Guide · Scope
How to write a renovation scope of work
The scope is the document every other document points at. Write it once, properly, and the quote, the contract and the variations all inherit it.
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The job it does
The scope is the answer to “what did we agree?”
A scope of work is not a description of the job; it is the boundary of it. Its readers are your estimator, your foreman, your client and — if it goes badly — someone reading it cold in a year. Written well, it settles arguments without you in the room.
Structure
Your client thinks in rooms, so write in rooms
Trade-ordered scopes suit procurement and confuse clients. On a renovation, structure the scope by space, then by element inside it. Your foreman still gets a trade view by filtering; your client gets a document they can walk through the flat with, which is what makes them answer questions instead of asking them.
- Space first: “Kitchen”, “Master bathroom”, “Corridor”.
- Then element: floor, walls, ceiling, joinery, electrical, plumbing.
- Preliminaries and access as their own section — they are real cost, not overhead.
- Keep the numbering stable, so a variation can point at a line.
Provenance
Every quantity says who produced it
A number from the client’s answers and a number you measured on site are not the same kind of fact, and the difference matters when the job moves. Mark each one at the moment you write it. It costs nothing then, and it is unrecoverable later.
- Master bathroom — wall tiling
- 24 m²
- Kitchen — floor tiling
- 12 m²
- Living — ceiling
- 1 item
- Whole flat — rewire
- 1 item
Measured by you on site.
As stated by the client.
Assumption: existing ceiling retained.
Taken off the drawing the client supplied.
The boundary
What is not included is part of the scope
The exclusions list is the half of the scope clients actually read, and the half contractors write last. Put it in the same document, in the same size type, and write it as items rather than as one paragraph of conditions nobody parses.
- Anything the client is supplying — appliances, sanitaryware, loose furniture.
- Authority fees, permits and NOC costs, unless you priced them.
- Works to structure, waterproofing or services found once you open up.
- Making good outside the rooms in the scope.
- Anything that depends on a decision the client has not made yet.
Downstream
One scope, referenced everywhere, never retyped
The quote prices the scope. The contract refers to the accepted quote. A variation changes a numbered line in it. The moment somebody retypes the scope in shorter words for the contract, you have two versions — and the argument you were trying to avoid now has a source document on each side.
How Briked handles this
Your client writes half of it, on their phone
You send a scope link. Your client answers questions about their own flat — rooms, sizes, what stays, what goes. What comes back is a structured scope with each answer marked as theirs, ready for you to price and correct. What you measure on site replaces their guess, and the line says so.
Your project
Apartment, Dubai Marina
- Rooms
- 5
- Questions answered
- 18 of 18
- What this costs you
- Nothing
Structured scope
Apartment, Dubai Marina
- Lines
- 42
- As stated by the client
- 27
- Measured by you on site
- 15
- Priced with
- Your rate card
General notes
An indicative range is a range, not a price. Only the quote you send your client is a price.
A person accepts every number before it leaves your company. Nothing drafted by AI becomes the record on its own.
Your client never pays for Briked. Answering your scope link, reading your quote and accepting it are free for them, always.
Your rates, your scopes and your clients stay yours. We never show one contractor’s work to another. Read the data promise
The trial runs 14 days from the day we approve your application. A card is required to start it. Trial terms
Common questions
How detailed should a renovation scope be?
Detailed enough that a foreman who was not at the site visit can work from it, and that a client can tell what they are not getting. On a flat refurbishment that is usually tens of lines, not hundreds.
Should the scope name brands?
Name them where the brand changes the price or the programme — sanitaryware, ironmongery, appliances. Elsewhere a specification band is enough. What matters is that the client cannot later assume a tier you did not price.
Who owns the scope once the job starts?
It stays the reference document, and it changes only through accepted variations. A scope that gets quietly edited during a job is no longer evidence of anything.
What if the client’s measurements are wrong?
That is why each line records where its number came from. You replace their figure with your site measurement, the line shows both, and the change is visible rather than silent.
Do I need a separate document for pricing?
No. The scope is what gets priced — the quote is the same structure with rates and totals on it. Keeping them as one document is what stops the priced version and the agreed version drifting apart.
Scope it, quote it, get it accepted — on your next job, with your rates.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.