Industries: renovation and refurbishment
Renovation software for builders who run whole refurbishments
460
Site reports from the phone, a board for your gangs and subcontractors, and a file per house with stage payments, variations and every certificate the job needs.
Fourteen weeks, six trades and one client who lives next door
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A site manager's Wednesday across four houses
- A report per site visitWho was there, what is done and what moves. The client gets the report, the office sees it at once.
- Subcontractors on the same siteElectrician and plumber sit with the site, with their days and their CIS status verified.
- Variations, signed offAn extra window or a wall worse than expected: the client signs, it goes on the next stage payment.
An example with made-up houses and addresses; you choose what a refurbishment site report asks for.
Week 44: the strip-out in Sale moves to Wednesday
Clash on Monday
The strip-out in Sale is booked for Monday, but the refurbishment asbestos survey for that house is not in the file yet.
The surveyor comes on Tuesday. The board puts Dan's gang on second fix in Didsbury on Monday and Tuesday, Sale starts on Wednesday, and the client in Sale gets a text.
Sorted: Sale to Wednesday
An example of what we can build, with made-up names and sites. You choose which rules the board checks.
Gangs, trades and the job that is not ready
A refurbishment runs on order. The strip-out before first fix, first fix before plaster, plaster before second fix. One missing link and three trades stand still. A whiteboard in the office knows who goes where, but not why a job cannot start. The board we build does:
- Each job knows what it waits forAn asbestos survey, a Building Control inspection, a steel beam, a party wall award. While it is open, the job shows red and the gang is offered elsewhere.
- Subcontractors on the same boardThe electrician and the plumber see their days, and the board shows whether their CIS status is verified before they start.
- Moves reach everyoneMove the strip-out and the skip, the gang and the client hear about it, without four calls.
For scheduling across more trades and sites, see construction scheduling software. If you plan staff and holidays as well, staff scheduling software covers that side. Still on a spreadsheet? Read Excel scheduling or planning software first.
22 Burton Road as one job file
Client link: stages, photos, payments and certificates, no login needed
An example of what we can build, with made-up names and amounts. You choose the stages and the documents.
Stage payments, variations and certificates per house
A full refurbishment of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds is paid in stages and changed along the way. The client wants an extra window, the joists are worse than expected, the kitchen supplier slips a week. Each of those is money, and each needs a paper trail:
| What happens | On paper and email | In a job file per house |
|---|---|---|
| Stage payment | An invoice from a spreadsheet, the stage checked by phone | The stage is signed off on site, the invoice follows from the file |
| Variation | Agreed at the door, priced later, disputed at the end | Priced on the phone, signed by the client, on the next stage payment |
| Hidden defect | A photo in someone's camera roll | Photos with date and place in the file, with the cost and the client's choice |
| Certificates | Electrical, gas, FENSA and Building Control in three inboxes | All in the file, and in the client's link at handover |
| Subcontractor invoices | CIS checked when the invoice arrives | Verified before the first day, deductions per payment |
The client follows the same file through a client portal: stages, photos, payments and certificates, without a login. We build those as client portals. How a job file fits into wider building software is on software for construction companies.
A couple with a 1930s semi searches for a builder
New request
1930s semi just bought, full refurb, architect's drawings attached
Grace, Chorlton, today 21:03
- A page per job: full refurb, extensions, lofts, bathrooms
- Before and after photos of your sites on Google
- A form that asks for age, drawings and budget
An example with made-up refurbishment firms and reviews.
Refurbishment work found by the right clients
Clients for a full refurbishment have just bought a house, often with drawings and a budget. They search by area and by job: full house renovation, loft conversion, extension, kitchen and bathroom. A site that wins them shows finished houses with the town and the scope, a page per type of work, the areas you cover and a request form that asks for drawings, budget and start date.
A website with that request form starts from EUR 1,500. What a builder's site needs beyond that is on website for contractors and marketing for construction companies. For the map and reviews, see local SEO, your Google Business Profile and getting more Google reviews.
