Checklists · Envelope
Building Envelope & Openings Checklists
The outside of a building decides much of how it feels inside. These checklists help you describe the construction as you observe it, record where comfort and moisture problems actually occur, and prepare the questions worth asking about insulation, glazing and weather performance.
Nothing here states what build-up is correct, what performance figures apply, or whether a detail meets any requirement. Those are professional assessments, and requirements vary by property and location.
24 checklists in this category
What this area covers
Planning topics in this category
Each checklist prepares one specific conversation or decision point. None of them determines compliance, suitability or cost.
- Existing construction as observed by the owner
- Where comfort, draught and moisture problems occur
- Window, door and glazing decisions to record
- Performance questions for qualified professionals
Checklists in this category
Browse by project stage
Each checklist sits at the earliest point in a project where it becomes useful. Every checklist in this category appears in exactly one stage below.
Thinking it through
Before anything is committed — working out whether the idea suits you at all.
Cavity and Solid Wall →How to gather evidence about what your outside walls are, from bond patterns and reveals to damp marks, and hand it over instead of guessing at the answer.Rainwater Goods Questions →Getting ready to talk about gutters and downpipes: where the water runs off, where it overshoots, where each pipe discharges and who owns what at a shared boundary.Condensation and Moisture →Read the pattern before you reach for a cause: which surfaces get wet and when, what changed beforehand, and which questions to bring before a treatment is proposed.External Repair Priority →A way to list external repairs elevation by elevation, separate water getting in from ordinary wear, and record what has to happen before anything else is worth doing.Weathering Observation Record →A record of how weather actually reaches your building: which face takes the driving rain, where water runs and stains, and what wind, frost and sun leave behind.
Early planning
Gathering what you already know and shaping the project before drawings begin.
External Wall Insulation →Preparation for wrapping the outside of a house: what the elevations carry today, where the building line would change, and which detailing questions to put to a professional.Internal Wall Insulation →For lining the inside of an outside wall: which rooms would take it, what is lost at skirtings and reveals, and where the work has to stop and be detailed.Roof Covering Decisions →Choosing what goes back on a pitched roof: what is up there now, what could be salvaged, how the roof reads from the street and what to settle before stripping begins.Flat Roof Discussion →Before a flat roof conversation: how the surface looks from above, where the water actually leaves, what sits under the deck and what to agree before it is stripped.Rooflight and Skylight →Prepare for a rooflight conversation by recording the roof as you observe it, where daylight is missing, and which opening, shading and detailing points to raise.External Door Specification →Work out what your entrance door has to do before choosing one: how the opening is used, what weather it takes, and which security and finish points to raise.Bifold and Sliding Doors →Before a wide glazed opening is ordered: how it will really be used, where the panels go when open, what the threshold has to do, and which points belong with professionals.Threshold and Level Access →Record the step you have now, who crosses it and with what, where rain water goes when it lands there, and what a lower threshold would displace inside the doorway.Airtightness Conversation →Get ready to talk about draughts and sealing: where air moves now, the openings already in the fabric, who owns the sealing line, and what testing would actually tell you.Render and Cladding Decisions →What a new external finish would sit on, how much thickness it adds, where it has to stop at every edge, and what repairing it in later years would actually involve.Brick and Stone Repair →Describe what the walls are built of, record cracking and decay exactly as observed, and note what generations of earlier repair have left behind on the masonry.Facade Appearance Decisions →How the outside of a building will look is a set of owner decisions: material, colour, texture and detail, recorded before anyone draws or specifies them.Shading and Solar Gain →A preparation checklist for owners recording where sun reaches a building, which rooms become uncomfortable and when, so shading and glazing can be raised as questions.Loft and Roof Insulation →Questions to prepare before a loft or roof is insulated: what the space holds now, where the warm line would sit, and what the void above it still needs.Floor Insulation Questions →Preparation for a floor insulation conversation: what the floor appears to be built from, how anyone would reach beneath it, and what a rising floor level disturbs.Thermal Bridging Questions →For the cold lines and repeating marks a building shows: where to look, what to write down, and how to raise continuity at junctions as a question rather than a claim.
Brief & professionals
Writing the brief and preparing the conversations with qualified professionals.
Window Specification Questions →Turning what you want from a window into something a supplier can work from: what each opening must do, frame trade-offs, operation, exposure and what to state in writing.Glazing Performance Questions →What to ask about the glass itself: the problem you want solved room by room, warmth, daylight, glare, noise and privacy, and what a sealed unit asks of you afterwards.
Design & decisions
The layout, material and finish decisions worth recording as the design develops.
Go deeper
Related Build Design Hub guides
Explanatory guidance behind the decisions these checklists prepare you for.
Building envelope →Explanatory guides on walls, roofs and the building fabric.Windows, doors & openings →Background on openings and how they are usually discussed.Energy & comfort →General educational background on comfort and building performance.All checklist categories →Back to the full Project Planning Checklists library.