Inspection Planner
What to look at while the work is happening
Concrete work moves quickly, and 4 of the 12 stages are buried under the slab within hours. This planner tells you which ones, what you can see for yourself, what genuinely needs somebody qualified, and what to ask at each point.
Why the timing matters more than the checklist
Most homeowners photograph the finished surface. It is the least useful photograph on the project, because by then everything that decides how the concrete behaves is underneath it.
Excavation, the compacted sub-base and the reinforcement are visible for a matter of hours. Once the pour starts they are gone for the life of the slab, and no later inspection can establish what was there. The 5 photographs this planner marks as irreversible are the ones worth setting an alarm for.
What this planner will not do
- It will not tell you whether work passes. Nothing on this site can determine that, and a website that offered to would be encouraging you to rely on it instead of asking somebody qualified.
- It will not certify anything, confirm code compliance, or establish structural adequacy. Those are determinations belonging to a licensed inspector, an engineer, or your local building authority.
- It will not evaluate a photograph. ConcreteOwner has no way to receive one and does not want one — the photographs are for your records and for showing whoever is doing the work.
- It will not rate, rank or score a contractor. The questions here exist to make a working relationship easier, not to build a case.
How to use it without annoying your contractor
Ask questions before a stage rather than during it. Somebody placing concrete is working against the clock and cannot stop to explain what they are doing; the same person will usually talk you through the whole job cheerfully the day before.
Most contractors are glad of an interested homeowner and slightly wary of one holding a checklist. Asking “can you talk me through what happens tomorrow?” gets a better answer than reading questions off a page, and this planner is written to be read beforehand rather than recited.