Who is responsible for producing as-built drawings?

Typically the GC or the responsible subcontractor marks up field changes as work progresses, and the design team or a CAD service then redrafts the final clean set from those markups at closeout. Responsibility and format, hand-marked redlines versus a fully redrafted CAD or BIM model, are usually spelled out in the contract’s closeout requirements. Incomplete or inaccurate as-builts are one of the most common reasons final payment and retainage release get held up, since the owner is accepting the documentation along with the building itself.

Why do owners care about as-built drawings years after a project closes?

Because the as-built is the only reliable map of what is actually behind the walls, above the ceiling, or underground, information that is otherwise invisible. A future renovation, a tenant build-out, or an emergency repair all depend on knowing where a relocated duct, an unmarked conduit run, or a rerouted pipe actually sits, not where the original design drawing said it would be. A building without accurate as-builts forces every future trade to guess or open up finished work just to find out what is there, turning a routine repair into an expensive discovery project.

What triggers an update to the as-built set?

Any approved deviation from the design drawings during construction: an RFI response that relocates an element, a field change directed by the owner or architect, a substitution accepted through the submittal process, or a conflict resolved in the field the drawings never anticipated. Each of these gets marked up, dated, and tied back to its originating document, an RFI number, a change order, or a field directive, so the final as-built set is traceable, a record of why each line moved, not just a set of unexplained changes.

Construction Glossary · Quality & Field

As-BuiltDrawings

The design set shows what was planned. The as-built shows what is actually in the walls, and it is the only one a future trade can trust.

Definition

As-built drawings are the drawings updated through construction to show what was actually built, every field change, substitution, and deviation from the design set. Handed over at project closeout, they tell the owner and future trades what is really in the walls, not just what was planned.

Where the plan and the build diverge

Every project has conflicts the design drawings never anticipated, an existing duct, a buried utility, a dimension that does not work in the field. The as-built is the record of how the crew actually routed around it.

What feeds the as-built set

An as-built is assembled, not written from scratch. Each deviation traces back to a specific field document.

Source document	What it records	When it feeds the as-built
RFI response	A design clarification that relocates or changes an element	At the field change, dated and numbered
Field markup	The foreman’s redline of the actual routing or dimension	As the work is installed
Submittal substitution	An approved alternate product or layout	At approval, before install

The daily construction report is where most of these field markups first get dated and recorded, well before the final drawing is redrafted at final completion.

How POD handles as-built records

POD reads the daily field record, the dated log of what was actually built, which is the raw material an as-built is assembled from. POD does not produce as-built drawings.

Construction daily report guide

Frequently asked questions

The drawing is only as good as the record behind it

A clean as-built set at closeout starts with the deviations being caught and dated while the work is still open.

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