Snagging

Defects list, punch list

The inspection of finished work before handover to identify and record every defect, minor or otherwise, for correction, each pinned to a location, photographed and tracked to close-out.

Snagging is the last quality stage before practical completion: a walk through the finished work, room by room or element by element, recording everything that is not right, from a missed mastic joint to a door that does not latch. Each snag is located (on a drawing pin or by room and element), described, photographed, assigned to the responsible contractor with a date, and tracked until it is fixed and re-inspected. The client or their agent usually produces their own list; the contractor who has snagged their own work first, and fixed it, presents a far shorter one.

The distinction from a defect in the contractual sense is timing and severity: snags are the items picked up before or at practical completion and expected to be dealt with quickly; defects are items that appear during the defects liability period afterwards. Both are recorded the same way. A snag list with open items at practical completion becomes the schedule attached to the certificate, and the retention release usually depends on closing it.

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