diff --git a/client/client.go b/client/client.go
index 54b4fdcf6..cc212ff14 100644
--- a/client/client.go
+++ b/client/client.go
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 package client
 
 import (
-	"bytes"
 	"context"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
@@ -181,49 +180,17 @@ func GetEntryBundle(ctx context.Context, f EntryBundleFetcherFunc, i, logSize ui
 // Since the tiles commit only to immutable nodes, the job of building proofs is slightly
 // more complex as proofs can touch "ephemeral" nodes, so these need to be synthesized.
 type ProofBuilder struct {
-	cp        log.Checkpoint
+	treeSize  uint64
 	nodeCache nodeCache
 }
 
 // NewProofBuilder creates a new ProofBuilder object for a given tree size.
 // The returned ProofBuilder can be re-used for proofs related to a given tree size, but
 // it is not thread-safe and should not be accessed concurrently.
-func NewProofBuilder(ctx context.Context, cp log.Checkpoint, f TileFetcherFunc) (*ProofBuilder, error) {
-	ctx, span := tracer.Start(ctx, "tessera.client.NewProofBuilder")
-	defer span.End()
-
-	span.SetAttributes(logSizeKey.Int64(otel.Clamp64(cp.Size)))
-
+func NewProofBuilder(ctx context.Context, treeSize uint64, f TileFetcherFunc) (*ProofBuilder, error) {
 	pb := &ProofBuilder{
-		cp:        cp,
-		nodeCache: newNodeCache(f, cp.Size),
-	}
-	// Can't re-create the root of a zero size checkpoint other than by convention,
-	// so return early here in that case.
-	if cp.Size == 0 {
-		return pb, nil
-	}
-
-	hashes, err := FetchRangeNodes(ctx, cp.Size, f)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to fetch range nodes: %v", err)
-	}
-	// Create a compact range which represents the state of the log.
-	r, err := (&compact.RangeFactory{Hash: hasher.HashChildren}).NewRange(0, cp.Size, hashes)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-
-	// Recreate the root hash so that:
-	// a) we validate the self-integrity of the log state, and
-	// b) we calculate (and cache) and ephemeral nodes present in the tree,
-	//    this is important since they could be required by proofs.
-	sr, err := r.GetRootHash(pb.nodeCache.SetEphemeralNode)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-	if !bytes.Equal(cp.Hash, sr) {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid checkpoint hash %x, expected %x", cp.Hash, sr)
+		treeSize:  treeSize,
+		nodeCache: newNodeCache(f, treeSize),
 	}
 	return pb, nil
 }
@@ -238,22 +205,25 @@ func (pb *ProofBuilder) InclusionProof(ctx context.Context, index uint64) ([][]b
 
 	span.SetAttributes(indexKey.Int64(otel.Clamp64(index)))
 
-	nodes, err := proof.Inclusion(index, pb.cp.Size)
+	nodes, err := proof.Inclusion(index, pb.treeSize)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to calculate inclusion proof node list: %v", err)
 	}
 	return pb.fetchNodes(ctx, nodes)
 }
 
-// ConsistencyProof constructs a consistency proof between the two passed in tree sizes.
+// ConsistencyProof constructs a consistency proof between the provided tree sizes.
 // This function uses the passed-in function to retrieve tiles containing any log tree
 // nodes necessary to build the proof.
 func (pb *ProofBuilder) ConsistencyProof(ctx context.Context, smaller, larger uint64) ([][]byte, error) {
 	ctx, span := tracer.Start(ctx, "tessera.client.ConsistencyProof")
 	defer span.End()
-
 	span.SetAttributes(smallerKey.Int64(otel.Clamp64(smaller)), largerKey.Int64(otel.Clamp64(larger)))
 
+	if m := max(smaller, larger); m > pb.treeSize {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("requested consistency proof to %d which is larger than tree size %d", m, pb.treeSize)
+	}
+
 	nodes, err := proof.Consistency(smaller, larger)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to calculate consistency proof node list: %v", err)
@@ -318,7 +288,7 @@ func NewLogStateTracker(ctx context.Context, tF TileFetcherFunc, checkpointRaw [
 			return ret, err
 		}
 		ret.latestConsistent = *cp
-		ret.proofBuilder, err = NewProofBuilder(ctx, ret.latestConsistent, ret.tileFetcher)
+		ret.proofBuilder, err = NewProofBuilder(ctx, ret.latestConsistent.Size, ret.tileFetcher)
 		if err != nil {
 			return ret, fmt.Errorf("NewProofBuilder: %v", err)
 		}
@@ -343,7 +313,7 @@ func (lst *LogStateTracker) Update(ctx context.Context) ([]byte, [][]byte, []byt
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, nil, nil, err
 	}
-	builder, err := NewProofBuilder(ctx, *c, lst.tileFetcher)
+	builder, err := NewProofBuilder(ctx, c.Size, lst.tileFetcher)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create proof builder: %v", err)
 	}
diff --git a/client/client_test.go b/client/client_test.go
index 5ae30aaa6..50f99bf84 100644
--- a/client/client_test.go
+++ b/client/client_test.go
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ func TestHandleZeroRoot(t *testing.T) {
 	if len(zeroCP.Hash) == 0 {
 		t.Fatal("BadTestData: checkpoint.0 has empty root hash")
 	}
-	if _, err := NewProofBuilder(context.Background(), zeroCP, testLogTileFetcher); err != nil {
+	if _, err := NewProofBuilder(context.Background(), zeroCP.Size, testLogTileFetcher); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("NewProofBuilder: %v", err)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/integration/integration_test.go b/integration/integration_test.go
index 66cfd10fd..64151a3bb 100644
--- a/integration/integration_test.go
+++ b/integration/integration_test.go
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ func TestLiveLogIntegration(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 
 		// Step 4.2 - Test inclusion proofs.
-		pb, err := client.NewProofBuilder(ctx, lst.Latest(), logReadTile)
+		pb, err := client.NewProofBuilder(ctx, lst.Latest().Size, logReadTile)
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Errorf("client.NewProofBuilder: %v", err)
 		}
diff --git a/internal/witness/witness.go b/internal/witness/witness.go
index 159dfebde..a3a5ec5ce 100644
--- a/internal/witness/witness.go
+++ b/internal/witness/witness.go
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ func (wg *WitnessGateway) Witness(ctx context.Context, cp []byte) ([]byte, error
 		Size:   size,
 		Hash:   hash,
 	}
-	pb, err := client.NewProofBuilder(ctx, logCP, wg.fetchTile)
+	pb, err := client.NewProofBuilder(ctx, logCP.Size, wg.fetchTile)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to build proof builder: %v", err)
 	}