How to document facade defects
The hard part of a facade survey isn't spotting the defects. It's ending up with a document that a building owner, property manager or insurer will accept without a phone call. This is how to get there in one pass, without assembling photos by hand on a Friday evening.
1. Take the overview photo properly
Everything else hangs off this one image, so it's worth five extra minutes. The whole report navigates by it, and every defect you record is a point on it.
- Shoot the whole elevation in one frame. Back up until the full facade fits with a little margin. If you physically can't, split the building into separate inspections by elevation or by wing rather than stitching something distorted.
- Stand square to the wall. Shooting from an angle makes the far end of the building compress, so pins placed there are harder to relate back to a real position on site.
- Shoot with the sun behind or above you, not into it. Flat overcast light is genuinely better than bright sun: hard shadows hide cracks and fake others.
- Avoid the widest end of a phone lens. Ultra-wide bends straight lines near the edges. Step back and use the standard lens instead.
- Keep the original. Fasadogled stores your facade photo at full quality, so you can zoom into it later without re-shooting.
2. Mark and name every defect
Drop a numbered pin on each defect. The numbers become the legend on the annotated overview and the section headings in the report, so they are how everyone will refer to the work from here on — including the contractor who eventually quotes for the repair.
Two habits make reports far more useful:
- Name the defect, don't describe the location. "Cracked render at parapet" beats "Defect 4" and beats "top left". The location is already carried by the pin.
- Put the measurement in the description. Approximate length, width and area are what turn an observation into something quotable. "Crack approx. 1.4 m, 2–4 mm wide, render hollow either side" tells a contractor what to price. "Cracked" does not.
Work in a consistent order — left to right, top to bottom — so the numbering in the finished report follows the building rather than the order you happened to notice things.
3. Get close-ups from the crew
Share the worker link and your rope team can upload close-ups straight into the right defect from their phones. They type a name once; they don't create an account and they don't install anything. Photos appear on your screen as they land.
What makes a close-up useful in a report:
- Two shots per defect. One from a metre or two back so the defect can be located on the wall, one close enough to show its character.
- Include something for scale — a tape, a coin, a gloved hand, a crack gauge. Without it nobody can tell 2 mm from 20 mm in a photograph.
- Shoot along the wall as well as at it. A raking angle shows bulging, debonding and profile loss that a straight-on shot flattens away.
- Don't crop on the phone. Upload the full frame; the report scales it down anyway and the extra context is often what settles an argument.
The worker link behaves like a password: anyone holding it can view the inspection and add photos. When a job ends, use Create a new link in the share dialog — the old one stops working immediately.
4. Export what the client actually wants
Three formats, and they're for different readers:
- PDF — the deliverable. An annotated overview with a numbered legend, then a section per defect with its close-ups and who took them. This is what you attach to an email.
- Word (DOCX) — the same report, editable. Use it when you need to add commentary, a recommendation schedule, or your own cover letter before it goes out.
- ZIP — every original photograph, foldered by defect, plus the annotated overview. This is your archive copy and what you hand to whoever prices the repair.
Keep the inspection rather than deleting it once the job is done. When the client comes back in two years asking whether a crack has moved, the original survey with dated photographs is worth a great deal more than your memory.
5. Common facade defects and how to describe them
A shared vocabulary makes reports easier to read and easier to compare year on year. These are the terms most commonly used on rendered, masonry and panel facades, with the detail worth recording for each.
| Defect | What it looks like | Worth recording |
|---|---|---|
| Cracking | Linear splits in render or masonry. Map, diagonal, vertical or following joints. | Length, width, direction, whether it follows a joint, whether render sounds hollow beside it |
| Spalling | Surface material broken away, sometimes exposing mesh or reinforcement. | Area, depth, whether reinforcement is exposed and corroding |
| Debonding / delamination | Render or tiles losing grip on the substrate. Often invisible until tapped. | Extent of the hollow-sounding area, whether it is bulging |
| Efflorescence | White salt deposits leaching to the surface, usually a sign of water movement. | Where it appears and what is above it |
| Water staining | Dark streaking, typically below sills, copings and failed drips. | The source above the staining, not just the staining |
| Sealant failure | Perished, split or missing sealant at joints and window reveals. | Which joints, total run length, whether water is tracking behind |
| Biological growth | Algae, moss or lichen, usually on persistently damp north elevations. | Extent, and whether it indicates a drainage or detailing fault |
| Corrosion of embedded metal | Rust staining or cracking around fixings, lintels, balustrade posts. | Which element, and whether surrounding material is being displaced |
| Displaced or missing units | Loose tiles, slipped copings, detached panels or trim. | Position, count, and anything overhanging a public route |
This is a documentation guide, not structural advice. Fasadogled records what you and your team observe; deciding what a defect means for a building, and whether anything is unsafe, is a matter for a qualified professional on site. If something looks like it could fall, deal with that before you finish the paperwork.
6. Questions that come up
Do rope workers need an account?
No. They open the link, type a name so their photos are attributed, and upload. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, and they never count towards your bill.
Can two people work on the same inspection at once?
Yes. Markers and photos sync live, so you can be pinning defects from the ground while the team uploads close-ups from the rope.
What if I can't fit the building in one photo?
Split it into one inspection per elevation, or per wing on a large block. It keeps each overview readable and the reports stay a sensible length.
Can I put my own logo on the report?
That's part of Pro, along with editable Word exports. The free plan exports PDF and ZIP with a small Fasadogled footer.
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