What to Photograph Before You Price a Job

Most contractors take photos on a walkthrough out of habit rather than strategy. A few wide shots of the room, maybe a close-up of the obvious problem, and that's usually it. Then the quote gets written and there's a detail missing that would've taken ten seconds to photograph but now means either guessing or driving back out.

A little more intention on what gets photographed saves that second trip almost every time.

Get the context shot first

Before you zoom in on the problem, get a wide shot that shows the whole space. This sounds obvious, but it's the shot people skip most often, and it's the one that ends up mattering when you're writing the quote two days later and can't remember whether that hallway was six feet wide or ten.

Scale matters too. A photo with a tape measure, a doorway, or even your own boot in frame gives you a reference point you won't have otherwise. Nobody remembers exact dimensions accurately from memory, no matter how many walkthroughs they've done.

Photograph what's about to be covered up

Anything that's going to be hidden once the job starts is worth an extra photo. The electrical panel before you close up a wall, the subfloor before new flooring goes down, the pipe run before a ceiling gets patched. These photos aren't just for pricing. They're protection if a dispute comes up later about what condition things were actually in.

For anything with access complications, stairs, tight crawlspaces, a roofline you'd rather not climb twice, get a photo or a short video of the access itself, not just the work area. Access difficulty is one of the most commonly underpriced parts of a job because it's easy to forget about once you're back at your desk.

When a photo isn't enough

Some things genuinely need motion to understand: a water leak's flow, a squeaking floor joist, an intermittent electrical issue. For those, a fifteen-second video usually tells you more than five photos would, and it's just as fast to capture. If you're building the quote later from a transcript and photos, that video becomes part of the record too, not something you have to remember to mention out loud.