Drawings become a first schedule of works
An example: the AI works from your own unit rates per item, you decide.
The schedule of works that took a weekend
Before you can price a refurbishment, someone writes the schedule of works: every room, every item, every trade. For a whole house that is a weekend. AI can do the first draft. It reads the drawings, the survey notes and the client's wishes, and lays out the items room by room with the trades and the order. The estimator adds prices from your own rates, deletes what is wrong and adds what the AI missed.
How such a schedule is built, with a template you can use today, is in the guide renovation schedule of works. How AI prepares quotes in general is on AI quote generator and AI for construction.
A site manager for refurbishment, hired from your own site
An example with made-up names; you choose what the form asks a site manager, from experience to the jobs they have run.
Site managers pick the firm that runs tidy jobs
A good site manager for refurbishment is rare: someone who reads drawings, handles clients who live on site and keeps six trades in order. They look at how you work before they apply. A vacancy on your own site says it plainly: the type of jobs, the size of the gangs, the van, training paid, and the tools they will use. Applying takes three taps on a phone.
What you show as an employer is called employer branding. Our custom software page covers how we build the tools behind it.
A general package or software shaped by refurbishment
Plenty of builders start with a package for all trades. It works until the way you run a house does not fit its screens.
- Order of works
- A package for all tradesTasks with dates
- Built round your refurbishment firmStages that know what they wait for: survey, steel, inspection, party wall award
- Money
- A package for all tradesInvoices per job
- Built round your refurbishment firmStage payments, variations and retention against the contract, per house
- Subcontractors
- A package for all tradesContacts in an address book
- Built round your refurbishment firmTrades on the board, with CIS status and right to work checked before day one
- Client
- A package for all tradesEmails with attachments
- Built round your refurbishment firmA link with stages, photos, payments and certificates
If a package fits most of your week, keep it and fill the gap. If your site managers keep a second list next to it, building is worth a conversation.
A sole trader, a gang of five or a firm of fifty
A builder doing bathrooms on his own does not need a board for six trades. A firm with four site managers and twenty subcontractors does. What we would build at each size:
| Size | What you need | What you do not need (yet) |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | A website with finished jobs and a request form, a Google profile, quotes and invoices from a template | A board, roles, a client portal |
| Gang of five | Site reports on the phone, a job file per house with stage payments and variations, a client link | Links to every supplier |
| Firm of 20 to 50 | A board for gangs and trades, CIS and right to work per subcontractor, job costing, AI for the first schedule of works | An ERP the site managers never open |
| Larger company | Links with accounts and payroll, reports per site manager and per stage, access for architects and clients | A second system next to the one that works |
When a bigger system pays off, and what it costs, is in ERP cost, custom ERP development and Odoo or custom software. For the build itself, read custom software development cost.
CIS, CDM and the Party Wall Act on one refurbishment
The rules a refurbishment contractor in England meets most, as they stand on 31 October 2026. Wales and Scotland differ on building regulations.
