The frame is the fastest-moving stage of the build — a house shape appears in days — and that speed is exactly the risk. Trades want to keep rolling, and the mandatory frame inspection sits right in their path. This walkthrough covers the sequence, what the inspector is actually looking at, and the one discipline that matters more than any other: nothing gets covered until the frame passes.
The sequence, in order
- Frame delivery and check — prefabricated frames and trusses arrive against the layout drawings. Check the paperwork matches your engineering (wind classification especially) before the carpenters start standing anything.
- Wall frames stood, straightened and braced — temporary bracing first, permanent bracing per the engineer’s bracing plan.
- Roof trusses and beams — installed to the truss layout, with the specified connections. Trusses are engineered items: no site-cutting, no “adjustments” without the truss designer’s written say-so.
- Tie-downs and bracing completed — the strapping, brackets and bolts that hold the roof to the walls and the walls to the slab. This is what the inspection lives and dies on.
- Rough-ins begin — plumber, electrician, HVAC run their services through the frame. Every notch and drill hole has code limits; oversized holes in the wrong place are a structural defect.
- Frame inspection — the certifier’s mandatory inspection, before any lining, sarking-over or external cladding hides the structure.
What the certifier is actually looking at
- Tie-down and bracing against the engineer’s plan — straps, brackets, bolts, at the spacing drawn, actually fixed (not sitting in a box on site).
- Member sizes and spans matching the drawings — lintels and beams especially.
- Truss installation per the layout: correct bracing, no unauthorised cuts or plumbing runs through webs.
- Service penetrations within notching and drilling limits.
- Frame straightness and levels — because everything from cabinets to cornice inherits them.
Failed frame inspections are common and usually cheap to fix if the following trades haven’t started. That’s the whole game: hold the schedule so a fail costs days, not demolition. The delay-cost counter prices the drift either way.
Owner-builder jobs at this stage
- Get the frame and truss certificates from the fabricator into your file the day they arrive.
- Photograph every tie-down zone and every service run before insulation. This photo set answers disputes for the next six years.
- Walk the frame with the drawings before the inspection — not to re-engineer it, but to catch the obvious: missing straps, a beam that doesn’t match the plan, a truss web with a pipe through it.
- Book the inspection early — certifiers’ calendars are the real critical path in a hot market.
The paperwork this stage generates
Frame and truss compliance certificates, the recorded frame inspection, rough-in test results (plumbing pressure tests, electrical safety), and your photo set. File them as they happen — the handover stage is assembled from exactly these documents.
Next in the sequence: lock-up, where the building closes in and the payment schedule gets interesting.
Before you get here
The frame stage runs clean when the inspection schedule was mapped before the slab — which is precisely what the Pre-Start Review builds: your program, keyed to the certifier’s mandatory inspections, before mistakes become structural.