Moving Home Checklist: Building Work to Do Before You Move In
The cheapest time to do work on a house is before your furniture arrives. An empty property means no belongings to protect, no working around family life, and trades that can run a job straight through instead of in evening slices. This checklist covers what to do before you move in, when to book each trade, the paperwork to collect, and the jobs that are better left until later.
Why the empty-house window is worth planning for
The cheapest time to do work on a house is the stretch when nobody lives in it. There is no furniture to move room to room, no need to seal off living space, no working around bedtimes, and a trade can run a job start-to-finish instead of in evening-and-weekend slices. The same job often takes fewer days empty than occupied, and fewer days is what actually drives the price.
That window is usually short — the gap between completion and your move-in date, sometimes only a week or two. Using it well means deciding early which jobs genuinely benefit from an empty house, and booking those trades before you have the keys.
Moving home checklist: what to do and when
Work backwards from your completion date. The dates below assume a typical purchase; compress them if your chain moves quickly.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| At offer accepted | Book your survey. The findings decide which trades you need, so everything else waits on this. |
| 6–8 weeks out | Read the survey properly. Separate urgent defects from "monitor". Start getting quotes for anything urgent. |
| 4–6 weeks out | Book removals and, if needed, house clearance. Peak slots (Fridays, end of month) go first. |
| At exchange | Ask the agent for access so trades can measure and quote properly. Confirm provisional start dates. |
| 2–3 weeks out | Order long-lead items — flooring, doors, worktops, made-to-measure glazing. |
| Completion week | Empty-house jobs run now: rewiring, plastering, floors, full-room decorating. |
| Move-in week | Final clean, appliance connection, locks and safety checks. |
| First month | Collect certificates, register the boiler and any notifiable work, snag the jobs you paid for. |
The jobs that are genuinely easier before you move in
These are the jobs where an empty house changes the price or the disruption enough to be worth sequencing around. Follow the links for current UK costs on each.
| Service | When you need it |
|---|---|
| Rewiring | Needs floors up and walls chased — brutal with furniture in, straightforward empty. |
| Plastering and skimming | Whole-room wet work with long drying times. Far easier with no belongings to protect. |
| Flooring | Laid wall to wall in one pass instead of room-by-room around furniture. |
| Painting and decorating | Full-house decorating is quickest and cheapest when every room is empty at once. |
| Damp proofing | Needs skirtings off and walls left to dry. Do it before floors and decorating, never after. |
| Boiler replacement | No days without heating or hot water if it is done before you move in. |
| Kitchen renovation | Avoids weeks of living without a kitchen — the single most disruptive room to do occupied. |
| Bathroom renovation | Same logic, and critical if the property has only one bathroom. |
Services we can arrange for your move
BestBuilders matches you with vetted local trades for any of the jobs below — one short form, up to three quotes, no obligation.
| Service | When you need it |
|---|---|
| Building survey | Before you commit — the report that drives every other decision here. |
| General builder | Multiple trades, or a job that needs someone to run it. |
| House clearance | Property left full, or an inherited home to empty. |
| Skip hire | Strip-out waste, old carpets, garden clearance. |
| Removal companies | The move itself — book earlier than feels necessary. |
| Full renovation | When the whole property needs bringing up to standard. |
Paperwork to collect while you are at it
New owners chase this paperwork years later when they sell, usually at the worst moment. Collect it as each job finishes, not at the end.
- Building control completion certificate for any notifiable work — structural alterations, most electrics, new heating appliances, replacement windows.
- Electrical certificate (an EIC or Minor Works Certificate) for anything an electrician touched, plus the Part P notification where it applies.
- Gas Safe records for boiler or gas appliance work, and the manufacturer's warranty registration — many warranties are void without registration inside the stated window.
- Written quotes and invoices for every job, showing what was included. See what a fair invoice looks like.
- Guarantees for damp proofing, roofing and timber treatment — usually the insurance-backed guarantee, not just the trade's own promise.
- Product paperwork for flooring, worktops and glazing, in case of a later defect claim.
Check who is notifying building control before work starts. It is normally the trade under their competent-person scheme, but if nobody does it, the liability lands on you as the homeowner. Guidance is on gov.uk.
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