New construction? Plan ahead

[MushCreek]

When I built our place, I was obsessive about documenting everything as I went. I figured I'd never need it, but you never know. While the walls were open, I took a picture of every wall showing the plumbing and wiring. I taped a piece of paper to the wall labeling what it was, such as 'Kitchen west'. That was over ten years ago.

Along the way, I finally added a flip-down ironing board in a shallow cabinet in our master closet. That's fine, but now the outlet for the iron was awkward to reach when the ironing board was down. I consulted the picture I took of that wall to see how the outlet was oriented to the studs. Made it easy to pop a hole through the ironing board cabinet, snake a wire up there, and tie it in to the old outlet.

It's like having xray vision. When you put up a new building, or add interior walls to an existing one, do yourself a favor and take pictures while the walls are open. I can double-check to make sure I'm not going to drill into a pipe or wire when I hang something on a wall, or like the above, decide to modify the wiring or plumbing. The other thing I did was label every electrical box on the inside. The one I worked on was labeled '14-5', meaning it was the 5th device on circuit 14. I knew right away which breaker to turn off to do the work. I learned that working at a factory. They had every outlet/switch box labeled like that.

 

[bugnut]

Mush, great minds...... When I did the remodel on the master bath. Lots of bracing installed so when the age of grab rails show up we got images! Don't need to be quite as lucky.

 

[larry4406]

I do this as well.

 

[WildBill]

I did this when I built my house 20 years ago with a digital camera, cell phones didn't really have a usable cameras then. I took one set of pics with me holding a tape measure between important items and one without. Has saved my **** 3-4 times. I've used a projector to show exactly where stuff is in the wall, super slick.

 

[mike93lx]

My house was built well before I bought it, so 8 don't have pics like that, but I do have plans, which have been incredibly helpful for a bunch of projects. Whenever I do open a wall, though, I document it.

 

[CraigStu]

I did the picture thing when all the framing was done and house was dried in. Sure wish I had been back to do it again after wiring was in.

 

[MushCreek]

I put bracing in our master shower as well for the day when we need grab rails.

 

[Hubmonkey]

Since we were lucky enough that our builder was someone we knew, I was able to get pictures of pretty much everything along the way of our house and shop build. I know how every gas line, water line, electrical run, Internet run, wire, stud, fixture etc in our house and is documented in photos and is cloud backed up as well as on a couple forms of media. Tried to think of every scenario and did not catch the bracing for rails.. but I know where the studs are and should be a non-issues for us when the time comes.

 

[bwringer]

Nice!

We didn't build our house, but I've often wished for more documentation like this. Untangling the assorted crackheaded monkeyhump weirdnesses in the plumbing and wiring has been an exercise in madness and despair.

I've often wondered if our house was the last to be built in this neighborhood and they were running low on supplies; all the wiring runs are bowstring-taut; not one spare millimeter was used anywhere. And much of the plumbing was built using assorted leftover spare scraps and bits and pieces.

 

[kbuhagiar]

I've owned cell phones with cameras for at least nine or ten years, but I have only just recently - finally! - gotten into the habit of remembering to make a digital document of everything I disassemble (cars, model trains, appliances, etc. etc.) before tearing it down. Once utilized it is truly one of the best tools I have ever owned, as it fills the gap between schematics and reality. I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for forgetting to take a few dozen pictures beforehand; I could have saved myself a lot of time and frustration.

 

[larry4406]

When you take your pictures, make sure you are perpendicular to the wall. Makes scaling easier later.

 

[mike93lx]

When you take your pictures, make sure you are perpendicular to the wall. Makes scaling easier later.

Its tempting to use a wide angle lens/setting too, but that can distort the image. If something is dimensionally critical, best thing is to back up and use a regular lens, with zoom, if needed.

 

[larry_g]

When you take your pictures, make sure you are perpendicular to the wall. Makes scaling easier later.

You can also get something like a PVC pipe and wrap a bit of electrical tape around it every measured foot. Put that in the picture so you can scale even closer.

 

[pembol]

Our builder did a cool thing - they had Matterport come out and do a 3D scan after framing and roughs, but before insulation and drywall. We now have a 3D model of all the studs, ducts, wires, pipes etc. You can make measurements directly from the model - so you can measure exactly where a stud or pipe is directly from your computer.

I think it is only about $200, and out builder actually does it for his own use, but shares with his clients if they want it.

 

[finn]

A thermal imaging device added to your cell phone can give you a pretty good idea of where wires run on an enclosed wall. Plug in a space heater to load the circuit and generate heat in the circuit in question.

 

[mike93lx]

Our builder did a cool thing - they had Matterport come out and do a 3D scan after framing and roughs, but before insulation and drywall. We now have a 3D model of all the studs, ducts, wires, pipes etc. You can make measurements directly from the model - so you can measure exactly where a stud or pipe is directly from your computer.

I think it is only about $200, and out builder actually does it for his own use, but shares with his clients if they want it.

For $200?!?

 

[pembol]

For $200?!?

I think that is about what it cost - you hire a local technician to do the scan, so it depends on your local market. They normally do this for real estate ads, which keeps the price competitive.

