Two things live in this hub. The first is the checklist: what gets looked at, system by system — roof, structure, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and the specialist walks that sit alongside them. The second is the inspector's own machinery behind those checklists, the template and the comment library, which for most experienced inspectors is the single most valuable thing they own.
That machinery is years of wording refined by every awkward phone call it prevented, and it is almost never written down as an asset. This hub treats it as one: how a template is built, how a comment library stays consistent as it grows past a thousand entries, and why the wording of a recommendation carries more risk than the wording of an observation.
It also covers the uncomfortable part. A template is what makes changing software hard, and a library you cannot export is a library you do not really own.
How the subject breaks down
Checklists, system by system
What is looked at and in what order — the ordinary systems and the specialist walks that come with their own forms.
What a template is for
Coverage and consistency: making sure the same house gets the same inspection on a bad day as on a good one.
The comment library
Reusable language, and the editing discipline that keeps a thousand comments sounding like one inspector.
Ownership and portability
Where your library actually lives, what format it can leave in, and what that means the day you switch.
What to take away
- Consistency is what a template buys you; thoroughness is still yours to supply.
- A comment library grows faster than it gets edited — schedule the editing.
- Recommendation wording carries more risk than observation wording.
- If you cannot export it, you do not own it.
Nothing is published on this topic yet
Answers appear here only once they have been researched, sourced against material we can cite, reviewed, and passed the checks we use before a page is allowed into a search index. Being written is not the same as being published, so this list stays empty until one clears that bar.
The overview above stands on its own — it is what we think is true about this subject, not a placeholder. Where to go next is below.
Common questions
What does this hub cover?
Inspection checklists by system and by specialty, and the templates and comment libraries behind them — building them, maintaining them, and moving them.
Can a checklist stand in for a standard of practice?
No. A checklist is how you make sure you meet the standard you inspect under; it does not define that standard. Check the current text of your own standard before relying on any checklist's coverage, including ours.