In short: what makes an archive useful
A useful construction photo archive is images of everything that will be hidden, taken before it is closed: pipes, cables, waterproofing, reinforcement, insulation, embedded fixings. Each one with an overall view and a close-up, a tape measure in frame, and labelled with date, area and stage. A thousand nice photos of finished rooms without this are of little use.
An archive like that answers questions that come up years later: where a pipe runs in a wall, what layers the waterproofing had, where the cable from the panels goes. Without it, only opening up gives the answer.
What must be photographed
Foundations and reinforcement before the pour. Drainage and below-ground waterproofing before backfilling. Every run of water, waste and heating pipe in walls and floors. Electrics before plastering: cables, boxes, boards. Underfloor heating before the screed. Waterproofing in showers, on terraces and on the roof, including the water test. Insulation in walls and roof. Backing for heavy cabinets, a TV or pendant lights.
On our house with a pool, built start to finish between 2022 and 2024, the list also included the pool plant pipework and the cables from the solar panels. That is exactly what a technician will need a few years from now when they come to replace a pump or the inverter.
How to shoot so the image makes sense
The rule is simple: first an overall shot with a recognisable reference — a window, a door opening, a corner — then a close-up of the same spot. A close-up without the overall shot becomes, a year later, 'some pipe in some wall'. Put a tape measure in frame from the corner or the floor so distances can be read off the photo.
Shoot in good light, without flash, which burns out the markings. If the pipe or cable has printing on it, take a separate shot where it is legible. For long runs, take a series of overlapping images so the whole line can be pieced together.
How to name and store
Folders by stage: foundations, structure, roof, services, finishes. Inside, by room. File names follow date, area and element: for example, '2023-05-12_bath2_waste'. Number the rooms on the house plan and use those numbers in file names. Then, five years on, finding something takes a minute.
Keep the archive in the cloud and a copy on a separate drive. If several people are taking photos, agree the naming scheme in the first week rather than trying to tidy up at the end. Keep the as-built service drawings and equipment manuals in the same folder as the photos.
How the archive pays off later
After a month: hanging a shelf or a painting without hitting a pipe or cable. After a year: showing where a run goes if a damp patch appears, and opening the wall in one place instead of five. After five years: explaining to a new technician how the system is laid out, without guesswork. When selling the house: showing a buyer what is behind the walls and how it was done.
Photos also help if a dispute arises over the quality of concealed work. An image does not replace a technical inspection or required documentation, but it shows what was done before it was closed up.
Who takes the photos and what to publish
It works best when the person running the site takes the photos: they know what gets closed tomorrow and shoot it today. Agree the frequency and how the archive reaches you, for example a link to a shared folder each week. If you do not live in Barcelona, that archive becomes your eyes on site.
A working archive and a public gallery are different things. Before publishing, remove faces, documents, house numbers and anything that points to the address. On our website the house photos are shown as project material, without the exact address.