Renovation Services and Utilities Questions Checklist

Walk the property and note where the water, electrical and any fuel supply physically enters, and photograph each point including what surrounds it.

A trade will ask this in the first conversation, and a photograph answers it far better than a description.

Record where each meter sits, whether it is inside or outside, and whether anything would have to be moved to reach it during the work.

Meters buried behind storage or new cabinetry are a recurring and entirely avoidable problem.

Anything involving moving, altering or working close to a meter is for the relevant provider and suitably qualified trades to arrange, never the owner.

Write down the reference numbers shown on your account paperwork and on the meters themselves, since a trade or a provider will ask you for them.

These identifiers are what let a provider find your supply, and hunting for them mid-conversation wastes the call.

Note as far as you can follow it where each supply runs once it is inside, and mark the point at which it disappears into a wall, floor or boxing.

The point where a run disappears is exactly what a professional will want to question you about.

Record whether any supply, meter or isolation point is shared with another property or sits within a common part of a building.

Shared arrangements bring other parties into the picture long before any work is designed.

Anything shared with another property or held in a common area involves the building owner, managing agent or neighbour and must be raised with them directly.

Ask who will need access to each supply point during the work, and note anything currently standing in front of it that would have to move.

Access is simple to arrange before a room fills up with stored belongings and awkward afterwards.

Find the main water isolation point, note where it is and what stands in front of it, and make sure everyone in the household knows where to look for it.

Households often discover the answer to this question at the least convenient possible moment.

If the isolation point looks corroded, damaged or obstructed, leave it alone and raise it with a qualified professional rather than attempting to work it yourself.

Note any secondary isolation points you can see, such as those serving individual fittings, and mark which fitting you believe each one serves.

Local isolation can allow work to proceed without stopping the whole property, if it exists and can be found.

Photograph the electrical unit including any labelling on it, and note whether that labelling still matches how the property is used today.

Old labelling is one of the first things a qualified electrician will want to look at and question.

Do not open, test or alter anything within an electrical unit; photograph what is visible and leave everything else to a qualified electrician.

Record where any fuel supply can be isolated and whether that point can be reached without moving anything.

This is information a trade will ask for, and it is quicker for you to locate than for them.

Any gas or other fuel supply must only be worked on, tested or isolated by a suitably qualified and registered professional.

Write down what you already know about which switch or valve controls what, and mark clearly the places where you are only guessing.

Your partial knowledge is genuinely useful to a trade, provided the guesses are labelled as guesses.

Note what produces heat and hot water in the property, where each part of it sits, and what fuel it uses.

This shapes almost every services conversation in a renovation and is easily described by an owner.

List which rooms have heat emitters, roughly where each one sits on the wall, and which rooms have none at all.

Rooms with no provision are usually the ones an owner wants changed, and that is a design conversation from the start.

Record what controls exist, where they are and whether any of them no longer seem to do anything at all.

Controls that nobody understands are common, and describing them is more useful than trying to explain them.

Write down which rooms are noticeably colder or slower to warm, and when you notice it, without trying to explain why that happens.

Observed behaviour is valuable evidence, and the explanation belongs with a qualified professional.

Why a room performs as it does can only be established by a qualified professional, so record what you notice and leave the diagnosis to them.

Gather any servicing records, manuals or paperwork relating to the heating equipment, and note when it was last looked at by anyone.

This paperwork is asked for early in a project and is often the only history that anybody holds.

Note what you would like to be different about heating in the renovated rooms, and put it as a want rather than as a proposed solution.

Stating the want rather than the fix keeps the options open for whoever ends up designing it.

Walk outside and note every drainage cover, gully and downpipe you can see, photographing each one where it meets the ground.

These are the visible ends of a system nobody has a drawing for, and they are useful to a professional.

Do not lift covers or attempt to trace a drainage run yourself; note what is visible and leave any investigation to a qualified professional.

For each existing fitting, note roughly where its waste appears to leave the room, using the pipework visible on the outside walls.

Where waste leaves a room is often what decides whether a fitting can be moved at all.

Record which downpipes appear to take rainwater and which take waste from fittings, as far as you can tell from where each one begins.

The distinction matters in almost every services conversation and is often visible from ground level.

Write down anything you already notice, such as a slow drain, a smell or a gully that fills in heavy rain, and where exactly you notice it.

Symptoms observed over time are information a professional cannot gather in a single visit.

