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The Significance of As-Built Drawings: Why is Mechanical and Electrical Blueprint Reading Important? by Julio Bonilla

The Significance of As-Built Drawings: Why is Mechanical and Electrical Blueprint Reading Important? by Julio Bonilla

Julio Bonilla has been in the Oil and Gas Industry for the past 30 years. He graduated from Saskatchewan Polytechnic majoring in Mechanical Engineering Technology in 1987. Julio then started his career as an estimator for a pressure treating package equipment, vessel, and tank manufacturer in Lloydminster AB/SK’s Oil Industry. In 2000, Julio continued his work in Oil and Gas and went on to work for Integra Engineering as a project coordinator for Facility projects. As a project coordinator, he has worked in the completion of multimillion-dollar oil batteries, water handling facilities and flowlines infrastructures in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

What is an As-Built Drawing?

Construction projects are complicated, with many moving parts that must align just right for the finished product to come out as planned. Issues inevitably arise during construction, and the best contractors prove their skill by adjusting to necessary deviations from the original design.

While they aren’t always mandatory, most clients will require a complete set of As-Built or Blueprint Drawings (also known as Record Drawings) at the conclusion of a project. The project scope of work outlines the time frame (e.g. two weeks after project completion) and the percentage of money to be held back (e.g. 10% of the total contract amount) upon the return of satisfactory As-Built Drawings to the client or client representative.

As-Built Drawings are the final set of drawings produced at the completion of an engineering project and include all the changes that have been made to the original engineering drawings. They usually contain modifications, field changes, design changes, extra works and every change that was approved and made during the construction and commissioning phase, as well as handwritten notes and sketches explaining the changes. Concurrently, taking a mechanical and electrical blueprint reading course can be an asset in the understanding and interpretation of As-Built Drawings and can help both the contractor and the client have a better overall understanding of the project.

As-Built Drawings demonstrate how the final construction was executed and shows the existing conditions “As-Is”, contrary to designs or proposed conditions.

Therefore, As-Built Drawing and the ability to effectively read blueprints becomes a critical function of any plant design engineering services and keeping the documents up-to-date must be a compulsory process to ensure engineering excellence, cost and schedule effectiveness.

The importance of As-Built Drawings

They are important for those who use the finished product, as they provide a history of what was actually built. This history becomes more important, as we continue to expand or modify the existing work and to get the employees familiar with what was-built.

As-Built Drawings, ensure that as the designers, engineers, architects and contractors move on from the project, an up-to-date record still exists beyond the original blueprints. 

As-Built Drawings assist in efficiently maintaining and operating the structure because they provide a clearly documented history of the space.

The building's mechanical, structural, electrical, and plumbing systems will be fully documented with these drawings, making maintenance and repairs on them much faster.

Without these drawings, surveying the space and determining which components need maintenance is much more time-consuming, and therefore costly.

Overall, As-Built Drawing are important for the two main reasons:

• Assists the facilities team with a full record of changes so they can meet issues faster and more accurately, hence allowing the owner to save time and money down the road.
• Improves upgrades, expansions or renovation process. With a full history of project changes, the owners can see exactly what has been built and do not have to invest heavily in learning about existing conditions.

Who is responsible for the As-Built drawings?

The contractor(s) will most often be responsible for the accuracy of the final As-Built Drawing. This makes sense, as the contractor(s) are responsible for the actual construction and are able to clearly document changes as they occur. Unfortunately, many contractors evade their responsibility to create a high-quality set of As-Built Drawings, opting to dedicate their time and resources to other tasks until the last possible minute.

In the event that there were many changes over the course of a project or that those changes were poorly documented, working on as-built drawings at the last minute may be too late.

The people in charge of As-Built Drawings differ depending on whether the design job is in-house or from an external party (EPCM/consultant).

For in-house design jobs, the As-Built Drawings could be compiled by anyone on the design team or the shops, whereas for external party design jobs the drawings are put together by the contractor or subcontractors for submission to the engineer or architect.

As mentioned, As-Builts on a whole are much easier to accomplish with detailed notes from every phase of construction. Because truly useful As-Builts require so many details, it’s simpler to use technology to record changes along the way than it is to try to recover the details of those changes afterward.

How to improve As-Built drawings?

• Before construction begins, there needs to be a place where data can be captured, stored, edited and distributed throughout the process.
• It’s important to create a culture behind data capture, which will ensure not only that you maintain as-builts as you go along but that they are of the highest possible quality.
• Participate in a mechanical or electrical blueprint reading course to ensure what is required in a blueprint and how to maximize its use.
• To create better As-Built Drawings, it helps to utilize technology that gets you a high level of project data from the start. There are several technologies utilized today which include: 3D laser scanning, BIM (building information modeling), MEP ( Mechanical Electrical Plumbing ) and connected construction data.
• A picture is worth a thousand words, and if we kept that in mind, we could increase the detail and effectiveness of as-builts immediately.
• If we want to improve As-Builts, we need to wrap our heads around the fact that, much like a living organism, a building changes from day to day. Renovations and changes are made all the time. Even small adjustments matter to a project's future makeup. Therefore, a project’s As-Built Drawings shouldn’t remain static; there needs to be an avenue to update and adapt them from the start.
• There are different products and apps that will allow you to keep track of these important changes almost immediately. We personally use Leica cameras and software and other apps that allow you to add photos and other information to simplify completion of these drawings. Some of these applications allow you to track changes immediately in the field, thereby avoiding errors and saving money and time.