What Do You Do After a Failed Building Inspection?

A building inspector checks the work against the code and the permitted plans. The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering's procedure for Building and Safety inspections is clear about the scope: the building inspector "does not inspect for compliance with the plans and specifications" of the contract, but for compliance with the code for the permitted work. When work fails, the inspector issues a correction notice listing what must change.

Results come in three kinds. A pass lets the work proceed. A partial pass lets some of it proceed and lists corrections for the rest. A failure holds the work at that point. Either of the last two leaves a correction list that has to be cleared before the next step: closing the wall, pouring the slab, or the final sign-off.

The owner's own inspectors work the same way. On Los Angeles public works, a Notice of Non-Compliance tells the contractor the work "has not been acceptably completed and payment may not be made for this Work until corrections, acceptable to the Inspector, have been made" (procedure 17.6). On federal jobs, FAR 52.246-12 has the contractor "without charge, replace or correct work found by the Government not to conform to contract requirements".

1. Get the correction notice in writing before the inspector leaves, and walk each item with them if you can. Ask what will satisfy each one.
2. Stop any work that would cover a failed item: insulation over a failed rough-in, a pour over failed rebar.
3. Split the notice by trade. Each item goes to the sub whose work it is, in writing, with a date before the reinspection you plan to book.
4. Sort out design items the same day. Los Angeles has the contractor notify the construction manager if it believes corrections "are due to design flaws rather than deficiencies in the installation, material or construction". Send an RFI to the architect, since a design fix may change the work.
5. Check each fix yourself and photograph it, item by item, before calling the inspector back.
6. Book the reinspection with the notice and the corrections ready to show.
7. Update the schedule and tell the owner if the failure moves a milestone. It belongs in the weekly owner update.

On a made-up job, the city fails the level 2 framing inspection with four corrections. The superintendent turns the notice into an assignment list the same afternoon.

Item 4 is why the superintendent reads every item instead of passing the notice straight to the framer. If the plans themselves are wrong, the fix is the architect's to give, and any added cost is a change.

Many building departments charge for reinspections caused by the builder. The City of San Ramon, California, charges a reinspection fee for "failing your inspection for the same correction item(s) at two or more separate inspections", for not showing up, and for not being ready. On federal work, FAR 52.246-12 lets the government charge the contractor any additional cost of inspection "when prior rejection makes reinspection or retest necessary".

Keep the item open until it is really closed. Connecticut's construction administration manual has its construction administrator follow up "to be certain the issue isn't simply reported on and the need for resolution overlooked", and work reported as deficient stays open until the corrective work is done or an approved alternate is issued.

• Forwarding the whole notice to one sub. Split it, so each trade owns its items.
• Calling for reinspection to "see if it's good enough now". Every failed visit costs a day and often a fee.
• Covering work before it passes. Uncovering is slower than waiting.
• Not logging it. The failure, the corrections and the new date belong in the daily log; they explain a slip later.
• Treating a design problem as an installation problem, and paying a sub to rebuild what the plans got wrong.

In Conflo's inspections tool, you schedule a city, third-party or internal QC inspection from a checklist template (framing, rough-ins, pre-pour, fire sprinkler and alarm, final building) or a blank one, and mark each item pass, fail or N/A with a note. Conflo suggests passed, partial or failed from the items, and the inspector's call can override it; the record keeps both.

When the inspection is recorded, each failed item becomes a follow-up for the person the superintendent picks to fix it (the checklist shows each item's trade as a guide), and anyone at that person's company can mark it resolved. You then book a re-inspection containing only the failed items, linked to the original both ways.

A failed inspection is a correction list, not a verdict. Split it by trade, hold any work that would cover a failed item, send design questions to the architect the same day, check every fix yourself, and only then book the reinspection.

If correction notices get lost between the superintendent and the subs, let each failed item become a follow-up for the trade that owns it.

See how inspections work in Conflo

1. Project Delivery Manual, 17.11 Inspection by the Department of Building and Safety — City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering. Read October 22, 2026.
2. Project Delivery Manual, 17.6 Notices of Non-Compliance and Work Stoppage — City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering. Read October 22, 2026.
3. FAR 52.246-12, Inspection of Construction — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 22, 2026.
4. Reinspection Fee — City of San Ramon, California, Building and Safety Services. Read October 22, 2026.
5. 0600 Construction Administration Procedures Manual, §2.4 (inspection of the work) — State of Connecticut Department of Administrative Services. Read October 22, 2026.