Job site photos that hold up in a dispute

This is practical advice for documenting your work, not legal advice. If a dispute is heading toward a lawyer or a court, ask one what they need.

Shoot before, during and after

• Before you start. The site as you found it, including damage that was already there: cracked driveways, dented gutters, stains on ceilings. This is the set that protects you most often.
• During the work, especially before anything gets covered. Framing, wiring, plumbing, flashing, underlayment and fasteners all disappear under the finish. Once they are covered, the photo is the only proof of how they were done.
• After. The finished work from the same spots as the before photos, and the site cleaned up.

Wide, medium, close

A close-up on its own proves little: nobody can tell where it was taken. For anything that matters, take three shots. A wide one that shows where on the house it is, a medium one that shows the problem in its surroundings, and a close-up that shows the detail. Put a tape measure, a ruler or a coin in the close-up so the size can't be argued.

Make every photo say where and when

• Start with the address. A photo of the house number at the start of each visit ties the set to the property.
• Keep the time and the location. Phone photos record them in the file's data, but that data can be stripped when a photo is texted, emailed or edited. A time, date and location burned into the image itself survives being shared.
• Take photos on the day. A photo taken a week later of something that happened today invites the question of what changed in between.

Keep the originals

• Never edit the only copy. Cropping, filters and markup are fine on a copy; keep the original untouched.
• Keep them in one place per job, not scattered across crew members' camera rolls and text threads.
• Know who took each photo. If it ever matters, you want to be able to say which person was standing there.
• Keep them after the job closes. Warranty claims and disputes often come up months or years later.

Write down what the photo shows

A photo of a cracked rafter means more with a note that says when it was found, who was told, and what was agreed. Short, factual notes next to the photos turn a camera roll into a record. If the homeowner approves a change on site, get it in writing or in a signed agreement, and photograph the condition that led to it.

Shoot the same way every time

Consistency is persuasive. If every job has the house number, four elevations, before-and-after pairs from the same spots and close-ups with a tape measure, a missing photo stands out to you before it stands out to anyone else. A checklist with a photo for each item makes that habit easy for the whole crew.

Hidden work worth photographing, by trade

• Roofing: decking after tear-off, repaired or replaced sections, underlayment, ice and water shield, flashing before shingles cover it, nailing pattern.
• Solar: mounts and their sealant or flashing, rafter attachment, conduit runs in the attic, grounding, labels before panels cover them.
• Electrical: rough-in before drywall, box fill, connections, grounding and bonding.
• Plumbing: pipes before walls close, connections, pressure tests with the gauge readable.
• Framing and remodeling: headers, fasteners, blocking, moisture or rot found when walls were opened.

When something goes wrong on site

If your crew damages something, photograph it right away, tell the owner the same day, and write down what you agreed to do about it. If you find a problem nobody knew about, such as rot behind siding or a damaged rafter, stop and photograph it before you touch it, then get the owner's decision before you go on. In both cases, the photo plus a short written note made at the time is what you will want later.

Sharing photos without losing their value

Screenshots and photos forwarded through text messages often lose the time and location data in the file. Share a report or a link instead, and keep the original set in one place. When you send photos to an adjuster or an attorney, say where the originals are kept and who took them.

Doing it in FieldPix

Every photo FieldPix takes has the time, date and location burned into the image, FieldPix records who took it, and it is filed to the job, not left on someone's phone. Photos taken with no signal are saved with all of that and upload later. Markup goes on top of the photo, and a client link lets the homeowner see exactly what you chose to share. See how FieldPix works.