Where to Start With Retrofit: How to Build a Clear Home Retrofit Brief

If you’re thinking about improving your home, the best place to start isn’t with researching the best insulation or the u-value of triple glazed windows - it’s actually with you.

We need to think about your lifestyle, who lives in your house, how you use your house, your comfort needs, your budget and your family’s priorities. All of this should guide every decision.

In the video below, our operations manager Immy Sykes walks through the very first step in any successful retrofit: building a clear brief.

A retrofit brief is a simple document that outlines:

• What you want from your home

• What problems you’re trying to solve

• What level of disruption you can handle

• Your long-term lifestyle goals

• Your budget

• Your timescales

It ensures that every upgrade makes sense for your life, not someone else’s. You should discuss this with everyone who lives in your home to get a clear understanding of what kind of home you’re trying to build.

Here’s what to think about before you begin:

1. What do you want from your home?

Do you want better air quality to deal with allergies? Do you want to get off gas and decarbonise? Or are you looking to make sure you can use the back room at Christmas when your grandkids come to visit?

Think about this in scenarios - picture the way you would like to live in your home, and identify what makes that work.

2. How do you prioritise?

Which of the above factors mean the most to you? This helps you figure out the sequencing, and understand what risks you might need to consider.

3. What other work are you already planning?

Planning a kitchen or bathroom renovation are excellent times to be thinking about improving your energy efficiency - because you’re already experiencing some level of disruption.

If you’re looking at getting an extension done, start thinking about how you might build in your comfort too - and how it might interact with the rest of your (potentially) colder home.

Being clear about any renovation work you might want to do will help you sequence better and could avoid costly re-work later down the road.

4. What’s your appetite for disruption?

If you’re living with young children or elderly relatives, or work entirely from home, you’ll need to think carefully about how much (and what type of) disruption you can handle. Could your family cope with mess, dust and contractors walking in and out?

Some measures, such as loft insulation, are simple and may only need a few days of work. Others are more disruptive (such as floor insulation, MVHR, window upgrades).

Knowing your limits helps identify what upgrades might be for ‘now’ and what might be for later.

5. What’s your budget and timeline?

Be clear about what your budget and your expectations for completion are. Remember that you might need to do some remedial or maintenance work before you can begin to think about bigger and more costly measures (such as heat pumps or external wall insulation) and you might need to factor in design costs. Lots of our clients are surprised to find out that design costs can be up to 20% of your overall budget.

You may also want to think about:

• Whether you’ll need a loan

• If you need specific issues resolved quickly

• Whether you are staying long term in your home.

Lots of our clients end up spreading retrofit over 2, 5, 10 or more years, and we help them develop a phased approach that suits both the budget and timeline.

And remember….

Retrofit is a family decision.
Everyone should understand:

• What’s happening

• Why it's happening

• How it affects daily life

All of our home retrofit surveys in Greater Manchester and the Northwest start with developing a project brief with you. This helps guide us in knowing how best to help you - shaping what recommendations we share, and how we help you plan your retrofit.

A retrofit brief is foundational to a retrofit survey, which will provide you with:

• A data-driven plan

• A recommended order of upgrades

• Cost estimates

• Risk avoidance

• Comfort improvements

• Energy savings projections

It bridges the gap between what you want and how to achieve it.