Our Ultimate DIY Home Remodel Punch List

During any type of project, it’s vital to understand what has been completed, what still needs to be finished or if you’ve completely left something out. In the building industry, builders and their project managers use punch lists to ensure they’ve met all the requirements of their contract and list all the work that would need to be completed prior to receiving their final payment.

For someone completing his or her own project at home, it would be a good idea to have something similar. Here’s your ultimate DIY remodel punch list.

The first thing to do when organizing your punch list is to organize the list by trade. Trade refers to the types of subcontractors you will need, such as electrical, plumbing, mechanical and HVAC. For example, when remodeling a bathroom, you will need work from several trades to handle the plumbing, electrical work, flooring and painting.

Ensuring your punch list is properly organized by type of trade will keep you organized and lessen the chances of missing a step, so you can complete the job correctly. The punch list will also organize any necessary adjustments by the type of work that will be required. You wouldn’t want a missing tile mixed in with items you need adjusted by the plumber.

A punch list is also important as a great way to keep track of areas where the work isn’t quite right or completed. This allows the project to continue and to tackle certain issues later on, especially if you’ve decided to bring on board additional people or subcontractors to assist. If the items are minor or cosmetic issues, they can be submitted to the team after the fact and all at once on a single punch list.

This also gives you a good maintenance checklist to run through, since most of us probably don’t check on these items as often as we should. Another way a punch list can be used is to go through each room in your home and address outstanding issues that you’ve perhaps ignored or put off. A punch list will keep all these issues organized and allow you to address them room by room.

If you’re ready to tackle your next home project, consider using a punch list to ensure you’ve included everything while you’re working on your project. Keep in mind that for most of us, once we’ve wrapped up and finished, we will probably never come back to make corrections.

If you’re using a subcontractor to help on your project, it’s important to track what’s being done or not being done correctly to provide in a list to your sub. Before making his or her final payment, make sure any outstanding punch list items have been taken care of. It will be a lot harder to get subcontractors back into your home to complete these items once they’ve moved on to their next project or job.