AS-BUILT DRAWINGS|FIELD SURVEY
Most buildings, including single-family homes, are not constructed exactly as they are
designed and drawn by the architect. In some cases, an architect may not have been involved. In other cases, there may
not be any surviving drawings. In other cases, a building may be the result of multiple renovations and additions that
occurred over weekends and "vacations" from the owner's place of business.
Improvement to an existing building typically requires the creation of
"as-built drawings" so the project team can accurately assess the work. In many cases, the existing conditions are
recorded by a field crew, recorded in a computer drafting program and published for use as "background" drawings.
Let's not confuse the roll of the as-built drawings, collected by "field survey",
with the survey of the property. As-built drawings are for the building proper. They're primarily intended to capture
information about the interior of a building. The limit of the as-built drawings is typically the exterior envelope of the
building. The as-built drawings do not typically record any information about the land. A surveyor will record the
information about the land: location of the improvements, boundaries, right-of-way, etc.
For smaller projects, like residential work, the as-built drawings may only
encompass the area where improvements will be made. The initial record of the space may be as informal as a sketch or
series of complimentary freehand drawings on a notepad (see above).
As information is collected and drafted, it can be published and verified
by supplemental measurements. This collection of additional layers of information allows the project team to move beyond
the general relationships between the spaces to focus on collecting information such as door sizes, trim packages, etc. (see above)
The as-built drawings are particularly important for areas with a great deal of
fit and finish: kitchens, bathrooms, etc. The casework, equipment and other components in these spaces are planned and
published at a scale that allows very little tolerance (see above).
Eventually, the as-built drawings are incorporated into the set. In many cases,
the as-builts are published as the existing condition, the as-builts are used to create a demolition drawing and the as-builts
are used for the background of the new work plans.
Though it may be difficult to see in the scale of the drawing
above, the walls and other elements screened back to a grey tone are the existing condition. New work is drawn in black. This
method clearly distinguishes new work from the existing work and allows the project team to accurately communicate the work.
Simply put, the as-built drawings are the foundation upon which your project
team will build its contract documents.
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