Ask whether any drainage is shared with neighbouring properties, and treat the answer as something to confirm rather than to assume.

Shared drainage changes who has to be involved before any work is arranged.

Whether drainage is shared, and what that means for the work, must be confirmed with the relevant authority or provider rather than assumed.

List everything the renovation adds that will draw on a service, including fittings, appliances and anything you intend to add later.

A complete list, including future intentions, is what a professional needs before they can advise on anything.

Ask a qualified professional whether the existing supply and installation can carry what you intend to add, and record their answer in writing.

This is the single most consequential services question in most renovations and it is rarely asked plainly.

Only suitably qualified professionals can establish whether an existing supply or installation is adequate for what you propose to add.

Note where the water already performs poorly, such as a tap that slows when another is running, and describe it rather than diagnosing it.

Existing behaviour is a useful starting point for any conversation about what you want to add.

Ask what information each appliance you are considering needs from the installation, and take that from the manufacturer rather than assuming.

Requirements differ between products, and the manufacturer is the only reliable source for their own equipment.

Write down anything you might add later, even if it is outside this project, and raise it now while surfaces are due to come off.

Provision left during the work is far simpler than provision added once everything is closed up.

Ask what altering or upgrading a supply would involve in practice, including who has to be contacted, before treating it as a straightforward option.

Supply alterations usually involve a provider as well as a trade, which is worth knowing at the outset.

Any alteration to an incoming supply involves the relevant provider and suitably qualified trades, and what it involves is for them to set out.

Photograph any pipe, cable or fitting you cannot account for, including where it enters and leaves, and add each one to your notes as an open question.

Unexplained runs are exactly what a professional wants flagged before work begins rather than during it.

Never assume a pipe or cable is disused or safe to disturb; treat every unidentified run as live until a qualified professional says otherwise.

Note where earlier work has clearly altered the services, such as pipework crossing a room at an odd height or boxing that hides something.

Earlier alterations tend to explain the surprises that appear once surfaces start coming off.

Record anything that looks capped, blanked or abandoned, and raise it as a question rather than treating it as absent.

Capped services are frequently still connected to something at the other end.

Whether anything is genuinely isolated can only be established by a suitably qualified trade, and never from its appearance.

Describe the pipework and cabling you can see in plain terms, such as its colour and rough size, without trying to identify what it is.

A plain description helps a professional far more than an owner attempting a technical label.

Take your list of unexplained items to the first conversation rather than waiting to be asked about any of them.

Unknowns raised early become investigations, while the same unknowns raised late become interruptions.

Ask which supplies will be interrupted during the work, and at which stage of the sequence each interruption is expected to fall.

Knowing the shape of it lets you make arrangements in advance instead of reacting to each one.

Agree who tells you before a supply is turned off, and by what means that message reaches you rather than being left with whoever is present.

A message left on site rarely reaches the person who has to make the alternative arrangements.

Work out what else stops when a particular supply goes off, such as heating stopping when power does, and note the chains you depend on.

Owners plan for the obvious loss and are caught out by the second thing that fails with it.

Record anything in the property that must not lose supply, and raise it before the sequence of work is settled.

Freezers, medical equipment and anything holding stored contents are the usual examples.

Any arrangement for maintaining supply to particular equipment must be discussed with a suitably qualified professional and the relevant provider.

Ask what happens when a supply is restored, who checks that everything works again and what you should expect to be told.

Reinstatement is when small omissions surface, and knowing who checks avoids everyone assuming somebody else has.

Testing and recommissioning of any service is work for suitably qualified trades, and the paperwork they produce should be requested and kept.

Note whose name each service account is in, since a provider will usually only discuss a supply with the account holder.

This stops a simple call becoming a long detour partway through the work.

Ask which conversations with a provider are yours to have and which the trade will handle, and write the split down.

The gap between the two is where a necessary call never gets made by anybody.

Check what information a provider needs from you before they will discuss anything, and gather it before you make contact.

Providers generally need identifiers and evidence of who you are, and calls fail without them.

Keep every reference number, name and confirmation you are given during services conversations together in one place.

Provider conversations are very hard to reconstruct later without the references from the first one.

Ask what documentation should be produced when services work is carried out, and request that it comes to you rather than being filed elsewhere.

Services paperwork is asked for later by other trades and by anyone eventually buying the property.

What documentation applies to services work is set by local requirements and by the registered trade carrying it out, so ask them what should reach you.