PUNCH LIST TEMPLATE
Free punch list template — every item to complete or correct, one line each, ready to print
A numbered list with the location, the item, the trade that owns it and the date it was done, landscape so the lines are long enough to be useful, plus the final walk-through checklist — every room, the same checks — that writes the list in the first place. Free in Word and PDF.
Word and PDF · Free · No email, no sign-up
What is a punch list? The short answer
A punch list is the list of small items left to complete or correct at the end of a construction job — the nail pops, the door that doesn't latch, the missing outlet cover, the scratched window — written during a walk-through near the end of the work, one line per item, with where it is, which trade owns it and the date it was fixed. The name comes from the days when each item was punched out of the list with a hole punch as it was done. The list is finished when every line has a date, and on most jobs that's what stands between the last check and the keys.
If you run a construction business, print the list and the walk-through checklist, put your name on the Word files and give them to whoever walks the job: the walk-through finds the items, the punch list numbers them so a phone call to the painter can say “items 4, 9 and 12”, and the dates close them. The list that's written from a walk with blue tape and a flashlight is a short one; the one written from the owner's texts a week after move-in is not.
Below: the printable punch list, the final walk-through checklist, what's a punch list item and what isn't, how to run the walk, what the AIA says about who prepares the list, and how a closed job goes on your website. The job's daily record, the construction daily report template, has its own page.
FREE PUNCH LIST · WORD AND PDF
The punch list, ready to print
The project, the address, the walk-through date, who walked it and the target date at the top, then a numbered table — location, the item to complete or correct, the trade, the date done — with room to write. Letter size, landscape, so each line is long enough for “master bath, north wall, grout missing behind the door”. Free, no email address, no sign-up.
Punch list · one line per item
| [Your construction business] | |
| Punch List | |
| Every item to complete or correct, one line each — the trade that owns it and the date it was done | |
| Project | ______________________ |
| Address | ______________________ |
| Walk-through date | ______________________ |
| Walked by | ______________________ |
| Target date for the list | ______________________ |
| Number the items so a phone call can name one. Write the room and the wall, not “upstairs”. One list per floor for a big job, and the list is finished when every line has a date. | |
| [Your construction business] · [Your phone] · [Your website] | |
| # | Location | Item to complete or correct | Trade | Done (date) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The Word file is a standard .docx — put your construction business's name and phone in the brackets, add your logo, add rows or a column (a photo number, a priority), and save it as your master copy. The PDF prints as-is; one sheet per floor on a big job. Print at “Actual size”, not “Fit to page”.
THE FINAL WALK-THROUGH CHECKLIST
The final walk-through checklist — the walk that writes the punch list
Five blocks — every room; kitchen and bathrooms; mechanical, electrical and plumbing; exterior; before the keys change hands — with a check box on every line and the project, the date and who walked it at the top. Walk it with a flashlight and a roll of blue tape, tape every item as it's found, then write the punch list from the tape.
Checklist · one per walk
| [Your construction business] | |
| Final Walk-Through Checklist | |
| The walk that writes the punch list — every room, the same checks, before the keys change hands | |
| Project: ______________________________ Date: ____________ Walked by: ______________________ | |
| Rooms walked: ______________________________ Items found (to the punch list): ________ | |
| Every room | |
| ☐ | Walls and ceilings: nail pops, cracks, sanding marks, paint holidays, touch-ups that don't match |
| ☐ | Trim and doors: caulk lines, miters, doors latch and swing clear, stops in, hardware tight |
| ☐ | Windows: open, lock and seal; screens in; glass unscratched; sills caulked |
| ☐ | Floors: squeaks, gaps, scratches, transitions level, grout lines full, base shoe nailed |
| ☐ | Outlets, switches, lights and fans: every one works, plates level, bulbs in, dimmers smooth |
| ☐ | Smoke and CO detectors in place and tested; thermostats set and labeled |
| Kitchen and bathrooms | |
| ☐ | Cabinets: doors aligned, drawers glide, pulls straight, shelves and kick plates in |
| ☐ | Countertops: seams tight, edges finished, caulk to the wall clean |
| ☐ | Faucets, drains and shutoffs: run every one, check under every sink for drips |
| ☐ | Tubs, showers and toilets: filled and drained, grout and caulk complete, no rocking |
| ☐ | Appliances: installed, leveled, running, manuals and tags collected for the owner |
| Mechanical, electrical and plumbing | |
| ☐ | Furnace, air handler and water heater running; filters new; registers open and labeled |
| ☐ | Panel labeled; every breaker holds; GFCI and AFCI trip and reset |
| ☐ | Dryer vent, range hood and bath fans vent outside and the ducts are connected |
| Exterior | |
| ☐ | Siding, trim and flashing complete; paint and caulk finished; no exposed fasteners |
| ☐ | Roof: shingles flat, ridge vent on, gutters and downspouts hung and draining away from the house |
| ☐ | Grading slopes away; walks, steps and railings solid; porch lights and doorbell work |
| ☐ | Garage door opens, closes and reverses on the safety beam |
| ☐ | Site clean: debris gone, dumpster off, stakes pulled, landscaping as the plan shows |
| Before the keys change hands | |
| ☐ | Every item found is on the punch list with a location, a trade and a number |
| ☐ | Keys, remotes, codes and manuals in one envelope |
| ☐ | Touch-up paint labeled by room; spare tile and flooring stacked for the owner |
| ☐ | Photos of every finished room, the same angles as the progress photos |
| Walk it with a flashlight and a roll of blue tape: tape every item as it's found, then write the list from the tape. One sheet per walk; the punch list is the sheet that comes out of it. | |
| [Your construction business] · [Your phone] · [Your website] | |
One sheet per walk. The last block is the one that gets skipped — the keys, the remotes, the manuals, the touch-up paint labeled by room — and it's the block the owner calls about on Monday.
