A checklist for home inspection does two jobs at once, and the second is the one that gets forgotten. The first is to make sure nothing the standard requires is skipped: the list is walked, each item is inspected or operated, and what was found goes down beside it. The second is to feed the report's summary, because the report has to state how many items were inspected, which were deficient, which were safety items and which systems were present but not inspected. A home inspection check list that is only ticks cannot produce those counts; one that records each finding as a deficiency, a safety item or a note, against its system, produces them by arithmetic. This page is about the second job.
Three marks per item, not one
Beside every item on the inspection home checklist there are three things to record: whether it was inspected, operated or tested; whether a finding was made; and what kind of finding it was. Deficient, meaning not functioning properly or significantly deficient; safety, meaning a hazard to occupants; or a note, meaning something worth stating that is neither. The standards use those categories in describing what the report must contain, and a checklist that records them at the house makes the report's summary a count rather than a judgement made later.
The not-inspected line
The item the standards are most explicit about is the one most checklists lack: a system or component present at the house but not inspected, and the reason why. Snow on the roof, a locked mechanical room, a crawl space with standing water, a panel cover that would not come off safely. Every section of the checklist for home inspection on this site carries that line, and the summary counts the sections where it was used. It is the line that protects the inspector when the buyer asks, eight months on, why the report says nothing about the attic.
Photos against items, not in a roll
A finding without its photo is an argument; a photo without its finding is a puzzle at eleven at night. The checklist is where the two meet: the photo is taken against the item it evidences, in the section the item belongs to. On paper that means numbering; on a phone it means the photo attaches to the finding as it is entered, which is what Intakez does, so the report template pulls each photo into the section and the finding it belongs to.
What the counts become
Items inspected, deficiencies, safety items, sections not inspected: those four figures open the sample home inspection report on this site, and they are the four the client reads. A checklist that records three marks per item produces them at the house. The report template guide sets out the sections the findings then fill, and the printable checklist gives you the paper version of the same list.
Questions people ask about checklist for home inspection
Is a checklist for home inspection the same as the report?
No. The checklist is the intake, the record of what was inspected and found at the house; the report is the document the client receives, with the summary counts, the narrative for each finding and the photos. The checklist feeds the report; it is not a substitute for it.
Why record the kind of finding on the check list?
Because the report's summary has to distinguish a deficiency from a safety item and both from a note, and deciding that later from a photo is where mistakes happen. Recording it at the item means the summary is a count.
Can the checklist be shared with the client?
The report is what the client should receive; the checklist is the inspector's working record and belongs in the file. Intakez keeps both against the inspection, so the checklist is there if a finding is questioned later.
What counts as a safety item rather than a deficiency?
A condition that is a hazard to the occupants rather than a defect in the component: a missing GFCI where water and power meet, a double-tapped breaker, a missing handrail on more than a few steps, a gas leak, a flue that is not drawing. The standards treat unsafe conditions as their own class and the summary lists them first. When the choice is arguable, the safer classification is the right one to record.