A roofing job produces four arguments, and a photo settles every one of them: the wood bill, the insurance supplement, the leak call two years from now, and the "you never did that" complaint. The crews that never lose those arguments are not better talkers. They shot the right photos at the right stage. This is the list.
How to shoot so the photo holds up
- Wide, medium, close. For anything that matters, take three: the whole slope so it is clear where you are, the area, then the detail. A close-up of rot with nothing around it proves nothing.
- Shoot before you fix. The rotted sheet gets photographed in place before the saw touches it. The replacement gets photographed after. Both, every time.
- Put something in the frame for scale. A tape measure, a hand, a hammer.
- Turn on the timestamp. Most phones can print date and time on the image. Do it, and keep the phone's clock right.
- Number what you replace. Chalk a number on each sheet of decking that comes out. The photo, the sheet and the invoice line all carry the same number.
- Same four corners, every stage. Pick your four elevation spots on day one and shoot from the same spots at every stage. The set tells the story of the job in order.
Stage 0: Before anyone touches the roof
Shoot this at the estimate and again the morning the crew arrives. It protects you from the damage you did not cause.
- All four elevations of the house, plus the roof from each corner
- Existing damage: cracked tile, lifted shingles, exposed nails, rusted flashing, ponding
- Interior ceilings and walls under the roof, especially any existing stain
- The driveway, walkways, pool cage, screens, landscaping and fence near the drop zone, showing their condition before the dumpster and the debris
- AC units, solar panels, satellite dish, skylights and anything else mounted on or through the roof
- The neighbor's property within reach of the work: their driveway, cars, fence and plantings
- The electrical service mast and any low wires the crew has to work around
Stage 1: Tear-off
This is where the wood bill is decided.
- Each slope with the old covering removed and the deck exposed
- Every sheet of decking that is rotted, delaminated or soft, shot in place with the chalk number visible, then the new sheet installed
- Fascia and rafter tails: any rot, termite damage or missing wood, before and after repair
- The nailing pattern on new and re-nailed decking (your inspector wants to see this too)
- Old flashings and vents removed, showing the openings
- The dumpster and the tarps over landscaping, so cleanup and protection are on record
Stage 2: Dry-in
The dry-in inspection is the first place a job can stall. Shoot it as if the inspector will not show up.
- Underlayment on each slope, showing laps running the right direction
- Cap-nail or fastener spacing on the underlayment, close enough to count
- Drip edge at eaves and rakes, showing how it overlaps with the underlayment
- Valley metal or valley underlayment in place
- Self-adhered membrane at every penetration and around skylights, chimneys and walls
- The inspection approval tag or the inspector's note in the permit record
Stage 3: Flashings and penetrations
Every leak call in year two starts here, so every one of these gets its own photo before it is covered.
- Each pipe boot, seated and sealed
- Step flashing and counter-flashing at every wall
- Chimney cricket, flashing and counter-flashing
- Skylight curb flashing
- Off-ridge vents, gooseneck vents, exhaust caps
- Any low-slope transition, dead valley or saddle
Stage 4: Roof covering
- Starter course at the eaves and rakes
- Shingle nail placement and count per shingle on a representative area
- Tile: the foam or screw pattern, hip and ridge attachment, the eave closure
- Metal: panel clip or fastener spacing, panel end laps, the ridge closure
- Hip and ridge from both sides
- Each slope complete, from the same four corners as day one
Stage 5: Final
- All four elevations, finished
- Gutters cleared of debris and nails
- The magnet sweep in progress on the driveway, the walks and the lawn
- The dumpster gone and the drop zone clean
- Landscaping, screens, pool cage and fence, matching the Stage 0 shots
- The final inspection approval
- One good photo of the finished roof from the street, because that one sells the next job
Name them, store them, upload them the same day
A photo you cannot find is a photo you did not take. Keep one folder per job. Prefix each file with the stage: 1-tearoff, 2-dryin, 3-flashing. Upload from the phone before the crew leaves the site, not at the end of the week, and keep the set with the job for the life of the warranty.
Decide up front which photos the homeowner sees. The honest answer is all of them. The stage photos are how you prove the wood bill, show the work behind the dry-in draw and give the homeowner something to look at instead of calling to ask what happened today. A customer who watched their own deck get replaced in photos does not argue about the sheet count.
Where a customer portal fits
Crews already take most of these photos. The problem is that they live on four different phones and the office never sees them. A homeowner portal gives every job one photo timeline, uploaded from the roof as the stages happen, with the same photos backing the draw request and the warranty file. The homeowner opens it instead of calling. Your office opens it instead of asking the crew lead to text them the pictures.