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ON THE LIST OR NOT
What's a punch list item, and what goes somewhere else
A punch list is for the small things left to complete or correct in work that's already been done. Three kinds of item look like punch-list items and aren't.
| The item | Punch list? | Where it goes instead |
|---|---|---|
| Touch-up paint on the hallway wall; a door that doesn't latch; a missing outlet cover | Yes | — |
| A scratched window, a chipped tile, a dented appliance door | Yes | — with the trade that owns it, so the fix is theirs |
| Grout missing behind the bathroom door; caulk line open at the countertop | Yes | — |
| The owner now wants a second light in the pantry | No | A priced extra on a new quote — it's new work, not a correction |
| The rough-in failed inspection | No | The inspector's own list, fixed and re-inspected before the walk-through |
| A room that isn't finished yet | No | The schedule — the punch list is for work that's done but not right |
| Keys, remotes, manuals and the touch-up paint for the owner | No | The last block of the walk-through checklist |
STEP BY STEP
How to run a punch list walk-through
For the construction business: one walk, one list, and every line closed with a date before the keys change hands.
Walk it before the owner does
Your own walk first, with the checklist, a flashlight and blue tape — tape every item as it's found. The owner's walk should find almost nothing new.
Write the list from the tape
One line per piece of tape: the room and the wall, what's wrong, the trade that owns it, a number. “Upstairs — paint” is not an item; “bedroom 2, west wall, nail pop above the outlet” is.
Number every line
A number is what lets a phone call to the painter say “items 4, 9 and 12” and a text to the owner say “everything but item 7 is done”. One list per floor on a big job.
Give each trade their lines
Send each sub the lines with their name on them and a date. The electrician doesn't need the grout lines; the tile setter doesn't need the outlet covers.
Close the lines with a date
Walk the list again as the trades finish and write the date on each line. The list is done when every line has one — and that's the walk the owner should see.
Put the finished job online
The last block of the walk-through asks for photos of every finished room. Those are the latest-jobs section on your website, already taken.
Every column on the punch list, explained
The number is the column people underrate. It's what turns a list into a conversation: the painter gets a text with three numbers, the owner gets an update that names the one line still open. Start at one and don't reuse a number when a line is closed — the closed ones are the proof the job is done.
Location is the room and the wall, not the floor. “Master bath, north wall, behind the door” sends a tile setter straight to it; “upstairs bathroom” sends them looking. For a bigger job, one list per floor with the floor in the header, and the location column still names the room.
The item is what's wrong, in the words the trade uses. Nail pop, paint holiday, open miter, door won't latch, no stop, GFCI doesn't trip, grout missing, caulk open. One line per item, even when three are in the same room — three lines close on three different days.
The trade column is who fixes it, not who found it. The scratched window is the glazier's even if the painter was the last one in the room. When it's genuinely unclear, write the trade you'll call first and the date settles the rest.
Done is a date, not a check mark. The date is what makes the list a record: it shows the owner the lines closed in order, it shows the sub when their part was finished, and it's the day the job was actually complete. A line with no date is open, whatever anyone remembers.
The walk-through checklist is where the list comes from. Every room gets the same checks — walls and ceilings, trim and doors, windows, floors, outlets and switches, lights and fans, detectors and thermostats — then the kitchen and bathrooms, the mechanical, electrical and plumbing, the exterior, and the last block before the keys change hands: keys, remotes, codes, manuals, touch-up paint labeled by room, spare tile for the owner, and a photo of every finished room.
For construction businesses: the punch list and substantial completion
In the US, on a job run on the architect's standard forms, the punch list has a fixed place: the AIA's own instructions for its G704–2017 Certificate of Substantial Completion say the form is used to record the date of substantial completion of the work or a portion of it, that the contractor prepares a list of items to be completed or corrected, which the architect verifies and amends, and that the certificate also sets the time allowed to finish those outstanding items. In other words, the punch list is the contractor's list, the architect checks it, and the certificate — a separate document that isn't on this page — is what fixes the date and the deadline. On a small residential job with no architect, the same list does the same work between you and the owner: the walk finds the items, the list numbers them, the dates close them. Nothing on these two sheets is written as terms: no column for an owner's OK, no completion wording, nothing for anyone to initial — it's the plain working list and the plain walk that writes it. Job-site records differ by state, by owner and by the kind of job, so check your local rules and the paperwork your own job asks for before you rely on a sheet.
