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Construction checklists – Ultimate guide

13 Dec 2022

What are common construction checklists?

General safety checklists
Equipment checklists
Emergency tools checklists
Quality and Certification
Pre-Work checklists
Quality checklists
Safety checklists

Checklists are a great tool to use to optimize how you organize your construction project in a number of ways. To effectively manage a construction project, it is imperative that you track and make sure relevant tasks and activities get delivered efficiently and on time.

And for you to execute this effectively, it is absolutely necessary to have your construction checklists as a reference. The key to the successful implementation of a construction project’s processes is simply having a thorough and properly-structured checklist (or group of checklists).

On top of efficient project management, having checklists for your construction project allows you to advance the safety culture in your construction site and within your company. This article will guide you through different construction management checklists for use in various aspects of your project.

Developing construction checklists and templates that suit you

To have a construction checklist that’s easily implemented, it should be clearly defined then accurately created and developed. We have a few tips for creating an effective checklist:

Always base your checklist on your needs. There is a myriad of activities in a construction project and each activity requires a different construction management checklist. You have to be perceptive when standardising and making checklist templates that you can use across other projects. Some examples to consider:

Maybe you need a checklist for your construction schedule. Create one that can be used in other projects.
Maybe you need to organise a checklist for acquiring materials from a supplier. Make a thoughtful checklist template can be uniformly used for all other suppliers.

Go digital. With gadgets being a huge part of life and work, having a digital checklist on a centralised platform allows you to communicate your data faster and in a more transparent matter, making activities on site and off site much more efficient to manage. Remember, a construction site can involve a number of contractors. Having a main checklist that can be easily updated and sent to everyone avoids confusion and delays. Excel construction checklist templates are a thing of the past—the manual ticking off and updating, then the scanning to upload them to a database takes so much time and poses risks related to untimely data.
Make sure the items in your construction checklist are up to date. An updated checklist makes it easy for the superintendent or project manager to properly delegate the items or tasks on your list to the correct stakeholder and designate functions to the right subcontractor.
Study the checklist samples we have in ours. By examining the details of these construction checklists, you get to identify what you need to specifically include in your own construction checklist.
Even after reading these tips and you still don’t know how to format your own, look at some of our sample checklists and copy a template that’s applicable to your construction checklist need.

Do you really need a construction checklist?

If you are asking yourself why should you use a construction checklist, we have listed a few reasons why we believe construction checklists are a must for each of your construction project.

Construction checklists allow you to manage all aspects of your construction project, especially by having to-do checklists.
Construction checklists enable you to have a seamless and organised workflow, which facilitates optimal productivity.
Construction checklists allow you to link important elements in your construction project.
Construction checklists detail specific information of activities and phases in your project.
Construction checklists can categorise particular items, materials, equipment, tasks, etc. in a more meticulous manner.
Construction checklists break down complex activities into simple actionable components.
Construction checklists clearly define individual responsibility and accountability in the workplace. This kind of ownership drive productivity and is the foundation of high performing teams.

What are the benefits a construction checklist can bring?

Having construction checklists elevate the degree of organisation of all activities in the scope of your construction project.

Having a construction checklist allows your project to follow and respect a timeline. If you include a timetable in all your phases and the steps to be executed, everyone’s work is guided by the set deadlines, by which definite construction activities are expected to be finished.
Laying out responsibilities and expectations in a construction checklist promotes healthy work ethics and reinforces a healthy work environment. If all stakeholders involved in your project clearly know and are accountable for their responsibilities, disputes and misunderstandings become fewer.
Using an updatable construction checklist that specifies work methods and materials for certain tasks automate workflows. This, in turn, allows individual workers more focus to execute their tasks in a timely and efficient manner. This ultimately results to a seamless construction project development.
Utilising a construction checklist that allows transparent collaboration and communication, makes it easier to deliver a complex construction project. This makes for clear transactions between entities needing to work together and allows for integrated project delivery or similar outcomes.

Making your construction checklists

Having a proper document or a construction management tool makes life in the construction field easier by outlining your construction schedules with their important elements. Proper construction management alongside your construction checklists is the basis of the success…or failure of your construction project.

To create usable construction checklists, here are some things that might come in handy:

Make sure the construction checklist you use is relevant to the project and the particular team you’re a part of. Remember, construction checklists can vary among construction teams in different organisational levels.
Put together a construction checklist that is easily understandable especially by the people using the checklist.
Fill your construction checklist with time-bound content. That means, your construction project would have only a certain amount of time to achieve its project goals. Have a realistic construction (management) checklist to guide you all throughout the entire construction process and, if possible, the entire lifecycle of the building.
Assign point persons that can manage meetings and dialogues regarding the content and status of your construction checklists. This completely avoids any kind of misunderstanding or conflict.
Arrange the content of your construction checklist in a particular order—logical, chronological or any particular arrangement that shows your process clearly. This makes the checklist comprehensible, which is highly important.

The many uses of your construction checklist

There are so many ways of utlising construction checklists to your advantage—making the most of it brings so many benefits to your construction project and ultimately, across all your standardised construction processes and operations, and all future building projects. You can have a construction checklist for all steps in all phases of your construction process – from pre-planning to design up until project closeout, and maybe even up to facilities management.

The content of your construction checklist depends on unique factors that need to be considered for each certain project phase. Hence, you really have to be specific when you draft the checklist you would want to develop. We have listed a few particular situations where you can use a construction checklist, just so you get the very real-life practical application:

Construction checklists are a huge tool in implementing safety measures and procedures. They are especially useful for employees to comply with safety and health standards to prevent injuries, accidents, and deaths in the construction workplace.
Construction checklists are also a great utility for spotting potential risks in the construction site.
Construction checklists are also great tools for regular check-ups of equipment and gears.
You can use a construction checklist for new workforce employee orientation requirements of your construction project. Having this construction checklist allows you to have an overview of your new employees, their competencies, and their jobs and responsibilities, and their progress on your orientation guide. This makes it easy for you to accordingly delegate tasks according to their capacities and track their progress.
You can make a construction checklist for all the raw materials you need alongside their source or supplier. This construction list allows you to determine what items, equipment, and tools you need for all phases of your project, including what you already have and what you still need to order.
You can then have a separate construction checklist of all your suppliers. This can include your existing ones and those suppliers you think have the potential to provide you with other needs.
You can create a construction checklist around your project time frame with time tables outlining expected output on particular dates. Include specific dates so you can design efficient processes as you aim for your desired goals and results.
You can also include a construction checklist summarising all the processes that need to be carried out to complete your building project. This checklist would be very useful for outlining the specifics of your project phases, from planning, development, and evaluation. To make the best out of it, in terms of efficiency, you can include another construction checklist that is only focused on updating processes that have been already implemented.