The Final Walkthrough and Punch List: What to Check Before You Take the Keys

9.29.2026

By the Mountain Cove Homes team · Miami, Florida

A new construction final walkthrough is the last hour in which a defect is somebody else’s problem by default. After it, everything moves onto a claims process with deadlines.

Most walkthrough advice is generic. This one is not, because Miami-Dade publishes two things almost no county does: what its inspectors verify at final inspection, trade by trade, and a list of what it tells buyers to check on their own.

Work from both. The inspector’s list tells you what has already been examined against code; the county’s buyer list tells you what code does not reach.

Bring help. The county’s own recommendation is to walk through and inspect the house with the developer/builder or their designee prior to signing the closing documents, and to bring along someone who is knowledgeable in the building trade as your representative, such as a licensed engineer or architect.

What the certificate on the wall does and does not mean is in what a certificate of occupancy means. This is the inspection the certificate does not replace.

Step 1: Collect the Paperwork Before You Walk

Do this first, because half of it is unavailable after closing and all of it changes what you look for.

Miami-Dade publishes a list of items to obtain prior to closing. Ask for each by name:

The approved plans are the most valuable of these and the most often skipped. Without them you cannot perform the check the county puts on its own buyer list: looking for any deviations from the originally approved plans.

Step 2: Know What the Inspector Already Verified

Nothing here needs re-checking by you. Knowing it tells you where your attention is wasted and where it is not.

At building final, code 001, the county verifies that trade finals are approved, that construction matches the plans, and a specific list including garage door against Product Approval, verify warning sign, storm panels stored, the door leading from garage to dwelling, stairs and railings per plans, emergency escape and rescue openings in sleeping rooms, safety glass type and location, door hardware, and exterior caulking of windows and doors.

At mechanical final the county checks climate-specific items that matter enormously in South Florida: that equipment sizing does not exceed 1.15 times the total calculated load and shall not be less than latent load calculated, that condensate drains are trapped per appliance, that a water level monitoring device is provided, that pipes have condensation prevention, and that ducts pressure tested to determine air leakage by a rough-in or post-construction test.

Two mechanical items are specifically about wind and about safety. The county verifies unit anchor bolt minimum pull-out at 500 pounds under a county ordinance, and verifies carbon monoxide protection.

At electrical final the county goes room by room. It verifies that countertop receptacles are provided with GFCI protection, that bathroom receptacles are GFCI protected, that receptacle outlets are installed adjacent to and within thirty-six inches of each basin, that garage receptacles are GFCI protected, and that there are at least two receptacle outlets, one each at the front and back of the dwelling.

Three more electrical items are worth knowing because they are the ones you can spot-check yourself. The inspector verifies that recessed lighting has gasket or caulk around can or airtight trim, that unused openings in boxes and other enclosures are closed, and that all equipment and branch circuits are labelled at the panel.

The first of those three is an envelope item disguised as an electrical one — an unsealed recessed can is a hole in the ceiling plane, and it will show up in the blower door number discussed below. Open the panel door and read the labels while you are there.

There is also a line on the electrical checklist that tells you what the final inspection is for: check for correction of any deficiencies noted on previous inspections. That is the sentence that makes the inspection history worth requesting.

At plumbing final the county checks the water meter installation, approved fixtures and materials, water heater size and relief valve, cleanout covers and accessibility, hose bibs have siphon breakers, and minimum fixture clearances. It also checks that the building drain cleanout has been brought to grade, and that where the cleanout sits in a driveway it has an approved fitting or a protective box with a metal cover. That cover is visible from where you are standing, which makes it one of the few plumbing items you can confirm yourself.

One gap is worth naming, because it tells you where to spend your own attention. Miami-Dade publishes inspection checklists for the building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing trades.

For roofing it publishes inspection codes — final, time of installation, tile placing, tin cap and dry-in, cap sheet — but no criteria document. Your own roof questions are therefore less redundant than the others, and the product approvals you collected in step one are the substitute.

Step 3: Verify the Two Certificates That Prove a Test Happened

These are documents rather than observations, and they are easy to leave behind.

The energy performance card is required by statute before you can occupy. Florida provides that the local building official shall require that a complete and accurate energy performance level display card be completed and certified by the builder as accurate and correct before final approval of the building for occupancy, and that the card shall be included as an addendum to each sales contract.

The county enforces it at mechanical final, verifying the display card as mandatory. Ask for your copy.

In fact the building final checklist ends with a collection step, and it names what the inspector picks up: the Certificate of termite treatment, Threshold inspector certificate, Special inspector certificate, Energy/Sound/Impact Certificate, As-built certificate.

Every one of those is a document about your house that exists somewhere. Ask which of them apply to your home and request copies while the builder still has the file open.

