Punch list template
Walk the job with your client and fill it in on your phone as you go. Add rows as you need them, tick items off as they’re fixed, and print it or save it as a PDF when you’re done.
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A handyman described the version every contractor dreads: the job was done apart from a few small items, and the customer was holding the entire payment until each one was finished to their liking. A homeowner posted the mirror image, asking how to get a crew to come back and finish the last things at all. Both problems start with a list that was never written down and agreed.
What a punch list is
A punch list is the short list of things still to fix or finish before a job, or a stage of it, counts as done: the caulk line that pulled away, the cabinet door that rubs, the outlet cover that’s missing. You make it together on a walkthrough, and when every item is ticked off, the work is complete.
How to make it work
- Walk it together. A list the client wrote alone, a week later, is always longer.
- One item per row, with where. “Touch up paint” becomes twenty things. “Paint scuff, hallway, left of the bathroom door” is one.
- Agree the list is complete before you leave. New items after the walkthrough are a new conversation, and sometimes a change order.
- Take a photo when each item is fixed. It’s the answer when someone says it never was.
- Don’t wait for the end. Walk each stage as it finishes: demo, rough-in, tile, finish. A final list of six items gets paid. A final list of sixty gets argued.
When the final payment hangs on the list
The hard version of the punch list is the client who holds the whole final payment over two small items, or who goes quiet after the walkthrough. Both are easier to avoid than to fix. Write into the contract how a stage gets signed off, how many days the client has to respond, and what happens if they don’t. Our remodeling contract checklist covers it.
Sign off each stage as it’s done
In Everkept you mark a stage done with photos, and your client signs it off from the email, or tells you what needs fixing. The next draw falls due when they do. If your contract gives them a set number of days to answer, Everkept counts them and keeps the record.
Start a jobThis is general information, not legal advice. States differ on what a home improvement contract and its changes must contain. Check with your state’s contractor licensing board or an attorney.