Documentation
Documentation creates the record that supports scope, billing, safety, subrogation, and defense. The exam tests completeness, timing, and objectivity.
Core rules
- Record contemporaneously: date, time, location, technician, and observations. Late entries lose weight.
- Photograph before, during, and after: wide shots for context, mid-range for assemblies, close-ups with scale. Include pre-existing damage.
- Document moisture with meter type, readings, and a moisture map; record drying conditions and equipment placement.
- Keep signed work authorizations, change orders, scope sheets, and contents inventories; confirm verbal approvals in writing.
- Log daily progress, safety controls, and odor verification.
- Maintain chain-of-custody records for samples and preserved parts.
Worked example
A customer later claims a bedroom was never cleaned. The file contains a daily log with room names, technician initials, before-and-after photos with timestamps, and an odor recheck. Reasoning: the contemporaneous record defeats the claim and supports the invoice. A single after-photo without context would be weak; the log links the work to the room and date.
Traps that cost marks
After-photos only; missing scale or location; undocumented verbal change orders; no moisture map; mixing observations with opinions; failing to record pre-existing damage.