Before you call anyone: the photos to send

A good photograph turns a vague phone call into a real answer. For a lot of the repair work I do, four pictures are enough for me to tell you what is involved and what it costs, and neither of us loses an afternoon to a visit that did not need to happen.

The four that do the work

• The wide shot. Stand back and put the whole wall, the whole room or the whole elevation in the frame. This is the one everybody skips and it is the one that tells me the most: how big the area really is, what else is going on around it, and whether you have one problem or the first of several.
• The close-up. Right up on the damage, in focus, in whatever light you can get. If it is a crack, lay something of known size beside it. A coin, a pencil, your thumb. Scale is impossible to judge otherwise, and a hairline and a wide one are two different conversations.
• The label. Any model number, serial plate or manufacturer sticker you can find. On fixtures and appliances that one picture is worth more than the other three put together.
• The access shot. Whatever is between the front door and the job. Stairs, tight corners, a narrow side gate, the ceiling height, furniture that has to move. Access changes jobs more than anybody expects it to.

Why the model number matters so much

With a model number I can find out what parts exist for that thing, whether they are still made, and whether one is sitting on a shelf across town or a week out. That is the whole difference between me showing up with the part in the van and finishing in one visit, and me showing up, identifying it, ordering it, and driving back out to you.

One photograph. It saves an entire trip on a regular basis.

What I cannot price from a photograph

Anything where the real question is what is underneath. A floor that goes soft underfoot. A wall stained from something that leaked. Tile that moves when you stand on it. A picture shows me the surface, and on those jobs the surface is not the job. Those I need to come and see, and I would rather say so than hand you a number I am going to have to take back.

Same for anything I would have to get above or behind to be sure about, and anything where the scope depends on decisions you have not made yet. That is not me stalling. It is the honest limit of what a photograph can tell anybody.

How to send them

Attach them to the estimate form on this site, or text them. Send the originals rather than screenshots if you can. A screenshot of a photo throws away most of the detail that made the photo worth taking. And a sentence about when it started and whether it is getting worse is worth about as much as a fifth picture.

Related: Home Maintenance & Repairs

I get asked for home maintenance & repairs most often in Leander, Liberty Hill, Cedar Park, Georgetown.

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