Field · Inspections

Rough, final, and everything behind the drywall.

An inspection is two things at once: a form somebody signs, and a date that four other trades are standing on. BLT holds both. Schedule it against a phase, walk it off a checklist BLT already drafted, close each item with a photograph of the fix, and keep the whole thing where an inspector or an attorney can read it two years from now.

Start for free How Vision AI feeds it

The sequence

Five steps, and the last one outlives the job.

Step 01

Schedule

Book the inspection against a phase, not a calendar square. Framing rough on Maple Ridge #1, Tuesday 9 a.m. The phase knows the date and so does everyone working in it.

Step 02

Draft

BLT writes the pre-inspection checklist from what Vision AI already flagged in that phase, plus the items that failed on your last three inspections of the same type.

Step 03

Walk

One thumb, one screen, in the building. Tick what’s ready, shoot what isn’t. Anything left open becomes a punch item with an owner and a due date.

Step 04

Close

Each punch item closes on a photograph of the fix. The corrected condition sits next to the original frame with both timestamps visible.

Step 05

Sign

Result, inspector name, date, and every photo lock together into one record. Pass or fail, it’s in the archive the same afternoon.

Step 05 feeds step 02. What failed on the last three inspections of this type shows up at the top of the next checklist — because on most jobs it’s the same six items every time.

Before the inspector arrives

The checklist writes itself from what BLT already saw.

Vision AI has been reading this phase’s photos for three weeks. It already knows the dormer underlayment was never finished and that a set of conductors was hanging loose on the second floor. Those aren’t a surprise on Tuesday morning — they’re line one and line two of the walk.

Framing rough · Maple Ridge #1 · Tue 9:00 a.m.

Drafted by BLT7 items · 2 from open flags

Loose conductors terminated, second floor bay 4Open flag

Dormer underlayment complete, both cheeksOpen flag

Hangers and straps present at every beam pocketFailed last time

Fire blocking at all chases and soffitsFailed last time

Notching and boring within limits at plumbing wallStandard

Anchor bolts and washers, full perimeterStandard

Deck swept, no material stored on the roof surfaceStandard

Two items pulled from open Vision flags. Two pulled from your last three framing roughs.

The walk you were going to do anyway, with the list already made.

A superintendent building this list by hand on Monday night is working from memory of three weeks he mostly spent somewhere else. BLT is working from 340 photographs with hours and locations on them.

Every open flag in the phase, at the top
Items that failed the last three inspections of this type
Your own standard items for the phase, kept and reused
Anything the phase closed with no photo record at all

When it fails

A failed inspection isn’t a form. It’s a date.

Most software files the fail and moves on. The problem is that four trades already have that Tuesday in their phones, and one of them is driving in from ninety minutes away.

Mark a rough inspection failed in BLT and the phase moves. Insulation, drywall, and the taping crew shift with it in the planner, the reinspection gets a date, and the subcontractors whose scope sits downstream see the new one instead of finding out from a locked gate.

The change is logged the way every change in BLT is logged: who, when, and why. “Framing rough failed — fire blocking at two chases, reinspect Thursday.” That sentence is the reason attached to a four-day slip, and it’s still there when someone asks in October why the job ran a week long.

Schedule & planner

Phases that move when framing rough fails

ReinspectThu +2 Insulation+4 days Drywall hang+4 days Tape & finish+4 days Paint+4 days Trim+4 days

Every downstream sub sees the new date the same hour, and the reason travels with it.

The archive

What went behind the drywall, on the record.

The most valuable photograph on a build is the one of a wall you can no longer see. Two years later it’s the only proof of how it was built.

What does the record actually contain?

Each inspection keeps the type, the phase, the scheduled and actual date, the result, the inspector’s name, every checklist item with its state, every punch item with an owner and a close date, and every photograph attached to any of it — original condition and corrected condition, each with its own hour and GPS location. Plus the full photo set the phase produced while the work was open, whether or not anything was flagged.

Can I hand it to an inspector?

Yes. Pull the phase record and it reads as a dated sequence: here is the framing on the 8th, here is the fire blocking on the 11th, here is the reinspection that passed on the 13th. Inspectors who have seen it tend to ask fewer questions on the next one, because the answer to “show me” takes ten seconds instead of a trip back to the office.

What about a claim two years out?

A warranty call or a defect claim is an argument about what was there before the finish went on. Photographs with hours, locations, and a written reason attached are a different kind of evidence than a recollection. The archive exports as a media bundle with a CSV index, so your attorney gets files, not screenshots.

Does BLT decide whether an inspection passes?

No. BLT drafts the checklist, holds the photographs, and moves the schedule when you mark a result. The inspector inspects, and you record what happened. BLT AI never signs anything and never sets a result on its own.

Do subs and clients see it?

Subcontractors see the inspections that touch their scope and the punch items assigned to them. Clients see pass or fail and the dates through the client portal, without the internal punch list. You control both.