating zones are set, what each lighting scene does, where the stopcock and the consumer unit are, which surfaces need which cleaner and which need nothing at all.

We also agree in advance what happens if something goes wrong. You have a number to call, a record of which trade installed what, and a shared understanding of which problems are urgent — a leak, a loss of heating or power — and which can sensibly wait for the next scheduled visit.

What's involved

• Pre-handover snagging list, agreed, allocated and completed
• Defects period with return visits
• Handover pack of certificates, warranties, manuals and as-built information
• Materials and finishes schedule with product references for future repairs
• Demonstration of systems and written user guidance
• Seasonal maintenance plan written for the property
• Servicing schedule for heating, ventilation and installed equipment
• Advice on redecoration cycles and external maintenance

In London homes

Newly plastered walls carry moisture for weeks, and new timber and joinery move as a building settles to normal humidity, so fine cracking at joints during the first heating season is expected rather than a defect. We usually recommend a mist coat and initial decoration at completion, with a first full redecoration once the property has been through a winter.

Period properties reward a routine. Gutters and valleys fill with leaves and cause damp that looks convincingly like a plumbing failure. Sash windows need their cords and beads checked. External joinery, and render or pointing on London stock brick, typically need attention on a cycle of a few years rather than a few decades, and lime pointing should be maintained in kind rather than patched with cement, which traps moisture in the wall.

Wet areas need care of their own. Silicone at bath and shower junctions is a consumable rather than a permanent fixture, grout benefits from cleaning rather than bleaching, and a wet room's waterproofing depends on those details staying intact — see custom finishes and bespoke solutions for how they are specified in the first place. Boilers, heat pumps and mechanical ventilation have servicing intervals that also protect their warranties, and in a leasehold flat you may be required to evidence that servicing to the freeholder.

Where a property is left empty for periods, a short checklist for heating, water and ventilation prevents the most common and most expensive problems.

Working with us

Aftercare is easier when the same people built the house. We hold the record of what sits behind the walls, which paint was used and who supplied the stone, and we support the systems installed under smart home and technology integration. The handover documentation is prepared as part of project management and coordination rather than assembled hurriedly at the end.

If we have worked on your property, get in touch whenever something needs attention. If we have not, our projects will give you a sense of how we finish.