Where does that cable go?
A customer who had a rewire two years ago wants to fix a TV bracket above the fireplace and rings to ask whether there's a cable in the way. The electrician who did first fix left last year. Somewhere there were photos, but they were on his phone.
Or your own team is tracing a fault on a job you did, and has no idea which way a circuit was run before the plaster went on.
The customer drills anyway, carefully, and hopes for the best.
Why the photos go missing
Most electricians do take photos at first fix. They take them on their own phones, mixed in with family pictures, unlabelled. Nobody asks for them at the end of the job, and there's nowhere obvious to put them. When the person leaves or changes phone, they're gone.
| Photo habit | Result later |
|---|---|
| Taken on personal phone | Lost when the person leaves |
| No room or wall label | Hard to tell which room is which |
| Sent by WhatsApp | Compressed, buried in chats |
| Not attached to job | Nobody knows they exist |
Even when photos are shared, they tend to be close-ups of a back box or a cable clip, without enough of the room to tell where they were taken. A photo of a cable running up a wall is only useful later if you can tell which wall, in which room, and how far from the window.
What the missing record costs
Customers who drill into cables risk harm and damage, and they'll ask you why they couldn't find out. Fault tracing takes longer without knowing routes. Future work on the same property starts blind. And you lose a genuinely useful thing to hand over with every rewire.
Where cables may safely run is governed by the standards you work to. This article is only about keeping a record of where they actually went.
It matters for your own team too. When you are called back to the same property to add a circuit or trace a fault, knowing where the existing cables run saves time lifting floorboards and opening walls that did not need opening.
The first fix capture we build
- Room list: the job's rooms are set up when it's booked, from the quote or a simple list.
- Guided photos: at first fix, the electrician's phone asks for photos of each wall with cables, room by room, with a prompt to include a reference point like a window or door.
- Labels: each photo is tagged with room and wall automatically, and the electrician can add a note or draw on it.
- Filing: photos are stored against the job and address, off the personal phone, in full quality.
- Handover: the customer gets a link to their photo set with the certificate, and it's kept on file for your team.
- Lookup: search by address brings up all photos for past jobs at that property.
Photos are compressed sensibly for storage but kept at a quality where cable routes and clip positions are still clear when zoomed in, which is the whole point of taking them.
A record that outlasts the plaster
Every rewire comes with an organised set of photos your team and the customer can use. When questions come later, you can answer them. Electricians don't need to keep anything on their own phones, and nothing leaves when they do.
It also sets your rewires apart. Handing a customer a tidy, room-by-room record of where their cables run is something they remember, and they are more likely to recommend you to neighbours and call you first for the next job.
Is this a gap for you?
- First fix photos are on personal phones, if anywhere.
- Customers ask where cables run and you can't say.
- Photos aren't labelled by room or wall.
- Fault tracing on your own old jobs starts from nothing.
- Staff leaving means their job photos leave too.