TOPIC: Old home electrical

I know, it sounds bad...but I'm trying out a different method of conducting the inspection, so I wound up taking a pile of pictures.  They're free, I can always delete those I don't need, and so far, it seems to be working well. 

Taaaablet. Okay, taking lots of pics works for quite a few guys too.

504 pictures.  That is a lot of pics. 100+ is a lot for me these days.

I like it in the 35-75 range.

Hard to say in those photos... but if you saw tinges of copper, then most likely was tinned copper.  Often you can trace the wire for some length outside the panel and find identification markings on it somewhere to help with identification.

I also take lots of photos. That is how I take my notes.  400-600+ not uncommon for an inspection.  but only about 10% ever show up in the report.  ALL unedited originals stay in my files for future record.  I never delete any of them.

Include me in the list of inspectors who take notes with a camera.  Typical house gets 100-125 pics.  Highest is probably around 300.  Lowest has been around 45. 

After several years of using the camera as my notepad, I have been trimming back on photos "for documentation purposes" and mostly only take photos of defects.  Used to take a picture of the plumbing under every sink.  Over time figured out it was just clutter.  If you were taking notes with a pad and pencil or other methods, would you note that the plumbing is correct under every sink?  No, you only note the ones with defects. 

I do take photos of the inside of all electrical panels for CYA purposes in case ever called into court.  Several other items I photo for proof I performed the basic required SOP checking of stuff.  One example shot of supply plumbing for ident, one shot of waste plumbing for ident, one shot of attic for roof framing, insulation, etc., shot of inside of HVAC to show removed accessible panel, etc.

500+ photos has got to be time consuming just to weed through the useful defects vs. photos for the sake of photos.  Wow!  Hope it works for you.

Certainly works for me... and has saved me from an angry homeowner more than once who claimed I broke something or a client who claimed the furnace never worked... that "clutter" has come in very handy.  I find it no more time consuming to quickly review those images than it is to sort through several pages of scribbled notes.  In fact, it works better and faster for me as I have certain photos I take that tell me exactly what the defect to be written up is, while others are simply descriptive notes.
I got in this habit from doing thousands of rehab field inspections for a large lender.  They required every room, every below sink, every elevation, etc, etc to be documented with a photo. Writing the 30 minute report later was simply reviewing the pics. It's just stuck with me.

Each inspector has their own thing, and no one is better than the other.  I teach from day one to all my students that they need to find what works for them and stick to it... so long as they miss nothing.