Last reviewed: October 2026
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This free construction punch list checklist, or snagging list template, is for main contractors, site and project managers, architects and client representatives finishing a building, a floor or a fit-out. One run is one punch list cycle for one project or phase before handover. It plans the walk and who attends, prepares the drawings, the specification and the contractor’s own pre-inspection, walks the area room by room, and logs each item with its location, trade, description, photo and priority. The agreed list goes to the trades with deadlines, the contractor checks each fix, and the client or architect re-inspects before signing the list off, with any exceptions carried over. Lessons for the next project close it. Choose UK, US or other rules for the matching steps. A change request step appears for items outside the contract scope, an access step for an occupied building and escalation steps when too many items stay open.
A punch list, called a snagging list in the UK, is the list of work that is incomplete, damaged or not built to the contract documents as a project, or one part of it, nears handover. It is walked, logged, fixed, checked and signed off in a short cycle, usually a few weeks, and it ends when the client or architect accepts the list, with any remaining items carried over to agreed dates. This checklist runs one of those cycles for one project, floor or phase.
It sits between two other lists. Quality inspections during construction check work before it is covered up. Faults that appear once the building is in use are dealt with in the defects, rectification or warranty period the contract sets. The punch list is the last look before handover, and what it misses usually comes back as a defect. For the handover of the whole project, with documents, suppliers and the final account, use the Project Closeout Checklist. Client requests the contract does not cover go through the Scope Change Request Checklist, and trades returning to site to fix items go through the Construction Site Induction Checklist if they are new to it. Landlords recording a tenancy want the Move-In / Move-Out Inspection Checklist, which walks a property room by room for a different purpose.
Covers: work checked as it is built, before it is closed in or covered up.
Run by: the contractor and each trade, often with the designer at agreed hold points.
Output: work accepted stage by stage, so fewer items reach the punch list.
Covers: the walk, the logged items, the trades’ fixes, the contractor’s checks, the re-inspection and the sign-off.
Run by: the contractor, with the client or architect inspecting and accepting.
Output: a signed-off list, with any exceptions carried over to agreed dates.
Covers: faults that appear once the building is in use, reported during the period the contract sets.
Run by: the client reports them; the contractor returns to fix them under the contract.
Output: defects closed at the end of the period.
Eight phases take one punch list from planning the walk to the lessons for the next project. Choose the rules that apply on the first task and the matching safety notes appear, with a health and safety file step on UK projects. A change request step appears when items fall outside the contract scope, an access step when the building is occupied, and two escalation steps when too many items are still open at re-inspection. Nothing after the client’s or architect’s sign-off can be completed until it is given.
One run is one punch list for one project, floor or phase. Set the walk date first, because every due date counts from it, and name the three roles so later tasks are assigned.
A walk is only as good as what it is judged against. Bring the current drawings and specification, and walk the area with your own team first.
Walk every zone in the agreed order with the whole group. Record each item where it is found, against its zone, never from memory afterwards.
Each item needs enough detail for a trade to find it, fix it and know when it is finished, without phoning anyone. Items outside the contract scope go to a change request instead.
Fixes are construction work. Returning trades follow the current site rules, and in an occupied building the work is planned around the people using it. The contractor checks every fix before the client sees it.
Re-inspect against the same list, item by item. An item is closed only when the client or architect accepts it. Two escalation steps appear when too many items are still open.
The client’s or architect’s sign-off is the gate: nothing after it can be completed until they record a decision. On UK projects a step to send health and safety file information appears.
The items on this list show where work went wrong. Sorting them by trade and cause tells the next project what to check earlier.
Every item needs a priority, because it decides the order the trades work in and what can be carried over past handover. Agree the categories before the walk so that everyone on it uses the same ones. The scheme below is an example only: some contracts and clients set their own, and the fix-by times should follow your programme.
| Priority | What it covers | Examples | Example fix-by | At handover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A: Safety or use | Anything that makes an area unsafe or stops it being used for its purpose | A fire door that does not close and latch, missing fire stopping around a service, a dead emergency light, exposed wiring | Within a few days, and before anyone occupies the area | Closed before the area is accepted |
| B: Function | Work that is installed but does not work as specified | A door closer that slams, a blind that will not lower, a cold radiator, a socket with no power | By the re-inspection | Closed before handover unless the client agrees otherwise |
| C: Finish | Cosmetic faults in work that otherwise works | Paint runs and missed patches, scuffed skirtings, gaps in sealant, a scratched worktop | By the re-inspection, or an agreed date | May be carried over as a listed exception |
| D: Missing or incomplete | Items not yet installed or finished | Missing signs, a ceiling tile left out, a door stop not fitted, an unlabelled distribution board | When the material or trade is available | Carried over only with an owner and a date |
| Out of scope | Requests the contract does not include | An extra socket, a different paint colour, a new shelf | Not on the punch list | Goes to a change request |
Practical or substantial completion. UK building contracts usually call the stage this list leads to practical completion, and US contracts usually call it substantial completion. In general terms both mean the work is complete enough for the client to occupy or use it for its intended purpose, apart from minor items. The test, who decides it and what happens to the items still open differ from contract to contract, so read the definition in yours. Many contracts also link a payment, often part of the retention, and the start of a defects or warranty period to that date.
