What construction documents are, and what a full set includes
The phase names, the drawings and specifications a full set holds, the sets that come out of it, and who prepares and signs the documents.
The short definition
Construction documents are the drawings and specifications that describe a building in enough detail for a building department to approve it and a contractor to price and build it. In most practices the term names both a phase of work, the CD phase, and the set the phase produces, the CD set.
The phase names most US practices use come from the American Institute of Architects' standard owner agreement, AIA Document B101. Its basic services are organized in five phases: Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, Procurement and Construction (AIA Contract Documents, B101-2017 overview). The agreement describes the CD phase as the further development of the approved design development documents into drawings and specifications that set out, in detail, the quality levels and performance criteria of the materials and systems, and the other requirements for building the work. During the same phase the bidding documents, the form of the owner and contractor agreement and the conditions of the contract are assembled, along with a project manual that holds the specifications.
Many offices use the same phase names without the AIA form, and public agencies often write their own versions of it. The meaning is close enough across them that a principal, a plan checker and a general contractor read "CDs" the same way.
The phases before CDs
Schematic design
Schematic design fixes the scheme: the massing, the unit count and mix, the site plan, and the code strategy. The output is a short set of plans, sections, elevations and area tabulations an owner can approve and finance. The schematic design service page lists what that set usually holds on a multifamily building.
Design development
Design development turns the approved scheme into a building with real assemblies. B101 describes the DD documents as plans, sections, elevations, typical construction details and diagrammatic layouts of the building systems, plus outline specifications that name the major materials and systems. On a multifamily project this is where wall and floor types, unit plans at a buildable scale and the first coordination with structure and the building systems get settled. The design development checklist sets out what DD needs to close before CDs start.
Construction documents
The CD phase completes the set. Every plan is dimensioned and keyed, every assembly has a detail, every opening has a schedule entry, and the consultant drawings and the specifications are coordinated with the sheets. On a multifamily building most of the hours in this phase go to enlarged plans, details and schedules: work that follows from decisions already made in DD.
What a full CD set includes
A complete set has two parts, the drawings and the specifications, and on most projects several sets of drawings by different disciplines bound together.
| Part | What it holds | Who prepares it |
|---|---|---|
| General sheets | Cover, sheet index, code analysis, accessibility plans, abbreviations and symbols | your office |
| Building sheets | Site plan, floor plans, roof plan, reflected ceiling plans, elevations, sections, enlarged plans, details, schedules | your office |
| Structural | Foundation and framing plans, sections, details, general notes | the structural engineer |
| Mechanical, plumbing, electrical, fire protection | Systems plans, risers, schedules, details | the building systems engineers |
| Civil and landscape | Grading, drainage, utilities, planting and hardscape | the civil engineer and landscape designer |
| Specifications | The project manual: requirements for each material and system, usually organized in the Construction Specifications Institute's MasterFormat divisions | your office and each consultant |
The multifamily CD sheet list gives the sheet-by-sheet version for a podium building, in National CAD Standard order, with how the list changes from a 10-unit walk-up to a 150-unit building.
What makes a set complete
A set is complete when a reader can find every answer on it without calling the office. In practice that means:
- every room, door, window and wall type on the plans has a tag, and every tag resolves to a schedule entry or a type;
- every callout points to a drawn detail on a real sheet;
- the code analysis, the accessibility plans and the unit matrix agree with the plans;
- the consultant sheets match the current building sheets;
- the specifications cover every product the drawings name.
The title-block check is the last pass before any issue: the 14 items that keep numbers, titles, dates, revisions and references consistent across the set.
The sets that come out of CDs
The CD phase rarely ends in one set. The same documents are issued several times, each for a different reader.
| Set | Reader | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Plan check or permit set | the building department and the other reviewing agencies | issued once the code-relevant content is complete; revised through each round of corrections until approval |
| Bid set | contractors pricing the work | issued with the specifications and the bidding requirements; addenda during bidding change it |
| Conformed set | everyone on the project | the bid set with the addenda folded in, so the contract matches one set |
| Construction set | the contractor in the field | the approved permit set plus the conformed changes, then kept current with supplemental instructions and revisions |
The difference between the set a building department approves and the set a contractor builds from is the subject of a separate guide: permit drawings and construction drawings.
Who prepares and who signs
On a multifamily project the practice leading the design prepares the building sheets and coordinates the consultants, and each consultant prepares and signs its own discipline. The building department accepts the set only under the signature and seal of a licensed professional who held responsible control over it.
In California that control has a statutory definition, and it applies whether the sheets were drawn by employees of the practice or by a production team outside it. The responsible control guide sets out what the law requires: the licensee holds control over the content of the sheets and detailed knowledge of it while they are drawn, and a review after the fact does not count (Bus. and Prof. Code 5535.1).
The building code itself names the person in charge of the documents. The International Building Code calls that person the registered design professional in responsible charge and gives that person specific duties, for example listing any deferred submittals on the construction documents for the building official (IBC 107.3.4.1, UpCodes).
Specifications and the drawings
The drawings show where things go and how they fit; the specifications say what each thing is and how it is installed. On a multifamily project the project manual is organized in the Construction Specifications Institute's MasterFormat divisions, and the two halves of the set refer to each other: a wall type on the drawings names an assembly, and the specification section for that assembly names the products, the performance requirements and the installation standard.
Two habits keep the halves in step. Keynotes on the drawings point to specification sections, so a reader can go from a sheet to the right section in one move. And product names stay off the drawings wherever the specification already names them, so a substitution changes one document. Smaller multifamily projects often put the specifications on the sheets as notes; larger ones bind a separate project manual. Either way, the plan checker and the contractor read the two together.
Gaps that show up in multifamily CD sets
Plan check comments and contractor questions on multifamily sets cluster in the same places, because the same few elements repeat across the building:
- The unit matrix and the plans disagree. An accessible unit moves on the floor plan and the matrix on the general sheet still shows the old count.
- Wall types drift. A partition drawn on one level with a rating the wall type no longer has, or a type changed in the legend and not on the plans.
- Door schedule and plans. Door counts, ratings and hardware sets that differ between the schedule and what the plans show.
- Consultant backgrounds out of date. Structural or plumbing sheets drawn on a superseded plan, so shear walls or stacks no longer line up with the building sheets.
- Details that resolve nowhere. Callouts that point to a detail number on a sheet where the detail was removed.
Each of these is a coordination failure, and each is cheaper to catch in the model before an issue than in a correction round after it.
How long a CD set takes
No published standard sets a duration for CDs, and the hours depend on the building, the template and how settled the design is at the end of DD. Two practical rules hold on most multifamily projects:
- the more of the set that exists as a model when CDs start, the shorter the phase, because plans, elevations, sections and schedules are views of the model;
- the hours concentrate in the repetitive parts of the set: enlarged unit plans, details and schedules.
Those two facts are why a practice that is short on hours tends to hand off a defined package inside CDs, such as the enlarged unit plans or the wall sections and details, and keep the decisions in the office.
Where the studio fits
TECTO Studio draws construction documents in your Revit model and on your template, for multifamily practices: the full sheet list, or one package of it, coordinated with your consultants and checked sheet by sheet before it reaches you. The construction documents page describes the work and the pilot.
Sources
- AIA Contract Documents: B101-2017 overview
- AIA Document B101-2017, Sections 3.2 to 3.4 (phase descriptions, paraphrased here), as reproduced in the South Carolina Office of the State Engineer sample
- IBC 107.3.4.1, deferred submittals (UpCodes)
- Construction Specifications Institute: MasterFormat