Construction inspection and handover forms

What is a construction inspection checklist?

A construction inspection checklist is a set list of questions you work through at a point in the build, so the same things get checked every time and the answer is written down with a date, a name and a photo. On a typical job you use dozens of them: one before the concrete arrives, one before the plasterboard goes up, one when the client walks round at the end.

The forms in this category follow the life of a project. Planning documents come first, such as the construction phase plan and pre-construction information. Then come surveys like the utility survey and measured building survey, quality checks at each hold point, the daily record of the job, and finally snagging, completion and handover.

Site safety checks for the people doing the work, such as scaffold inspections, excavation inspections, RAMS and permits to dig, sit in the health and safety category. This category is about planning the work, checking its quality and handing it over.

Which construction documents are a legal requirement in the UK?

In Great Britain the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, known as CDM 2015, set the core documents. They apply to all construction work, including work for domestic clients, though on domestic jobs the client's duties pass to the contractor or principal contractor (or to the principal designer by written agreement).

Where more than one contractor is involved, the client appoints a principal designer and a principal contractor. On single contractor jobs the contractor still has to make sure a construction phase plan is drawn up. HSE's guidance, L153, explains each duty holder's role in plain terms.

Pre-construction information

What the client knows or can reasonably find out about the site and existing structure, such as asbestos, services and access. Start with the pre-construction information template.

Construction phase plan

Drawn up before the site is set up, setting out the health and safety arrangements and site rules, and kept under review as the job changes. Use the construction phase plan template.

Design risk information

Designers must eliminate, reduce or control foreseeable risks and pass on information about what remains. A design risk register is a common way to record it.

Health and safety file

Prepared by the principal designer and passed to the client at the end of the project, holding what anyone doing later work on the building will need to know. See the health and safety file template.

F10 notification

The client must notify HSE before the construction phase if work will last longer than 30 working days with more than 20 workers on site at the same time, or will exceed 500 person days.

Sources: legislation.gov.uk: Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 4 (client duties), legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 5 (appointment of principal designer and principal contractor), legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 6 (notification), legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 7 (domestic clients), legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 12 (construction phase plan and health and safety file), legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 15 (contractor duties), HSE: L153 Managing health and safety in construction, HSE: Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, HSE: Principal contractors under CDM 2015, HSE: Principal designers under CDM 2015, HSE: Designers under CDM 2015 and HSE: F10 notification of construction project.

How often do temporary works, scaffolds and excavations need inspecting?

HSE's position is that temporary works such as scaffolding, excavations, cofferdams and caissons must be inspected by a competent person on a regular basis. There is no single law on how temporary works are managed, but HSE says an effective way is to appoint a temporary works coordinator with the authority to stop work. Most contractors keep a temporary works register listing every item, its design, its checker and its permit to load, and use a temporary works inspection checklist for the checks themselves.

Some frequencies are fixed in law. Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, a working platform used for construction work from which someone could fall 2 metres or more must not be used unless it has been inspected in that position within the previous 7 days, and equipment must be inspected after it is assembled and after anything that could affect its safety, such as high winds. The scaffold tag inspection record captures what goes on the tag and in the register.

Under CDM 2015, a supported or battered excavation must be inspected by a competent person at the start of each shift, after any event likely to affect its stability, and after any material falls or is dislodged. If the inspector is not satisfied, they must tell the person they work for before the end of the shift and provide a written report within 24 hours, including location, date and time, what was found and what was done about it.

Sources: HSE: Temporary works, legislation.gov.uk: Work at Height Regulations 2005 regulation 12 (inspection), legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 22 (excavations), legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 24 (inspection reports) and HSE: Excavations.

Quality checks at each stage of the build

Most building defects are cheap to fix while the work is still visible and very expensive once it is covered. That is why good contractors and clerks of works set hold points: the next trade does not start until an inspection has been signed off. Typical hold points are excavated foundations before concrete, rebar before the pour, drainage before backfill, insulation and services before boarding (see the pre-drywall inspection), and waterproofing before it is buried.

Concrete has its own records. A concrete pour checklist covers formwork, cover to reinforcement, access and the delivery plan; the concrete pour card logs each truck and slump; the concrete cube test report records the results at the ages your specification sets. Floors get a floor moisture test record before finishes go down, and pipework gets a pressure test report.

Building control is separate from your own inspections. In England you apply for approval under the Building Regulations, and the building control body inspects at stages and issues a completion certificate if the work complies. The approved documents set out ways to meet each requirement. A request for inspection form helps you book and track those visits alongside your own.

Sources: GOV.UK: Building regulations approval and GOV.UK: Approved documents.

Surveys before you design or dig

Striking a buried cable or gas main is one of the most serious things that can go wrong on a site. HSE's guidance HSG47 sets out how to plan work near underground services: get the records, locate the services on site with suitable detection equipment, mark them, and dig with safe methods. Where a project needs a higher level of confidence, clients often ask for a utility survey to PAS 128, the BSI specification that grades how a service was detected and how accurately it was located. The utility survey template records the survey type, equipment, findings and quality level for each service.

Refurbishment and demolition work starts with what is already there. A measured building survey records rooms, levels and features for the designers, and a pre-demolition survey records structure, services, hazardous materials and neighbours before a demolition plan is written.

Sources: HSE: HSG47 Avoiding danger from underground services and BSI: PAS 128 Specification for underground utility detection, verification and location.

Snagging, practical completion and handover

Snagging is the walk round near the end of a job where you list every item that is incomplete, damaged or not to specification. In the US the same document is called a punch list, which is why you will find both a snagging list template and a construction punch list template here. A good snag entry has a location, a clear description, a photo with the defect marked, the trade responsible, a target date and a closed out photo once it is fixed.

Practical completion is a contract term rather than a legal one, so check your own contract for its definition. Broadly it is the point where the works are complete apart from minor items that do not stop the client using the building. It usually starts the defects period and changes who is responsible for insuring and securing the site, so the practical completion certificate should be dated, signed and list any agreed outstanding items.

Handover is where the documents come together. Under CDM 2015 the health and safety file must be passed to the client at the end of the project. Alongside it you will usually hand over test certificates, manuals, warranties, keys and a customer handover checklist signed by the client. The construction closeout checklist helps make sure nothing is left open.

Source: legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015 regulation 12 (construction phase plan and health and safety file).

Turning site inspections into a report

A site record is only useful if someone can find it and trust it later, sometimes years later in a dispute or a defect claim. Paper forms and phone photos kept in separate places rarely survive that. In SiteSurvey every form in this category runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, works offline in basements and on sites with no signal, and lets you take photos and annotate them, record readings and notes, and collect signatures on the spot.

When you finish, the form becomes a branded PDF report you can send to the client, the clerk of works or the design team. You can edit any library form to match your specification or contract, or build your own in the form builder. Open any form page to see every question and try the form live before you use it on site. For handover work on finished homes, see also the housing and property forms.