# As-Built Drawings: The Record of What Was Actually Installed

> As-built drawings record what was actually installed, including every change made during construction, as distinct from the design drawings that showed what was intended. For concealed services in particular they are the only record of where things are, which makes them the most valuable document in a handover pack.

## Why it matters on a project

Every future change to the building depends on this document.

Adding a meeting room means knowing where the sprinkler main runs. Moving a
desk cluster means knowing where the floor boxes are fed from. Investigating a
leak means knowing which pipe is above that ceiling tile. Without a record, all
of those start with opening up ceilings and floors to find out.

The cost of that, repeated over a building's life, dwarfs the cost of producing
the drawings properly in the first place.

## Three sets of drawings, three different things

| Drawing set | Shows | Produced by |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Design | What was intended | Design team |
| Shop / fabrication | How it will be made and installed | Contractor or specialist |
| **As-built** | **What was actually installed** | Contractor, at completion |

They differ because construction always involves change — a clash resolved on
site, a route altered around a structural member, a substituted item with
different dimensions. Those changes are precisely what the as-built set exists
to capture, and precisely what gets lost when it is produced from memory.

## The failure mode

As-builts are meant to be maintained **as work proceeds**, with changes marked
up when they happen.

In practice they are often assembled at the end, by marking up the design set
from whatever notes survive. Changes made early in the programme, by trades who
have long since left, are the ones that go unrecorded — and those tend to be the
deep services changes that matter most.

The practical control is to require marked-up records at interim stages rather
than only at completion, and to tie the final deliverable to a payment
milestone.

## What belongs in the handover pack alongside them

- Operating and maintenance manuals
- Test certificates and commissioning records
- Equipment schedules with make, model and serial numbers
- Warranties and their start dates
- Spare parts and attic stock schedule
- Training records for the client's facilities team

Documentation and record requirements sit within the administrative framework of
**NBC 2016, Part 2**, with building services covered in **NBC 2016, Part 8**.

## Common mistakes

- **Producing them at the end from the design set.** Early changes are lost.
- **Accepting PDFs only.** The next alteration cannot build on the record.
- **Not tying them to a payment milestone.** They arrive late or incomplete.
- **Omitting the level of detail from the contract.** "As-builts" without a
  defined scope gets interpreted minimally.
- **Storing them where nobody can find them later.** A record the facilities team
  cannot locate is the same as no record.

## Standards referenced

Administrative provisions covering documentation and records in
**NBC 2016, Part 2**; building services provisions in **NBC 2016, Part 8**. The
required scope, format and detail of as-built documentation for a specific
project is set by the project's contract and consultants.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do they differ from design and shop drawings?

Design drawings show the intent. Shop drawings show how a contractor proposes to fabricate and install it, usually in more detail. As-built drawings show what ended up on site after every field change, clash resolution and substitution. The three routinely differ, and only the last one describes the building you actually own.

### Why do they matter more than other handover documents?

Because services are concealed. Once the ceiling closes and the floor goes down, the only way to know where a duct, a pipe, an isolator or a cable route sits is the record. Without it, every future alteration begins with exploratory opening-up, which is slow, disruptive and sometimes damages what it finds.

### Where do they most often fall short?

They are produced by marking up the original design drawings at the end, from memory and from whatever site records exist, rather than being maintained as work proceeds. Changes made months earlier get missed. The result looks complete and is wrong in exactly the places where a change was made — which are the places most likely to matter later.

### What should they cover?

Architectural layouts as built, and all services: HVAC ductwork and equipment, plumbing and drainage runs, electrical distribution and containment routes, fire detection and suppression, and low-voltage systems. Concealed routes, isolators, valves and access points matter most. They should be accompanied by the operating and maintenance manuals, test and commissioning records, and warranties.

### What format should they be in?

Editable native files as well as PDFs. A PDF-only handover means the next alteration cannot be drawn on top of the record without redrawing it, which is how buildings end up with no maintained record after the second fit-out. Agreeing the format at contract stage costs nothing; requesting it afterwards often fails.

### Who is responsible for producing them?

Normally the contractor, as a contractual deliverable, often prepared by the installing subcontractors for their own systems and coordinated into one set. Because it is a contract requirement rather than an automatic outcome, it should be written in explicitly — including the format and the level of detail — and tied to a payment milestone.

## Sources

- [NBC 2016, Part 2](https://www.bis.gov.in/standards/national-building-code/?lang=en) — Administration — documentation and records
- [NBC 2016, Part 8](https://www.bis.gov.in/standards/national-building-code/?lang=en) — Building services

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Source: https://hagerstone.com/glossary/as-built-drawings