AS-BUILT DRAWINGS: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHEN YOUR PROJECT NEEDS THEM
As-built drawings show a building the way it was actually constructed, not the way it was designed on paper. The two rarely match. During construction, contractors move outlets, shift walls by a few inches, reroute pipes around unexpected obstacles, and swap materials. Every change makes the original plans a little less accurate. As-built drawings capture the final state of the building with all these field changes included.
Here is a typical situation. An Architect takes on the renovation of an office building from the 1970s. The owner hands over a folder of faded paper plans and says this is all the documentation there is. Before any design work starts, someone has to establish what the building really looks like today: where the walls, pipes, and wiring actually are. That is the job of as-built drawings.
In this article, we explain what as-built drawings are, how they differ from design drawings, what a complete set includes, and how to get accurate as-builts even if all you have is a box of old blueprints.
