How do you handle this?

[Hoss]

Whenever I do an estimate, I take before and after time-stamped pictures of all of the areas being cleaned. This documents prior damage and also provides references for estimating. Other than the cost of a digital camera itself ~ unlike chemical photography where you would be using up rolls of film ~ there is no added cost for taking lots of pictures. My little Casio holds thousands of pictures in memory. On top of being able to better estimate, those time-stamped pictures are a record that can help to prove damage already existed or happened after you were there.

In addition, they can be submitted to the Encap forum contest !