Are you building a home? Create a PDF checklist to get organized and stay on track.
Whether you’re planning and designing elements of your dream home from scratch or working from pre-designed house plans for a new home build, building a home can be an exhilarating, but emotional time. It’s a detailed and lengthy process that involves several stages and communicating and interacting with multiple people
A checklist for building a new home is essential, as is using a portable format that you can access from anywhere and share with key stakeholders as and when you need to. Read on to learn what to include, and why use a PDF checklist for a new build.
What you’ll learn
- Why you need a checklist for building a new home
- What to include in a checklist for building a new home
- The advantages of a PDF home building checklist
Why you need a checklist for building a new home.
Planning a new home and the construction of it is a big project. There are many moving parts to consider. Even if you have engaged a project manager to oversee some aspects of building a new home, there are still things you need to ensure are flowing smoothly from planning to construction to completion and meet important deadlines and milestones. Developing a customized and comprehensive home build checklist will help streamline the process and avoid or mitigate any potential setbacks along the way.
What to include in a checklist for building a new home.
It can be helpful to break your checklist into phases or stages usually involved in planning and building a new home, and then the specific details and tasks within each. Keep in mind that specific requirements will vary based on local regulations and the nature of your new home and location. Always consult with local authorities and export professionals to ensure compliance with all building requirements.
A general guide on what to include in a new build checklist, grouped under the different phases for building a new home is —
Planning and pre-construction phase.
The planning and pre-construction phase of building a home may include —
- Building site selection.
Whether you’re purchasing land to build on, or already own it, check off the requirements for —- Land titles and ownership
- Zoning regulations
- Building restrictions and covenants
- Soil conditions and topography
- House planning and design.
Consider the processes for —- Engaging an architect or designer
- Reviewing and purchasing pre-designed house plans
- Obtaining any planning permits and approvals before the building work can start.
- Professional services.
Building a new home usually requires engaging the services of many different types of professionals. These may include —- Architects
- Conveyancers or solicitors
- Surveyors
- Valuers
- Insurance brokers
- Interior designers
- Builders
- Landscapers
When you are selecting professionals to work with, it can be useful to include tasks in your checklist to verify references and testimonials, any contractual terms and conditions, and fees/quotes for services.
- Budget.
Determine your overall budget. Get quotes where you can, and include things like —- Land purchase
- Site preparation
- Fees for professional services
- Compliance costs
- Building quotes and costs
- Contingency plans for the unexpected
- And don’t forget your moving costs when you finish the project!
Break down the costs for each phase. Monitoring and managing your budget will be something you do at every phase throughout your building process.
- Finance.
Ensure you have secured any finance needed before construction begins. In seeking a construction loan for home building, consider whether you’ll be utilizing —- Loans and mortgages offered through banks
- Mortgage brokers to negotiate rates for you
- Other sources of finance.
Construction phase.
During the construction phase of building your new home may involve —
- Clarification of roles and responsibilities.
Clarify the roles and responsibilities of each contractor, subcontractor, and people involved in the construction process before work begins. This will help to ensure that everyone understands what they are expected to do and avoid any duplication or important tasks being missed.
It also helps to agree on communication methods, including when you expect to be contacted, and by whom, if there are any issues arise during the building phase.
- Reviewing design specifications.
Review design specifications with contractors and professionals before work commences to ensure everyone involved understands the requirements. This may include —- House plans
- Site preparation
- Utilities needed pre and post construction
- Foundations and framing
- Engineering specifications
- Building materials
- Establishing a construction timeline.
Establish a timeline with details of each construction phase. Work with your contractors to plan —- Start and completion dates
- Estimated duration of individual tasks
- Dependencies (for example, framing before electrical work)
- Contingency plans (for example, adverse weather)
- Time needed to obtain local authority signoffs.
- Any other relevant tasks and events.
- Monitoring your budget and payment schedule.
Monitor your budget and payment schedule throughout every phase. During the construction phase, you may have to account for –- interim payments
- agreed milestones
- increased costs
- cost-savings.
- Managing health and safety and site security.
Building sites do come with a lot of risks that need to be managed. Things to check are —- Your contractor’s health and safety policies
- Site security
- Safety protocols for visitors to the site, including your progress checks.
- Arranging for final inspections.
Include reminders to schedule the inspections needed to ensure your new home meets compliance standards for —- Plumbing and gas reticulation
- Electrical work
- Local authority regulations
Post-construction phase.
You’re almost there! Some of the last things to do when building a new home include —
- Conducting a final walk-through and inspection.
Conduct a final walkthrough and inspection to identify any potential issues. Include things like —- A date for a final walk-through
- Tasks or issues that need to be resolved and by whom
- A date to re-check completion and ensure compliance.
- Completing outdoor work and landscaping.
Outdoor tasks that may be necessary after your home is built include —- Removal of any unused building materials or debris
- Completion of outdoor landscaping
- Installation of fencing
- Ensuring you have all documentation.
Make sure you have possession of all relevant documentation. This might include —- Warranties and manuals for appliances and systems
- Permits and compliance certificates
- Invoices and proof of payments.
- Moving in.
Remember to ensure all utilities are connected and in your name, move in, and celebrate!
The advantages of a PDF home building checklist.
Creating a home construction checklist as a PDF file will help you with —
- Reviewing and editing your building checklist from anywhere at any time.
Whether you’re on-site, at the bank, meeting with the architect, or choosing paint, being able to easily access your home building checklist is a must.
As the acronym says, Portable Document Files, are portable. We designed them to be. You can access your PDF file with Adobe Acrobat applications on your mobile phone, laptop, or tablet while you’re out and about. You’ve also got the services in Adobe Acrobat online available from anywhere so long as you’ve got an internet connection.
- Communicating and sharing information with stakeholders.
You find yourself communicating and needing to share information with a lot of different people when you’re building a new home — banks, building contractors, professional services, permit issuers, local authorities, and so on.
Anyone with a free Adobe Acrobat Reader on their mobile or laptop will be able to review your checklist on-site or in their office.
- Planning and tracking.
A well-thought-out home build checklist will help you ensure that all those tasks you need to do have been identified and completed on time. Creating an interactive checklist will help you stay organized and on track through your home-build project.
PDF files can be as interactive as you’d like them to be. When you edit a PDF Include checkboxes, links to websites, calculations, comments and annotations, and even drop in videos of progress as the walls to your new home go up. You can also easily convert different file formats to PDF.
Not only are PDF files easy to make interactive and share from within an Adobe Acrobat application, but it’s simple to extract PDF pages, split PDF files, rearrange PDF pages, get signatures on PDFs, and much more.
- Keeping your plans and project tasks safe and secure.
PDFs can be stored on your own devices or stored safely and securely in cloud storage to access from anywhere. You’ve got a range of security features to choose from to protect your PDF files even further, including password protection to prevent unauthorized access and changes.
Related content.
Some of our other articles on using PDFs at home to explore include —
- How to Use PDFs for Home Contents Insurance Checklists
- Family Budgets and Financial Plans are Made Easy With PDFs
- How to Create PDF House-buying Checklists
- How to Create a PDF Property Maintenance Checklist
