The end of a refurbishment is where goodwill goes to die. The work is essentially done, everyone is tired, the client wants their flat back, the contractor wants to move on to the next job, and there are forty small things that are not quite right. How that period is handled determines whether you remember the project as a success.
Snagging is the mechanism for handling it. Done properly it is unemotional, specific and finite. Done badly it becomes a rolling list of grievances that never closes, or worse, a list that closes too early and leaves you living with defects you paid for.
In prime Central London stock this matters more than in most places, for a straightforward reason: at this level of finish, a poor line, a proud tile or a lippy board is not acceptable and does not become acceptable through familiarity. You will see it every day for years.
What a snag is — and what it isn't
The most useful thing you can do before you start is get clear about the categories, because mixing them is what makes the process go wrong.
- A snag is work that does not meet the standard it should — a defect in execution. A gap in a mitre, a tile out of plane, a door that binds, paint that has missed, a socket that isn't level, a seal that isn't continuous.
- An incomplete item is work that simply hasn't been done. Not a defect — just outstanding. Worth listing separately because it needs no argument.
- A change of mind is not a snag. Deciding you don't like the tile you chose, or that the spotlight is in the wrong place after all, is a variation. It may be entirely reasonable to want it changed, but it is new work at a new price.
- A characteristic of the material or the building is not a snag either. Natural stone has variation. Timber moves. A hundred-year-old wall in a Marylebone mansion block is not flat and cannot be made flat without lining it. Solid wood floors have seasonal gapping.
The fourth category is where most disputes live, and the cure is to have discussed it before the work, not after. A good contractor tells you at specification stage that the wall is out by 15mm across its length and asks what you want to do about it. A bad one lets you discover the consequence at the end.
When to snag
Timing is the part almost everyone gets wrong. There are really three moments.
During the works, at key stages. The most valuable snagging happens when things are still open. A waste run that will be inaccessible in three days. Substrate and tanking before tiles go on it. First-fix positions before plaster. Levels before the floor. Once it is covered, a defect that would have cost twenty minutes costs a day and a mess. On any serious refurbishment there should be defined points where you look, and they should be in the programme.
At practical completion. The full list, done properly, with the work finished and the site clean. Not while the decorators are still working — you will list things that were always going to be finished, and you will annoy everyone.
After a period of use. Some defects only appear when the flat is lived in. A shower that leaks only under a real shower's worth of water. A door that binds once the heating has been on for a month. Timber that moves through its first heating season. This is a genuine and legitimate second look, and it should be expected rather than treated as reopening a closed list.
How to actually inspect
Do it slowly, in good natural light, with the lights off — then again with the lights on, because artificial light shows different faults. Take a torch. Hold it flat against the wall and shine it along the surface: raking light shows every ripple in plaster, every proud tile edge and every roller mark, and it is the single most effective snagging tool there is. Take a spirit level, a tape and your phone.
Work room by room, in the same order every time, and record each item with the room, the exact location and a photograph. "Bathroom needs tidying up" is not a snag item. "Bathroom — silicone at bath/tile junction, left-hand end, not continuous, approx 150mm" is one, and it can be fixed without another conversation.
Bathrooms
The highest-risk room and the one worth the most attention. Check that tiles are in plane by eye and by raking light, that grout lines are consistent in width and colour and fully filled, and that cut tiles at corners and around fittings are neat. Check silicone is continuous, tooled properly and not lumpy. Run every outlet, fill the basin and the bath and release them to check the traps under real load rather than a trickle. Check the shower falls to the drain — pour water on the tray or the floor and watch where it goes. Check the extract fan actually moves air, not just makes noise: hold a sheet of paper to it. Check the door clears the floor finish. Look at the seal where the tray or bath meets the tiles from below, at eye level, not from standing height. Our bathroom refurbishment and ventilation guides cover why those last two matter far beyond the snag list.
Floors
Walk the whole floor slowly, in socks. Listen for movement and creak, feel for lipping between boards, and look along the floor at eye level for level and for gaps. Check the edges — expansion gaps present and covered, scotia or skirting neat, thresholds level between rooms. Check that boards run consistently and that the pattern hasn't drifted. On wood flooring, remember that some seasonal gapping is the material behaving normally and is not a defect. On tiling, check the plane, the grout, and the cuts at the perimeter.
Joinery and doors
Open and close everything, fully, several times. Doors should not bind, should latch without a shove, and should have consistent gaps down the hinge side. Cupboard doors should line up with each other. Check mitres on architrave and skirting, and check the caulk line where they meet the wall. Look at the back of things: inside cupboards, behind doors, at the top of frames. That is where corners get cut.
Decoration
Raking light again. Look for roller marks, missed cutting-in at the ceiling line, paint on ironmongery and glass, filler that hasn't been sanded flat, and shrinkage cracks at joints. Look at ceilings from a low angle. Check the tops of skirtings for dust caught in wet paint.
Electrics and plumbing
Every switch, every socket, every light, every dimmer. Faceplates level, flush, and not scratched. Check the fittings do what they should and that the switching is arranged as you agreed rather than as it ended up. On plumbing, check for weeps at every connection after the system has run under pressure for a while, not on day one. Note that electrical work in dwellings falls under Building Regulations Part P with installations to BS 7671 — certification is not a snag item, it is a deliverable, and it should be handed over with the job.
Presenting the list so it gets fixed
The list should be a table, not a letter. One row per item: room, location, description, photograph. No adjectives, no tone, no aggregated complaints. Send it once, complete, rather than in a trickle of messages over three weeks — nothing kills momentum like a list that keeps growing.
Expect an honest response, which will include some items marked as not defects, and expect to have that conversation. A contractor who accepts every item without comment is agreeing to things they will not do. A contractor who rejects everything is not worth arguing with.
Closing it out
A snagging list needs an end. Agree the list, agree a single return visit or two to clear it, and then walk it together with the list in hand and sign it off. Items that cannot be closed — a part on order, something that needs the heating season to settle — get named as open items with a date, not left ambiguous.
In an occupied Central London block, the return visit is a job in itself: access, the porter, protection down again, the lift. Doing it in one organised visit rather than five casual ones is better for you, better for the building and better for your neighbours.
How we handle the end of a job
We would rather find the snags than have you find them, so we walk the work before we hand it over. The finish standard is agreed before the job starts, not negotiated at the end, and the things the building imposes — an out-of-plane wall, an old floor, a lath-and-plaster ceiling — get raised at quotation stage when you can still make a decision about them.
Every job carries a fixed quote before work begins, with set prices on our published services: maintenance, plumbing and electrical from £80, wood flooring from £30/m², tiling from £55/m², bathrooms from £2,800 and refurbishment by quotation. If you have an unfinished job, a list you cannot get closed, or a refurbishment you want doing properly, send us the details and some photographs, or see the areas we cover across Central London.