Here's the site-survey routine we see efficient crews settle into. Twenty minutes for a typical house, and nothing left to remember later.
Minute 0–2: stage it
Lights on in every room, interior doors open and left open, pets corralled, blinds half-drawn in rooms with strong backlight if you're capturing High Fidelity photos. Ask the homeowner which spaces matter — the survey is also a sales call.
Minute 2–16: the loop
Start at the front door and walk the house the way water flows — room, hallway, next room, one scan per room. As you go:
- Talk. Every observation becomes a pinned voice note: "water stain on this corner," "client wants the door swing flipped," "panel box is here." Say it where you see it; it files itself by room.
- Corners get a beat. One steady second each. It's the difference between a good scan and a great one.
- Stairs are their own pass. They're the link that keeps the floors aligned.
Minute 16–18: outside
If the job has an exterior component: a ground-mode trace of the relevant area (deck footprint, fence line) or a building-mode pass along the wall you'll be siding or painting.
Minute 18–20: send before you leave
In the driveway, model still fresh: spin the house, check no room looks off (rescan takes three minutes now and a second visit later), then send the scan to the office. If the office runs Trusso, the measurements are landing in an estimate before you've started the truck.
Why the routine matters
None of these steps is clever on its own. What compounds is doing them the same way every time: identical surveys, comparable bids, zero "I forgot to check" callbacks. The house tells you everything once. The routine is how you keep all of it.