In this snack-size episode, we talk about quality of workmanship in residential construction and why it’s such a common source of stress for homeowners. We frame the conversation around punch lists, expectations, and the reality of how construction actually unfolds on site. We explain that workmanship doesn’t suddenly appear at the end of a project—it’s the result of decisions and care taken from the very beginning, starting with framing, sequencing, and the quality of subcontractors involved.
We spend time defining what a punch list is and why it matters. We describe it as the final walkthrough where finish details are checked, documented, and corrected before a project is truly complete. While punch lists tend to focus on visible issues like scratches, alignment, and functionality, we emphasize that these finish concerns are often rooted in work done months earlier. Good finish work can only be as good as the work underneath it.
We also talk about how homeowners can evaluate workmanship before hiring a builder. One of the clearest indicators is the job site itself. A clean, organized, and protected site signals a quality mindset, while careless treatment of finished surfaces often points to deeper problems. Protection, planning, and respect for the work go a long way.
Another major theme is mistakes—how they differ from poor workmanship, and how they should be handled. We explain that mistakes happen on every project, but the response to those mistakes is what matters. Architects play an important role as advocates and interpreters, helping homeowners understand what’s acceptable, what’s correctable, and what falls within industry standards rather than personal preference.
We also address unrealistic expectations. Perfection isn’t possible in construction, and not every minor imperfection warrants correction. Having a professional involved helps homeowners decide when something truly affects performance versus when it’s simply within the normal tolerance of building. We reinforce that contractors are responsible for building according to the drawings, but catching issues earlier makes solutions easier and less contentious.
Finally, we talk about alignment—between budget, builder, personality, and expectations. Hiring solely on price often leads to disappointment when workmanship doesn’t meet higher standards. Quality craftsmanship is as much about values and pride as it is about cost. When owners, architects, and contractors approach projects as collaborators rather than adversaries, the entire experience improves, and the final result reflects that shared investment.
(00:00) Introduction to Workmanship
(00:25) What a Punch List Is and Why It Matters
(03:12) How Early Work Affects Final Quality
(05:52) Job Site Cleanliness as a Quality Indicator
(07:02) Mistakes vs. Poor Workmanship
(09:06) Managing Expectations and Perfection
(10:37) Catching Issues at the Right Time
(12:54) The Role of Architects During Construction
(14:27) Builders Who Care About Craft
(17:49) Who Pays for Mistakes?
(18:55) Price vs. Craftsmanship
(20:06) Final Thoughts on Alignment and Expectations
Second Story Snack – Workmanship
Speakers: Taylor Davis, Sheri Scott, & Marilyn Moedinger
Voiceover (00:02):
Everyone says how horrible it'll be to renovate or build your house. We're here to say, it doesn't have to be that way. Join three seasoned architects as they interview homeowners who recently completed a large project and ask them one simple question: what do you know now that you wish you knew before you started?
Welcome to Home: The Second Story Podcast.
Taylor Davis (00:25):
Hi, and welcome to a snack size episode of Home: The Second Story. I'm Taylor Davis from TPD Architecture and Design in Birmingham, Alabama, and I am here with my co-hosts.
Sheri Scott (00:36):
I'm Sheri Scott with Springhouse Architects in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Marilyn Moedinger (00:40):
And I'm Marilyn Moedinger with Runcible Studios based in Boston, Massachusetts, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Taylor Davis (00:46):
So, today, we're going to talk about quality of workmanship in our little coffee klatch here (chuckles) because it's early in the morning.
Sheri Scott (01:00):
(Laughs) Very southern.
Taylor Davis (01:01):
I did like four punch lists this week, so quality of workmanship is also kind of high on my mind. And sort of aligning expectations I think of homeowners to what contractors do and making sure that all of the pieces line up and do what they're supposed to do.
A punch list is where quality of workmanship all kind of comes to fruition, and it's clearly happening all throughout the project, but the owners don't really a lot of times sort of sense it until punch list.
Sheri Scott (01:29):
Taylor, why don't you describe what a punch list is?
Taylor Davis (01:32):
Punch list is an architecture term, contractor term, and what it means is that we go through at the end of a project really before the subs are sort of “released,” with some standard things that we check along with the homeowner.
