How a walkthrough becomes a Scope of Work

A Scope of Work is the reviewed definition of the job at a point in time: rooms, work items, quantities, measurements, exclusions, assumptions, and the evidence behind them.

That name matters. A raw transcript is not a Scope of Work. A room scan is not a Scope of Work. A generated list the contractor never checked is not a Scope of Work. The Scope of Work becomes useful when capture and contractor judgment meet.

Before recording: decide what this visit needs to answer

A first visit for a budget conversation is different from a final cabinet template. A progress walkthrough is different from an insurance documentation pass. Say the purpose before the camera starts:

Are you trying to define included work for an estimate?
Are you documenting an existing condition?
Are you collecting quantities for planning?
Are you reviewing a change against the accepted job?

That one sentence gives every later observation context. “Cracked tile at the tub” means something different in a damage record than in a full bathroom replacement.

Step 1: start the scan and start talking

Open the project and start the walkthrough. On a LiDAR-capable iPhone (the Pro models) the app runs a LiDAR scan while it records video and narration, and that scan is where the measurements, floor plan, and 3D model come from. On any other iPhone the walkthrough still records video, narration, and photos and still produces the Scope of Work, with estimated quantities marked as approximate; the floor plan and 3D model need a LiDAR iPhone. Either way, a 3-2-1 countdown starts the capture, and a persistent cue stays on screen the whole time: “Talk through the project as you go.”

Use your first sentences to orient. A useful opening sounds like this: “Primary bathroom, second floor. Access is through the finished hallway. Protect the stair, hall runner, and bedroom doorway. We are keeping the window and replacing everything else inside the room.”

That is more valuable than ten silent seconds of the same hallway.

Step 2: one room at a time, and say so

The app is explicit about this: describe one room at a time, tap Next Room when you move, and say what room you are entering. That one tap is what keeps every observation attached to the right space instead of floating in a forty-minute video.

Inside each room, use a repeatable loop:

Existing condition: what is here now?
Keep: what remains and must be protected?
Remove: what comes out?
Install: what replaces it?
Finish: what patching, painting, trim, cleanup, or testing completes the work?
Unknown: what cannot be verified until demolition or a trade visit?

This structure follows the way an estimator thinks. It also exposes the small work that disappears in a vague sentence such as “replace the vanity”: disconnect plumbing, remove the top and cabinet, repair the wall and floor, set the new cabinet, cut the top, connect fixtures, caulk, touch up, and dispose.

Step 3: narrate decisions, not the obvious picture

The video already shows that the tile is gray. Use narration for information the image cannot settle:

“Client is supplying the vanity; our price includes pickup within 15 miles.”
“Keep the existing exhaust duct but replace the fan.”
“Price the niche as an option.”
“Assume the subfloor is serviceable; repair is excluded until demolition.”
“Match the hallway casing profile.”

Short, specific statements are easier to review than a polished sales monologue. Pause between decisions. If you correct yourself, say the final decision clearly.

The app coaches this while you walk. The two cues on screen are “Talk through the project as you go.” and “Tap the screen to snap pictures”. When a condition matters—a crack, a panel label, a supply line—tap the screen and the app snaps a still photo mid-walk without stopping the capture. A control row keeps Next Room, photo, pause, and finish one thumb away.

Step 4: use LiDAR as a measurement layer

On supported phones, LiDAR can build a room model while the walkthrough is captured. That helps associate walls, openings, and planning dimensions with the room record. A scanned bedroom comes back as 11′4″ × 9′8″ with an 8′1″ ceiling—enough to plan paint, flooring, and trim quantities without a second visit.

It does not remove the need to verify dimensions with high cost or tight tolerance. Our evidence-based LiDAR guide explains why a short nearby measurement and a complete moving room scan do not share one guaranteed accuracy number.

A useful verification rule Check the longest dimension in each room and every dimension that controls fabrication, code clearance, or an expensive material order.

