INSPECTION Services
INSPECTIONS
INSPECTION IS WHAT WE DO
The basis of virtually all of our Visual Documentation is inspections, in one form or another.
We do all the legwork for our clients in the field.
For 50 years, we have walked the projects for our clients – construction sites, parking lots, sidewalks, streets & pipeline routes, neighborhoods, farm fields, city streets, industrial parks – even runways. We document the overall sites and construction zones, then look for existing damage, record the details, describe the conditions, provide our clients with easy-to-access photos and/or videos showing those conditions.
We share that information with our user-friendly LINKINGapp provides an all-digital deliverable that facilitates finding, retrieval, viewing, and sharing of that valuable information, whenever you need it.
Detailed structure inspections are now often called for in specifications on residential and industrial zone utility construction projects like sanitary sewers, storm drainage sewer lines and reservoirs, airport taxiway and runway improvements, or even street improvements. Once again, we are there to contact property owners, schedule appointments, meet residents and tour their homes or businesses, searching for existing issues that may come into question, and recording damage for future reference. This process protects all parties by delivering the facts about pre-existing circumstances, should a dispute arise during or after construction.
Inspection of residences and commercial buildings has become the newest addition to our decades of looking for pre-existing conditions and/or damage, prior to commencement of construction operations. Years of inspecting properties and the exteriors of those structures along pipeline and street improvement projects has expanded to include more documentation of the interior spaces. Basements and below-grade spaces are always a concern when heavy equipment is operating, or simply moving, nearby. Specification requirements now often call for a physical inspection of interior spaces and below-grade areas of homes and businesses adjacent to construction zones. Our staff look for cracks, settlement, and other existing conditions and prepare a report to document what we find. The results are heavy in photos and/or video footage. Our LINKINGapp delivers the written report, along with the photos, in an easy to review format, should questions or a dispute arise later on.
Specification requirements now often call for a physical inspection of interior spaces and below-grade areas of homes and businesses adjacent to construction zones. This may be referenced as a Pre-Construction ‘survey’ in some project specifications. Although P-Tn does not bring a credentialed engineer to the table, we will deliver ample professional photo or video imaging that will go a long way toward settling disputes that often arise during or after construction. Whether called for in the specs or not, consider the value of having a report on file before construction, listing and showing the existing conditions or damage at the structure next to your work zone.
This photo in the drain pipe was taken of our photographer on an assignment to provide our PRE-Construction video documentation coverage of a major storm sewer system below a future shopping center development site. No drones or pull-thru video is practical in this situation, so we use our feet (and a good set of boots or waders) to work our way thru the pipes, examining and documenting conditions as we go. We bring along lighting as needed to insure good exposure for photos and videos. Other than that – we walk! Imagine our surprise when we found a P-Tn yard sign floating along the storm sewer piping below a new development project; unbelievable … because it was added via PhotoShop for marketing in a social media posts (no P-Tn signage is in the sewers, thank you).
Above ground (which is where we complete most of this type work) we cover miles and miles of surface alignment routes on storm & sanitary sewer projects, waterlines, curb repair, street resurfacing, highway replacement, electrical lines & new street lighting, drainage channels, and much more. Most of this work is performed above ground (but typically NOT from our drones, either), walking along the alignment, searching for, finding, and describing existing conditions and damage … all while we’re taking (hundreds of) photos or hours of video recordings (which we fully narrate). Our clients hire us to create a detailed documentation record of PRE-Construction conditions in case of disputes, and we often produce a POST-Construction record of the same areas, when restoration is complete. We deliver protection to our clients that saves both time and expense when questions arise during or after a project.
P-Tn did not invent this process. About 50 years ago, however, Founder Eric Berndt completed one of our first “Route Photo” documentation records of existing surface conditions along a sewer transmission main line replacement in the northern part of Kansas City, Missouri. So, I’m going to credit KCMO Water Services with initiating this approach – at least for this area – back in the 1970’s.
We’ve been providing this service throughout the decades since, improving our techniques and the way we deliver this valuable information. Originally, photograph identification information was written on a chalk board (yes, you read that right) so it would appear in the 4×5 color prints after they were bound into notebooks for delivery. Today, we shoot in digital format and our ‘deliverable’ links all of our photos – as well as our audio-video segments – right to the design plan sheets. This ensures that the project team has a complete record of all conditions before AND after construction, and it is available directly from a set of official plans in an easy to find and review format, with our LINKINGapp All-digital Delivery System.
As we continue to introduce our LINKINGapp approach to more and more contractors, engineers, and municipalities throughout the Midwest, its popularity has made this system the “go-to” method of creating and utilizing PRE-Con and Post-Construction photo & video documentation. And we are now providing our LINKINGapp Services to clients on projects elsewhere in the central Midwest, from Nebraska to Oklahoma, in addition to Kansas & Missouri, and sometimes beyond.
We do travel, so if you are one of the many businesses that keep the world’s infrastructure operating, and you value the Pre-Construction protection provided through professional quality photos and narrated audio-video, give P-Tn an opportunity to handle your next local or out-of-town project. We’ll be happy to give you an estimate or firm quotation in advance – all you have to do is call or send us your electronic plan sheets.
Our staff has spent decades on construction sites, examining site conditions well before any activity gets underway.
As-built [MEP] Mechanical Electrical Plumbing system installations in walls and ceilings prior to enclosure, cover-up, or concrete encasement, are recorded using still or panoramic photography. This is also a form of inspection that cannot be created after enclosure of walls, ceiling, or flooring systems & concrete. If questions arise after completion, or for future renovations & repairs, you will be able to inspect those invisible spaces.
Nearly all of the above PHOTO services are available using VIDEO recording equipment, and often both are employed to improve the volume & quality of the final documentation record. Whether we create still photos or video footage, on the ground or with drones, DIGITAL is the preferred deliverable for the Visual Documentation services we provide.
Learn about our LINKINGapp All-Digital Delivery System!
Click CONTACT here or in the navigation bar above to send us an inquiry about any of our P-Tn Visual Documentation services. We’ll follow-up right away!