Archive: As Built vs. Record Drawings

Last updated: January 13, 2025
Content created: August 2, 2023

As built drawings

Drawings marked up in the field to reflect changes to the design documents. For in-house design jobs – these could be put together by anyone on the design team or the shops and submitted to the PM for inclusion in the record drawings.
For out of house design jobs – the drawings are put together by the contractor, typically with the assistance of sub-contractors for submittal to the architect for inclusion in the record drawings.

A complete set of clean drawings that reflect how the project was built - folding the as-built revisions into the design documents, including addenda, post bid bulletins and design revisions.
These are compiled by the designer from the as-built drawings submitted by the contractor, as a record of the work. Since these are not confirmed in the field by the designer they are not "as-built" but a compiled record.
Record drawings are expected to represent a complete drawing set, not just the sheets that changed. These drawings will not be signed but will be stamped or otherwise marked by the design team as “record drawings” and dated.
Small jobs that do not produce as built drawings and there was no change to the construction drawings during construction, should have all the construction drawings sheets marked Record Drawings and dated by the designer for submission as record drawings by the project manager.