Apps simplify the process of documenting damage or defects and enhance legal certainty. What can documentation apps for tablets or smartphones do, and how do they differ?

Digital Instead of Analog

Restoration work on construction sites, damage, defects, or construction progress have traditionally been documented with a pencil, paper, and a digital camera. Using a smartphone or tablet app instead reduces the time required for this task. However, choosing the right software depends on what you specifically want to do: Some programs specialize in construction logs or daily construction reports, while others support the recording of damage and defects. Only a few can do it all.

The traditional method of recording damage and the structural condition in connection with the restoration of buildings, as well as documenting construction site activities and construction progress, obstacles, material defects, or damage and defects caused by third parties, is very time-consuming and labor-intensive: Keeping construction logs or daily construction reports is also very labor-intensive. On-site data must be recorded in writing and documented with photos.

The documentation and reports are later created in the office using Office programs and sent to project participants via email, fax, or mail. Copies are filed in folders, and pending tasks are placed on hold for follow-up. All of this creates extra work. Special construction documentation apps help avoid media discontinuities and optimize workflows. They also eliminate the cumbersome need to juggle a notepad, pencil, and digital camera.

Instead, smartphones or tablets and the corresponding apps are used to digitally capture on-site information via text and images and assign it immediately. This eliminates the need to manually type, sort, categorize, and locate data that was originally recorded by hand. Input forms with structured questions and text templates not only speed up data entry but also ensure that important details are not overlooked.

Since legal aspects and deadlines must also be taken into account when tracking defects or creating daily construction reports, the software also supports the creation of legally compliant documents and deadline tracking. In addition to documentation photos, scanned plans, plan excerpts, or documents can be integrated, as well as voice memos or video clips. Photos can be edited in a simple manner (resizing, cropping, etc.) and annotated with pointing arrows, measurements, and image comments.

If the software processes GPS data from mobile devices, photos can also be geotagged, so you know immediately what was photographed at which construction site or at which location in the stone yard or quarry. Using customizable templates, daily construction reports, defect logs, or reminders can be generated immediately from the collected data and sent via email. Deadlines can be transferred to a calendar—such as Microsoft Outlook—for schedule monitoring, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

What is documented and how?

To ensure that restoration and renovation work, as well as construction or installation processes, can be traced later, essential services, deliveries, and activities—along with the respective on-site conditions—should be documented. The following should be recorded: work performed, (sub)contractors present, material receipts, defects, obstacles, change orders and modifications, results of meetings, inspections, and measurements, special incidents, weather conditions, and more.

Construction site documentation serves as a vital information source in the event of disruptions to the construction process or potential disputes with other project stakeholders—for example, regarding claims for additional work or compensation, or when investigating the causes of construction defects or schedule delays, etc. However, documentation also serves as evidence for invoicing or for project records. Therefore, it should also include personal notes as memory aids or annotated photos.

If documentation is maintained continuously, it results in a comprehensive record of the construction process, which can exonerate the author in the event of a dispute. If the author can document construction site activities without gaps, they are usually in a stronger position in legal disputes. Digital documentation also creates, almost as a byproduct, an information database that can be used for future construction or renovation projects, warranty documentation, statistics, and quality control.

Read more in STEIN 3/2021.