Why Up-to-Date Drawings Matter!

[00:00:00] Are you looking at the latest drawings? If you're typically on site, you don't want to miss this one. Welcome to What the RFI. I'm Matt Brennan and this is the podcast all about CA. So let's get into it. Today is all about drawings. Drawings, drawings, drawings, okay? And actually the latest drawings too.

[00:00:25] We're going to come back to that later. But the history of drawings, okay? You spent not only the initial design time, but you know, all the way to CDs. Maybe you've just come in and helped. But average person, you've probably spent six months on these drawings, maybe even two years. Depends on the size of the project, right? And again, you know, different involvements. Maybe it came in just to be some detailing. But typically most people start the project at the beginning

[00:00:52] and end with it. And if you're one of those job captains, the guy that is doing CA, and hence why you're on this podcast, you've been probably involved very intimately through these drawings. Probably even some late evenings as well. So let's not, you know, let's not lose that. So let's get into it. So basically when it comes to site, having the latest drawings and the drawings of course is key.

[00:01:16] So let's look at a typical site meeting and what's involved and where these drawings are going to start creeping up back into the conversation. So a typical site meeting happens once a month, you meet with the whole design team, the owners there, the contractors there, typically not the subs, because again, this is just between you and the general, okay? And that meeting should take an hour, maybe a half an hour if

[00:01:45] you're really efficient. But I find they always go longer. It depends on the contractor likes to bring up stuff. It's all over the map, but aim for an hour. If you're less than you're doing really well. If it's over, well, let's see what you can do and prove that. And again, that's another topic for another episode. But typically as a CRP, depending on the job, you are the one that prepared the agenda. Ideally, that's a good way. It keeps control, maybe on a contract management project. That's when

[00:02:14] the GC usually runs it. And that's okay. It's a different type of protocol. But if it's a stiff sum, fixed fee tender project, you're running the agenda, you're running the show. And you run through the agenda, you're going to, you know, the whole point of the agenda is to bring up some issues, go over the outstanding RFIs, the shop drawings, you name it. But this is where drawings come into effect. Questions come up. And the contractor kind of usually starts off something like this. We're preparing an RFI that we're going to address this item and a certain drawing. And we're

[00:02:44] going to issue it to this later week. Hang on. What? Before you give me another RFI, another piece of paperwork. What's the question? Most site trailers, or at least I'm starting to find that they've got a nice 42 inch screen up on the wall. If not, definitely get your contractor to do that. It's very handy. Zip the drawings up there, have a look, ask the question. And it might be a simple answer of actually, it's on this page. No RFI needed. So having the latest drawings with you during these

[00:03:12] site meetings, I find is just a very practical way. Keeps things moving, eliminates any kind of, like I said, future RFIs, if we can deal with it on site, that's the whole point. We're talking about issues. And, you know, sometimes it's a sidebar discussion after the meeting, because we don't want to, you know, take everyone's time up. Okay. So, like I said, having those drawings is key. Okay. Lots of questions will come up during those site meetings, you know, and again, having those at hand. Or

[00:03:40] better yet, you finish the site meeting. And of course, you always sometimes get pulled afterwards. Before we go out to site, I want to show you all this on the drawings. That's one thing. Or better yet, you're walking around the site with the GC and they go point up to an area. What were you thinking about this detail? What was the intention? You know, I need more. Let's have a look at it. Again, having drawings with you, you can start looking at this. And even when this comes to life

[00:04:04] safety, that's really critical as you're walking around going, hey, this glass and this exposure to exit and stuff like this, this firelight light glass. What is the scenario going on here? And that's where having the drawings walking around site is really critical. So needless to say, bring your drawings to site, no excuses, whether it's paper, it's digital, we're going to cover those

[00:04:28] points in a minute, but bring them to site. Now, let's talk about changes. What is change? Why is it changing? Well, these drawings, even though we've issued a beautiful tender set and an IFC set for construction, that's awesome. But things are going to change. We know they're going to change. Why are they going to change? Well, during the CA phase, life happens. Now, a couple of things.

