The essentials in 30 seconds
- A schedule is built backwards, from move-in to start date, milestone by milestone.
- The longest-lead order (bespoke joinery, kitchen, imported tiles) sets the earliest possible start date.
- The trades follow a technical order: strip-out, services, plastering, screed, tiling, fit-out, painting, floors, finishing.
- A frozen schedule is wrong within ten days: what counts is the weekly update, with every slip recorded.
- Three scales for three readers: the day for contractors, the week for you, the month and milestones for the client.
How is a renovation works schedule built?
A renovation works schedule is built backwards from the required end date, most often the move-in date. You place the long-lead orders first, then sequence the trades in their technical order, keeping buffers between the packages. Then you update it every week and reissue it.
In the 11-step method, the schedule is set at step 3, Planning. It firms up when tendering to contractors, where each company states its lead times alongside its prices. The buffers: two to three days between two consecutive packages in the same room, one week before handover.
Why is the schedule the most-edited document of a project?
The schedule depends on five to ten companies, on manufacturing and drying times, and on the client's decisions. Each of these variables moves during the works: a schedule frozen at kick-off is wrong within ten days. Its value lies in the update and in the written record of every slip, with its cause.
An interior designer asked about their daily routine put it this way: the document they update most often, almost every day, is the schedule. The DPGF freezes when the packages are awarded; the schedule is rewritten at every late delivery, every drying time longer than planned, every choice the client postpones, and every change carries its date, its cause and its effect on the end date.
In what order should the trades follow one another?
The order follows the logic of the building: demolish, open up, run the services through the open walls, close the partitions, pour the floors, then dress from the dirtiest trade to the most fragile. Tiling comes before fit-out, the first coat of paint before finished floors, the electrical and sanitary fittings before the finish coat.
Indicative durations in working days for a 60 to 80 m² apartment in complete renovation, to be adjusted to the project and the company (crew size, building, occupied or vacant home): they are not a rule.
| Package | Prerequisites | Indicative duration (working days) | Watch point |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Strip-out, demolition | Asbestos and lead survey received, common areas protected | 3 to 5 | Discoveries (pipework, floors) change what follows: inspection visit on the last day |
| 2. Light structural work (openings, repairs) | Strip-out complete, structural study if load-bearing wall, co-owners' meeting approval | 3 to 8 | Meeting approval takes months: request it before tendering |
| 3. Plumbing and electrical runs, concealed | Openings made, layout approved by the client | 5 to 10 | Any change after the partitions are closed costs a chase |
| 4. Plastering, partitions and linings | Services run and tested, door frames delivered | 5 to 10 | Drying of plaster before painting: manufacturer's time |
| 5. Screed, levelling compound | Partitions built, floor services run | 2 to 4 to lay, plus drying | Traditional screed: weeks; levelling compound: days. The item that blocks most often |
| 6. External joinery (where relevant) | Dimensions taken after strip-out, permissions obtained | 1 to 3 to fit, 6 to 12 weeks to manufacture | Order before the works start |
| 7. Floor and wall tiling | Screed dry, waterproofing laid, tiles delivered | 5 to 10 | Imports ship in weeks: delivery date written into the contract |
| 8. Interior joinery and fit-out | Dimensions taken on finished partitions | 3 to 8 to fit, 4 to 10 weeks to manufacture | Measuring waits for the plastering: manufacturing sits on the critical path |
| 9. Painting, first coat | Plastering dry, tiling finished, dust cleared | 4 to 8 | Primer and first coat only |
| 10. Resilient flooring and wood floors | Substrate dry and flat (moisture measured), first coat done | 2 to 5 | Substrate moisture is measured, not estimated |
| 11. Electrical accessories, sanitary fittings, kitchen | Floors and wall tiles finished, kitchen delivered | 3 to 6 | Kitchen ordered 8 to 12 weeks before fitting |
| 12. Finish coat and cleaning | All other trades gone | 3 to 5 | Nobody comes back afterwards: pre-handover inspections right after |
Drying times come from the product manufacturer or from the package's NF DTU, cited by reference and never copied: NF DTU 26.2 (Chapes et dalles à base de liants hydrauliques, P1-1, avril 2008, amendement A1 de mai 2015) for the screed and NF DTU 52.2 (Pose collée des revêtements céramiques et assimilés – Pierres naturelles, P1-1-3, juin 2022) for floor tiling. Versions checked against the CSTB list of DTUs as of 9 December 2025.
How do you build a backward plan from the move-in date?
A backward plan starts from the move-in date and works back in time milestone by milestone: handover with reservations cleared, pre-handover inspections, finishing, kitchen fitting, partitions closed, start of works, then the long-lead orders. The longest-lead order, reached last in that climb, sets the earliest possible start date.
