The Best Way to Document Property Damage for Insurance, Six Methods Compared

A burst pipe, a kitchen fire, a tree through the roof. Someone has to record it before the strip-out starts, and the best way to document property damage for insurance is rarely the one that looks most impressive in a demo. It is the one that lets the person reviewing the file next week answer their own questions without sending anyone back to site.

That reviewer might be a desk adjuster, a public adjuster preparing a counter-estimate, or a restoration project manager defending a scope line. Each opens the record cold. Six methods compete for that job, and they differ less in picture quality than in what they let someone do after the walls come down.

The short version

For interiors that will be stripped, take a Gaussian splat capture with Captures Studio: a phone video becomes a walkable, measurable scene that opens from a link. Keep phone photos for close-up detail on every claim. Use Matterport when the estimate must start from an Xactimate sketch file, and a licensed drone pilot when the roof is the loss.

What is the best way to document property damage for insurance?

Capture the whole space in 3D before anything is moved, then add close-up photos of specific damage. A Gaussian splat scene from a single phone walkthrough records every room in context, can be scaled and measured afterwards, and opens in a browser for anyone on the claim. Photos supply the detail. Together they rarely need a revisit.

The order matters as much as the method. The NAIC's consumer guidance is blunt about it: before removing debris or belongings, document all losses with photos or video and a list of damaged items, and keep damaged items where possible so the insurer can inspect them (NAIC, 2017). Every method below is judged on how well it holds that moment for someone who was not there.

How we are comparing

Most advice on the best way to document property damage for insurance stops at taking lots of photos. These five criteria serve the reviewer instead of the person holding the camera.

• Hardware. What has to be bought, carried or licensed before the first claim. A field adjuster or a restoration tech already has a phone. Anything beyond it is a cost and a training line.
• Capture time on site. Minutes on site are minutes the homeowner is waiting and the mitigation crew is idle.
• Measurement after the visit. Whether a dimension can be read off the record later, without a return trip with a tape.
• Opens without an app. Carriers, contractors, independent adjusters and sometimes counsel all need to open the same record. An install requirement is a support ticket.
• Limits. What the method structurally cannot show, however well it is used.

These are property damage documentation methods judged as evidence. Visual polish is not a criterion. Context is.

Gaussian splat capture with Captures Studio

A Gaussian splat is a 3D reconstruction built from ordinary footage. Captures Studio takes photos, video, 360 footage, drone footage or LiDAR point clouds (E57, LAS, LAZ, PLY), processes them in the cloud in 10 to 120 minutes, and returns a photoreal scene a reviewer can move through freely. No local GPU, nothing to install.

What it does well. The capture is the walkthrough the adjuster was going to film anyway. One continuous pass through a flooded ground floor, phone held steady, becomes a scene where the reviewer can stand in the kitchen, turn to the hallway and look up at the ceiling stain, in context, from angles nobody thought to photograph. Existing walkthrough clips work too, which is what the video to 3D pipeline is for. Teams already carrying an Insta360 or a Ricoh Theta can feed that footage through 360 to 3D instead.

Measurement is the part that turns a picture into evidence. A scene can be scaled to real-world size from something in the capture whose true length is known: a door, a tape measure laid on the floor, a printed marker. Once scaled, distances are measured directly in 3D inside the scene. The height of a tide line on drywall, the width of a ceiling collapse, the run of skirting that has to come off. A public adjuster disputing a scope can read the dimension off the same record the carrier holds.

Sharing is one link, an embed or a QR code. It opens on a phone, tablet, desktop or VR headset with no app, so the desk adjuster, the contractor and the homeowner see the same thing. Hotspots pin notes, close-up photos, video and links to exact spots in the scene, so the moisture reading sits on the wall it was taken from. For before-and-after records, Multi Splat aligns two captures of the same space and compares them, which suits a pre-loss baseline against a post-loss scan, or a restoration firm showing dry-out progress.

