Construction drawings: the set, the revision, and keeping the current one on the job
- Work order total
- $863.16
- Labour
- $510
- Parts, marked up
- $288
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Jobcardo publishes no tax rate, no wage figure and no trade standard: the rate, the markup and the tax on the parts line are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
Construction drawings are the set the work is built from: the general arrangement, the sections and elevations, the details, and the discipline drawings for structure, mechanical and electrical. A small firm rarely has trouble reading them. What goes wrong is revision control, because a drawing set is reissued during a job and the sheet in the van is the one from four weeks ago. Building to a superseded drawing is one of the few mistakes that is expensive every single time it happens.
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Know which sheets are current, by revision and date
Every sheet carries a number and a revision. The register that matters is the one saying which revision is current for each sheet and when it was issued. Keep it on the job, not in a folder on somebody's laptop, and the answer to what are we building to is one look rather than three phone calls.
Issue changes to the people holding the old ones
A reissued drawing is only reissued if it reaches the crew and the subcontractors working from it. Recording who received which revision and when is what turns a reissue into a control, and it is the evidence that decides who pays when work is built to a superseded sheet.
Read the drawings against the specification, and raise the gap as an RFI
The drawings say where and how big; the specification says what of. Where they disagree, or where a detail cannot be built as drawn, the answer is a written question and a written answer, not a decision taken on site. That question is an RFI and it belongs on the same record as the drawing it concerns.
Construction drawings: common questions
What is the difference between construction drawings and working drawings? In practice none: both name the set the work is built from, as against the concept or planning drawings. Some offices use working drawings for the detailed set issued for construction and construction drawings for the whole package; the distinction matters far less than knowing which revision is current.
How long should drawings be kept after a job? Longer than you expect to need them, because a defect, an insurance question or an extension years later is answered from the drawing set and the as-built record. Anything that documents what was built and why is worth keeping for as long as the building can come back to you.
Who is responsible if work is built to a superseded drawing? It depends on whether the reissue was properly issued and received, which is exactly why the transmittal record exists. A reissue that was emailed into a thread nobody read is a weaker position than a reissue recorded against the job with a date and a recipient.
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Keeping what you raise
The worksheets are free forever. Pro turns them into the record: every order you raise kept against the customer with its status from raised to done to invoiced, every change dated, your company name and logo on the sheet, no watermark, and an export when the bookkeeper asks.
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