[00:04:56] RFIs, as we kind of talked about earlier, create changes. We missed the detail. We missed the clarification. There needed some additional details to cover that RFI. And you know, this question that was brought by the contractor, and that's fine. You might follow up with a change after the fact. Owners like to make changes. I find owners like to start engaging the user groups that we've already engaged at the beginning, and they want more changes. They want a printer in this new

[00:05:23] location. They would like to change this room. Whatever the case is, they're the owner. They can make all the changes they want. So that's the reality of it. So again, you're going to prepare those documentation. You're going to put it into either a site instruction, supplemental instruction, or even to a proposed change to get it costed out. But there's going to be a change in the drawings, and that's needless to say. Maybe the consultant missed something, and they have to issue their

[00:05:52] drawings, but it affects yours, and therefore you've got to move a door or make the change. You're going to again, you're going to update the drawings. Regardless, the drawings are going to evolve. And that's why at the end of the project, we have record drawings. And again, another topic for another day. But the point is, the drawings are going to continue to evolve. Hopefully not much, but they will be modifying as noted. Okay? So here's the question. Maintaining the latest drawings.

[00:06:22] How are you going to do this? Well, the reality is, like I said, with through these SIs, you're going to probably go back to Revit. You're going to draw the change. You're going to revision cloud, and then you're going to issue that through a site instruction. And that's good. So that at least sites getting all these random things. They would have probably, they would have been printing off the first IFC sets. They probably have a few sets in the office, a couple little mini 24-inch sets throughout site. And then they get these changes, and sometimes they just print it. Sometimes they just go print

[00:06:49] the latest sheet, and then they just bring it to site, and that's what they work off. But they typically, that's not how they work. They're not working off the latest drawings. But we're not talking about the GC. We're talking about you. And how are you going to maintain these latest drawings when you go to site? So here's a couple of ideas. One, you can do old school. You can print it every single time. And you can have your 24-inch set. You basically printed it when it was IFC. It's a 24-inch roll. And you're printing all those brand new pages as needed and made this nice thing.

[00:07:19] That set's going to get dirty. It's going to get coffee stains. It's going to get red line markups on that. Contractor's going to start doodling on it in front of you, and you're going to cringe and go, why? Why are you touching my drawing set? That's one way. The reality is we live in a digital age. I've got my iPad. And why not go digital? So basically, very simple. Again, you can take that PDF from the IFT and IFC set. And then as you issue changes, you can kind of override

[00:07:48] individual sheets. It's a very disciplined matter. I don't really like it. I think you're going to fall through the cracks on that. You're not going to do it. And that's one way. But you can definitely, again, if you're disciplined in that matter, you can basically digitize it, throw it on a Dropbox, whatever, throw in your iCloud, however you want to do it. And then, of course, bring it on your iPad to site. Or, like I said, go back to the paper. So that's one thing. Those are kind of that's

[00:08:15] something that you can do right out of the box right now and in terms of having those latest drawings on site. Because again, you want to have that. And we'll dive into that in a second. And keep in mind, there is software out there to do this, to bring your latest drawings. Years ago, there was an application start or startup tech company called by the name of Plan Grid came out. And it was really good because it was a slick tool where you basically uploaded your

[00:08:43] drawings and then you uploaded your versions of drawings and you could have the latest drawings. That's what I used. It was great because I had my CA software, part three doing its thing. And it was a really handy tool. I always had the latest drawings with me. They were downloaded. I always, you know, I was on top of it and it could pull up and countless, every site meeting, I would always pull up the drawings. Again, hence this topic today. Another one that was very close

[00:09:08] to what was called Fieldwire. Same thing. You can, it's very similar to just a competitor in that respect. And it would work. You can still get Fieldwire. Today, you can't get Plan Grid. Autodesk Construction bought it up and it's kind of dissolved into that application. Kind of similar to the other stuff that they ended up buying and throwing in there. So there was those two options. And then actually, I just got word this week that my own company, part three, has been developing drawings. So I get no updates for now, but the point is,

[00:09:37] as you're going through your CA process and you're issuing your SIs, as you're doing that, and you're taking these drawings and uploading to the SI portion, they'll automatically version themselves. And then again, you'll have your latest drawings with you on site. So more details to come about that development later. I'm really excited to share that to, you know, my existing clients that I'm working with and all the new prospects I'm meeting with each week. But yeah, part three to IO, take a look at it. It's pretty cool. We've got some big

[00:10:04] updates with that. So getting into kind of like one of the arguments that you may have, or some of your team members is like, why can't we just use the IFC set? You know, it was pretty good. It was a good clean set. And you're right, it is. And you know, majority 90% of those things is probably not going to change. And that's good. And that's the way it should be. But having the latest drawings with you is going to help you stay ahead of the game. Okay. And version of drawings kind of what I was just

