Demolition and Strip-Out Scope Definition Checklist

Mark on a plan what you intend to keep and what you intend to remove, and treat that drawing as the document the conversation is held against.

A line on a plan produces a much sharper conversation than a description, and disagreements surface immediately rather than later.

Write down why each retained part is being kept, whether for structure, appearance, permissions, cost or attachment, since the reason affects how firm the decision is.

Some reasons survive a difficult discovery and some do not, and knowing which is which is useful before one arrives.

Ask your designer and engineer what the retention line depends on, and which parts of it are a preference rather than a constraint.

Owners often defend a line that was never load-bearing on the project, and free up options by asking.

Whether anything can be removed depends on how the building carries load. That is a matter for a qualified engineer, not for a plan you have drawn.

Note any finish, feature or fitting you intend to keep in place rather than remove, since protecting something is a different instruction from leaving it.

Things left in place with no protection arrangement are the classic casualty of a strip-out, and nobody is at fault afterwards.

Decide who is entitled to change the retention line once work is under way, and record that before anyone is on site.

Lines get moved on site by whoever is standing there, and agreeing this in advance is the only thing that prevents it.

Photograph everything on both sides of the line before anything is touched, including the parts you currently consider uninteresting or not worth recording.

The uninteresting parts are the ones somebody asks about later, and once they are gone the question cannot be answered.

Ask which surveys and investigations should be carried out before anything is removed, who arranges each one, and how long each takes.

Owners often discover a required survey when it is already holding the programme up, and the list is easy to ask for in advance.

Ask what has to be established about hazardous materials before anything is disturbed, and confirm who is responsible for arranging that work.

This has to be settled by a suitably qualified specialist before work starts, and the arrangement usually sits with the owner.

Nothing about hazardous materials can be judged by looking. It must be established by a suitably qualified specialist before anything is disturbed.

Ask who establishes what is holding the building up, and what temporary support has to be designed before any removal begins.

Temporary support is a designed arrangement rather than a site decision, and the owner is the party who commissions it.

Confirm with your local authority what permissions or notifications apply to removing any part of the building, and record who told you and when.

Requirements vary by location and by building, and a dated note of a conversation is traceable in a way that general understanding is not.

Only your local authority can say what applies to your property. Nothing on this page determines what any project requires.

Ask whether anything on the site carries a designation or protection, including trees, walls and the building itself, and treat anything you hear as something to check.

Designations attach to things that look ordinary, which is precisely why they are discovered after they have been removed.

Ask whether wildlife or nesting could affect the timing of any removal, and who establishes that before work is planned.

This can move a programme substantially and is easier to raise early than to discover at the point of starting.

List every supply reaching the building, including ones you no longer use, and note which of them you have never seen a meter or a stopcock for.

Unused supplies are still supplies, and an owner is often the only person who remembers one exists.

Ask who arranges the disconnection of each supply, how long each takes to arrange, and what evidence you will receive that it has happened.

Disconnections are arranged with third parties on their own timescales, and the requests have to be made well ahead.

Ask which supplies have to remain available during the work and how they will be kept clear of the area being removed.

A site usually needs power and water, and the arrangement for that is separate from the disconnections.

Ask which services cross the retention line and what happens to the part that stays, since a cut supply may serve something being kept.

Services rarely follow the same line an owner drew, and the crossings are found by whoever is removing something.

Ask whether anything buried or shared with a neighbour runs through the area, and who would confirm that before ground is disturbed.

Shared arrangements are usually informal and undocumented, and they surface at the worst possible moment.

Nothing about the position or status of a buried service can be settled from what is visible. Ask the relevant undertaking before ground is disturbed.

Record what you were told about each supply, by whom and on what date, and keep the evidence of disconnection with that record.

This is the record somebody asks for when a question arises months later, and it exists only if it was kept at the time.

Identify any wall, structure or boundary feature that is shared with or attached to a neighbouring property, and mark each on your plan.

Attachment is often discovered during removal, which is the worst moment for everyone including the neighbour.

Ask who is responsible for notifying or agreeing with neighbouring owners about work near a shared boundary, and record the answer in writing.

