A punch list is a contract document, not a walk-round note
Everything about the punch list hangs off one date. Substantial completion is the point at which the work is far enough along, under the contract documents, that the owner can occupy or use it for its intended purpose. That single date moves five things at once:
- The owner can take the building.
- Warranties start running.
- Responsibility for security, heat, utilities, damage to the work and insurance transfers from the contractor to the owner.
- The retainage becomes payable, less a hold against the listed items.
- The clock starts on completing the items themselves.
Which is why this tool asks for the date and for a cost per item. A list without those is a note. A list with them is the attachment to a certificate.
Three kinds of item, and every template flattens them into priority
An item either stops the owner using the space or it does not. That is not a priority ranking, it is a different question with a different consequence, and it comes straight out of the definition of substantial completion.
If something genuinely prevents occupation and use, the project is not substantially complete, and no amount of listing changes that. The question stops being how long the punch list is and becomes whether the certificate should be issued at all. A tool that calls that item "high priority" and puts it in the same column as a scuffed door frame is hiding the only thing on the page that matters.
The third kind is the one that costs people money. A defect that appears after acceptance is a warranty claim, with its own clock and its own remedy. Put it on the punch list and a year-long obligation ends up inside a payment argument. This tool keeps warranty items in their own section and out of the cost total.
What a construction punch list template leaves out
Every free construction punch list on the internet is a grid: item, location, trade, status. All of that is necessary and none of it is the hard part. What the grids leave out is the three things that decide whether the document does its job, and all three are below: the difference between an item that stops completion and one that does not, the estimated cost the certificate asks for, and the fact that anything left off is still owed.
Leaving something off does not get anybody out of it
This is the most misread sentence in American construction contracts, and it is on the certificate itself. AIA A201 section 9.8.2 and the G704 certificate of substantial completion both provide that the failure to include an item on the list does not alter the contractor obligation to complete all of the work in accordance with the contract documents.
Both sides get it wrong in opposite directions. Owners treat the list as their last chance, and rush it. Contractors treat anything absent from it as accepted, and price accordingly. The list is evidence of what was known on a date. It is not the boundary of the obligation.
Warranties on punched items start later than the rest
Warranties on the work generally commence at substantial completion. Warranties on the items attached to the certificate run instead from the final certificate for payment or from final payment, whichever comes first, unless the parties write down something else.
So the items on this list outlast the building around them, and the gap is however long it takes to close the list out. That is worth knowing on the items most likely to be punched, which are exactly the ones most likely to fail again: door hardware, sealants, controls, finishes at heights nobody wants to revisit.
Why the cost column is not optional
The certificate carries one figure for the estimated cost of the work still to be completed or corrected. Somebody is going to write a number in that box. If the contractor has not built it up line by line, it gets built up by whoever has, at the meeting, from memory.
Public work in Florida shows why the number matters more than it looks. Under Fla. Stat. 218.735(7)(e), within 20 business days of the list being created the owner pays the remaining balance less an amount equal to 150 percent of the estimated cost to complete the listed items. Half again. A $20,000 list holds $30,000, so every dollar of padding in the estimate costs a dollar and a half of cash flow. Ordinary retainage on the same contracts is capped at 5 percent of each progress payment.
That is Florida, and it is public work. It is quoted because it is public law and because it is the clearest illustration of a mechanism that exists in some form in most contracts. Your own agreement governs.
Called a deficiency list in Canada
Both terms are used in Canada and punch list is the more searched of the two, so that is what this page is called. A Canadian project runs under provincial construction and lien legislation rather than under any US statute, so the specific American figures above are illustration rather than instruction. The document, and the reason it exists, is the same.
What a snag list does not carry
A British snag list records a walk: somebody went round on a date and wrote down what was wrong. It is genuinely useful and it carries no contractual weight of its own. The two documents look alike on the page and do different jobs, which is why they get different pages with different fields rather than one page and a dropdown. The snag list asks who walked it. This one asks when the building was handed over, and what the outstanding work is worth.
What this does not do
It does not certify anything, and it is not legal advice. It produces the list that gets attached to a certificate somebody else signs. It does not know your contract, and the deadlines and holds described here are either AIA standard form language or Florida public contract statute, neither of which necessarily governs your job. It also does not sync: one person walks with one device, and the PDF is what gets shared.
