The Roof Nobody Photographed Is the One You'll Argue About

The problem in one breath

Six weeks after the job, the homeowner says her ceiling stain is your fault and that flashing was fine before your men touched it. The adjuster wants to see the rotten decking you billed for. All you've got is four blurry shots on a phone belonging to a guy who quit.

Why it happens

Pictures feel like paperwork on a day that's already behind, so the phone stays in the pocket and everybody figures somebody else got a few. And nobody argues about the roof on the day it's built. The fight comes weeks later, once the deck is buried and the men who were up there are gone. All you have then is a memory, and memory loses to a photograph. A roof you can't show is a roof you'll argue about: with the adjuster, with the homeowner, and under a review you have no answer for.

The play

1. Shoot the same list on every roof. Nobody decides in the moment what's worth a picture. The list is standing, and it's the same on a garage and a two-story cut-up. BEFORE anything comes off: the house with the address visible, every elevation from the ground, the damage close and wide, the existing flashings and penetrations, anything already wrong — a soft spot, a bad valley, an old repair — and any interior stain the homeowner points at. DURING, the part nobody can see later: a wrapper with the lot number readable (Module 15, Play 6), the bare deck, every sheet of rotten decking you pulled with a tape in the frame for scale, ice-and-water at the eaves and valleys, the underlayment down, each penetration flashed, and how you protected the property. AFTER: every elevation, the ridge, and the ground swept with the magnet run.
2. Put one name on it, and make it the foreman. Same as the money-owed list (If "the Office" Owns It, Nobody Does). He can hand the phone off for the climbing shots, but the list is his and so is the missing photo. Tell five men to shoot it and you get nothing.
3. Same name, same place, every job. One folder per job, the address and the date on it, where your office already keeps job files. A man who never set foot on that roof has to find those photos a year later without calling anybody. A picture nobody can find is one you didn't take.
4. In the folder before he leaves the driveway. Not tonight, not Friday. The truck is still at the curb when the photos go up. Let it wait and the phone fills, the week runs him over, and you're texting him in November about deck shots from June.
5. Know what each set buys, and tell the crew. The before and during shots are a supplement you prove instead of argue (Module 6, Play 8) and the bad decking you billed on a change order (Module 6, Play 17). The afters are the callback argument you settle in one text and the completion packet you turn in for the second check (Module 6, Play 14), and the during shots are what the man sorting a callback pulls up on the roof (Module 13, Play 2). A bad review gets a calm reply with pictures under it (Don't Answer That Review Mad). They pay inside the shop too: the job debrief is sharper with the roof on a screen, and your how-we-do-it page teaches the standard with your own work.
6. Make it a step in the job, not an extra. Put it on the debrief sheet and the foreman's close-out, next to the final walk. The job isn't closed until the shot list is in the folder. An extra gets skipped when it's hot; a step in the job gets done.

Do this this week

Print the shot list below, tape one inside every truck visor, and text your foremen one line: from the next tear-off on, no job closes without these photos in the folder. Twenty minutes, and the next argument you get into is one you can win with a phone.

The tool

No spreadsheet — a card. Checkboxes, because a man with ten minutes left isn't reading a paragraph. Keep a blank one in each job folder and let the foreman tick it as he shoots. Every box checked and the photos in the folder, that job is documented.

THE SHOT LIST — before, during, after, every roof

Job / address: ______________________________    Date: __________
Shot by: ____________________     Job folder made?  [ ]

BEFORE  (before one shingle comes off)
  [ ] The house with the address visible
  [ ] Every elevation, from the ground
  [ ] The damage - close up, then wide
  [ ] Existing flashings and penetrations
  [ ] Anything already wrong (soft spot, bad valley, old repair)
  [ ] Any interior stain the homeowner points at

DURING  (nobody can see any of this later)
  [ ] A wrapper off the load - the lot / run number readable
  [ ] The deck once it is bare
  [ ] Every rotten sheet pulled - tape or boot in frame for scale
  [ ] Ice-and-water at the eaves and in the valleys
  [ ] Underlayment down
  [ ] Each penetration flashed
  [ ] How you protected the property

AFTER  (before the ladders go on the truck)
  [ ] Every elevation
  [ ] The ridge
  [ ] Ground swept, magnet run

All of it in the job folder before leaving the driveway:  [ ]

If your crew is 1099

With a sub crew you don't stand on the roof telling his men when to pull out a phone. Put the photos in the agreement as a deliverable: the job isn't complete and the invoice isn't payable without the shot list. Hand him the card with the scope so there's no argument about what "documented" means. That's a term between two companies about the work product — same as requiring a clean site — not you running his crew.