[00:10:34] talking about with like kind of software platforms, having that version set of drawings with you at all given moment. You know, for example, IFT and IFC and then any SIs and any COs because countless scenarios where I've been in is I've been walking around site with a contractor and they go, Matt, I'm not building that retaining wall. Why not? It's not in the drawings. I pull up my iPad, I pull up my you know, in the case, it was Planger at the time, and I would go, okay,

[00:11:02] well, in IFT, that retaining wall was there, it was pretty clear, top of wall, bottom wall, and then by the way, a denim one, we made a couple minor modifications to it, the IFC captured those changes. Then SI-22, we moved the wall out by another couple inches, regraded it around the area, which wasn't a, you know, cost. That's why we did it as an SI. And then CO-22, the owner wanted a

[00:11:31] staircase because he met with the city and he wanted to place a staircase down there. Are you looking at the latest drawings contractor? This is why having those versions on site is really critical because, again, it eliminates the arguments on site, puts you back in control, and making sure that they find that their contractors follow the latest drawings. And that's really critical too, that they are looking off the latest drawings. There's nothing worse if they start building something and they don't capture

[00:11:58] it. Or you've issued a change order and you've paid for that change order and they miss it on site. And sometimes that can be so devastating because all the time they put into issuing that change and all that and finding out that something happened. Latest drawings on site for L parties is absolutely critical. Okay. Not only that, having the latest drawings, again, you as a job captain have seen

[00:12:23] this whole project from the beginning to the end, and that's awesome. So you're very intimate in these drawings. You know every nook and cranny when someone says, hey, why did we do this? Well, I know it. We did this because the owner wanted this and then the detail allowed us to do this. All these little critical things. But the reality is not just going to be you on site, right? There might be another architect on record coming out, helping you out, being part of it. He doesn't know the drawings as part

[00:12:48] of you as the job captain. Or maybe you've got an individual that's doing all the field reviews. They go out site and they're not doing shop drawings. They're not doing RFIs. They didn't do the drawings. Their one job is to go to site after site after site to do their proper field reviews, to note the fire writing, life safety, fire cocking, all these important, very important details.

[00:13:14] And they have no idea what's changed on the drawings because they're not part of that process. And rightfully so. They are so busy driving from site to site to site doing the report. So they're totally excused in that respect. But how are they looking at the latest drawings? Again, this is where like kind of software starts promote that where they don't need to worry about making sure did I update my drawings or not if they're using something, you know, again, like a field wire

[00:13:39] or a part three, where they have the latest drawings with them. They just go to site do the review. Hey, this doesn't look right. Is this wall rated? Let me just pull up Oh, the life safety plans. Yeah, that wall's rated. They changed it. They had to make some modifications. So with them having being equipped with the latest drawings, they're not going to miss that. There's nothing worse going through, you know, kind of your final draft occupancy or during going up substantial

[00:14:10] and finding out some fire light, you know, fire rated glass is missing that this was an exposure because nobody was looking at the drawings, right? Having those drawings as you walk around site is really critical. And one of the key drawings is I just kind of noted would be your life safety code analysis plan drawings to ensure that you've got all those really critical things because that is the plan that's going to matter. If you can't walk around in that building with your bare feet at the

[00:14:36] end of the day sock feet, you're not going to go after substantial in that respect. And again, one of those key things is the life safety. Is this fire rated wall rated? Is the penetrations even rated fire cocked and not respect? Is there special details that do it? Is there alternate solutions, exit exposure, the list goes on. Latest drawings. Can you hear me? I'm becoming a broken

[00:15:00] record here. So moving on the summary here. What are you doing when it comes to having the latest drawings on site? Are you, I'm really curious. Are you using iPads? Are you going to, you have any digital things? How are you accessing them or is it just old school paper? And that's okay. And I get people like that. I like my paper drawings too, but there's a lot of power going to the digital side. And even too, like we talked about the typical site meeting. What does that look like for you? Are you pulling drawings up during the meeting or are you just going to deal with it and then deal with

[00:15:29] it when you get back to the office? And then again, that's just more time out of your day where you could be going back to design. What are you doing? But like I said, at the end of the day, having the latest drawings on site is key. End of story. So that wraps up this week's episode. Thank you again for the listen, the support. You guys are awesome. And if you're really enjoying this

[00:15:53] podcast, please submit a review. Go to Apple, go to Spotify, do those reviews. It really does help the podcast. It brings up the numbers. I really want to see this podcast help and reach a lot of people in 2025. And you guys are going to help make that possible. So thank you again. And with all that said, architects keep designing and contractors keep making those blueprints reality. We'll see on the next one.