Blog 017 - The photographic memory of the Specialist Contractor

Specialist Contractors, how much memory does your work phone have? If you’re a Specialist Contractor or work for one and your phone has less than 128GB of memory, then you’re not taking enough photos!

It’s a tale as old as time, “records, records, records” but it not just about how many records we keep but about the quality of them too. Records are the thing you don’t think are important or you’re too busy to get to, until you need them, then they’re worth their weight in gold. Nearly every dispute (whether large or small [consider just works carried out on a time and materials basis]) is based on an event in the past and those records will be the key to demonstrating what happened and likely contain nuggets of gold about related activities that are easily forgotten over time.

There might be certain records or reports you are required to produce under your Specialist Trade Contract, ensure you complete those as a minimum. If there isn’t, or possibly in addition to, try and utilise some of the key tips provided below to ensure you keep accurate and most importantly useable records:

1. Pre-commencement Dilapidation and Condition Survey. If you use my Schedule of Attendances (available for free download here) then this should be requested from the Client, be sure to check it over though, it could have been undertaken some months before your works commence!

2. Daily Site Diaries. A brief overview of your activities on site each day, number of men, the weather, work locations, plant on site and materials delivered.

3. Site Photographs. When a picture paints a thousand words and everyone walks around with a high quality camera in their pocket all day, there is no excuse for not taking hundreds of photos. Take photos of your work, site conditions, other people’s work, site progress and quality assurance photos of items which are going to be covered up. There are a few extra tips for photos:

A) File them in to dated folders and add locations. Photos are not beneficial if, in time, you can’t tell when or where they were taken

B) If it’s going to be a while before you upload them to your computer or storage device, mark them up on your smartphone to aid your memory of the purpose of the photo. I will often highlight points of interest in a photo or write a plot number in a blank space on the photo so that in time, there is no doubt about where that photo has come from.

C) Take photos ahead of your works. You never know if someone may later accuse you of delay, where other records might be inconclusive, if you have photos ahead of you on the sequence, they will show beyond doubt that someone else was working in an area or an element of prior works was incomplete.

D) Include with your daily site diaries to provide visual context to the report.

As mentioned above, everyone carries smartphones and has reasonable amounts of memory on their devices, so there is little excuse for not recording lots photos during a project. If one of your employees witnesses misuse by another Trade, they can take photos and send them in to your site manager. I have found success in using WhatsApp groups for this, but they key to this being beneficial is to download the photos and mark them up in accordance with the tips and A-D above.

4. Access & Handover Dates – As simple log of dates when you were handed parts of the site / houses / flats etc and the dates at which you handed them back. There are several ways, the high paperwork (but also high record value) signed handover form with the client, the spreadsheet of access and hand back dates or, simpler still, a site plan with each area hand marked up with access and hand back dates.

Example Access & Handback GA.pdf

Download PDF • 602KB

The above is all the absolute basics of record keeping. Dependent on size of the Specialist, risk profile and skill set, will depend on the type and quantity of records you require. Some may need to produce As-Built programmes, for others, the schedule of access dates will suit. It really is dependent on each business and project but sticking to the basics of the 4 key tips in this article should be the minimum.

If you’re unsure whether you’re keeping sufficient records or would like help developing a record keeping system, feel free to drop me an email.