An inspection checklist is the contractor’s own quality check: before a pour, before walls are closed, before a system is turned over. Each item is answered pass, fail or not applicable, failures get an owner and a photo, and the sheet is signed. It sits alongside, not instead of, the inspections required by the authority having jurisdiction and any special inspections on the job.
Why it matters
Work that fails after it is covered costs far more to fix than work caught before. A checklist makes the check independent of who is on site that day, and a signed, dated sheet with photos of failures is part of the quality record the owner receives.
Worked example
Illustrative, on Riverside Medical Center (sample data): before the area C slab pour, the super runs the pre-pour checklist. Reinforcing, embeds and forms pass; one under-slab plumbing sleeve has no sign-off, so that item fails. The failure gets an owner and a photo, the plumber signs off the next morning, the item is re-checked, and the pour goes ahead.
Common mistakes
- Treating a blank answer as a pass.
- Failures noted on paper with no owner or date.
- One generic checklist for every type of work instead of one per inspection type.
- Using the internal checklist as a substitute for required authority inspections.
How os.construction handles it
The Inspections tool runs checklist templates with Pass/Fail, Yes/No, text or number items, and can require a photo or an observation when an item fails. A failed item creates a linked observation, which can become a punch item. Inspections can recur, and signing locks the responses. See Inspections.