Taking photographs at different project milestones is a great way to document the progress made. However, photographs of as-built conditions can provide you with more benefits beyond just the visual reference to project progress. Recurring as-built photos can help clear up (or cover yourself from) unexpected disputes over installation quality or allegations of damages within the surrounding project area. Without consistent documentation of your site, proving yourself clear of any wrongdoing becomes even more difficult.
Let’s look at some additional scenarios and benefits of visually documenting as-built conditions during the different stages of construction.
Pre-construction Stage
Documenting a project site before construction begins is a beneficial planning tool to help both your team and the owner/developer understand the risks, site layout, and resourcing requirements.
For example, if your project is in a heavily congested city core neighborhood, documenting the pre-existing site conditions can cover your team from any city or municipality claims of damages–if the issues were already in place before any work began (such as sidewalk cracks) as time-stamped visual documentation can prove you were not at fault.
Construction stage
Once the site starts to take shape, having documentation of the progress made not only provides a visual reference but also memorializes the actual condition details at different intervals.
The standard way of managing resources and scheduling through word-of-mouth and paperwork can be enhanced with the addition of photo documentation of the as-built conditions at that specific time.
When it comes to payment applications, confirming work completed can take quite some time, but using photo documentation to reference progress helps streamline the overall process greatly. In addition, now with the power of AI, photo documentation can be analysed and charted against the project schedule to provide an extra level of assurance on productivity and work completed.
Proper visual documentation also helps General Contractors and Construction Managers track and verify work completed (or not completed) by the different subtrades for QA/QC assurances.
As well, timely as-built images can improve collaboration and the sharing of updates during Owner, Architect and Contractor (OAC) meetings. For greater transparency, teams are now integrating their visual documentation to online platforms that act as single-source of truth for their projects.
Handover stage
Should any legal claims of damages, improper installation or other disputes arise, having date stamped, third-party visuals evidence of as-built conditions helps provide you with indisputable evidence.
In addition, including documentation as part of the handover process helps ensure contractual obligations have been met and gives facilities teams the ability to review the as-built documentation of key components to understand where installed parts are located for more efficient facility management.
Documenting as-built conditions with photography is extremely valuable to any project, but it’s also worth investing in an archived system that will allow project stakeholders to access the data easily and efficiently throughout the lifecycle of your building. Documenting as-built conditions requires large amounts of storage for the data, and properly indexing the data based on dates/times goes beyond just storing it in a folder on a computer.
At Multivista, we understand the intricacies of construction projects and our trained Documentation Specialists can deliver the as-built photography you require in an efficient and accurate way. As well, accessing your project documentation on our cloud-based platform is available to all stakeholders, and photos are indexed to floorplans for added convenience.
Need photo documentation support? Multivista can capture photos of your entire job site and handle all the data management for you. Request a quote for your next project HERE.