The blower door test result is the second. A Florida Solar Energy Center fact sheet prepared for the code development process and published on the Florida Building Commission’s site states that the maximum air leakage rate allowed in Florida, in Climate Zones 1 and 2, is no greater than 7 air changes per hour at a pressure of 0.2 inch w.g., or 50 Pascals, and that the test is conducted before the Certificate of Occupancy is issued, after all piping, wiring and other penetrations of the building thermal envelope have been sealed.

That document dates from 2018 and the code has moved editions since, so treat the figure as the working number and confirm it against the edition your home was permitted under.

Miami-Dade uses a county form titled Envelope Leakage Test Report to record it. Ask for the completed report and the number on it, not merely confirmation that a test occurred.

Note what seven air changes is. It is a ceiling rather than a target, which means every house that passes is not equally tight.

A house at 6.8 passes. A house at 3.2 is a considerably tighter house, and the number on the report is the only thing that tells you which one you bought.

Step 4: Walk the County’s Own Buyer List

This is the list Miami-Dade publishes for people in exactly your position, and it deserves to be walked literally.

Step 5: Work the Three Failures That Cost the Most

Three findings on that list deserve more than a tick, because in this climate they are the ones that get expensive. Each is framed below as the problem, then what it means, then what to ask.

Problem: Ponding where water should leave

The county lists drainage as a buyer check for a reason. Grading is verified against a plan at permitting, and a plan is not a rainstorm.

Walk the perimeter and look at where water would go. Standing water near the foundation, a swale that flattens before it reaches an outfall, a downspout discharging against the slab, or soil built up above the finished floor line are all visible on a dry day if you know the shape you are looking for.

Do it after rain if the schedule allows. The technique and the underlying design logic are in effective site drainage planning, and the flood-zone consequences are in flood insurance in Miami-Dade.

Problem: Condensation, humidity and an oversized system

South Florida punishes an air conditioning system sized by rule of thumb, and the failure mode is comfort rather than temperature.

The federal indoor air specification is explicit about the standard a house in this climate should meet. Dwelling units in moist climate zones one through four shall be served by equipment designed and installed with sufficient latent capacity to maintain indoor RH at or below 60%.

That is a humidity requirement, not a cooling one, and an oversized unit fails it by cooling fast and running short. The county’s own sizing limit at mechanical final — not more than 1.15 times the calculated load, not less than the calculated latent load — exists to prevent exactly that.

There is a related figure worth requesting. The same specification calls for outdoor air supplied to or exhausted from the dwelling to be measured in accordance with ANSI/RESNET/ICC Std. 380 and documented to meet the mechanical ventilation rates required by the referenced ventilation standard.

A very tight house needs mechanical ventilation to make up for what it no longer leaks. If your blower door number came in low, ask what provides the fresh air.

On the walkthrough, run the system and look for condensation on registers, on refrigerant lines and around the air handler. Ask for the load calculation and the equipment sizing, and ask whether a dehumidification provision was installed, which the same specification describes as a ventilating or whole-home dehumidifier, or a central system with an added coil for dehumidification plumbed to a discharge drain.

Problem: Moisture closed into the assembly

You cannot see this one at walkthrough, which is why it belongs on the list of things to ask rather than to look at.

Federal guidance treats it as a defect to be avoided during construction, not after. Building materials with visible signs of water damage or mold are not installed or allowed to remain, and framing members and insulation products having high moisture content are not enclosed — with a recommended lumber moisture content at or below eighteen percent.

The question for the builder is simple and answerable: was moisture content checked before drywall, and is there a record. A yes is worth having in writing. A blank look is worth noting.

This is the one item on the list where a pre-drywall inspection, months earlier, would have been worth more than anything you can do today. If you are reading this before your house is closed in, that is the appointment to make — and if you are still choosing, it is worth asking about at Golden Park or any of the communities currently selling.

Step 6: Understand What “Completion” Means Legally

One definition changes how you read the whole day, and it is not the one most people assume.

Florida’s construction defect chapter defines completion of a building or improvement as issuance of a certificate of occupancy, whether temporary or otherwise, that allows for occupancy or use of the entire building or improvement, or an equivalent authorization from the governing body.

Note the phrase whether temporary or otherwise. A temporary certificate completes the building for these purposes even though the county issues it with interior items still open.

So the walkthrough is not happening before completion in any legal sense. It is happening after it, which is precisely why the record you make today has to be good enough to survive without the leverage of an unsigned closing.

Step 7: Write the Punch List So It Survives

A punch list is a record, and a record has requirements if you may need it later.

Florida defines a construction defect broadly enough to cover most of what you will find: a deficiency resulting from defective material, products, or components, a code violation, a design failure against professional standards, or a failure to construct or remodel real property in accordance with accepted trade standards for good and workmanlike construction.