Neighbour matters run to their own rhythm, and finding out who handles them early keeps them from becoming an obstacle later.

Obligations towards neighbouring owners vary by location and by circumstance. Confirm what applies with a suitably qualified adviser.

Ask what record is made of the condition of neighbouring property before work starts, who makes it, and which party holds it afterwards.

A record made before work is the only thing that separates pre-existing condition from something attributed to the work.

Tell neighbours what is planned and roughly when, and give them a name to contact rather than leaving them to find one.

A contact point converts a complaint into a conversation, and the owner is the right person to provide it.

Note whether access, parking or a shared route will be affected, and write down what has been agreed informally in the past and who agreed it.

Informal arrangements hold until a lorry arrives, and writing them down gives everyone a chance to confirm them properly.

Ask what arrangements are proposed for dust, noise and working hours, and confirm locally whether anything applies in your area.

These are the matters neighbours actually experience, and an owner who has asked in advance handles them far better.

List everything you want to keep, whether for reuse, sale, sentiment or repair elsewhere, and mark each one physically as well as on paper.

A list in an email is not visible to the person holding the tool, which is how things are lost.

Decide where kept items will be stored, who moves them, and whether they need protecting from weather while the work goes on.

Items saved and then stacked in the open are lost just as completely as items thrown away.

Ask your designer early whether anything you want to reuse can realistically be incorporated, rather than saving it and finding out later.

Reuse has to be designed in rather than fitted afterwards, and the conversation belongs at this stage.

Record any feature you are not keeping but may want to reproduce, with photographs and notes taken close up and from a distance.

Owners frequently regret a removal and have nothing to work from, and the record costs nothing at the time.

Ask what happens to material that is removed, where it goes, and whether anything is separated for reuse or recycling.

Owners often care about this and rarely ask, and the answer varies considerably between the people doing the work.

Keep a small sample of anything distinctive that is being removed, such as a tile, a brick or a piece of trim, labelled with where it came from.

Matching something later is far easier with a physical piece than with a photograph, and it takes a moment to set aside.

Ask who tells you when something unexpected is found, how quickly, and whether work in that area stops in the meantime.

The arrangement for this is almost never stated, and its absence is what turns a discovery into a dispute.

Ask what would happen if unexpected material such as buried waste, tanks or contaminated ground is uncovered, and who decides what happens next on the day.

Decisions taken on the day without the owner are the ones that are hardest to unwind afterwards.

Anything unexpected uncovered during removal should be left undisturbed until a suitably qualified professional has looked at it.

Ask what happens if the building turns out to be holding together differently from what was assumed, and who is called.

This is the most common kind of discovery, and having the route agreed beforehand makes the pause much shorter.

Agree that every discovery is photographed and recorded before anything is altered, and that a copy comes to you.

The record of what was found is what makes the later decision defensible, and it is only made if it was agreed.

Decide in advance how your household will make a quick decision if one is needed, and who can speak for you.

Discoveries arrive at inconvenient moments, and a decision route agreed in calm conditions holds up far better.

Record any discovery that changes the retention line, and reissue the marked plan rather than amending it in conversation.

A plan everyone is still working from is worth reissuing, because a verbal amendment reaches roughly half the people involved.

Photograph the building room by room and elevation by elevation before work starts, rather than only the parts that interest you.

A systematic set is usable later; a collection of interesting shots is not, however good the individual images are.

Ask for the building to be photographed once opened up and before anything is covered again, and agree that copies come to you.

This is the only opportunity anyone will ever have to see the building's construction, and it lasts a few days.

Note where services, openings and structures actually turned out to be, since these commonly differ from any drawing you were given.

An as-found record is worth more than an as-drawn one, and it exists only if somebody made it.

Keep every survey, report and piece of correspondence about the existing building together in one place, including the ones that found nothing at all.

A report that found nothing is evidence too, and separating it from the rest makes a complete record look incomplete.

Date and label everything as you go, since a folder of undated images is very close to no record at all.

This is tedious at the time and the difference between a usable archive and an unusable one.

Plan for this record to stay with the property rather than with you, and say so to whoever assembles the handover documents.

Records that travel with a household instead of a building are lost at the first sale.