So, we go through, say it's like kitchens and bathrooms, make sure all the cabinets are working properly, that the drawers open and close, they don't bang up next to each other, that there's no paint chips on things. There's no funky stuff on the floor where it's been scratched, that the hot and cold water works, the disposal works, there's caulking in the right places. All those sorts of things we kind of go through at the bitter end.
And most of that is finish work. And so, we make a list at the end of the things that the contractor is going to correct, and we walk around with orange tape (it's our signature color), and leave it on all of the sort of spots, and we take pictures of it and make a spreadsheet, and we submit that report to the contractor. And the contractor goes through and works through those items on the list.
We have another walkthrough at the end most of the time to just confirm that those things have been done, and that particularly in a commercial setting will trigger the end of the project sign off is when that punch list has been completed.
For residential, it can get a little fuzzy, especially for us around here about who does punch list when, and when it happens and if it happens, and all that sort of stuff. But generally, you want somebody at the end of the project to walk through with you and check on all those little dings and scratches, and all that sort of stuff to make sure those things get addressed before your painters are gone to another project.
Marilyn Moedinger (03:12):
We have a patented spreadsheet that we use for punch list. Patented because well, I just said that — we invented the spreadsheet.
Sheri Scott (03:20):
(Laughs) I was like really, it’s patented?
Taylor Davis (03:21):
I was like can I pay for that spreadsheet?
[Laughter]
Marilyn Moedinger (03:23):
Patented by Runcible … that we organize all that stuff, and it ends up being incredibly important at the end of a project. But I also want to talk about (and I'll put on my former GC builder estimator hat for a moment), that having a nice-looking project and having a quality project starts at the beginning.
So, if things don't line up, let's say at the very end, you notice that there's a trim piece that doesn't line up properly, that's because the framers six months ago didn't plumb up a wall properly or whatever. So, going along the finish work, the quality of the finish work is only as good as the work that's done along the way. So, that's why it's important to have good subs all the way up.
I mean, a really good trim carpenter can hide a lot of sins, and especially we work on a lot of older homes, 200 and 300-year-old homes where there is nothing that's straight in that house or plum or level or square, and that's just life in an old home, and that's different than poor quality.
So, I think that kind of thing is really important. And one of the ways that you can tell — and I encourage when people are selecting a builder to go see a job site that's under construction with a builder, not in the finished stages where everything's pretty, although that's important too.
But you can go and see is this builder thinking with a quality mindset? Are they thinking ahead? Because the number one thing, the way you can tell is if the job site's clean, if things are protected. So, if you have a bunch of crap all over the job site, if you're using (and this is the classic) the finished countertops as a work surface-
Sheri Scott (05:11):
That's right. Putting all your tools on the granite.
Marilyn Moedinger (05:14):
All the tools or there's one little flimsy piece of ram board that's casually thrown onto a piece of finished cabinetry, and then there's, in Boston, it's a thousand Dunks cups that are half halfway consumed and spilling everywhere.
Sheri Scott (05:30):
Alright, a Dunks cup? What's that?
Marilyn Moedinger (05:32):
Come on, Dunkin Donuts. Come on (laughs).
Sheri Scott (05:35):
Oh, okay.
Marilyn Moedinger (05:37):
So, I think that's an important way to be able to tell whether a builder is going to be doing a quality project because that is setting up a quality mindset. I'm going to do things right, I'm going to protect the existing if it's a renovation. And that's a huge deal.
Sheri Scott (05:52):
We see the same thing, whether it's a clean job site, it does seem to translate to finishes and how they finish up a project. One of our builders that we like working with a lot, they put up laminated signs everywhere, “Take your shoes off, don't use this door. Only drinks with screw top lids are allowed on the job site,” those kinds of things. And it makes a difference.
Marilyn Moedinger (06:19):
It does. It really does.
Well, and that goes to another area of quality and workmanship, which is mistakes. So, mistakes happen. There's the mistake of all the Dunks cups getting spilled everywhere because they weren't screw top lids. So, that's obviously a preventable mistake.