Step 5: the floor plan and 3D model

On a LiDAR iPhone the scan also comes back as a dimensioned floor plan and a 3D model of the space, sitting in the project next to the Scope of Work. The floor plan screen has an Export menu—a PDF measurement report, SVG, and 2D or 3D DXF/DWG for whoever draws the job—and the 3D scan exports as USDZ. A read-only web link shares the plan and model with a drafter, a sub, or the client without them installing anything. Send it as PDF, DXF, DWG, USDZ, or a link.

The floor plan and 3D model from one scan, in the app. Export as PDF, DXF, DWG, USDZ, or share a link.

Step 6: review the proposed work

Biltum organizes the walkthrough into rooms and atomic work items. A living-room repaint might come back as three line items in one area: paint the walls with two coats over 450 square feet, paint 300 square feet of ceiling, and caulk 70 linear feet of trim gaps. Review is where the contractor makes the result real.

Review starts before the Scope is even final. Where the walkthrough left something ambiguous, the app asks clarifying questions—one card at a time, each with suggested answers, in a single finalization round. The contractor resolves those, and only then does the draft become the working Scope of Work.

In the editor itself, every line item carries an editable measurement with a unit picker—square feet, linear feet, or each—and stepper increments sized to the unit, so correcting a quantity is a tap, not a retype. Photos attach per line item, so the evidence sits on the work it supports. A material list lives under the scope. And for anything structural—splitting an item, adding an exclusion, rewording a description—a chat bar labeled “Refine your Scope of Work here” accepts the change in plain words.

For each item, ask:

Is the action specific enough for a crew member to understand?
Is the quantity based on measured geometry, a count, or an allowance?
Does a photo support the condition or selection?
Is the material contractor-supplied or owner-supplied?
Is the item included, excluded, optional, or unresolved?
Does another trade or permit requirement need to be called out?

Combine duplicate work, split mixed actions, correct room assignments, and remove anything the walkthrough merely mentioned but did not include.

Step 7: send it to JobTread, priced from your own catalog

A useful estimate reflects the contractor’s labor model, material assumptions, overhead, and risk. National averages cannot know the access, finish level, crew, supplier, market, or warranty obligation on this job.

Biltum does not price the job on the phone. Tap Send to JobTread and the reviewed Scope of Work becomes a draft budget in JobTread — in your company’s cost groups, matched to your catalog items, carrying your rates, with the scan’s measurements as the quantities. That three-line living-room repaint lands as wall paint labor 450 SF at $1,125, ceiling 300 SF at $600, caulk 70 LF at $250, plus 3 gallons of wall paint at $210, 1 gallon of ceiling paint at $40, and 3 tubes of caulk at $15: $2,240, from the contractor’s own rates, no national average involved. Use allowances where selection is open, and make unknown conditions visible rather than hiding them inside a confident total.

From the phone: the reviewed Scope of Work, then one tap—Send to JobTread.

It arrives as a draft. Your estimator reviews the lines and the numbers in JobTread and finishes it the way they finish every budget; nothing goes to a client until they do.

Step 8: the photos go with it

The walkthrough photos and video upload to the same JobTread job, so the evidence sits in the job’s Files next to the budget instead of in a camera roll. When the estimate goes to the client, it goes from JobTread — proposal, contract, and acceptance stay in the system you already run.

The client does not need every internal note. They need a clear account of what is included, the price, selected photos or supporting details, and a way to accept the exact version they reviewed. Build that from the reviewed Scope of Work, not from memory.

The Scope of Work is supposed to change—visibly

Renovation work reveals conditions. Clients make selections. A documented change is not a failure; it is the Scope of Work being revised visibly.

Preserve the accepted version, record the new request, price the difference, and show what changed. The alternative is a job where everyone remembers a different first conversation. Our guide to documenting scope creep covers the change-control habit in detail.

A seven-minute review checklist

Every work area has a name.
Keep, remove, install, and finish actions are separated.
Owner-supplied and contractor-supplied materials are clear.
Unknown conditions and allowances are visible.
Important measurements are verified.
Each item has the right photos and room.
The client version says only what you intend to promise.

The walkthrough saves time because it captures evidence once. The review protects the job because the contractor decides what that evidence means. And once work starts, the same project record is where progress photos land—next to the work items that already exist.