Checklists · Documentation
Project Documentation & Changes Checklists
Projects go wrong quietly when nobody can say which drawing was current, who approved a change, or what was agreed verbally on site. These checklists cover the registers, records and written habits that keep an owner informed.
This is owner-side record-keeping, not contract administration. Nothing here interprets a contract, determines responsibility, or values work. Contract questions belong with your own suitably qualified adviser.
27 checklists in this category
What this area covers
Planning topics in this category
Each checklist prepares one specific conversation or decision point. None of them determines compliance, suitability or cost.
- Drawing registers and version clarity
- Written instructions, approvals and variations
- Photographic and site records to keep
- Questions to ask when scope changes
Checklists in this category
Browse by project stage
Each checklist sits at the earliest point in a project where it becomes useful. Every checklist in this category appears in exactly one stage below.
Early planning
Gathering what you already know and shaping the project before drawings begin.
Brief & professionals
Writing the brief and preparing the conversations with qualified professionals.
Specification Review →Work through the written specification for your project as a non-technical reader, so you can tell what each clause asks of whom and what it quietly leaves open.Scope of Works Review →Read a scope of works document as the owner it affects, working out what is included, what stops at the edge of it and what nobody has written down at all.Correspondence Record →Decide how project messages are sent, captured and found again, so decisions do not end up buried in a chat thread nobody can produce when they are questioned.Scope Gap Question Log →Keep an owner-side log of work that no document has clearly given to anybody, so each gap becomes a written question instead of an argument once the work is under way.Assumption and Exclusion Review →Work through the assumptions and exclusions buried in the notes of a scope document, so you know what each one leaves sitting with you before anybody starts work.Design Responsibility Map →Writing down who is designing each part of the building, naming the elements normally designed by specialists, so that anything nobody is designing becomes visible while it still can be.Document Precedence and Conflicts →Establishing in advance which document governs when drawings, a written specification, a schedule and manufacturer's literature disagree, who resolves a conflict and how it is recorded.
Design & decisions
The layout, material and finish decisions worth recording as the design develops.
Drawing Register Preparation →Prepare an owner-side register of every drawing on your project, so you can tell which sheet, which issue and whose copy any conversation refers to.Meeting Minutes Preparation →Prepare for project meetings and record them properly, so that what was decided, what was only discussed and who owes what are all legible afterwards.Sample and Approval Record →Keep a clear owner record of every sample seen and every choice settled, so that what you accepted, in which light and for which location, is never in doubt later.Provisional Item Conversation →Get ready for the conversation about the parts of your project that are still undecided, so each provisional item is settled deliberately rather than by whoever is waiting on it.Change Impact Questions →Questions to ask before agreeing to swap one specified item for another, so the knock-on effects surface while the change can still be reconsidered.Decision Audit Record →Keep a running owner-side record of what was decided, by whom and on what basis, so a question raised long afterwards can be answered from a note rather than from memory.Material Substitution Review →What to ask when an alternative product is proposed in place of a specified one: why, whether it belongs to the same system, what its literature requires, and what follows it.
Before & during the work
Site logistics, coordination and the questions that arise once work is under way.
Variation Record Preparation →Set up a way of recording every change to the agreed work, so each one has an origin, a plain description and a written trail rather than living in somebody's memory.Instruction and Approval Record →Work out who may instruct what on your project, how anything said on site becomes a written record, and what you are actually being asked to accept when approval is sought.Payment Stage Conversation →Prepare the questions to ask about how payment stages are defined and evidenced on your project, and about who checks what before you are asked to respond.Photographic Record →Plan an owner photographic record that stays usable: what to capture before anything is disturbed, what to catch before it is covered up, and how to keep each image identifiable.Defect Record Preparation →Build a record of things you have noticed that actually works: one observation per entry, pinned to one place, dated, and followed through to an answer somebody has written down.Delivery and Material Record →Log what arrived at the property, what markings it carried and where it went, so questions about supply can later be answered from paperwork rather than from memory.Subcontractor Information →Record how the work is divided between trades and who answers for each part, so an owner knows where a question goes without ever assessing anybody credentials.Site Diary Preparation →Set up an owner diary you will actually keep: short dated entries recording what was happening, what stopped, what you were told and what you could not see for yourself.As-Built Information Request →Prepare a clear request for information about what was actually built, asked while the people who know are still involved and framed so the answers stay usable afterwards.Document Handover Index →Draw up the list of paperwork you expect to be holding when the work finishes, while everybody is still on site and the documents can still be produced.Discovered Condition Record →Recording a change nobody chose: something found when a floor came up or a wall opened, what was photographed before it was dealt with, who saw it and what was decided.Restricted Zones and Buried Work →Building one plain-language record of the places on the finished property that must not be dug, drilled, loaded or covered, written for you and for whoever comes next.
Go deeper
Related Build Design Hub guides
Explanatory guidance behind the decisions these checklists prepare you for.
Project management guides →Explanatory guides on how projects are usually coordinated.Project questions →Common owner questions during a live project.Cost & budget questions →General background on how project cost conversations are framed.All checklist categories →Back to the full Project Planning Checklists library.