How to Write a Contractor Punch List

When to walk

Walk at substantial completion, after the final clean and before final payment. Not before the clean, because dust hides defects and you will write items that cleaning would have solved. Not after final payment, because at that point you are asking for a favor.

• Daylight, and bring a bright flashlight anyway. Raking light across a wall shows drywall and paint defects that overhead light hides.
• Rooms empty if possible. Furniture and boxes are where punch items go to hide.
• Two hours minimum for a kitchen or bath, most of a day for a whole house.
• Bring the contractor, or their lead, and write items together. A list produced jointly gets argued about less.
• Do not walk on the day the crew is loading out. Nobody is paying attention.

What to carry: painter's tape to flag spots, a phone for photos, a small level, an outlet tester, a tape measure, and a printed room list so you do not skip a closet.

The method: room by room, then systems

Work one room at a time and follow the same path in every room, so your attention does not wander to whatever is most visually annoying. Then test systems separately, because systems cross rooms and get missed when you think spatially.

In each room

1. Floor: transitions, thresholds, scratches, hollow or loose tile, gaps at baseboard, squeaks.
2. Walls, clockwise from the door: patches, roller marks, thin coverage at edges, nail pops, corner bead, caulk lines.
3. Trim and doors: miters, gaps, paint on hardware, door swing and latching, gaps at the head, does it stay where you leave it.
4. Ceiling: seams, texture mismatch, light fixture alignment, trim rings sitting flat.
5. Windows: operation, locks, screens, stops, sill finish, weep holes clear.
6. Fixtures and hardware: level, secure, correct model, protective film removed.
7. Then look at the room from the doorway for thirty seconds. Alignment problems only appear at a distance.

Systems, house-wide

• Every outlet with a tester, every switch, every dimmer at both ends of its range. Note anything that hums or flickers.
• GFCI and AFCI devices: trip and reset each one.
• Every faucet hot and cold, every drain, every shutoff. Fill a sink and let it drain while you look underneath.
• Toilets: flush, check for rocking, check the base seal.
• Showers and tubs: run for ten minutes, look at the ceiling below if there is one.
• HVAC: heat and cool, airflow at every register, thermostat operation, filter access.
• Exhaust fans, including whether the range hood actually vents outside.
• Every cabinet door and drawer: alignment, soft close, full extension, shelf pins seated.
• Appliances: run one cycle of each. A dishwasher that was never run is not a tested dishwasher.

How to describe a defect so it gets fixed

The person who fixes the item is usually not the person who walked with you, and they arrive two weeks later without context. Write for that person. Five parts: room, position in the room, what is wrong, what the finished condition should be, and who owns it.

• Photograph every item and reference the photo in the item. A photo eliminates the "which spot did you mean" round trip.
• Give measurements where you can. "About 1/16 in" is more useful than "noticeable".
• State the standard, not just the complaint, when a standard exists in your contract or in the manufacturer's instructions.
• One defect per item. Bundled items get half fixed and marked complete.
• Number the items and keep the numbers stable through the whole closeout.

Holdback and retainage

Withholding a final payment until punch items are closed is normal practice in US residential remodeling. In commercial and public work, retainage of a percentage of each progress payment is a formal contract mechanism, and some states regulate the percentage and the release timing. Residential remodels usually handle it more simply: a final payment held until the punch list is signed off.

• Typical residential holdbacks fall in the range of 5 to 10 percent of the contract, and the number you can actually hold is whatever your contract says. Read it before the walkthrough, not after.
• The holdback should be big enough to cover finishing the work with someone else, and no bigger. An unreasonably large holdback invites a lien and sours a relationship you may still need for warranty work.
• If your contract has no holdback provision, do not invent one unilaterally. Agree it in writing with the contractor, ideally before the final phase.
• Some states set rules on retainage, deposit limits, and lien timelines, and these vary a lot. Check your state's requirements, and get legal advice if real money is in dispute.
• Ask for lien releases or waivers from subs and material suppliers as a condition of the final payment. An unpaid sub can attach your house even after you have paid the general contractor.

Signing off

1. Issue the numbered list with photos, in writing, to the contractor. Give a target date for completion, agreed rather than imposed.
2. The contractor marks each item complete with a note and, ideally, a photo.
3. Re-walk only the items marked complete. Do not re-walk the whole house and do not add new items in this pass unless they are genuine damage from the punch work.
4. Anything not fixed goes to a short second list with a firm date.
5. Sign off in writing when the list is closed, and release the holdback.
6. Collect closeout documents at the same time: permits and final inspection records, manuals, warranty documents, paint colors and product names, spare tile and flooring, and any as-built notes about what is behind the walls.

Keep the closed list. It is the document that tells you, two years later, whether the cracked grout at the threshold was noted and repaired or noted and forgotten. A checklist that already holds the item, the photo, and the sign-off date is worth more at that moment than a folder of emails, which is a large part of why tools like MonthlyAlerts keep punch items on the same list as the rest of the job.