Inspection process
Pre-installation meeting
A pre-installation meeting is held before a specified scope of work begins, bringing together the installing subcontractor, the trades whose work interfaces with it, QC, and often the manufacturer's rep. They walk the approved submittals, the substrate and condition requirements, the sequence, and who is responsible for what. Many specifications require one for critical assemblies (roofing, waterproofing, exterior wall, flooring) as a condition of starting.
Run it with the Photo Gate
Waterproofing inspection checklist
12 items · 26 photos required
Why it matters
The failures that cost the most (a roof that leaks, flooring that debonds, waterproofing that fails) usually trace to conditions or coordination settled wrong before the first material went down. The pre-installation meeting is where the substrate readiness, the manufacturer's requirements, and the interfaces between trades get agreed while they can still be changed on paper.
How it shows up on site
It looks a lot like the preparatory phase inspection, and on many jobs it is folded into it: confirm submittals are approved, confirm the material on site matches them, confirm the preceding work is acceptable to build on, and record who agreed. The meeting's outcomes then become the acceptance criteria the installed work is inspected against.
Checklists that put pre-installation meeting to work
Free, field-ready checklists, each with the photo every item needs before it can be submitted.
Related terms
- Preparatory phase inspectionThe first of the three phases of control: a before-work review of submittals, materials, and criteria for a definable feature of work.
- SubmittalThe product data, shop drawings or samples a contractor sends for review to confirm what will be installed matches the spec before it's ordered.
- Definable feature of workA discrete, separately inspectable task or segment of work with its own start, finish, and acceptance criteria within the QC plan.
- Quality control planThe project-specific document that defines how a contractor will control quality: who inspects what, to which standards, and how it's recorded.
- Meeting minutesThe dated written record of what was discussed, decided and assigned in a project meeting, distributed for correction and used as the running action log.
- Coordination drawingsCombined trade drawings that overlay all systems in a shared space to resolve conflicts before anything is installed.
Knowing the term is step one. Proving it is the job.
RTI holds the submit button until every mandatory item is answered and the photos are attached, then chains the record so it can be proven untouched later.
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