The commercial building inspection checklist plays the role of a guarantee that certain equipment or piece of equipment has been examined/inspected and that it has no issues or have no chances to cause failures and damages at all. Every time the person responsible for carrying inspection ticks off an item on the checklist, he is actually verifying that the equipment is in good condition and right working order.
Such checklists require to be equipment-specific for inspecting it thoroughly, closely examining each component and areas that are necessary for the equipment to operate properly.
Inspection checklists are comprehensive, but they should be simply designed, having all the items in a specific order that tells how the equipment and other items will be inspected. These checklists must be easy to use, or else they can be of no use at all.
Traditionally, checklists were always made on paper, but thanks to modern-day technology, now you can create digital checklists in a short time according to your requirements, and the process of inspection can be done using your mobile devices. You can not only save your data immediately, but it also saves a lot of time and human effort.
Best Tips How to Create Building Inspection Checklist
A simple building inspection can help you to highlight some common concerns while you are examining everything, such as some maintenance requirements or structural issues.
Although, you might not always understand what things need fixing, repairing, or replacing, knowing what you must look for can be helpful for you to run a successful building inspection. Understanding what kind of issues need attention allows you to make well-informed decisions during the inspection.
The Checklist
A Building inspection checklist guides you when identifying the most common trouble spots which must be not ignored and should be taken care of immediately. In order to create a basic checklist for the inspection of a building, it is better to consult a professional building inspector. But you can also run a basic inspection. Here’s how:
- Examine each door. See if they are working smoothly or if there are any damages on the door frame. Ensure everything is in the place, and none of the doors are making creaking sounds. Also, inspect if the gaps between the frame and all sides of the doors are evenly spaced or not.
- Open and close each window for checking if there are signs of repair or damage. Some common signs might be:
- Patched or painted frames.
- Cracked glass.
- Condensation.
- Carefully inspect all walls and ceilings. Look for any signs of sagging, stained, buckled, or patched areas. Always make sure that you check brick walls for dampness, stains, and mold. Saggy or patched ceilings are signs of problematic or leaky roofs. Thermal cameras are commonly used when looking for signs of damage or repair. You can also use flashlights when examing wall surfaces.
- In the kitchen area, look for signs of dampness and stains around the sink and specifically near the backsplash. To examing fittings, you can gently jiggle them. Inspect all the cabinets below the sink for dampness or water leakage. You must examine the exhaustion system.
- When checking the laundry room, make sure that you check for stains or rust both inside and outside of the room. Whether or not, around the trough, walls are tiled.
- Check the toilets carefully and examine walls for dampness or leakage. Check fittings and water taps for rust.
- Make sure you check the plumbing system carefully. See if there are any signs of water or gas leaks.
- Just like plumbing, the electrical system needs attention too. Make sure to check all the fuses. Look for wire breakage or earth leakage circuit breaker. See if the building needs new wiring.
- When checking the roof’s structure, make sure that you look for damages or patched areas. If you see cracks, you must not avoid them and get them fixed immediately, as they can lead to further damage.
- If your roof is faded, it requires sealing. If there are signs of damage or rust on the downpipes, gutters, or eaves, you must do something about them without a further delay. If your roofs are made of iron, they should be, at all cost, be rust free and must not be coated with paint to hide the rust.
- Make sure the connections of downpipes are sound to prevent water pooling around the foundation of the building.
- A building safety inspection checklist must involve inspection of exterior sliding. Check for signs of potential wear, dry rot, or damage when examining the building’s exterior siding. See if there are any sagging or bowed areas in the boards as it serves as an indicator that the siding or the building is moving.
- Ensure there are no rotten wood, water stains near the plumbing pipes, ground surfaces, and window sills.
- Large brick cracks are indicators of shifting in door openings and windows. The dusty or loose brick motor might need immediate replacement.
- Whether it is a commercial building inspection checklist, apartment building inspection checklist, or a fire department building inspection checklist, all kinds of building maintenance inspection checklist require you to inspect the foundation closely and carefully. Ensure footings and stumps are secured and robust. If there are wooden stumps, look for signs of damage as wooden stumps older than thirty years must be replaced.
- Underneath the building, there must be pathways providing enough drainage to make sure the soil is never too wet. The pooling of water underneath the building must never be, at any cost, accepted.
Office Building Inspection Checklist
- Corridors must be free of any possible barriers and space-occupying furniture.
