How site photos protect subcontractors from client disputes

Site photos protect a subcontractor because they show the condition of the work, and of everything around it, on a known date. Taken at the right moments and stored with the job, they settle most disputes about damage, completion, hidden work and delays before those disputes turn into deductions from your payment.

The disputes photos settle

• "Your crew damaged it." A photo of the scratched storefront before you started.
• "That was never installed." A photo of the piping in the wall before the drywall went up.
• "It wasn't done by the date you billed." A dated photo of the finished area.
• "You weren't delayed." A photo of another trade's material stacked across your work area at 7:15.
• "The material arrived fine." A photo of the crushed pallet on the truck.
• A backcharge for cleanup in an area you photographed clean on your way out.

When to take them

Before you start. Existing conditions: floors, finishes, glass, other trades' work near yours, anything already damaged. Five minutes on day one.

Before anything is covered. In-wall and underground work, sleeves, firestopping, supports, reinforcing. Once it is covered, the photo is the only proof it exists. Include a tape or a reference so depth, spacing and size can be read.

At the end of each day. One or two wide shots of where the work stands.

When something is wrong. A condition that differs from the drawings, an obstruction, damage. Photograph it before you touch it.

At deliveries. The load, the tags, any damage.

Extra work. Before, during and after, for every change.

When you leave an area. The finished work and the state you left it in.

How to take a photo that proves something

• One wide, one close. The wide shot shows where; the close shot shows what.
• Include a reference. A room number, a gridline, a door tag. A close-up of a pipe could be anywhere.
• Leave the phone's date, time and location on. They are saved inside the file and are far more convincing than a remembered date.
• Do not edit or crop the original.
• Add a line of text. "Level 2, room 214, north wall, before cover-up."

Where they live matters as much as taking them

A photo in a foreman's camera roll is evidence until that phone is lost, replaced, or its owner changes jobs. Photos need to be:

• Sent the same day
• Attached to the job, and to the day
• Findable by someone who was not there

"Scroll back, it was some time in March" is not a filing system.

Make it a habit, not a campaign

Decide the three or four moments above that matter most for your trade and make them part of the work: no cover-up without a photo, no first day without existing conditions. A crew that takes six useful photos a day beats one that takes two hundred nobody will ever sort.

Be honest about what a photo shows

A photo proves a condition at a moment. It does not prove who caused it, and it will not rescue work that was done wrong. Its value comes from being routine: the same kind of photo, on every job, on the days nothing went wrong too. That is what makes the one you need believable.

Where ConstructStream fits

Photos taken in the ConstructStream phone app are posted to the job as an update, with the name of the person and the time, and the office sees them the same minute. If the signal drops, the post waits on the phone and goes out when it returns. Months later the photo is still on the job, beside the daily progress, the change orders and the rest of its history.