That last clause is the one that covers workmanship. Note the standard is trade standards, not your preference — which is why photographs and locations beat adjectives.

Write each item with its room, its location within the room, and a photograph. If a claim is ever made, the statutory notice must identify the location of each alleged construction defect sufficiently to enable the responding parties to locate the alleged defect without undue burden.

A punch list already written that way converts into a notice without redrafting. What the contract obliges the builder to do about any of it is a separate question, covered in reading a new construction purchase agreement.

Put it in writing, and send it the way the county tells you to. That form, and the complaint route if the builder stops answering, are in your first year in the house — which is also where this list does most of its work, because it becomes the baseline you compare against at month eleven.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign

Take these in writing and keep the written answers. Each one is answerable from a document the builder already has.

  • What is the number on the envelope leakage test report, and may I have a copy of the report itself?
  • Was the equipment sized from a load calculation, and what does the calculation show for the latent load?
  • What provides the mechanical ventilation, and at what rate?
  • Was lumber moisture content recorded before drywall, and is there a record of it?
  • Which inspections were failed and re-inspected, and what was corrected?
  • Which of the certificates collected at building final apply to this house, and may I have copies?
  • Where does water leave this lot, and what happens to it at the property line?
  • Which items on my punch list are you accepting, and by what date?

A New Construction Final Walkthrough That Should Not End in a Signature

An approved set of plans nobody can produce. Without it, the deviation check cannot be done at all.

A blower door report that exists as a claim rather than as a completed form with a number on it.

An energy performance display card missing, when the statute requires it certified before final approval for occupancy and as an addendum to the sales contract.

Ponding anywhere near the foundation, or a finished floor that sits low relative to the ground around it.

Condensation on any part of the air conditioning system on the day of the walkthrough.

A punch list accepted verbally, or one written in adjectives with no locations, no photographs and no dates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who should attend a new construction final walkthrough?

Miami-Dade recommends walking through with the builder or their designee before signing closing documents, and bringing someone knowledgeable in the building trade as your representative — the county names a licensed engineer or architect.

What documents should you obtain before closing on a new home?

The county’s list includes the approved plans, a survey showing sewer or septic location, the contractor and subcontractor roster with Certificate of Competency numbers, product approvals for the roof and other controlled items, the roof insulation certificate, air conditioning energy cards, and termite, soil and radon certificates where available.

Is a blower door test required on a new Florida home?

Yes. A Florida Solar Energy Center fact sheet published on the Florida Building Commission’s site gives a maximum of seven air changes per hour at fifty Pascals for Climate Zones 1 and 2, tested before the certificate of occupancy is issued and after envelope penetrations have been sealed. Confirm the figure against the code edition your home was permitted under.

What humidity standard should a South Florida air conditioning system meet?

Federal indoor air guidance for moist climate zones calls for equipment with sufficient latent capacity to maintain indoor relative humidity at or below sixty percent, which is a dehumidification requirement rather than a cooling one.

Does the certificate of occupancy mean the punch list is closed?

No. A temporary certificate is issued while minor interior items may remain open, and the county publishes its buyer inspection list knowing the certificate has already been issued.

How should a punch list item be written?

With the room, the specific location within it, a photograph and a date. Florida’s pre-suit notice statute requires that a defect be identified well enough for the responder to locate it without undue burden, so a list written that way converts directly into a notice.

The walkthrough is not a formality performed at the end of a purchase. It is the last measurement taken while the house is still someone else’s responsibility, and the quality of the record you make is what determines how the next twelve months go.

About Mountain Cove Homes. Mountain Cove Homes is a boutique home builder based in Miami, Florida, building single-family homes and townhomes in small communities across Miami-Dade County — including Golden Park and other communities currently selling. Its personnel have been constructing homes in South Florida since the early 1980s. More about how the company works and where it builds.

This article is general information about inspection and walkthrough of new residential construction in Florida. It is not legal or engineering advice, and it does not describe any particular home. Codes, county procedures and published guidance change, and what applies to a specific home depends on the edition it was permitted under. Verify your own situation with Miami-Dade Regulatory and Economic Resources and a licensed engineer or architect before relying on any of it.

For additional legal disclaimers please see the legal information document.

Talk to Mountain Cove Homes

Mountain Cove Homes is a boutique home builder in Miami, Florida, building single-family homes and townhomes in small communities across Miami-Dade County — most of them with no HOA and no CDD tax. If you want to walk through lot availability, pricing, and what is included at this stage of construction, we will give you the numbers directly.

Office 4878 Southwest 74th Court, Miami, FL 33155 786.458.1805 [email protected]

Florida developer registration DE46760.

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