But maybe we talk for a second about mistakes that happen that are related to if it's a quality issue or a workmanship issue, to what extent? Because mistakes are different than just lack of workmanship. So, if we go on the job site and we see, wow, this trim job, it's just not good quality, what do we do? What does an owner do? If we are there, we go to bat for the owner.
Taylor Davis (07:02):
I was going to say it depends on who else is there.
Marilyn Moedinger (07:05):
Exactly. I have no qualms about having the conversation with the builder at all. None. That's my job. That's what I do. If there's no architect on the site or on the project, then it's the owner who has to discuss it with the contractor and say, “This isn't quite up to the level of quality that I expect and that I'm paying for.”
If you're not ready to have those conversations probably once a week, then you probably need someone to help you through construction (laughs).
Taylor Davis (07:34):
Yeah. And I think too, having somebody help you through construction to sort of monitor what mistakes and quality really looks like, because there can be very unrealistic expectations about what a contractor is actually able to do.
Marilyn Moedinger (07:48):
A hundred percent.
Taylor Davis (07:49):
I have been on a walkthrough with a client (God bless her) who had measured the fact that a deadbolt on a back door was an eighth of an inch off of center and she wanted it to be corrected. Well, I'm sorry, that's not going to happen, and we would have to redo the whole door for that.
And if the lock set works correctly and it's able to be bolted and nobody else is going in there with a tape measure, that may not be a place where the contractor is obligated to fix it. If the door doesn't close and it doesn't work and the lock set isn't working properly, that's a different correctable — offence is the wrong word, but a different correctable challenge/issue.
So, I think that having somebody with you to help you understand what the level of expectations should be, and that's based on the contractor and the build and the materials and all of those things that go along with it. But I think that's important, having that third party can help you gauge, “Oh my God, this isn't a hundred percent right. Should I go freak out over this?”
Marilyn Moedinger (09:02):
Should I freak out, yeah.
Taylor Davis (09:04):
So, I think that's helpful.
Marilyn Moedinger (09:06):
And the flip side is also true. So, really good builders like having the architect around because the architect can run interference, and instead of the owner out there with their micrometer measuring the deadbolt is an eighth of an inch, then we can take that heat off the builder and we can explain to the owner, “Hey, yes, this looks messy or confusing right now, but that's because they hold the drywall off a little bit so they can shim the door, and it looks crazy to an unpracticed eye, but it's fine. They're going to cover that with trim and it's going to look gorgeous.”
And the reason it's like that is because they have to pull them up the door or whatever, and you need shim space. So, that's why it isn't perfectly aligned with the drywall there. It's good in both directions. We are interpreters of what counts as good workmanship.
I also want to say too that workmanship is actually defined often legally, or at least there's case law for it and precedent. So, for example, what counts as a properly installed wood floor? Well, the National Flooring Association, whatever, the Hardwood Flooring Association has a standard. And so, you can say, “Look, this project needs to meet these standards according to the manufacturer, according to the trade association of Flooring or tile or whatever.”
And if it doesn't meet those, then it's not just a matter of opinion, it's actually a matter of performance. And that helps too. So, it's not just, “He said, she said.” It's like, “Hey, there's a performance spec here. We expect this level of performance and installation.”
Sheri Scott (10:37):
I want to jump back, Marilyn, to what you were saying, that it starts at the beginning. A lot of the quality issues start from the beginning, and also when you catch the quality issues makes a difference, the timing of it.
So, one of the things we can tell during framing, so if you catch a door off center at the end of a hallway, say the door is off center. If you catch that in framing, a good contractor is going to be like, yep, that's off.
Marilyn Moedinger (11:08):
And it takes five minutes to fix (chuckles).
Sheri Scott (11:10):
Exactly. We'll take out the two by fours and reframe it, not a big deal. If you do it during your finish walkthrough and the doors are hung and the trim is in and the drywall is painted, you're probably not going to get that changed. You're just not, you didn't catch it at the right stage. So, there are some timing pieces to it too.
Marilyn Moedinger (11:32):
Well, I also want to say though, that technically, they do have to change it.
