9 Tips to Improve Construction Site Inspection Checklists

If you have a construction site inspection procedure in place, but you think it has some flaws, it may be time to closely observe your Construction Site Inspection Checklist. It’s quite common for an inspection checklist to lose pertinence and the benefits it offers with time.

So, why does this happen? Remember that only when you continue to modify your checklists according to your ongoing concerns and problems, your checklist remains an effective tool for defect prevention.

Improving Your Inspection Checklist for the Construction Site

Whether you want to create new construction site inspection checklists or you want to enhance your existing ones, the tips below will aid you in getting closer to first-time quality.

1. Conducting Preparatory Meetings:

Prior to the start of the new phase of any given project, conduct meetings with every subcontractor, who will be working on the project. Consider this as your chance to define expectations related to quality, review job specifications, and examine the checklists you will use to approve the tasks.

Discuss potential problems and risks that are specific to your project, and consider them as regular inspection checkpoints. Including problems specific to the task as specific checkpoints highlight their importance while ensuring important checks during the inspection phase.

2. Beginning with a Fundamental Site Inspection Checklist:

      Have a fundamental checklist for every meeting you hold. It could be either the one you already have used in the past or a template from your collection of inspection checklists. The template should ideally include sections for the following:

•      Checkpoints to enhance awareness of critical elements
•      Checkpoints to record compliance with project-related requirements
•      A record of crucial measurements
•      Scores for safety, quality and timeliness
•      Required photographs of inspected tasks
•      Signatures

     From this point onward, you can customise your checklist as per the job at hand as well as the subcontractors performing the task. Every sub-trade must have its very own set of checklists that concentrates solely on the work that team is doing.

3. Discussing Job-Ready Problems:

Most of the general contractors observe that subcontractors are reluctant to self-inspections and checklists at first, as they think it may increase their workload or will eventually become a burden to them.

On the contrary, these checklists can help decrease job-ready problems from previous subcontractors before the installation phase. One of the proven ways to overcome any resistance to making use of checklists is to begin the conversation by raising questions about job-ready problems or issues which subcontractors might have experienced in the past that prevented them from commencing the task.

Ask every subcontractor what bothers them most when it is about beginning a new phase. For instance, the framing team may require the foundation to be flat and well dimensioned before they begin to work. Let every subcontractor know that their job-ready requirements will be included in the job-completion requirements for each subcontractor that comes prior to them. This facilitates a collaborative process, where everyone wins.

4. Discussing Job-Completion Needs:

Discuss with every subcontractor what a well-implemented task looks like. Talk about the common punch-list things you have observed for a given kind of work and how you can avoid them. Add such items to your checklist within the heightened-awareness section, so that your subcontractor keeps a constant eye on such problems and issues while ensuring that they are addressed and resolved before the job gets completed.

By concentrating on common issues with their work, subcontractors can focus on getting closer to first-time quality. Always add the job-ready items to the job-completion requirements for the next subcontractor in line. 

5. Having Subcontractors Perform Self-Inspections:

Once you have put your inspection checklists together, these can be used by subcontractors to carry out their very own inspections and to let you know when their job would complete.

Since the subcontractor is the very first person to inspect, they can check the items that will certainly be inspected by others to avoid any call-backs. You can also link this process to pay points, which will offer an extra incentive for them when it is about inspecting their own work and signing off on the same when it is done.

6. Using Checklists during Site Walks:

You may already be visiting the site on a regular basis. How about doing it with a checklist? Many of us think that it may consume a lot of extra time. Interestingly, using a checklist during site walks is not time-consuming, but it aids you in focusing on the heightened-awareness problems. Having a checklist in hand for reference additionally lets you discover possible issues before they occur and you can work with subcontractors to get them addressed on time.

7. Performing Critical Milestone Inspections:

At specific critical points in a given project (also called, hold points), the work of multiple trades needs to be checked and have their completion reviewed before moving further. For instance, you may require milestone inspections for:

• Site work
• Structure
• Foundation
• Dry-in and MEP (pre-drywall)
• Finishes for every unit
• Final project turnover

In an ideal situation, such construction site inspections are carried out by a QA professional. However, they can also be performed by the site superintendent. Since a project cannot move further until all concerns are resolved at these critical points, it’s important to get closer to first-time quality as early as possible. Your subcontractor’s inspection checklists facilitate this process while keeping your job on schedule.

8. Doing It Step Wise:

If you are getting started with inspection checklists, the process can be overwhelming. So, how will you develop a checklist for every subcontractor for each phase of the work? Thankfully, you don’t have to do it all at once beforehand. You can add checklists as you move forward while working with every subcontractor in order to create them.

Once you are done with this, you can make use of any existing checklists for future tasks and change them, accordingly as and when required. You can also ask subcontractors to create their own versions of the checklists.

9. Using Quality Management Software:

Quality management software is designed to assist you in carrying out the inspection process more effectively and efficiently. It also helps with managing health and safety at work. Some of the best commissioning management companies in the UK are already using it, alongside commissioning management software. 

With built-in fundamental checklists that you can customise per your needs, you get the majority of the work is already done for you. For every subcontractor, you can instantly see which types of defects are most common and you can also add them to the list of your heightened-awareness concerns. You can also include notes and capture pictures when inspecting. All of this data gets updated and communicated in real-time so that you can make quick decisions while keeping the project up and running.