Even so, keeping up effective communications between team members and maintaining updated documents proved almost impossible. Rigid rules governed every aspect of construction documents, from timing of printing to assembly requirements. In the pre-electronic world, the construction industry put sophisticated systems in place to organize and track their printed materials. Historically, all information has been tracked and captured using paper documents. These ramifications make it critical for an ongoing, complete, and correct as-built record to be kept. Not only are contractors liable for the accuracy of as-built drawings, but it is also not unusual for payments to contractors to be withheld when an in-progress set of as-built drawings is deemed deficient.

Often, contract language also specifies changes be “redlined”-that is, modifications to the original design must be clearly identifiable. Contractual documents, therefore, are likely to place responsibility for as-built accuracy with the contractor. This means owner-architect agreements typically include language relieving architects of liability for any inaccuracies. The term “as-builts” is often used interchangeably with “record documents”-although legal parsings generally suggest some differences between the two.Īrchitects and designers are usually responsible for compiling this final drawing set, but because they are not always onsite to see work being performed first-hand, they rely on drawing markups from contractors in the field. All images courtesy ProcoreĪs-built drawings are intended to represent the finished condition of a newly built structure. With real-time as-builts, redlines, comments, or highlights can be added, and RFIs can be posted, as the project progresses. This enables drawings to reflect the project’s current status as it changes, and provides owners with accurate as-built drawings of the project on completion. On the other hand, real-time as-builts are the product of an iterative information sharing loop that can include related detail callouts, requests for information (RFIs), punch items, and markups. Once drawings are produced, cumulative errors from the document management process, along with missing markups and revisions, can result in a highly inaccurate and disjointed set of documents. Like other document control issues, this is usually a function of not having the necessary information in the right place at the right time. An all-too-familiar problem in the construction industry involves outdated drawing sets that do not reflect how a building has been built.

As built drawing fee