Where it falls down. Processing is not instant: the scene arrives 10 to 120 minutes after upload, so it does not replace a photo sent from the driveway. No accuracy tolerance has been published for the measurement tool, and precision depends on the reference used and the quality of the capture, so a figure that will be contested line by line still belongs on a laser measure. The capture needs coverage. A room walked too fast, or a corner never filmed, leaves gaps the reconstruction cannot invent, which is why pace and overlap matter more than the camera (the interactive capture tutorial walks through both). And if the estimate has to start from an estimating-software sketch file, that is not what a splat scene hands over.

Who it suits. Field and desk adjusters who want one record per loss that answers follow-up questions (the same logic as remote site inspection with 3D capture), public adjusters building a counter-scope, and restoration firms that need a dated record of the space before demolition removes the evidence.

Phone photos

The baseline of every claim file, and it should stay that way.

What it does well. Nothing beats a sharp close-up for detail: the serial plate on a water heater, the burn pattern on a socket, the crack running from a window corner. Phone cameras write the capture date and time into the file metadata, and nobody needs an app to open a JPEG. The NAIC guidance names photos first for good reason (NAIC, 2017).

Where it falls down. Photos are fragments. Forty of them do not tell a reviewer how the rooms connect, where the camera was standing, or what sat just outside the frame. Measurement is limited to whatever ruler someone remembered to place in the shot. Gaps only show up later, when the reviewer wants the one angle nobody took.

Who it suits. Everyone, as a supplement. On small, single-room losses, photos alone are often enough.

Walkthrough video

Phone video, one continuous pass, narrated as you go.

What it does well. Continuity. A reviewer sees how the hallway leads into the bathroom and hears the field adjuster describe what they are looking at. It is fast on site and needs no extra hardware.

Where it falls down. Video is linear. The reviewer sees exactly what the camera pointed at, at the speed it moved, and cannot pause and look the other way. There is no measurement, and scrubbing a twelve-minute file to find the ceiling in bedroom two is slow work. The clip is far more useful as input to a reconstruction than as the final record, a point the Matterport alternative for 3D property tours post makes from the real estate side.

Who it suits. Anyone who already films walkthroughs and wants to keep that habit. Shoot it with steady, overlapping coverage and the same clip can become a splat scene later.

360 photo tours

A 360 camera shoots a full sphere at each stop, and a tour platform stitches the stops into a click-through.

What it does well. A reviewer can look in every direction from each position, which already beats a flat photo for context. Consumer 360 cameras are compact and quick to use, and Matterport lists the Insta360 X5 and Ricoh Theta Z1 among cameras whose captures can feed its platform (Matterport, 2026).

Where it falls down. Each 360 photo is a sphere of pixels around one point. There is no depth between stops, so the reviewer jumps from position to position rather than moving through the space, and standard 360 photos carry nothing to measure from. Coverage depends on where the operator chose to stand. That is the gap a reconstruction from 360 video closes.

Who it suits. Teams that already own a 360 camera and need a quick, look-around record, with measurement handled elsewhere.

Matterport

Matterport is the incumbent in 3D property capture, and its insurance workflow is real. Matterport for insurance claims is a workflow it markets directly to adjusters, down to which 360 cameras suit claims work (Matterport, 2026).

What it does well. The output is built for estimating. Matterport says schematic floor plans are delivered within 48 hours, with 24-hour and 6-hour express options, and that TruePlan Xactimate SKX files remove manual sketching and measurement from the adjuster's workload (Matterport, 2026). Measurement Mode in Showcase, its web client, lets users measure rooms, doors, windows and furniture with a click or tap on a PC or mobile device, and share those measurements (Matterport, 2019). Tours open from a my.matterport.com link or an iframe embed (Matterport, 2026).