Sheri Scott (11:36):
Yeah. I mean, but realistically-
Marilyn Moedinger (11:39):
I know realistically, so I think there's two things there. So, realistically, it's going to be a lot harder to get a change, it's going to be much more of a battle. But in actuality, because I think I just want to be clear that architects are not QA/QC. It is not our job to go to the job site and say, “This door is off by six inches.” If we happen to catch it, that's good. That's fine, that's a bonus.
The contractor is in charge of compliance with the drawings. We are not in that regard. They are in charge of performing according to what the drawings have said. So, even at the end, if it's off, we can say, “You must fix it.”
Practically speaking, it's a team and you want to try to catch those things earlier. And you don't leave everything to the end. And the more times we can be on site, the more likely it is that we're all talking through things and we see things.
But that's a big misconception that architects are there to check everything. And I've had contractors push back on me on that, and they say, “Well, you didn't catch this, you should have measured it.” I'm like, “You want me to measure literally everything in this house? Well, what's your job then?”
So, that's an important distinction and it's hard for owners to understand that. I get it. It's a little bit of a grey area.
Taylor Davis (12:54):
And I think that our availability on the site, if we're only there once a week, there's no way that we can see all of the things that the contractor who is there eight hours a day every day is going to see. So, you have to sort of put it in perspective of how much time do you have that architect spending there? Can you actually, with that expectation, imagine that they are going to see everything that is happening on the project? And they're not, there's no way to do that.
And especially if we're not there every week — if we're only there every three months, then the heavens know that's a very difficult thing to expect your architect to be able to do, or your designer or whomever.
Marilyn Moedinger (13:34):
And I think that's why it boils down to one of the best roles that we play during construction as designer, architect in that sort of role, is being a sounding board for the owner who says, “Hey, I saw this, I don't know. Should we accept this?” Or, “I have a question about how things are going. I am confused about why this is that way,” or “This looks ugly to me because it's off. Why is that?”
And that's one of our biggest helps to the client. How else are they going to find out what is or isn't acceptable? And saying things like, “Yeah, actually that's within the standard of care. That's within the level of expectations because perfection is not possible.” And so, because of that being that, being that voice for owners can be a voice of reassurance throughout the process.
Taylor Davis (14:27):
Construction is messy.
Marilyn Moedinger (14:29):
It is.
Taylor Davis (14:30):
It's just messy.
Marilyn Moedinger (14:32):
Good messy, hopefully.
Taylor Davis (14:33):
It's in a good way, but it's complicated and it's messy. And good contractors who have really high levels and quality of workmanship, they exist everywhere. There aren't just two in the country who perform really well. They exist everywhere.
Marilyn Moedinger (14:53):
And guys who care about what they do, and they care so much about doing a good job.
Taylor Davis (14:59):
They care so much about the end product, and they want their clients to be happy, and they enjoy getting feedback from the clients. I mean, we had our library that we've been working on just got finished and the sub that built the bookshelves brought his mom and his dad, and the kids to come and see the books. They've invested a lot of their heart and soul in this too.
So, to assume that there's an adversarial position in that relationship can be really damaging for the project as a whole. So, if you walk into a project thinking, this guy's out to screw me because you've read everywhere that contractors stink and they don't pay any attention, that's just not true.
Marilyn Moedinger (15:39):
No, it's not at all.
Taylor Davis (15:41):
And they love it. And I think that's really important to remember, is that they're invested too in making sure that you have a good experience with them because you'll refer them to other people. It'll be that reference.
I think coming in with the spirit of they want to do a good job is going to help that process for quality control and workmanship too.
Marilyn Moedinger (16:04):
I wanted to add to that, knowing yourself is important too. So, I have some clients who are, as long as it's built in a quality way, they're not going to be out there. But for the most part, most of my clients are working with me because they have that eagle eye and things have to be on point.
So, whether it's the tile layout or it's the cabinetry and the trim and whatever, my clients are typically the clients who are going to be more obsessive about a very high level of quality and expect that level of performance.