Writing an item a trade can close. Give the location precisely enough to find without the person who recorded it, say what is wrong and what fixed looks like, and add a photo. “Door D4.12: closer does not latch from fully open; adjust so the door closes and latches” can be checked at re-inspection. “Door faulty” cannot.
The client or architect is named on the first task, and the sign-off is assigned to them alone. Until they record Accepted, Accepted with listed exceptions or Not accepted, the checklist halts, so the completion record and the lessons cannot be ticked off early. The decision and the exceptions are kept with the approval.
The register, the photos, each trade’s deadline and the re-inspection outcome sit on the tasks they belong to, with names and dates in the history. The site team sees progress update as the trades mark items fixed, and the Reports Grid shows every open punch list across your projects.
Answers on the checklist add the change request step for out-of-scope items, the access step for an occupied building, the escalation steps when too many items stay open and the UK health and safety file step. Change the priorities, roles and due dates to fit your contracts in the template designer.
CheckFlow is not a drawing markup or BIM tool, and it does not pin items to a plan. It runs the steps around your own drawings and register, so every punch list goes through the same walk, fixes, checks, re-inspection and sign-off, with a record of who did what. See how CheckFlow’s workflow software handles handoffs between teams.
This template runs one punch list. Hand over the whole project with the Project Closeout Checklist, price and approve extra work with the Scope Change Request Checklist, induct trades returning to site with the Construction Site Induction Checklist and plan larger builds with the Capital Project Checklist.
Construction Project Closeout Checklist
Project Closeout Checklist
Scope Change Request Checklist
Construction Site Induction Checklist
Move-In / Move-Out Inspection Checklist
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
A punch list is the list of work that is incomplete, damaged or not built to the contract documents when a project, or one part of it, is close to handover. The contractor, the client or owner and usually the architect walk the building together, record each item with its location, the trade responsible and a description, and the trades fix them. The client or architect then re-inspects the items and signs off the list. Faults found after handover are normally dealt with as defects under the contract instead.
There is none in substance. Punch list is the usual term in the US, and snagging list or snag list in the UK, where each item is a snag. Both record the work that remains before handover, both are walked room by room or area by area, and both end with the client or contract administrator accepting the list. The words around them change with the contract: UK contracts usually talk about practical completion and US contracts about substantial completion.
When the work in an area is finished apart from minor items, close enough to handover that nothing major will disturb it, but early enough to fix the items before the planned completion date. Many contractors walk the area with their own team a week or two before the formal walk and fix what they find first. On large projects, punch lists are often run floor by floor or zone by zone as each one finishes, rather than once for the whole building.
The contractor usually runs it: it arranges the walk, keeps the list, issues the items to the trades and checks each fix before offering it back. Each trade fixes its own items. The client or owner, or the architect or contract administrator acting for them, inspects the work and decides whether to accept it, and the contract says who has the final word on completion. On projects with a construction manager or a client-side project manager, that role may run the list instead.
For each item: a unique number, a location precise enough to find it, the trade responsible, a description of what is wrong and what fixed looks like, a photo, a priority, a fix-by date and its status. For the list as a whole: the project and area, the date of the walk, who attended, the drawings it was judged against, the re-inspection results and the sign-off, with any items carried over past handover listed with an owner and a date.
Often, if the contract allows it. Many contracts let completion be confirmed with minor items outstanding, as long as they do not stop the client using the building, and the items are then listed with dates to fix them. Whether an item is minor is decided under the contract, usually by the architect, contract administrator or owner. Items that affect safety or the use of an area, such as fire doors and emergency lighting, should be closed before that area is occupied.
Timing. The punch list is made before handover, from an inspection of work that is finished or nearly finished. A defects list covers faults that appear after handover, during the defects, rectification or warranty period the contract sets, often once the building is in use and its services have run through a season. The contractor usually returns to fix them under the contract, and an inspection at the end of the period closes them.
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