Where it falls down. The native camera is the Pro3, which starts at $3,995 (Matterport, 2026). Supported 360 cameras lower that bar, but capture still happens scan by scan, stopping at each position across the space. Not every 360 camera is supported: Matterport lists the DJI Osmo 360 as not compatible with its platform (Matterport, 2026). The record lives on one vendor's platform, and the extra deliverables are a workflow built around that platform.

Who it suits. Carriers and large restoration firms whose estimating starts from a sketch file and who have already invested in the hardware and the training.

Drone imagery

A drone roof inspection puts a camera where a ladder is unsafe or slow.

What it does well. Steep pitches, high ridges and hail-damaged slopes get photographed without anyone climbing. Overhead and oblique shots show the extent of storm damage in a way ground photos cannot, and image or video files open anywhere.

Where it falls down. It covers exteriors only. Paid roof inspection flights in the United States fall under the FAA's Part 107 rules, which require a Remote Pilot Certificate, a registered aircraft, and airspace authorisation in controlled airspace (FAA, 2026). Raw drone photos carry no measurement on their own: roof dimensions come from separate photogrammetry or measurement reports. Weather and site conditions decide whether a flight happens at all.

Who it suits. Roofing-heavy claims and catastrophe response, flown by a certificated pilot. The same drone footage can also become a splat scene of the exterior, so the roof and the interior can sit in one claim record instead of two formats.

Which one to pick

Documenting an interior before strip-out, for a reviewer who was not there: a Gaussian splat capture from a phone walkthrough, scaled from a known reference, plus close-up photos pinned as hotspots. The scene answers the questions nobody thought to ask on the day.

Disputing a scope as a public adjuster: the same splat scene, so both sides measure off one shared record rather than trading photo sets.

Showing restoration progress or a pre-loss baseline: two captures of the same space aligned in Multi Splat, before against after.

Starting the estimate from a sketch file in estimating software: Matterport, if the Pro3 or a supported camera is already in the kit.

Assessing a roof: a drone flown by a certificated pilot, with the footage optionally rebuilt into 3D alongside the interior.

Whatever the choice, photos still go in the file. No method replaces a sharp close-up of a serial number.

FAQ

Is video or photos better for an insurance claim?

Both, for different jobs. Photos capture close detail such as serial plates, burn marks and cracks, and they open anywhere. Video captures continuity, how rooms connect and what the adjuster said on site. A continuous walkthrough video can also be turned into a measurable 3D scene, which gives a reviewer the context video provides with the freedom to look anywhere.

Can you measure damage from a 3D capture after the site visit?

Yes, with the right capture. A Gaussian splat scene in Captures Studio can be scaled to real-world size from a known reference, such as a door or a tape measure in the shot, and then measured directly in 3D. Matterport offers Measurement Mode in its Showcase web client. Standard photos and walkthrough video carry no measurement on their own.

Do I need a licence to fly a drone for a roof inspection?

In the United States, yes, for paid work. The FAA treats business flying, roof inspections included, as Part 107 operation, which requires a Remote Pilot Certificate and a registered drone. Flights in controlled airspace also need authorisation. Hobby rules do not cover a drone flown on a claim.

Does a reviewer need an app to open a 3D damage record?

Not with a browser-based viewer. A Captures Studio scene opens from a link, an embed or a QR code on a phone, tablet, desktop or VR headset with no install. Matterport tours also open in a browser from a link or embed. Photos and video open as ordinary files, though large video files can be slow to share.

When should damage be documented?

Before anything is moved, cleaned or repaired. The NAIC advises documenting all losses with photos or video before removing debris or belongings, and keeping damaged items where possible so the insurer can inspect them. Temporary mitigation to stop further damage is usually fine, but record the space first and keep every receipt.

A claim file is judged by the questions it can answer without a second visit. Photos answer what something looked like up close. Video answers what was there. A measurable 3D record answers where it was, how big it was, and what sat next to it, for anyone who opens the link months later. That last set is the one that tends to decide a disputed scope, and the one that disappears first when the strip-out crew arrives.

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