Developing skills, intro to sketching for construction professionals

​by Jon Isaacson

Are you a property restoration technician sketching the affected areas for a water and/or fire damaged structure? Are you a construction estimator diagramming a floor plan for your next project? Are you an adjuster assessing an insurance claim? Our latest skills development video will entertain as well as educate you with tools, tips and tricks for construction based sketching.

Jon Isaacson is a friend to facilities and risk professionals, partnering to enhance education, networking and assisting with recovery when the worst of it all hits the fan. While in college, the young Jon responded to an ad in the local paper for carpet cleaning and discovered the world of property restoration.  Continuing the pattern of mentorship taught to him, Jon has built his business acumen growing organizational strength through professional relationships, employee development and process improvement. In addition to working full time, raising a family and volunteering, Jon writes, speaks and serves as director of local facilities networking group LFMC. 

​The sketch is the foundation for communicating the details from field personnel that translate into a well written mitigation recap and a profitable mitigation billing. For disaster restoration the sketch is also essential to composing an insurance compliant estimate for repairs. While every insurance carrier is unique in their standard operating procedure (SOP) requirements and usually have a third party administrators (TPA) who oversee compliance between carriers and contractors, they all consistently utilize the sketch as the basis for communication, estimate and scoping. In the insurance world the details are the most valuable commodity in composing and defending a scope that will release the dollars that the hard work of your team deserves. There is great value in knowing and excelling in the key areas relevant to the broadest range of programs.

This video serves as our first in a series of personal, professional and career development videos that are geared for helping with tools, tips and tricks related working within the insurance, restoration and construction industries. Regardless of where you are in your career our instructional videos will entertain as well as educate you. We can help the newly hired technician to understand and develop their skills in mastering the recap of work performed. We can help the seasoned construction estimator to dial in the details that will assist them in creating consistently approved estimates. We can help the insurance professional to communicate the expectations of the trade that will assist all parties in clarifying details and closing files expediently.

The tools for sketching are simple, something to write on, to write with and to take measurements:

1. Something to write on, we strongly recommend graphing paper. The quarter inch (1/4”) by quarter inch squares of the graph paper are most commonly utilized as two feet (2’) by two feet reference for the sketch. For smaller layouts or single rooms or detailed projects the formula might be ¼” = 1’ or less. For larger projects or areas that don’t require as many details the formula might be ¼” = 5’ or more. The key is to be consistent in how you do the bulk of your project and then to clarify if there is a variation. When you use a common formula such as ¼” = 2’ even if you should forget to write down the measurement for a wall or detail, because the sketch is in scale one can derive the measurements in reverse in circumstances that may require them.
2. Something to write with, pencil is able to be erased but may not copy or scan in as legibly if the file is being shared with multiple individuals. Pen is much more legible but isn’t as forgiving as a pencil. Use what you are comfortable with that works for you and your team.
3. Something to take measurements, we strongly recommend laser tape measures as they cut down on the time necessary to measure a room. You may still need a tape measure for detailed measurement and to create photos using the tape as reference when such details are necessary for the carrier, estimate or production scope (ie material depth or width).

The tips for sketching are simple as well

1. The golden rule of sketching should be to start in the corner. If you are starting in the corner of the home, find a corner and build your sketch from there. If you are starting in a source area that is in the middle of the home, you can either a) start your sketch in the corner of the room your are in while placing it in a general reference on your sketch page or b) choose to start in a corner of the home and work your way towards the source area.
2. Utilize graph paper and be consistent with your scale – see notes above for Tools #1
3. Key areas where people make mistakes with sketching include – NOT starting in a corner, failure to stay consistent in graphing scale or not using a logical scale, forgetting to record measurements for walls (as noted above, if you utilize a scale you can rebuild some of those measurements), not writing legibly, and other small details. Death or success is most often in the details.

The tricks for sketching

1. There aren’t as many tricks when paper sketching, there are plenty of little tricks when it comes to transferring those details into your Xactimate sketch which we will discuss later. Again – start in the corner and utilize a laser tape measure as noted above.

We train our teams that if you didn’t write it down or take a photo – it didn’t happen (which consequently is the same rule that insurance carriers will use when reviewing  your estimate and project details).  As a team we need to understand that when working within insurance industry that our ability to communicate the details are as important as our ability to perform the work. To that end, the sketch is the foundation of communicating the loss details, establishing an emergency services plan, tracking the restoration process, composing a profitable mitigation estimate, defending our billing, drafting a thorough repairs estimate and carrying a project through to completion.

Whether you are new to the process or need a refresher, our instructional video series will help you develop your skills in these areas, stay tuned for additional videos. ​