| Rule | What it asks | What the software does |
|---|---|---|
| CIS | Deduct 20 or 30 percent from subcontractors without gross status; monthly return by the 19th, payment by the 22nd; nil returns required again from 6 April 2026 | Verification before day one, deductions per payment, a reminder for the return |
| MTD for Income Tax | Sole traders and landlords over £50,000 from 6 April 2026, over £30,000 from April 2027, over £20,000 from April 2028 | Income and costs ready per quarter |
| VAT | Renovating an occupied home is 20 percent; 5 percent for a home empty for 2 years or a conversion to homes; energy saving materials 0 percent to 31 March 2027, then 5 percent; windows and doors are not energy saving materials | The quote asks the facts and shows the rate per line |
| Building Regulations | Part P for a new circuit or consumer unit; replacement windows through FENSA or Building Control, U-value 1.4; renovating more than 50 percent of a roof or wall triggers thermal upgrades | Which notice or certificate a job needs, per stage |
| CDM 2015 | Applies to domestic clients too; a construction phase plan for every job; F10 notice above 30 working days with more than 20 workers at once, or above 500 person days | Plan template per job; the F10 test from the board |
| Building Safety Act, Part 2A | Dutyholder and competence duties for all building work since 1 October 2023; a principal designer and principal contractor when more than one contractor works on the job | Who holds which role, per house |
| Party Wall Act | Two months' notice for work on a party wall, one month for a new wall or excavation within 3 or 6 metres; no reply in 14 days means a dispute | A stage that waits for the notice or the award |
| Work at height and asbestos | No minimum height; assume asbestos in buildings from before 2000 and get a refurbishment survey before strip-out | No strip-out on the board without the survey in the file |
| Waste carrier | Construction waste needs upper tier registration; a new one is £191.02 | Registration on the firm's profile and every waste note |
| Right to work | Extended to individual subcontractors from 1 October 2026; up to £60,000 per illegal worker | The check is a step before a subcontractor's first day |
Two gangs and four houses, counted in hours
| Per week | Spreadsheet, whiteboard and email | Your own system |
|---|---|---|
| Site reports typed up from notes and photos | 4 hours | 1 hour |
| Variations priced, signed and put on invoices | 3 hours | 1 hour |
| Board changes and calls to gangs, trades and clients | 5 hours | 2 hours |
| CIS checks, certificates and stage payment paperwork | 4 hours | 2 hours |
| Total per week | 16 hours | 6 hours |
That is 10 hours a week, or 460 hours a year: £23,000 at £50 an hour in this example. An example, not a promise. The biggest gain usually sits in variations: one that never reached an invoice can be worth more than a week of admin.
Refurbishment firms start with one house
- A conversation about one refurbishmentFrom the client's first request to the completion certificate: who writes the schedule, how the board changes, where variations get lost.
- A fixed price for the first partUsually the site report and the job file, or the board. You get a fixed price per project before we build. A website starts from EUR 1,500.
- One site manager uses it on a live jobOne house, one gang, real clients. What slows them down, we change before the other sites start.
- Then the next part on the same dataThe board, CIS and stage payments, the client link or the first schedule of works from AI.
A refurbishment brings in more trades than any other job. The kitchen fitters, the painters and decorators, the tilers and the groundworks firm each have their own page. How we build software is on custom software and web application development, and you can reach us through contact. For SN Group, a building company in Ghent that does new builds, full renovations, bathrooms and kitchens, we built a two-language site with a step-by-step cost calculator, an energy rating calculation and four checks: grants, the renovation obligation, permits and VAT. See SN Group.
Refurbishment contractors ask us this
What is renovation software, and how is it different from general building software?
Renovation software follows a house through stages that depend on each other, with variations, hidden defects and a client who often lives on site. General building software is built for new builds and larger projects, where the order is fixed from the start. Home renovation software for a builder doing a few houses a year can stay small; renovation project management software for a firm with several site managers needs the board, stage payments and a client link.
Can subcontractors use it without paying for a licence?
Yes. Because it is your own software, you decide who logs in. An electrician sees their days and sends their certificate; they do not see your prices.
Does it handle CIS deductions?
It keeps the verification and the deduction per payment, and reminds you of the monthly return. The return itself stays with your accounts package or your accountant.
Can my client follow the job without calling?
Yes. They get a link with the stages, photos, signed variations, payments and certificates. Most firms see the calls drop once clients have it.
We already use an accounts package. Do we have to drop it?
No. We link to what works, such as your accounts package, and build the part that is missing: usually the site, the board and the job file.
Custom software
How VBS helps you with this
We build the platform your business runs on every day: your spreadsheets, emails and paperwork in one system that does what you do.
- Your workflow mapped first, then a fixed price
- Screens for the office, the client and the road
- Hosting, backups and security managed by us on AWS
How we approach it is on our page about Custom software.
Fewer evenings on site reports, fewer variations lost
Tell us how one refurbishment runs at your firm, from request to sign-off. We will show where we would start and what it could save you.
Rather get in touch right away?