- Exit doors must be marked in a way that they are visible to everyone, and they must have enough space to operate at the time of need, such as an unfortunate situation or accident. Make sure there is no stuff placed against the doors, which will stop them from opening and closing immediately.
- All areas and spaces should be in a sanitary condition and an orderly manner. Ensure that there is no data or power cables clutter anywhere.
- Exit lights must be working all the time.
- Fire doors must be kept close and should only be used when needed.
- Office rooms must be in good condition and must have enough space for people to walk easily. Rooms must not be stuffed with too many work tables. Especially on the side of an exit door, there must be enough space for it to open.
- Ensure to inform everyone whether or not your office allows for using candles or open flame items. If yes, then be clear about the requirements and safety precautions.
- Do not put extra stuff in electrical and mechanical rooms since they are made separately for their purpose. Keep them clean so that they don’t appear like storage rooms.
- Sockets all over the office must be operating perfectly and must have a cover plate.
- Do not put chemicals just anywhere. Instead, secure them in a room where no irrelevant individual is allowed to enter.
- Make fire extinguishers accessible and make everyone clear about their locations so that they can be used when needed.
- Ceilings and walls should be well examined for any potential leakage, dampness, or patches areas. If you see any, make sure they are repaired, fixed immediately.
Building Safety Inspection Checklist
The ideal checklist for your workplace is one that has been created according to your needs.
Few Core Items for Building are as follows:
Bulletin Boards and Signs
- Are they clean and readable?
- Do they get updated and changed frequently?
- Do items interfere with people walking by?
Emergency Equipment
- Test the fire control equipment regularly. Check whether or not it is certified.
- Ensure that you have the appropriate kind of equipment that your building needs.
- Test emergency lighting regularly to see if it is working fine.
Hazardous Products
- Are there any hazardous products
- If yes, are the products properly labeled?
- If yes, is there a relevant safety data sheet for each product?
- Are the workers trained in how to work near or with these products safely?
Security
- Do entry and exit procedures offer workers enough personal security at night?
- Are emergency (bomb threat, evacuation, hostile person) procedures effective and in place?
Final Building Inspection Checklist
General
- Are screens, guards, and sound-dampening devices effective and in place?
- Swinging doors
- floor and wall openings
- ladders, stairways, and ramps
- Guardrails
- Are materials stored safely?
- Equipment is set and tested
- Tools and other hazardous equipment during construction are removed.
- Are telephone or electrical cords exposed in spaces where they can get damaged or employees may become entangled?
- Make sure the electrical wiring is installed properly.
- Are machines properly guarded?
- Does the equipment have sharp metal projections?
- Ensure proper disposal of paper and waste
Lighting
- Are bulbs missing?
- Are any areas dark?
Air Handling System
- Make sure that the air exchange rate is kept according to standard requirements
- The system is free of sources of contamination (e.g., microorganisms, asbestos, dust, fumes)?
- Is humidity within the recommended range?
New Construction Building Checklist
Excavation Inspection
Before the placement of any fill material, after all, excavation completed
- Be prepared to provide Building Inspector with a copy of a “Subgrade” report from an Engineering Firm specializing in soils evaluation
Foundation Inspection
Before backfill soils against the foundation wall system
- Weepers drain with stone cover complete
- Wall dampproofing or waterproofing, drainage layer and paging complete
- Provide a copy of engineers site reports if applicable to project
Under Floor Slab Plumbing
Before covering pipes and closing in the trench
- Sewers to be under test
- Provide a copy of engineers site report if applicable to project
Plumbing Rough-In Inspection
Before covering with insulation or wall/ceiling finishes
- Make sure to test all DWV & water supply lines
Insulation Inspection
Before covering with wall/ceiling finishes
- Provide insulation test result for spray foam systems
- Provide a copy of engineers/architects site report if applicable to project
Fire Systems Commissioning Inspection
- To view the installers test or commissioning procedure per NFPA guidelines.
- Provide a copy of engineers site report if applicable to project
Advantages of Building Inspection Checklist with Software
Updated Forms
Making changes in forms that are paper-based is surely a hectic task. It takes a lot of time and attention, and not to mention; it includes a huge risk of errors. Recalling all the forms that are outdates, updating them using Excel, and redistributing them all over again is a time-taking process. All of this can be automated by using a building inspection checklist software. With a digital inspection checklist, forms are automatically updated on a server by an administrator and are synchronized with a mobile device used by the inspector during the on-site inspection. This not only speeds up the process of updating but also requires less human input.
