Construction
The one who finishes and inherits everyone else's knocks
You come in last, over everyone's mess, and whatever is unresolved on inspection day will be yours.
You arrive once everyone else has finished, and the space you work in is the accumulated result of months of people passing through with materials, tools and haste. **Your job consists literally of making none of that show** — and for that reason, anything still showing on inspection day reads as yours, whether you caused it or not.
Where each snagging item comes from
| The item | Who caused it | Who repairs it in practice |
|---|---|---|
| A poor finish | You | You |
| A knock from another trade | Someone else | **You** |
| Damage from the move-in | The client themselves | It gets argued |
| **A different expectation** | **Nobody** | **It gets argued a lot** |
Important
**The only real defence in this position is the starting condition, and it must be captured before you begin, not when the list appears.** It is counter-intuitive because the instinct is to start straight away: the area is finally free, there is pressure, and documenting looks like lost time. But it is the only moment when what you found can be distinguished from what you are about to do, and without that distinction everything visible at the end is yours by default.
How to run snagging without losing it
- 1
Capture the condition before entering the area
Quickly and by area. It is the starting line.
- 2
Record damage that appears while you work
Because it keeps appearing: others are still passing through.
- 3
Run the list with status, not on a sheet
Snagging lives for weeks and changes every day.
- 4
And close each item with evidence
Anything repaired without a photo reappears on the next list.
Watch out
What makes snagging unbearable is not the number of items: **it is that the list has no status and every visit reopens all of it**. Something is repaired, it is looked at again, somebody notes the same thing again because there is no record it was fixed, and a thirty-item list becomes three visits of thirty items. Closing each item with a photo and a date stops that dead, and it is the difference between finishing a project and never quite finishing it.
Worth knowing
What counts as a finishing defect, what tolerances are acceptable and who is responsible for repairing each item **is determined by the design, the contract and the supervising team, and settled by your adviser**. Here we cover the operational part: how to capture the starting point and run snagging with status until it closes.
›Is photographing before starting worth it?
It is the only thing separating what you found from what you did.
›How do I avoid repairing other people's damage?
The starting condition does not always avoid it, but it lets you discuss it.
›What if the list never closes?
Usually because it has no status. Close each item with evidence and a date.
A real case
The situation
Knocks from other trades are pinned on the finishing trade.
What you do
- Captures the condition of the area before starting
What you get
What was found is distinguished from what was done.
The situation
The snagging list lives on a sheet and reopens at every visit.
What you do
- Runs each item with its status until closed
What you get
The list goes down instead of repeating.
The situation
An item is repaired and noted again at the next visit.
What you do
- Closes each item with evidence and a date
What you get
What was repaired stops returning to the list.
The situation
New damage appears while working and nobody records it.
What you do
- Allows adding incidents at the moment
What you get
What happens during is kept separate from yours.
The situation
The client and the site run different lists.
What you do
- Maintains one shared list
What you get
Everyone argues about the same thing.
The situation
Closing the project drags on for months over snagging.
What you do
- Shows what is outstanding and whose it is
What you get
Close-out advances on data rather than on visits.
This article answers
- snagging list at project end
- blamed for knocks i did not cause
- how to document the condition before finishing
- managing snagging with the client