Post-Completion Observation Record Checklist

Walk the finished space slowly on the day it comes back into use and record what it looks and feels like then, because within a short while it will simply look normal.

Owners lose the baseline faster than they expect, and afterwards cannot say whether something was always like that.

Pick a small number of things you will look at each time you pass, rather than setting yourself a full walk-round that you will quietly stop doing.

A short habit that survives is worth far more than a thorough routine abandoned after the novelty of the new space wears off.

Note the places you would never naturally look — behind doors, above head height, inside cupboards, under the lowest shelf — and go to them deliberately.

Marks in the places nobody looks are usually well advanced by the time somebody happens to notice them.

Photograph the same views from the same standing positions each time, rather than photographing whatever has caught your attention on that particular day.

Repeat photographs from a fixed position can be compared; photographs of interesting things cannot be compared with anything.

Write down how the property is actually being used, including whether it is heated, fully occupied, empty, or being lived in around areas that are still unfinished.

How a building behaves depends heavily on whether anybody is in it, and an observation without that context is hard to interpret.

Record the weather at the time of each observation, since the same wall reads differently after a long dry spell and after rain driven against that face.

Weather is the single most useful piece of context and the one most often left out of an owner note.

Note where hairline cracking appears and whether it follows a junction between new and existing work or crosses an area that was never touched.

Where a crack runs is the part a professional wants to know, and it is easily lost once somebody has filled it.

Do not judge what any crack means; describe where it runs and take anything crossing structure to a qualified professional.

Mark the ends of any crack you are watching with a light pencil tick and the date, so that you can tell afterwards whether it has extended or stayed put.

Memory is unreliable about length, and a pencil mark answers the only question anybody will ask about it.

Note doors and windows that begin to catch, and record which corner or edge they catch on, since that is far more informative than the fact that they stick.

Where a door binds points at what has moved, whereas a note saying the door sticks tells the next person nothing.

Watch for gaps opening where skirtings, architraves and trims meet plaster, and record which side of the joint appears to have moved away from the other.

Shrinkage gaps at trims are common as timber dries, but the direction of the movement is the useful detail.

Note where fixings begin to show through a boarded finish, and whether they appear singly or in a run along the same line.

A single spot and a whole line of them are different observations, and describing which you have saves a wasted visit.

Record any floor that develops a creak or a change in feel underfoot, including exactly where you have to stand for it to happen.

A change in how a floor feels should be described to a qualified professional rather than worked out by lifting boards yourself.

Go outside during heavy rain rather than after it, and note where water actually runs off the building rather than where you had assumed it would go.

Almost everything useful about rainwater is visible only while it is falling, and invisible again within the hour.

Note any gutter or downpipe that overflows and whereabouts along its length it spills, since the place it spills says more than the fact that it did.

Overflow at one end suggests something different from overflow at the middle, and the distinction is lost once the rain stops.

Look at the ground beside the building while it is raining and note where splashing reaches the wall or where water runs towards it rather than away.

Ground behaviour beside a wall is easy to see in the rain and almost impossible to reconstruct afterwards.

Note where water stands on any flat surface once the rain has stopped, and whether it has cleared on its own by the time you next look.

Standing water is a straightforward thing for an owner to observe and a useful thing for somebody else to be told about.

Record internal damp marks with their shape and their position relative to something fixed, since the outline of a mark is the detail people forget to capture.

The cause of internal damp is a matter for a qualified professional; record what you can see rather than concluding where it came from.

Note whether the direction of the wind seems to matter, because a wall that only marks after rain from one side is a different observation from one that always marks.

A pattern tied to wind direction narrows things down considerably for whoever eventually looks at it.

Note which rooms feel noticeably cooler than the rest of the property once the heating has been running, and whether it is the whole room or only one part of it.

A cold corner and a cold room point in different directions, and owners tend to report only the general feeling.

Record where condensation forms on cold mornings, on which surfaces, and whether it clears once the room is in normal use.

Condensation that clears and condensation that persists are different observations, and both are worth writing down.

Note any surface that stays cold to the touch while the rooms around it are warm, and describe exactly where it is rather than which room it is in.

