If you are project managing your renovation, you’ll want some tools to keep you on track, and to help make decision making a breeze. Here are our top renovation apps to keep in your pocket to keep you on top of the details.

Project managing a renovation can be a bit of a nightmare. If it’s not choosing the perfect shade of white for the walls, picking out tiles for the bathrooms and deciding if you want architraves or square set plaster; you’ll be haggling over quotes, variations and miscommunications between the architect and the builder. Project managing a build requires dedication, perseverance and more organisational skills than you ever thought possible.

Luckily there are tools out there to help you. The great thing about smartphone and tablet apps is that they are always with you. While you might be zipping between the site, the home improvement centre and the trade outlets, your smartphone can become your office, and you’ll always be in control. Here is our pick of the top building and renovation apps on the market.

Camera

This one goes without saying. Not only does your smartphone’s built-in camera offer you a great before-and-after record of your home’s transformation from ugly duckling to swan, but it also gives you a valuable ally-in-your-corner when you’re talking to tradies or trying to describe a problem when you don’t know all the jargon. Need to describe the position of the plumbing pipes under the kitchen sink? Easy. Snap! Need to recall the colours in the rug at the showroom to see if it matches your favourite artwork? Snap! You get the picture.

Pinterest

One of the joys of planning a renovation is collecting images of your dream house and keeping them in a scrap book. Pinterest takes scrapbooking to a whole new level, helping you scour the Internet and save or “Pin” every image that takes your fancy. Before you know it you’ll have several boards dedicated to bathrooms, colour swatches and interior design, plus garden ideas, furniture and more. You’ll be able to click through from the images to the original article, and thus build up an exhaustive collection of inspiration. After a while you’ll be surprised to find that subconsciously, you really love blue kitchens, or prefer tiled splashbacks to glass. It’s a great record of your renovation journey and will help you find focus when you feel like you’re losing your way.

Evernote

What Pinterest is for images, Evernote is for everything else. This app organises your projects and keeps you on top of tasks. Take notes wherever you are and harness those great ideas that strike at 3am or on the way home from work. Evernote lets you synch your project files across all devices – from your desktop to your smartphone for when you’re out and about. Your workspace and resources are shareable so you can easily liaise with your designer and builder. You can make to-do lists and check items off as you go, and draft agendas for meetings and catch-ups with the builder. The best tool? It helps you to manage your receipts, bills and invoices to help you keep on top of your budget. Perfect.

Skitch

Another tool developed by Evernote, Skitch lets you comment on images and photographs. This will help you remember what attracted you to the image in the first place, or is a great way to communicate tasks when you can’t be on hand. Want to show the electrician where the TV is going to go? Send him a photo of the living room with an arrow “skitched in” where you want the TV antenna to be installed. Want the painter to retouch the paintwork on the balustrade? Send an image with the offending section highlighted. When communication is paramount, Skitch helps you dictate exactly what you want.

Photo Measures

Who hasn’t gone through their house measuring walls and writing the dimensions on pieces of paper? This clever app replaces all that. Simply photograph your room, and then you can mark it up with measurements. With the app installed on your smart phone you’ll never buy the wrong sized piece of furniture again, and you’ll know exactly how much paint you’ll need for any given job, or how much fabric you’ll need for the sheers in the bedroom. While it doesn’t actually do the measuring for you, it is a quick and simple way to have the dimensions of a room at hand, whenever you need them. It also allows you to organise your marked-up photos – by room for example, and share them easily

Dulux MY Colour

Renovators and interior design fans will appreciate this app that lets you pick out colours that you’d like to use in your own home. Simply “capture” the colour of the chair, the wall, the door or even the dress that you love with the inbuilt camera, and the app will tell you the name of the matching Dulux colour. You can save the colour “swatch” and test it out on different interior and exterior settings to see if it suits your design. Dulux Australia is currently updating the Visualizer app that allows you to see how your own room looks in any Dulux colour. It should be released before the end of 2014.

I Handy Carpenter

This gorgeous suite of tools for your smartphone has the vintage stylings of your grandfather’s tool box. This handy app that includes five essential tools for any builder or DIYer. The plumb bob lets you verify the vertical line of walls and lines; the surface level will tell you if the shelf or the picture frame you’re installing is level; the spirit level will help you ensure that any surface is level; the steel protractor measures angles from 0 to 180 degrees and the steel ruler, which measures in both inches and centimetres, lets you swipe it left or right to measure things of any length.

Quick Chippy

Designed as a series of calculators for a carpenter, this great app takes the maths out of a building project. Designed by a carpenter, and road tested by tradies, this app gives you precise measurements to take the guess work out of home renovations. Need to know how much concrete you need for a post or stump hole? Need to calculate rafters or joists and stud spacings? Need to work out the risers on a set of stairs? This simple-to-use app gives you running measurements at your fingertips. It’s like an expert in your pocket.

Home Builder Pro Calculator

If you are a builder or serious about DIY you’ll love this app. With over 400 calculators, you’ll be able to easily estimate anything. From calculating business expenses – including loans, pricing and travel costs – to estimating concrete and paving, electrical work, floors walls and ceilings, landscaping, heating, roof framing, angles, materials, masonry – the list goes on! The app can be used in metric or imperial measurements, and calculations can be saved and emailed, so it’s perfect if you are quoting a job, or estimating the time and expense of tackling the project by yourself.

Need more help with managing your build? Yellow Pages has lists of nearly 30,000 project managers to help you get your dream home off the blue prints and into real life. Call an expert today.