Snagging is the process of identifying and recording minor defects and unfinished items, typically as a project approaches practical completion, and tracking them to close-out. The word has no fixed contractual meaning; it is site shorthand for the last few per cent of the job, the paint runs, missing mastic, mis-hung doors and scratched glazing that stand between nearly done and done.
Snags are not the same as defects in the contractual sense. Snags are patent, minor and expected to be swept up before or at practical completion. Defects that emerge afterwards are dealt with through the rectification period under JCT contracts, or notified and corrected within the defect correction period under NEC, ending with certification that making good is complete. The distinction matters in both directions, because the length and content of the snag list influences whether practical completion is certified at all.
A good snag record is specific: location, description, photograph, responsible trade, date raised, date closed and who verified the close-out. Vague lists produce arguments; photographic, dated lists produce completed work. The close-out half matters as much as the raising half, because an item marked closed with no evidence has a habit of reopening at handover.
In housebuilding the discipline runs plot by plot and continues past completion, through customer demonstrations, warranty inspections and the defects that surface once homes are lived in. A builder that can produce the dated history of every item on every plot resolves complaints in minutes; one that cannot re-litigates each doorstep conversation from scratch.
Snagging data is also management information. Recurring snag types by trade or area point at a process failure worth fixing at source: a detail that does not build, a sequencing problem, a supervision gap. Fixing the pattern is worth more than closing any number of individual items, and it is only visible if the snags were recorded consistently in the first place.
Construction Metric turns snag photos sent to a WhatsApp group into a dated, attributable, searchable list: see how that works for housebuilders.