--- title: "Plumb Daily for home builders" description: "A progress photo app for home builders: set a key photo, shoot from the same spot on each visit, and turn slab to handover into one aligned time-lapse." url: "https://plumbdaily.com/for/home-builders/" --- # For anyone building a new home A new home goes from bare dirt to handover in a matter of months. Plumb Daily is a progress photo app for home builders that helps you shoot it from the same spot on every visit. At the end, it turns those photos into one time-lapse that doesn't jump around. - No account - No ads - No tracking - Photos processed on your device Plumb Daily works the same whether you're building with a builder or as an owner-builder. This page covers what to record, where to stand, how often to shoot and how to share the build with family. ## What to record, from slab to handover Most Australian home builds move through the same stages. Each one looks different from the street, and that change is what makes a build time-lapse worth watching. - **Site start** – the empty block, the site cut and the set-out pegs. - **Slab** – footings, plumbing under the slab and the concrete pour. - **Frame** – wall frames go up, then the roof trusses. - **Lock-up** – roof, windows, external doors and brickwork or cladding. Some contracts call this the enclosed stage. - **Fixing** – plasterboard, cabinetry, internal doors and skirtings. - **Practical completion and handover** – the final clean, the driveway, the fencing and the day you get the keys. Big days deserve more than a photo. Record a short moment of the concrete truck pouring the slab, or the crane lifting a truss into place. In the finished video, a moment plays at real speed between the photos around it. Moments recorded in the app are video only – the app doesn't record sound. ## Where to stand Your key photo sets the view for the whole build, so choose the spot with care. - **Pick a spot you can reach for months.** The footpath across the street usually works. Inside the site, fences, skips and scaffolding keep moving. - **Line up with something fixed.** Note a power pole, a drainage pit or a crack in the footpath beside you. Once you're close, the overlay and stencil help you with the fine alignment. - **Leave room for the roof.** The slab sits low in the frame on day one. Leave plenty of sky above it for the walls and roof to fill. - **Choose your lens first.** On iPhones with more than one lens, you pick the lens before the key photo. Lens, zoom and orientation then lock for that scene. The ultra-wide lens fits a tight street, but it bends straight lines near the edges. - **Go landscape for a wide frontage.** The shutter won't fire while the phone is turned the wrong way for the scene, so you can't mix portrait and landscape by accident. ## When and how often to shoot - **Keep to one time of day.** Shadows from your house and the neighbours' move with the sun. Shooting at a similar time on each visit keeps the video steady. - **Shoot on every visit.** A photo 2 or 3 times a week is plenty for a smooth time-lapse of a months-long build. If you're on site every day, a daily photo is smoother still. - **Set a daily reminder.** Each scene can remind you at a time you choose. - **Keep a steady rhythm.** Every photo gets the same screen time in a time-lapse. A burst of daily photos in one month makes that month play slower than the rest. Work out your numbers with the [time-lapse capture planner](https://plumbdaily.com/tools/capture-planner/). It shows how many photos you'll take and how long the finished video will run. ## With a builder or as an owner-builder ### Building with a builder A building site is a workplace. Many builders only let owners inside the fence at set times, or with the site supervisor. Check your contract or ask your builder before you plan your routine. That's why the street view matters. You can shoot it on the way past without setting foot on site. - If your builder offers walk-throughs at key stages, use them to start an inside scene – say, from the kitchen doorway at frame stage. - Photos taken just before the plasterboard goes up show where pipes and cables run. That's handy years later, when you want to hang a heavy mirror. - Took photos of the empty block before you found Plumb Daily? Add them from your library. They land on their original dates, so the scene starts where your build did. ### Building as an owner-builder You're on site most days, so a daily photo is realistic. You can also run more scenes: the street, the back of the block, and each main room once the frame is up. The timeline labels every photo with its date. That makes it easy to check when a stage was finished, or what a wall looked like before it was lined. ## Sharing progress with family Family who live away often want to see the build more than anyone. You can keep them up to date without asking them to install anything. - **Every photo saves to your Photos library.** It can go to an album for each scene too, if you like. Send photos the way you already share them. - **Export a video at any stage.** A short time-lapse or slideshow at frame, lock-up and handover makes a good update. The result is an MP4 video in your Photos library, so you can send it like any other video. - **Choose a slideshow for a slower pace.** Each photo holds for 1–5 seconds, with a transition such as a dissolve or push between them. - **Preview before you render.** You can watch the video, transitions included, before it renders. On iPhone, keep the app open while it renders. - **Add dates on the Mac.** The Mac app's export studio can put a date stamp on each photo. Its smooth exposure setting evens out bright and dull days, so the video doesn't flicker. ## The features that matter most for a build - **Key photo and locked lens** – every visit uses the same lens, zoom and orientation as the first. - **See-through overlay** – the key photo sits over the viewfinder, starting at 35 per cent opacity, and you can adjust it. - **Stencil** – an outline of the key photo's main edges, drawn on your phone. Line it up with the kerb and the neighbours' rooflines, which don't change while your house goes up. - **Difference view** – shows what has moved since the key photo. - **Spirit level and grid** – keep the phone level and the horizon straight. - **Moments** – short videos of the big days, trimmed to the part you want. - **Align All on the Mac** – lines every photo up with the key photo, on your Mac, and flags any it can't match confidently. A nudge editor lets you move, turn or scale a photo by hand. Your iPhone's exports use the same alignment. See [how the overlay, stencil and difference view work](https://plumbdaily.com/features/), or [what Align All and the export studio do on the Mac](https://plumbdaily.com/mac/). The same App Store listing covers iPhone and Mac. ## Example: a 36-week build with a builder This is a made-up example to show how the routine fits together. Say you're building a single-storey brick veneer home on a new estate, 15 minutes from where you live. The builder expects about 36 weeks from site start to handover. Owners can only go on site with the site supervisor. A week before site start, you stand on the footpath across the street, next to a power pole. You pick the 1× lens, turn the phone to landscape and take the key photo of the empty block, with plenty of sky above it. You set the scene's reminder for 8 am, when you usually drive past, and stop on about 3 mornings a week. On pour day you record a moment of the concrete truck. At frame stage you record another as the crane lifts the trusses. During the builder's walk-through before the plasterboard goes up, you start a second scene from the kitchen doorway. At lock-up you export a slideshow for your parents interstate. With each photo held for one second, it runs about a minute. By handover you have about 108 photos. At 10 photos a second, the time-lapse runs about 11 seconds, plus the 2 moments at real speed. At 5 photos a second, it runs about 22 seconds. On your Mac, you run Align All to tidy up any handheld wobble, turn on the date stamp and export in 4K. Working on something else? See [every kind of project Plumb Daily suits](https://plumbdaily.com/for/). ## Made by someone building a home Plumb Daily is made in Australia by Matthew Sweet, who built it to record his own new home build. See [how Plumb Daily turns an Australian house build into one time-lapse](https://plumbdaily.com/blog/house-build-time-lapse-app-australia/). ## Your photos stay yours There's no account, no ads and no tracking. Plumb Daily has no servers, so your photos never go to the developer. They sync between your iPhone and Mac through your own iCloud, where only you can see them. ## Starting a build soon? [Join the waitlist](https://plumbdaily.com/waitlist/) Plumb Daily is in beta testing and isn't on the App Store yet. You'll get one email when it is, and nothing else.