And when I go out to a job site, like I did, I don’t know, last November, we just wrapped up a project, so a few months ago from when we're recording this, and I go in and there's a big, long shelf that's been installed just per drawings, look great. And I notice the trim carpenter's six-foot level was sitting on top of the shelf, and it's a great spot to keep the level because it’s up out of the way, you don't want to kick it around.
And I said to him, I was like, “Yeah, that's a great spot to store the level.” And he says, “Well, you don't put a level on something that you don't want someone to see. That is perfectly leveled.”
[Laughter]
Sheri Scott (17:12):
That bubble was right in the middle.
Marilyn Moedinger (17:12):
Exactly. And so, I looked up at it, and it was dead on, and he's over there like, “Yeah, you saw that?”
[Laughter]
And that's the kind of workmanship and joy in the product that you want. And when you're selecting people to work with, I think it's really important to find out who has that drive. Because they're going to charge you the same as the guy who's trying to get in and out, maybe a little bit more here or there.
But in my experience, that's less about the dollars that someone's charging you and more about just who they are and what they believe about doing their work.
Sheri Scott (17:49):
So, that's all wonderful, but who pays for it when there is a mistake?
Marilyn Moedinger (17:54):
Well, it depends on what the mistake is. But generally, so yeah, I feel like that's like … I don’t know if we have time-
Sheri Scott (18:05):
That’s a whole another episode. But that's the point, it does depend. There are a lot of instances, there are just so many different instances, and it's not cut and dry a lot of times. Sometimes it is defined in the contract, sometimes it's defined by law who pays for it, and professional services.
So, I guess for the purposes of today, keep that in mind, that that's a whole other conversation of who pays for things when there are mistakes.
Marilyn Moedinger (18:44):
Well, and to bring it back around to workmanship, which I think is a little bit different than mistakes, I would say if you are hiring the bargain basement, “run and gun” guy working out of his old pickup-
Taylor Davis (18:55):
Because you've hired him on price alone-
Marilyn Moedinger (18:57):
And you've hired him on price alone, you may not be able to expect that the same level of craftsmanship and workmanship that you're going to get from somebody else and who's working at a different level. You can't have the same expectation from every kind of person.
So, if that person doesn't do that level of work, you can't expect that level of work from them. And I think that misalignment of expectation, some of the people in my experience who've been super, super price conscious are also the most picky. And you're like, you can't be both (chuckles).
Taylor Davis (19:32):
It doesn't work.
Marilyn Moedinger (19:33):
It doesn't work that way. You can't go for the absolute cheapest, cheapest, cheapest guy and expect that they're going to function at the level of a highly experienced trim carpenter. You just can't. So, who pays for that? You have to. The owner has to pay.
[Laughter]
Sheri Scott (19:49):
Right, it starts in the beginning,
Marilyn Moedinger (19:52):
Right, and you can't hire the guy and say, “Well, I paid you to do this.” And you're like, well, yeah, we all understand we're not getting that level of service from that kind of sub. And I think that expectation's important to maintain.
Taylor Davis (20:06):
It 100% is. To wrap it up, I would say that I think quality of workmanship and personality are all sort of part of that mix that you walk into construction armed with correct expectations. So, you've had good conversations so you know what to expect. Knowing as Marilyn said, what your personality is; are you OCD or are you rather laissez-faire about how the thing is going to go?
All of those things like we've talked about, will really impact your perception of quality of workmanship as well, and how you approach whether there are things that need to be corrected or things that you're like, “We're good. As long as the door works, we're fine.” Anything else we want to add to the conversation?
Marilyn Moedinger (20:53):
I think that covers it.
Taylor Davis (20:55):
And contractors, we love you. If you're out there listening, we really do.
Marilyn Moedinger (20:58):
Absolutely. Absolutely, we do.
Taylor Davis (21:01):
Alright, so thanks for joining us on Home: The Second Story today for our little quick snack on workmanship. If you've got questions for us or topics that you'd like us to cover, or if you would like to be a guest, we'd love to have you on the show. Please email us at admin@htsspodcast.com, and we will see you next time.
Voiceover (21:22):
Thanks for listening to Home: The Second Story Podcast. Feel free to share this episode with a friend. Contact information for all three of our architects are in our show notes, and don't miss future episodes.
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