 

[Viper98912]

Completely do this or have done this as well. In the last house I bought which was mid-construction, I went in and took a picture of everything once the framing, electrical, hvac, and plumbing was up, just before the drywall. It was so incredibly helpful in the future when trying to figure out where to put holes in walls (or why I couldn't figure out what was causing XYZ to show up on my stud finder).

I'm also currently in the process of marking the back of each outlet and switch wall plate with the breaker #. This way when I take off the plate I know exactly which breaker to go flip (and later test regardless before I stick my hands in, but at least it makes it easier when flipping just one breaker and not searching which one it might be). It doesn't help that the electrician who wired this house made a mistake on the labeling for breaker # 12, where label was actually for # 20 (and a difference between a 20A and 15A), and every successive even numbered breaker between them is shifted also by 2. I also ended up making a new label diagram with much better detail...

 

[dave*99]

I’ve done just about everything listed in this thread including having all the CAD drawings from the build of my current house.

The videos I took seem to be what I refer to most. I narrated where I was while taking the videos. I use the still photos less. But definitely take them.

I had multiple tape measures and strung them across the open walls. Photos and videos of that so I know where everything is.

 

[Zeke]

I did this when I built my house 20 years ago with a digital camera, cell phones didn't really have a usable cameras then. I took one set of pics with me holding a tape measure between important items and one without. Has saved my **** 3-4 times. I've used a projector to show exactly where stuff is in the wall, super slick.

That is brilliant!

Contractor here for 50 years. I didn't make a habit of taking pics. I do have some Polaroids of me when I was 20 something driving an excavator. I'm 78 now. People would wonder who that dark haired bearded skinny guy was.

 

[WildBill]

Completely do this or have done this as well. In the last house I bought which was mid-construction, I went in and took a picture of everything once the framing, electrical, hvac, and plumbing was up, just before the drywall. It was so incredibly helpful in the future when trying to figure out where to put holes in walls (or why I couldn't figure out what was causing XYZ to show up on my stud finder).

I'm also currently in the process of marking the back of each outlet and switch wall plate with the breaker #. This way when I take off the plate I know exactly which breaker to go flip (and later test regardless before I stick my hands in, but at least it makes it easier when flipping just one breaker and not searching which one it might be). It doesn't help that the electrician who wired this house made a mistake on the labeling for breaker # 12, where label was actually for # 20 (and a difference between a 20A and 15A), and every successive even numbered breaker between them is shifted also by 2. I also ended up making a new label diagram with much better detail...

I marked each box in my house with the breaker#, has been very useful in the 20ish years since I built it. I am doing it again on my shop. Because I am running different colors of 12awg everywhere together in conduit I am also putting the wire colors on the breaker box labels.

 

[WildBill]

That is brilliant!

Contractor here for 50 years. I didn't make a habit of taking pics. I do have some Polaroids of me when I was 20 something driving an excavator. I'm 78 now. People would wonder who that dark haired bearded skinny guy was.

It works really well, I can just line up the projector using things like electrical boxes and see exactly where every pipe and wire is. Like having x-ray vision.

 

[CraigStu]

When we built out retirement house in 2019 I was 70, so we had the reinforced shower w/ grab bars in master bath. On first floor we had a standard powder room near a 10x20 sewing room. Wife asks is there any way we could put a bath in that powder room, just in case one of us gets to where we can't get up to the MBR. If we had to, the sewing room would be just fine as a bedroom. I messed around on my design program, sent a couple of ideas to the builder. He said no problem, which ever one you prefer. So reinforced fiberglass tub/shower w/ grab bars in there too.
I have to admit this was more luck than planning ahead but a nice benefit anyway. Again on the theme of getting old, the main hall closet on first floor is right below the walk in MBR closet and the basement under it is open. Don't know what we would do for a closet but a small elevator could be added easily.

 

[MushCreek]

Although I was only 60 when I built our house, I made sure that everything we need is on the main floor. We use the finished basement a lot, but could live fine without it if the stairs become unworkable.

 

[WisJim]

We bought an old farmhouse in 1989 and did a lot of work to make it habitable. I took a lot of pictures on 35mm film with my Canon FT-QL, so I have packets of prints of open walls, bathroom floors showing plumbing, etc. I have since scanned most of them so they are easily accessed on my computer now. Since we no longer live there, I should remember to give them to the new owner.

 

[gillrich]

Didn't think about it this way. Thanks for the tip!

 

[patrickw10]

This is hands down the best advice for anyone building a house.

When we built with local builder, our independent inspector told us to do exactly this during the pre-drywall walkthrough. I spent an hour walking through the framed house taking slow, detailed videos of every single wall and ceiling bay, holding up a tape measure from the corner of the room so I’d know exact distances.

 

[RoninB4]

We now have a 3D model of all the studs, ducts, wires, pipes etc. You can make measurements directly from the model - so you can measure exactly where a stud or pipe is directly from your computer.

-Necro thread revival but the first time I've seen it. I also advocate creating a 3D model for those that have, or want, CAD software. My house was already built at purchase but for every remodeling project I've added to the assembly so I have a visual of what I've planned, accurate measurements, and a BOM of materials so there's less return trips to the big box stores. It may be a lot of time to create the models but it has proven to have been worth the time.