Pre-line: what to photograph before the linings go on

Pre-line comes after framing and once the electrical, plumbing and other services have been roughed in — but before insulation and wall linings close everything up. It is usually one of the inspections your building consent requires before work can continue.

The check for your consent is about whether the work meets the requirements. It isn't a record of where every cable and pipe actually runs in your house — that's something you or your builder need to keep.

Years later, the questions are always the same: where can I drill, where is that pipe, is there blocking behind this wall? The answer existed during the build. Usually someone on site photographed it — but those photos live on a phone, and leave with the person who took them.

A clear set of pre-line photos, kept with the house, answers those questions without guessing or opening up a wall.

• 001Electrical cable runs, including switch and power-point drops
• 002Water supply and waste pipes, and where they pass through framing
• 003Gas lines, if the house has them
• 004Dwangs and blocking placed for future fixings — TV brackets, shelving, grab rails, heat pumps
• 005Data, aerial and security cabling
• 006Ducting for ventilation, rangehood and heat pump
• 007Junction boxes and any valves or access points that will be hidden
• 008Wide shots of each wall for context, plus close-ups with a tape measure in frame

Note which room and wall each photo shows — a photo without a location is hard to use later.

Kept pins pre-line photos and videos to the floor plan, so you can tap a wall and see what's behind it. Trades can add their own photos from site by scanning a job QR code. Alongside certificates like your electrical Certificate of Compliance and Code Compliance Certificate, it becomes a permanent record the homeowner keeps — and passes on when they sell.