Cold surfaces and condensation patterns can arise for several reasons; describe them to a qualified professional rather than deciding what lies behind them.

Write down how the heating behaves in the new area compared with the rest of the property, including anything that comes on or stays off when you did not expect it.

Adjusting or rebalancing a heating system is work for the installer or a qualified professional, not something to alter while you are still recording how it behaves.

Note any smell that appears only when the heating is running, and which room it is strongest in, since new systems and new materials both give off smells at first.

Distinguishing a settling-in smell from something else starts with knowing precisely when and where it occurs.

Record whether ventilation openings and extract points are being used as intended, and note anywhere somebody in the household has already closed one because it felt draughty.

Closed-off ventilation is one of the most common causes of later complaints and one of the easiest things to spot early.

Note new sounds and describe them in ordinary language such as ticking, knocking, rushing or humming, together with what was happening in the property at the time.

Plain description travels better than technical guesswork, and the accompanying activity is often the clue.

Record where a draught can be felt, and whether it is still there with external doors shut and the property otherwise still.

Draughts felt with a door open are a different matter entirely from draughts felt in a closed and settled house.

Note any smell that arrives with a change in weather rather than with something being used, since that pattern is worth describing carefully.

A smell tied to wind or rain suggests a different line of enquiry from one tied to running a tap.

Write down which sounds travel between rooms more than you expected, and through which wall, floor or opening they seem to arrive.

Owners often report a room as noisy when the useful information is which surface the sound comes through.

Note whether a sound changes when a particular tap, appliance or switch is used, because that link is easily lost between one observation and the next.

A repeatable trigger turns a vague complaint into something somebody can stand and listen to.

Record anything that only happens at one point in the day, since intermittent observations are the ones most likely to be dismissed when nobody can reproduce them.

Take any smell you associate with fuel, burning or drains straight to the relevant supplier or a qualified professional rather than continuing to observe it.

Write each entry as what you saw, where you saw it and under what conditions, and keep any idea you have about the cause on a separate line of its own.

An observation mixed with a theory tends to be argued with, while a plain description is simply checked.

Locate each observation against something permanent such as a window reveal, a corner or a doorway, rather than against furniture that will have moved by the next visit.

Positions given by furniture become meaningless within a season, and the entry can no longer be found.

Include something familiar in the photograph for a sense of scale, such as a door edge or a light switch, rather than relying on describing how big something is.

Close-up photographs of marks are almost impossible to interpret without something recognisable in the frame.

Note the date of every observation and keep the entries in order, because a sequence is the only way to show whether something is changing or has settled.

A single photograph proves nothing about movement; two taken from the same place at known dates prove a great deal.

Record the observations that came to nothing as well as the ones that persisted, since knowing what settled down is as useful as knowing what did not.

A record containing only complaints reads as a list of grievances rather than as an account of how the building behaved.

Say plainly when you are not sure whether something is new, and note what makes you unsure, rather than writing it up as though it were certain.

Honest uncertainty keeps the rest of your record credible when it matters most.

Ask at handover which kinds of observation the contractor would want to hear about promptly and which they would expect to settle down on their own.

What should be reported and how quickly depends on the arrangement you have; confirm it with the contractor and any professional administering the work.

Raise anything involving running water, a smell of fuel or burning, or a change in how something structural feels, without waiting to see whether it develops further.

These belong with the relevant supplier, emergency service or qualified professional immediately, and not in an observation record at all.

Send an observation as a short written note with its photograph rather than describing it in a call you will have no record of afterwards.

A written entry can be forwarded to whoever needs it, while a phone description has to be recounted each time.

Ask who observations should be sent to now that the trades have left, and whether that changes once any defects arrangement comes to an end.

Routes for reporting after completion are set by your contract and by the appointed professionals; confirm them rather than assuming the site contact continues.

Keep your own copy of everything you send and every reply you receive, in date order, rather than relying on being able to find it in a message thread later.

Threads get archived, accounts change and phones are replaced, usually just before the point at which the record matters.

Note when an observation was looked at, by whom, and what you were told, even in the cases where nothing was done about it.

A record of what you were told at the time is the part owners most often wish they had, and the easiest to write on the day.