Handover governs the other milestones. The French Civil Code defines it in Article 1792-6: the act by which the client (the maître de l'ouvrage) declares that they accept the works, with or without reservations. Place it one week before move-in, since reservations are cleared more easily in an empty home (our handover report template). Just before it, the OPR (opérations préalables à la réception, pre-handover inspections) review each package.
Remember: bespoke exterior joinery is ordered before the works even start. If the client has not approved that choice by W-17, the move-in date moves back by the same amount, and they must hear it that day, not at W-5.
Which scale of the schedule should you show to whom?
Three readers, three scales. Contractors read the day, over a rolling two weeks: who is on site, where, after whom. You read the week, over the whole duration of the works, to see conflicts coming. The client reads the month and the approved milestones: start, partitions closed, kitchen fitted, handover. They do not need to read the mechanics.
For contractors, the daily schedule gives their dates, the package before, the package after and the deliveries expected; it is reissued every week. For you, the weekly view shows the critical path, the remaining buffers and the orders to place. For the client, every decision waiting on them carries a visible deadline, failing which the end date moves.
Kick-off meeting and coordination: what do you do when you are not the OPC?
Without an OPC mission (ordonnancement, pilotage, coordination: scheduling, steering and coordination) in your contract, you are not the contractual steward of the deadlines. You can still hold a kick-off meeting, issue a reference schedule, record the deviations every week and write them down. Each company remains responsible for its own deadlines towards the client, with whom it has contracted.
Under the CFAI contract, the schedule is prepared at AMT (works contract assistance), when the companies submit their lead times with their prices, and kept at CET (works supervision and cost accounting). The contract states whether an OPC mission is added; if not, write to the client before the start and offer it as an option (see our guide to the interior designer's contract).
The kick-off meeting brings all the appointed companies together on site, one to two weeks before the first day: walk-through, site rules (hours, access, protection, rubble), limits of services between packages, schedule commented package by package. Two written documents come out of it: the start date, written by the client to each company (start order or dated letter), without which no delay can be counted; and the issued schedule, dated and indexed.
Then one meeting a week and minutes within 24 hours, with the updated schedule attached (see our site meeting minutes template and our site supervision method).
How do you absorb a delay without moving everything?
A delay on one package only moves the end date if it sits on the critical path, the chain of packages where each waits for the previous. Elsewhere, its buffer absorbs it. On the path, three levers: run two compatible packages in parallel, use a downstream buffer, or move the end date by a written, dated decision with the client.
Remember: an absorbed delay uses up a margin. Write down that none is left: the next incident will move the end date, and the client must know before it happens.
Delay penalties apply only if the company's contract provides for them: the content of a private contract is free within the limits set by law (Article 1102 of the French Civil Code). Such a clause is a penalty clause (clause pénale): the judge may reduce it if it is manifestly excessive, and it is only incurred after a formal notice, except in the case of definitive non-performance (Article 1231-5). If the contract cites the NF P 03-001 standard (private building works contracts), which is voluntary and applies only in that case, keep your deadline clauses consistent with it. Without a clause, a delay is recorded and documented; it is not invoiced.
General information: the drafting and application of a penalty clause belong to each company's contract with the client and, where needed, to legal advice.
What are the most common mistakes in a works schedule?
- Ordering the kitchen after the start. Eight to twelve weeks of manufacturing after the first day on site leave a finished apartment waiting.
- A schedule in weeks, with no buffer. Twelve packages edge to edge: the first half-day delay propagates all the way to handover.
- Not writing down the start date. Without a start order or a dated letter from the client, the deadline has no starting point: no delay can be counted.
- Updating the schedule without reissuing it. Corrected on your computer and not sent, it leaves the companies on the previous version. Every update carries an index and goes out with the minutes.
- Scheduling the finish coat before the fittings. The electrician and the plumber come back after the painter: marks, scratches, touch-ups. The finish coat closes the works.
So, what about Nodal?
In Nodal, the schedule is set at step 3, Planning, and appears in the Planning hub: Tâches, Planning global, Calendrier (tasks, overall schedule, calendar). It reads at day, week or month scale. Team tasks stay invisible to the client, who reads the milestones and progress in their read-only space, in your branding (logo and colours depending on the plan).
Site supervision (step 10) receives remarks and photos from each company through its contractor space, with a corrected-then-approved cycle, and produces dated PDF reports per recipient: internal, client, company. Reservations are handled at step 11, Handover and final file, with the handover report. Tendering to contractors is available depending on the plan.
Article published on October 18, 2026. Indicative durations established on October 18, 2026 from common practice in apartment renovation in France; they replace neither the contractual schedule nor the requirements of manufacturers and NF DTUs. Standards references checked against the CSTB list of DTUs as of 9 December 2025; Civil Code articles consulted on Legifrance on October 18, 2026. A professional synthesis, not legal advice.