How to take construction progress photos

Progress photos are only useful if you can compare them. A hundred random shots tell you less than ten taken from the same places every week.

Set up the system once

1. Mark your photo points. Walk the site on day one and choose six to twelve spots that will stay reachable for the whole build, such as each corner of the plot, the main entrance and one point on each floor. Number them P01, P02 and so on, and mark them on a copy of the site plan.
2. Record how to stand. For each point, note the direction you face and take a reference photo. Shoot from the same height, in landscape, with the zoom off. A paint mark on the ground or a note such as "north-east corner of the hoarding, facing the house" saves guesswork.
3. Pick a fixed day. Weekly suits most jobs. Choose a day and a time with similar light, and stick to it. Fast stages, such as a slab pour or a roof going on, deserve an extra visit.
4. Shoot the round in order. Go through the points in number order every time, so nothing is missed and the photos fall into sequence on their own.
5. Name and file the same day. Use a pattern such as 2026-11-04 Site P03 north elevation. Dates written year first sort correctly in any folder.

Photograph work before it is covered

Your fixed points show the big picture. Hidden work needs its own close-ups, taken before the next trade covers it. Once it is buried, a photo is often the only record of what went in.

• Foundations, reinforcement and drainage before concrete or backfill.
• Damp proofing, insulation and membranes.
• Pipework, cables and fixings before plasterboard.
• Fire stopping around services.
• Anything built differently from the drawings, with a short note of why.

What clients and lenders usually look for

A client wants to see that the job is moving and that the money matches the work. Lenders, and the surveyors who check stage payments for them, usually want dated evidence that a stage is finished before they release funds, such as the roof being on or the windows fitted.

Every lender and monitoring surveyor has its own rules, so ask for their format before your first claim. In general, a short weekly report with the same views, a line on what changed and what is next, and close-ups of the stage being claimed answers most questions before they are asked.

Mistakes that make photos useless

• Moving the photo points halfway through the job.
• Shooting into the sun, so the building is a silhouette.
• Leaving files named IMG_4471 on someone's personal phone.
• Taking only close-ups, so nobody can tell where they are.
• Stopping once the shell is up, when the internal stages matter just as much.

Questions