What is a pre-pour checklist?
A pre-pour checklist is the inspection record signed before concrete is placed in a slab, beam, column or footing. It confirms that the formwork, reinforcement, cover, embedded conduits and sleeves, and the concrete, tools and people are ready, and gives the engineer's permission to pour.
After the pour, the pour itself is recorded in the concrete pour register, which notes who cleared this checklist.
What is in the pre-pour checklist workbook?
- Project Details — project particulars, the cover tolerance, and the IS 456 nominal covers by exposure for reference.
- Checklist — one pour: twenty-two checks with who checked them and when, twelve cover readings, the result and the signatures. Copy it for each pour.
- Filled Sample — a first-floor slab checklist that is not yet cleared.
How does the pre-pour checklist sheet calculate?
- Cover deviation = measured cover − required nominal cover. A reading below the required cover is less than required; more than 10 mm above it is more than allowed. The +10 mm / 0 mm tolerance is IS 456:2000 Table 16, Note 2, and can be changed if your specification differs.
- The result is CLEARED FOR POUR only when no check is No, every check is answered (Not applicable counts as answered), at least one cover reading is recorded, and every reading is in range.
- Otherwise it reads NOT CLEARED with the first reason found, so the open item is named.
Worked example from the sample sheet: on the first-floor slab, one check is No — debris left in the beam bottoms — so the pour is not cleared. Two cover readings are also out: 18 mm against 20 mm required in a slab bay, and 37 mm against 25 mm at beam B7, 12 mm over.
How do you use the pre-pour checklist template?
- Fill in Project Details once. The cover tolerance is already set from IS 456.
- For each pour, copy the Checklist sheet and name the copy with the pour number.
- Walk the pour with the drawing and the bar bending schedule, and mark every check Yes, No or Not applicable with who checked it and when.
- Take cover readings at the bottom, sides and top of the members and enter them with the required cover from the drawing.
- Put right anything marked No or out of range and check it again. Pour only when the result reads CLEARED FOR POUR and the checklist is signed.
What should you check before relying on the pre-pour checklist?
- The required cover comes from the structural drawing for the member and its exposure. The IS 456 table in the workbook is for reference; the sheet never assumes a cover.
- A checklist records that the checks were made. It does not replace the engineer's inspection; add any checks your specification or method statement requires.
- Cover readings need enough locations to be representative — the bottom of slabs and beams, beam sides, and column faces.
What does each column mean?
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Pour header | Pour number, date and time, member and location, grade, volume, and the drawing and bar bending schedule the checks are made against. |
| Check | Twenty-two checks in five groups: formwork and staging, reinforcement, cover, embedded items, and concrete readiness. |
| Done? | Yes, No or Not applicable for every check. A blank counts as not answered. |
| Checked By / Time / Remarks | Who made the check, when, and what was found or put right. |
| Cover readings: Required / Measured | The nominal cover on the drawing and the cover measured at each location, in mm. |
| Deviation / Result | Auto-calculated. Measured − required, judged against the tolerance: less than required, more than allowed, or OK. |
| Result | Auto-calculated. CLEARED FOR POUR, or NOT CLEARED with the reason: an item marked No, items not answered, cover out of range, or no cover readings. |
| Signatures | The contractor's engineer, the client's or consultant's engineer, and the permission to pour. |
Once a pour is cleared, record it in the concrete pour register, with the trucks it took, and test each load's slump in the slump test register.
Get the quantities from your drawings
A progress record is measured against the estimate it reports against. Upload your drawings and InstaBOQ builds the measured BOQ — so "work executed today" can be tracked line by line against a real quantity.