Photos to Take Before the Paving Crew Arrives
A short photo set taken before demolition or paving protects you and the contractor. It records cracks, drainage, edges, and nearby walls that later arguments always seem to involve.
Open free asphalt tonnage calculator →What to capture in the driveway
Walk the whole drive in daylight and again after a rain if you can. Photograph low spots with the puddle still there, cracks, old patches, crumbling edges, and the joint at the garage and at the street. Include a wide shot that shows where water is supposed to go. If a measuring wheel is in one photo, that helps you remember how you measured area later. The wheel measures distance for an area estimate. It is not a survey and it does not belong in the photo as proof of a legal line. Shoot the base if it will be exposed, especially soft or muddy zones, so an undercut discussed that morning is not denied that afternoon. These pictures explain why the job was scoped the way it was.
What to capture around the driveway
Photograph foundation walls, garage floors, porch steps, brick piers, fence posts, and retaining walls that sit close to the work. Include sprinkler heads, invisible-fence marks, downspouts, and any sleeve ends you want saved. Take a picture of the vehicles' access path so a later rut in the lawn has a before. If a dumpster, truck, or plate will sit on a sidewalk or a neighbor's edge, shoot that surface now. You are building a punch list in reverse. Sealcoat cans and leftover patch from an old repair can appear in the frame if their locations matter, but do not spend the hour staging products. The point is the condition of the pavement and the structures, not a catalog.
How to keep the set useful
Use your phone's date stamp, and keep the full set in one folder with the proposal and, later, the scale tickets. A blurry boot photo of a crack helps less than one wide and one close shot. Send the contractor any image that shows a condition you expect them to fix, such as a birdbath or a settled utility cut, before they pave over the evidence. After paving, repeat the same angles. Yield questions still use tons: compare tickets with the planning total from AsphaltTons.com for the thickness you bought. The photos will not calculate tons, but they will show whether an apron or a turnout was added without being measured. Price remains the plant or contractor quote for that day, and photos do not change it. They change what people can claim they remember.
A practical sequence
- Photograph cracks, puddles, edges, and the garage and street joints.
- Photograph nearby walls, steps, posts, and irrigation heads.
- Save the set with the proposal before demolition starts.
- Repeat the same angles after paving so the comparison is obvious.
The mistake to skip
Taking no photos and trying to remember a crack in the foundation after the roller is gone.
Questions people ask
Do photos replace a written scope?
No. They support the scope. Thickness, tons, and drainage should still be written down.
Should I photograph in the rain?
A rain or hose photo of ponding is one of the most useful shots you can take before grade is changed.
Related guides
- Why Topsoil Cannot Stay Under a New Driveway
- A Stump Buried Under an Asphalt Driveway
- Compacting a Driveway Gravel Base in Lifts
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