Photographing work that is already covered up
The work is behind drywall, under a floor or beneath a membrane, and the photographs that would have settled it were never taken. This is what can still be established.
Why this one is different
The evidence was destroyed by the job finishing
Most disputes about hidden work turn on the same exchange. You say the flashing, the membrane, the insulation or the subfloor was never installed to the specification. They say it was, and the room is finished, so neither of you can show the other anything.
That is a real dead end and it is not the end of the file. Some of what was covered can still be read through the surface, some of it can be opened in a way nobody can attribute to you, and the cost of finding out is itself a dated, third-party document.1
Four instruments
What can be read through a finished surface
A moisture meter
Moisture content in a material, through a finished surface with a pinless model or by two small probe holes with a pin model.
What it is worth. A reading at a point in time, which is strongest as a map: many readings across a wall show where water is and where it is not, and that pattern points at a source.
A borescope
What is actually inside a cavity, through a hole about the width of a pencil, as photographs and video.
What it is worth. Direct pictures of the thing in dispute, which is the closest anybody gets to opening the wall without opening it. The hole it needs is small enough to fill afterwards.
A thermal camera
Surface temperature differences, which show where insulation is missing, where a cavity holds water, and where air moves through a structure.
What it is worth. A picture of a pattern rather than of a defect. It shows where to look and rarely settles anything on its own, which is why it pairs with a meter or a scope.
A second contractor's written opinion
Whatever a person in the trade can tell from an inspection, including things no instrument reads.
What it is worth. The most weight of the four with a licensing board, a surety or a court, because it comes from somebody with a license and no stake in your dispute. Written, dated and on letterhead is the form that carries.
Opening it up
Documenting a destructive inspection
The answer a business gives to an opened wall is that you damaged it yourself. These five steps are what makes that answer unavailable.
Photograph the surface intact, first
Wide, then close, on the day. This is the frame that shows the area was undisturbed before anybody touched it.
Have somebody else do the opening
A licensed contractor or an inspector cutting the hole makes the work theirs, and puts a third party in the room. Opening it yourself makes every later question about the opening.
Record it continuously
One unbroken video from intact surface to exposed cavity. A sequence of stills is a sequence of moments; continuous video is a chain nobody can argue a substitution into.
Keep what comes out
The cut section, the fastener, the length of pipe. Bagged, labeled with the date and where it came from. A physical sample is the one piece of evidence that does not depend on photography.
Keep the invoice
Dated, itemized, naming the address and the work. It is documentation of the inspection and it is also a cost, which is a different kind of evidence.
The part people throw away
The inspection invoice is evidence
It is a cost, dated and set by somebody else
Keep it with the report rather than with your receipts, and keep every quote you were given for the inspection as well as the one you accepted.
Before it is closed up
If you are reading this in time
Photograph at every stage, not at the end
Before, during and after, on the same day the stage is done. A finished room photographed well says nothing about what is behind it.
Get the scale in the frame
A tape measure, a level or a ruler in shot turns a photograph of a gap into a measurement of one. Without it, size is an opinion.
Shoot wide, then close
A close-up of a defect proves a defect somewhere. The same defect shot from across the room, then closer, then close, places it in a house.
Video the walk, narrating dates
A continuous pass through the space, saying the date and what is being looked at. It is faster than stills and it is much harder to argue was assembled later.
Photograph what is going in
Materials on site, labels, batch numbers and stamps on lumber or membrane. What was installed is a question that becomes unanswerable within a day.
Where the work is still going on, the letter for that moment is the notice to cure, and the evidence checklist is the rest of what the file needs.2
Disclosures
- 1.Satisfy is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice, and is not a licensed inspector, engineer or contractor. This page describes what common instruments measure and how an inspection is commonly documented. It does not assess any work, say what any instrument will find, or recommend that anybody open a structure.
- 2.Opening a wall, a floor or a roof can affect a building warranty, a home insurance policy, a tenancy, or a permit obligation, and in some buildings it requires the freeholder’s or an association’s consent. Nothing on this page states what applies to any building. A licensed contractor or inspector is who establishes that before anything is opened.