Put the finished job on your website, and send the quote from the same place
The last block of the walk-through checklist asks for a photo of every finished room, which means a construction business that closes jobs this way has a full set of finished photos for every job it's ever done. Most contractor websites show the same six photos from three years ago; the ones that win the next job show the last one. The photos the checklist already asks for are that section.
If you build your construction website with Zarla, add your business name and your town to the sentence above, and Zarla builds the site, with a page for each service and town you list. Then tell the editor “add a latest-jobs section” and drop in the finished-room photos from the last walk-through, in a section you can edit any time a job closes.
The quote and the invoice come from the same dashboard. Zarla sends a quote as one link: your customer picks an option, checks off any extras and accepts it online, and Zarla drafts the invoice for exactly what they chose, with any deposit you asked for. The construction invoice template shows what the final invoice should carry; the punch list with every line dated is what it follows.
Want to see a finished site first? Browse construction website templates, see how Zarla builds construction websites, look at contractor website designs and what agencies charge for them, or browse construction website examples.
Starting or pricing the business?
How to start a construction business covers the license, the first crew and the first jobs; how to become a general contractor covers the state license exams; construction rates for 2026 has the labor and markup figures with a calculator; the construction business plan puts the numbers together; how to write a quote prices the job, the construction estimate template writes it down, the construction invoice template bills it by the draw, and the construction daily report template records every day in between.
Punch lists: common questions
Yes. The punch list and the final walk-through checklist on this page download free as a Word document and a PDF, with no email address and no sign-up. Edit the Word files for how you close a job, or print the PDFs and fill them in on the walk.
The list of small items left to complete or correct at the end of a job — written during a walk-through near the end of the work, one line per item, with where it is, which trade owns it and the date it was fixed. It covers work that's been done but isn't right or isn't finished: touch-up paint, a door that doesn't latch, a missing cover plate, a scratched pane. The job is closed when every line has a date.
From the hole punch. Before the list was a form, each item was punched out of the list — a hole beside the line — as it was done, so a glance at the sheet showed what was left. The name stayed when the punch went.
The contractor, on the walk near the end of the work. In the US, on a job run on the AIA's standard forms, the architect then verifies and amends it, and the certificate of substantial completion sets the time allowed to finish the items. On a small residential job with no architect, the contractor's own walk writes it and the owner's walk adds to it. The walk-through checklist on this page is the contractor's walk. Job-site paperwork differs by state and by owner, so check what your own job asks for.
Work that's been done but isn't right or isn't finished: paint touch-ups, nail pops, open miters and caulk lines, doors and windows that don't latch, lock or seal, missing hardware and cover plates, scratched or chipped surfaces, grout and caulk gaps, fixtures that don't work, appliances not leveled. Not on it: new work the owner now wants (a priced extra), an inspection failure (the inspector's list), and rooms that aren't finished yet (the schedule).
The room and the wall, what's wrong in the trade's words, the trade that owns it, and a number: “7 · bedroom 2, west wall · nail pop above the outlet · painter”. One line per item even when three are in the same room, because three items close on three different days. “Upstairs — paint” is not an item.
The walk near the end of the work, room by room with the same checks in each, that finds the punch list items — walls and ceilings, trim and doors, windows, floors, outlets and switches, lights and fans, then the kitchen and the bathrooms, the mechanical, electrical and plumbing, the exterior, and the hand-over block: keys, remotes, codes, manuals, touch-up paint by room. The checklist on this page is that walk; the punch list is what comes out of it.
In the US, on a job run on the AIA's forms, the certificate of substantial completion sets the time allowed to finish the outstanding items; on a small job it's whatever you and the owner agree on the walk — a target date is on the header of the sheet for that reason. On many residential jobs that's a week or two, because the items wait on one trade's return visit. Check what your own job asks for.
Yes — that's what the Word file is for. Put your business name, phone and website in the brackets, add your logo, add a column for a photo number or a priority, add rows, and save it as your master copy. The PDF is the same list for printing as-is, one sheet per floor.
That's the job's other sheet — the end-of-day record of who was on site, what got done, what arrived, what held the job up and who came by, one sheet a day. It has its own page: the construction daily report template.
Sources
Read November 3, 2026.
- AIA (aiacontracts.com) — Instructions: G704–2017, Certificate of Substantial Completion — the form is used to record the date of substantial completion of the work or a portion of it; the contractor prepares a list of items to be completed or corrected, which the architect verifies and amends; the form also sets the time allowed to finish the outstanding items
Put your finished jobs on the website that wins the next one
Add your business name and your town, and Zarla builds the site from that one line — with a page for each service you list and a quote form for the next job, ready to edit in chat.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.