The list and the PDF never leave your device
A punch list names subcontractors next to dollar figures and the things they got wrong, which is commercially awkward reading in the wrong hands. Every item stays in your browser and the PDF is generated on your device, so it exists only where you saved it. There is no project limit, no seat to buy for the second person walking the job, and nothing kept when you close the tab.
Common questions
What is a punch list?
The list of work still to be completed or corrected at the point a project reaches substantial completion. Substantial completion is the stage where the work is complete enough, under the contract documents, that the owner can occupy or use it for its intended purpose. The list gets attached to the certificate that records that date, which is why it is referred to by name and date rather than just handed over. It is not a snagging note and it is not a wish list: it is a contract document with money attached to it.
Who creates the punch list, the contractor or the architect?
Under the AIA general conditions the contractor prepares it. A201 section 9.8.2 has the contractor submit a comprehensive list of items to be completed or corrected, and the architect then inspects to decide whether the work is in fact substantially complete. In practice everybody adds to it, the owner walks it, and the version that matters is the one identified on the certificate. On public work the rules can differ: in Florida the local governmental entity develops a single list, within 30 calendar days of substantial completion on a project under $10 million.
If an item is not on the punch list, does the contractor still have to fix it?
Yes. AIA A201 section 9.8.2 and the G704 certificate both provide that failing to include an item on the list does not alter the contractor obligation to complete all of the work in accordance with the contract documents. That is the thing both sides most often get backwards. So the list is not a cap on what is owed and it is not a sign-off on everything absent from it. Owners sometimes think anything they missed is lost; contractors sometimes think anything not listed is finished. Neither is right.
When do warranties start, at substantial completion or at final completion?
Both, and that is not a contradiction. For the work generally, warranties commence on the date of substantial completion. For the items on the list attached to the certificate, they run instead from the date of the final certificate for payment or the date of final payment, whichever comes first, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. So the punched items carry a longer tail than the building around them, which matters most on the things most likely to be punched: hardware, finishes, controls.
How much retainage can be held against a punch list?
On a private job, whatever the contract says. The figure worth knowing is the public one: Florida allows a local governmental entity to pay the remaining balance less an amount equal to 150 percent of the estimated cost to complete the listed items, under Fla. Stat. 218.735(7)(e), and caps ordinary retainage at 5 percent of each progress payment. A $20,000 punch list can therefore hold $30,000. That is the entire reason this tool asks for a cost per item: the estimate is going on the certificate either way, and it is better arrived at line by line than argued about in the meeting.
Is a punch list the same as a deficiency list?
In Canada, yes, and both words are in use. Measured search volume in Canada has punch list ahead of deficiency list, so this page leads with punch list and says deficiency list plainly, because a Canadian looking for one should not have to guess. The document is the same and the contractual shape is similar, though a Canadian project runs under the provincial construction and lien legislation rather than under any US statute, so treat the specific American figures here as illustration and check your own province.
Is a punch list for new construction different from a renovation?
The document is the same and the arguments are different. On new construction the list is long, systematic and mostly about finishes and commissioning, and everybody agrees what the finished state was supposed to be because it is drawn. On a renovation the fights are about existing conditions: whether something was already like that, and whether making it good was in the scope. The practical answer on a renovation is to record the condition before the work starts, because a punch list is a poor place to first raise what a wall looked like in March.
Should warranty items go on the punch list?
No, and mixing them is a common and expensive habit. A punch list item is work that was never completed or was done wrong, and it is outstanding at substantial completion. A warranty item is something that failed after acceptance. They have different clocks, different remedies, and in most contracts different money behind them. Putting a warranty claim on a punch list drags a year-long obligation into a live payment negotiation, and it gives the other side a reason to argue about the whole list. This tool keeps them apart and leaves warranty items out of the cost total on purpose.
Is this a punch list template, or something else?
Something else, and the difference is the point. A template is an empty grid you fill in and total by hand. This works the list out: grouped by location, outstanding counted properly, the estimate totaled, and the three kinds of item kept apart. It produces a PDF rather than a spreadsheet, because the output is a document that gets attached to a certificate and sent to people, and a spreadsheet that everybody edits is the wrong shape for that. If you need the rows in a spreadsheet afterwards, they are all on the PDF in order.
Is there a punch list app?
This runs in a browser on a phone, which is what most punch list apps are underneath, and it needs no account, no download and no subscription. Add items as you walk, generate the PDF at the end. Nothing you type is uploaded, which also means nothing is synced between two phones: one person walks with one device, and the PDF is what gets shared.