How Does a Sub Close Out Punch List Items?

The punch list is the list of work still to complete or correct at substantial completion. On AIA-based jobs, the contractor prepares that list, the architect checks and adds to it, and the certificate records the time agreed to finish it (AIA's G704 summary). Your subcontract usually gives you less time than the GC has, because the GC needs a margin before the owner's deadline.

Punch items are also money. On federal fixed-price work, final payment comes only after "completion and acceptance of all work" (FAR 52.232-5), and many private subcontracts tie the release of your retainage to the GC's final payment or to your own completion. Each open item is a reason for someone upstream to hold your money. For the GC's side of building the list, see how to build a punch list; for where punch sits in the subcontractor's job, see the subcontractor's guide and the project lifecycle.

1. Get your items the day the list is issued. Ask for the issue photo and exact location of each.
2. Read every item before you schedule. If an item is another trade's damage or scope, say so in writing with a photo now, not after you have fixed it for free.
3. Sort by floor and room, then by what crew or material each needs. Order any parts that are not on the truck.
4. Fix them in as few trips as you can, and walk the area with your foreman before you leave.
5. Photograph each fix from the same angle as the issue photo, and write one line on what you did.
6. Mark each item ready for review so the GC can verify it on its next walk.
7. For anything sent back, read the note, fix the cause and resubmit with a new photo.

Correction at your own cost is the normal rule. The federal inspection clause, a common model, has the contractor "without charge, replace or correct work found by the Government not to conform to contract requirements" (FAR 52.246-12). Damage caused by others is different, which is why the dispute in step 2 belongs at the start.

The sub is fictional: "Cedar Line Interiors", drywall and paint on a three-story office. The GC issues the punch list on Monday with 14 items for Cedar Line, due in 10 days.

The count: 14 items, 1 reassigned, 13 fixed, 11 closed on the first walk and 2 on the second. Two crew-days and one return trip, and the items closed two days before the due date. The return trip is the one to learn from: touch-up on a wall with a different sheen rarely passes, so Cedar Line now repaints to the nearest corner.

On a GC's project in Conflo, a subcontractor sees only the punch list items assigned to its own company, with the GC's issue photos, the location, the priority and the due date; items past due show as overdue. You can mark an item started, and mark it fixed with a photo of the fix (or a note if you cannot take one), which sends it to the GC for review.

The GC verifies and closes it, or sends it back with a note saying what is still wrong, and the item returns to open; the item keeps a count of how many times it was sent back. Comments on the item stay with it. Conflo is free for subcontractors and suppliers.

Close punch items by getting your list early, disputing what is not yours before you work, fixing by area in as few trips as possible and proving each fix with a photo.

An item is closed when the GC verifies it, not when your crew leaves, so follow each one to closed and keep your retainage moving.

Join the waitlist

1. Summary: G704–2017, Certificate of Substantial Completion — AIA Contract Documents (The American Institute of Architects). Read October 22, 2026.
2. FAR 52.246-12, Inspection of Construction — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 22, 2026.
3. FAR 52.232-5, Payments under Fixed-Price Construction Contracts — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 22, 2026.