Not Many Things To Carry
When inspecting a building, an inspector is required to examine, measure, test, and capture RFIDs/barcodes or images. For doing so, the inspector must carry with him a pen, clipboard, camera, and RFID/barcode scanner. However, by using software for building inspection checklist, all of these things can be done using a mobile device. So it eliminates the need to carry so many things to the site of inspection. Thus, the process gets easier and quicker.
Less Use of Paper
Less use of paper leads to more money-savings and a clean environment. Therefore, using a digital tool for the process of building inspection is a wise choice. It will not only make the whole process efficient and quick but will also eliminate redundancies.
Better Compliance
A digital inspection checklist software provides pre-defines standards. When you answer the questions, they are direct measures against these standards. This enables the inspector to identify all non-compliance issues straight away.
Accuracy and Efficiency
A building inspection checklist software helps to ensure that the data collected is free of errors, and the whole process is performed efficiently. Moreover, paper-based forms of inspection and usually compiled with time, and it gets hard to keep them in a logical sequence. Using a mobile inspection application enables inspection officers to work according to a proper sequence and make sure that every answer is complete. If any answers are left incompleted, they are highlighted, and the process of inspection remains undone. Almost all mobile inspection devices allow taking images of barcodes, RFIDs, equipment, etc. to ensure accuracy.
Improved Operational Efficiency
Digital inspections enable inspectors to generate reports within a short time to gain detailed and instant information about the equipment’s health. This helps to reduce costs of administration and prevents inspectors from making ill-informed decisions based on incorrect data. By using digital inspection software, the inspections are done faster than manual inspections, and the chances of errors are almost zero. A digital inspection checklist software can also help you to develop a preventative maintenance schedule.
Steps of Building Inspection Checklists with Software
Lesser Number of Fields
A few numbers of fields will make a checklist ideal and efficient. Make it as specific as it could be. Do not add an unnecessary number of fields to collect extra information that you might not even need when generating the final report. Stick with the specifics and do not mess up important data while trying to make your checklist a detailed one.
Organize Fields According To Your Process
When creating your checklist, make sure that you follow a sequence or method. You do not want to end up with a checklist where data seems dispersed or scattered. Ensure that you keep in focus all locations, items that will be inspected, necessary action items, teammates, general information that might be required, and the method that the inspector will be following for the process of inspection.
Easy Forms
Your users might b using a tablet, phone, or laptop for filling out the forms and completing an inspection, and not all of the users will have similar skills of typing. For making the process easier, make sure that you add as many drop-down fields and auto-suggest as you possibly can. You can also keep your questions close-ended by putting only yes/no options.
Complete It Once Yourself
Creating a from seems easier, whereas completing an inspection using your own form can give you an entirely different experience. You might find out flaws or notice that there are some loopholes. So it is better that you run inspection one time using your own form.
Teamwork
A process of the inspection involves many departments, and one cannot create a perfect form all own his own without consulting with any other person. Make sure that you discuss it with stakeholders and other concerned individuals so that you will be able to create a comprehensive form and obtain quality reporting.
Which Is the Best Building Inspection Checklist Software
Many software available can help you with your building compliance checklist. One of them is EcoDocs.
EcoDocs eliminates the need for using paper-based home inspection forms, image uploading, and manual data re-entry to generate reports. A digital home inspection application like EcoDocs enables users and inspectors to run successful inspections by using mobile devices and generating final reports instantly.
Being the most popular inspection application, EcoDocs is great to be used for completing on-site property inspections. It allows for taking multiple photos, take notes, capture annotations, and quickly sending final reports to the clients. Using EcoDocs can minimize the time spent in making a paper-based checklist and will help you to focus on assessing your property.
This modern-say software is made for enhancing the quality of inspections by eliminating typical frustrations and productivity barriers. By using the software, you can boost up the inspection process and can do it faster than usual—no need to worry about locating information and organizing the data as the final result. You can instantly identify the failures, damages, potential risks, and any other compliance or quality issues. The main focus of EcoDocs is to provide its users with a comfortable experience.
The app caters to the requirements of building inspections and how users can control and monitor the accurate condition of the building. Such tasks are typically challenging and require a lot of time and human input. However, this application has made it easier for inspectors and even common people to understand and identify potential issues.
Final Thoughts
Modern-day problems require modern solutions, and so using digital software for building inspection checklist can improve the way you have been running inspections all this time. You can not only minimize the risk of errors but also make the whole process much easier and quicker than ever.