Where to put QR codes on a construction site
From the gate to the plant room: six places where a printed code earns its keep, and what belongs behind each one. Written for site managers, subcontractors and small builders.
Six places to put a QR code on a construction site
At the site entrance
The sign-in code. Everyone scans on the way in and on the way out, so you know who is on site right now rather than who wrote their name down this morning. The time comes from our servers, and the position is checked before it counts.
On the hoarding
The public face of the job. A code for the site layout, the working hours and the contact for complaints — so a neighbour scans instead of ringing the office, and the board carries something useful rather than only what is required.
Where the high-risk work happens
Hot work, work at height, confined spaces. The permit is signed at the work area itself, time-stamped by our servers, and it expires on its own — so nobody signs one back at the cabin an hour after the job was finished. Position validated as they sign, if you require it.
In the welfare unit
Toilets, drying room, canteen. A log sheet on the wall gets filled in on a Friday for the whole week; a code scanned on the way out records each round as it happens, with the time taken from the server rather than from memory.
On riser and plant room doors
One code per room or per package: the electrical schematic on the panel door, the services drawing in the riser, the operating instructions in the plant room. Replace the file and the printed code serves the new revision at the next scan.
At the waste compound
Skips and material storage. A code by the compound holds the segregation instructions, the product data for what is stored there, and the record of what left the site — the paperwork you are asked for months later, kept where it is actually produced.
QR codes on drawings: the sheet on the wall is always the old one
A printed drawing goes out of date the moment it is superseded, and the one taped up in the riser is the one nobody went back to replace. That is the case for putting the code on the sheet rather than the sheet on the wall — and it holds for everything else on a site, where nothing stands still: drawings are superseded, method statements are revised, and half the people here this week were not here last week. The code is printed once; what is behind it keeps moving.
Revision B supersedes revision A
You replace the file from your dashboard and the code already on the door serves the new revision at the next scan, with the earlier versions kept in the history. Nobody is left working from a superseded sheet taped to a wall, because there is only ever one document behind the code.
Static when it is settled for good
For something that will never change — the cabin Wi-Fi, your phone number, an emergency contact — a static code burns the content into the pattern itself. It keeps working whatever happens to any service, including ours. The breakdown type by type is in our guide to QR code types.
Print your scan me sign
A bare code stuck to a door gets ignored. An A4 sign that says what it is for gets scanned. Drop in the code you already have — it is printed as it is, and a dynamic one stays dynamic — or give us an address and we will make one.
Our other free tools: hot work permit, site sign-in sheet, site log sheet and the concrete volume calculator.
Start with one code, not a rollout
Pick the place where something goes wrong most often — usually the gate or the permit — and put a single code there. Adding the other five is easy once one of them has earned its keep, and cutting the paperwork on a small site works the same way: one thing at a time.
QR codes on site — frequently asked questions
Why put QR codes on a site at all?
Because site information lives in ring binders, van boots and personal phones, and none of those are reachable at the moment the question comes up. A printed code puts the right content exactly where the question is asked: the drawing on the plant room door, the sign-in at the gate, the operating instructions on the machine.
What happens when a drawing is superseded?
Nothing gets reprinted. Document codes are dynamic: you replace the file from your dashboard and the code already stuck to the door serves the new revision at the next scan; from the Pro plan up, the previous revisions are kept in the history. That is the single biggest practical difference with pinning a printout to a wall.
Does anyone need to install an app?
No. The phone camera reads a QR code natively, with no app and no account. That is the condition for this working on a real site: a subcontractor there for one day will not sign up for anything, and a system that asks them to is a system nobody uses.
How do I print a code that survives outdoors?
Export it as PNG, SVG or PDF, print it at the size you need and either laminate it or have it mounted on board. The pattern scales without losing anything, so an A4 code on a hoarding reads from several metres away. The free sign generator further down this page lays out the whole sheet for you.
Will it scan in a basement or a steel frame?
Scanning needs a connection, and basements and steel structures are exactly where phones struggle. We would rather say so than pretend otherwise: a QR code replaces the folder in the site office, not the printed sheet in the place where you already know there is no signal.
What does it cost to start?
Nothing. The free plan covers your first codes, including document codes, site sign-in and the site log. Paid plans raise the volume and the retention, and add work permits. The pricing page has the detail.
Our other free tools
Built for site work, with no sign-up: the document is produced in your browser and you print it.
Hot work permit
Fill in the form, download a permit that is ready to sign on site.
Site sign-in sheet
A printable sign-in sheet, plus the geofenced QR code version.
Site log sheet
A printable log for cleaning rounds, checks and readings.
RAMS sign-off sheet
Record who was briefed, on which revision, and what they asked.
Site induction form
Your site rules to display, with the register of who has read them.
Goods received note
Filled in and signed at the delivery: quantities, condition, discrepancies.
Equipment maintenance log
Identity of the machine, documents kept with it, and the service history.
Concrete volume calculator
Work out how much concrete to order — in cubic metres or cubic yards.
Everything else on site
Free templates you can print today, and the QR code version for the day paper stops being enough.
Hot work permit
The free template to fill in and print — and the QR code version signed on site.
Site sign-in
A printable sign-in sheet, plus the geofenced QR code check-in.
Site log sheet
Cleaning rounds, security checks, readings — printed or QR.
RAMS sign-off
Who was briefed, on which revision, and what they asked — printed or QR.
Site induction
The site rules read and acknowledged at the gate — printed or QR.
Goods received note
Quantities, condition and two signatures at the delivery — printed or QR.
Equipment maintenance log
Make, serial number, warranty and service history — printed, or stuck on the machine as a QR.
Concrete calculator
How much to order, in cubic metres or cubic yards, with quantities.
Site safety documents
Method statements and permits reachable where the work actually happens.
QR code types
What each type does on site, and which paper it replaces.
Where codes go
Gate, hoarding, welfare unit, risers — place by place, with a free sign.
Going paperless
What is worth taking off paper on a small site, and what is not.
Environmental records
Skip tickets, segregation instructions and product data, kept at the compound.
Ready to get started?
Your first QR code takes about two minutes
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