Rules
Part of Rehabilitation case studies: four lessons for owners of old houses
What should homeowners ask before hiring for a documented renovation?
The hiring questions that documented rehabilitation projects suggest, drawn from the paperwork real project teams have to produce and defend.
What to take away
- Ask for the documents a reviewed project would have to produce. A firm that can produce them works differently from one that cannot.
- Photographs, measured drawings and a written description of proposed work are the baseline, not a luxury.
- Ask who on the team has taken a project through a formal review, and what happened.
- A team that documents well also communicates well, which is the part you live with.
Documented projects are useful for hiring because they show what a project team has to be able to produce. Ask for the same things and you learn a great deal quickly, without needing to evaluate anyone's craft skill yourself.
The document set a reviewed project needs
Projects seeking federal certification submit a defined application in parts. The Park Service describes them on its page for the Historic Preservation Certification Application: one part establishes the building's status, one describes the proposed work, and one certifies the completed rehabilitation.
Three parts of the application
- Part 1establishes the building's status
- Part 2describes the proposed work
- Part 3certifies the completed rehabilitation
Everything is submitted electronically. Everything must be legible to a reviewer who has never seen the building.
Even outside that program, that is a sound test for a contractor or designer. Can they describe existing conditions, proposed work and completed work in a form somebody else could follow?
Questions drawn from that standard
- Can you give me photographs of existing conditions, keyed to a plan?
- Will you produce measured drawings of anything being replaced?
- How will you describe proposed work in writing, feature by feature?
- What will I receive documenting the completed work?
- Who has been through a formal design or certification review, and what did they learn?
None of this is bureaucratic. It is how you avoid a project where the only record of what was behind a wall is one person's memory.
Questions to ask before hiring
- Photographs of existing conditions, keyed to a plan?
- Measured drawings of anything being replaced?
- Proposed work described in writing, feature by feature?
- What documentation of completed work will I receive?
- Who has been through formal design or certification review?
The answers also tell you something about temperament. A firm that welcomes the questions is usually a firm that has been burned by their absence, which is exactly the experience you want on your side of the table. The regrets that follow from skipping them are consistent, starting with assuming the estimator will be the person on site.
Why documentation quality predicts everything else
| Documentation habit | What it usually predicts |
|---|---|
| Photographs keyed to a plan | Organized site management |
| Measured drawings before removal | Accurate replacement, fewer surprises |
| Written method per repair type | Consistent work across a crew |
| Dated progress records | Reliable invoicing |
| A closeout package | Warranty claims that actually work |
The habits travel together. A firm that documents carelessly is rarely careful elsewhere. Gaps appear when you need a record: a warranty claim, a scope dispute, or a repair fifteen years later.
On your own side, adopt the same habits: cost by stage and every change order with its cause turns an account book into a record.
Learn from how professionals write descriptions
The National Register form set is the other public standard worth seeing, and the Park Service publishes the National Register forms used to document properties. The description sections are a model of how to write about a building in a way another person can verify.
Reading one before you write your own scope will noticeably improve the scope, which improves every bid you receive. The general set of hiring questions is in our restoration hiring questions, and the method for reading documented projects is in how to use renovation case studies properly.
