As-Built Drawings Cost: Ranges and What Moves the Price
As-built drawings cost what it takes to measure a building and draw it, and both halves depend on the building more than on its square footage. A small apartment full of built-ins can take as long to draw as an empty office floor twice its size. This guide explains what as-built drawings cost from a laser scan, what moves the price inside the ranges, and what to send so the quote is right the first time.
Typical ranges
The ranges below are from our recent projects, scanned and drawn:
- A house or an apartment: $2,000 to $4,500.
- Interiors with the facades and the site: $2,500 to $5,000.
- An office or a commercial floor: $3,000 to $9,000.
- Large buildings: from $12,000, quoted on their own.
- The registered point cloud alone, for a team that drafts from it in-house: from about $1,200.
The exact price comes in a quote within one business day of your sending the address, the approximate area and the list of sheets you need.
What moves the price
The number of scan stations. A laser scanner measures only what it can see from where it stands, so every room, closet, shaft and stair that has to appear on a sheet needs a station with a view of it. A house takes a few dozen stations, a commercial floor more, and a space chopped into small rooms takes more than an open one of the same area. Furniture and stock hide floor and wall lines; a space that can be cleared is scanned faster and drawn more completely.
The sheets. A floor plan alone is the smallest set. Reflected ceiling plans add the ceiling heights, grids, lights, diffusers and sprinkler heads; elevations and sections add the vertical dimensions and the structure. Each sheet type is drafting time, and the list of sheets is the largest single input to the price after the area.
The exterior and the site. Facades are scanned from the street and the site, roofs from the roof or from adjacent height where there is one. Including them adds stations and sheets, which is why interiors with facades and the site sit in their own range.
The ceiling. Systems above a lay-in ceiling are drawn only where tiles can be lifted, and lifting them on an agreed pattern adds field time. What stays hidden behind a hard ceiling is not in the scan; it is shown only from existing drawings, marked as unverified.
The level of accuracy. Drawings are stated in the U.S. Institute of Building Documentation’s Level of Accuracy terms, as a standard deviation at the 95 percent confidence level. A typical renovation set is drawn to LOA30, a deviation between 15 mm and 5 mm; a tighter level, for a facade a new system is fabricated to, means denser scanning at shorter range and more careful drafting.
The building’s condition. A building with walls that lean, floors that sag and nothing quite square takes longer to draw well than a new one, because each irregularity is a decision about how it is represented.
What is not a price factor
The price is not a rate per square foot: area is one factor among several, and a rate applied to a small, dense space produces a number nobody can deliver the work for. The guide to why laser scanning has a minimum project fee explains why small projects start where they do.
Drawings or a model
If the design will be done in Revit, the same scan can become a model instead of drawings or on top of them, and the ranges are the same: a house or an apartment scanned and modeled, $2,000 to $4,500; an office or a commercial floor, $3,000 to $9,000. The guide to scan-to-CAD vs scan-to-BIM explains which to order.
Time
The scan is scheduled as soon as the project needs it, often within days of the order, and a house or a floor is usually scanned in a day. The registered point cloud usually follows within a few days, so a design team can start from it, and the drawings usually follow in two to three weeks for a house and in four to eight weeks for a commercial floor or a whole building, depending on the sheet count.
What to send for a quote
The address, the approximate area and floor count, the sheets you need, whether the exterior and the site are in scope, any existing drawings even if they are not trusted, and the access: whether the building is occupied, which rooms are locked and whether ceiling tiles may be lifted. The as-built drawings page describes the set, and we scan in all 50 states.
FAQ
Who prepares as-built drawings?
On a construction project, the contractor marks up the construction set. For an existing building, a firm that measures the building, today usually from a laser scan, prepares them.
How accurate are as-built drawings?
As accurate as the measurement behind them. From a laser scan, a typical renovation set is drawn to USIBD LOA30, a deviation between 15 mm and 5 mm at the 95 percent confidence level.
How much do as-built drawings of a large house cost?
A house or an apartment usually runs $2,000 to $4,500; a large house with many rooms, the exterior and the site is quoted on its stations and sheets, within one business day.
How much do as-built drawings cost?
From a laser scan, a house or an apartment usually $2,000 to $4,500, interiors with facades and the site $2,500 to $5,000, an office or a commercial floor $3,000 to $9,000, and large buildings from $12,000.
Are as-built drawings priced per square foot?
No. The price follows the stations the building needs and the sheets that are drawn; area is one factor among several.
What makes as-built drawings more expensive?
Many small rooms, clutter that cannot be moved, reflected ceiling plans, elevations and sections, the exterior and the site, a tighter level of accuracy, and a building with irregular geometry.
How long do as-built drawings take?
A house or a floor is usually scanned in a day. The drawings usually follow in two to three weeks for a house and four to eight weeks for a commercial floor.
Can I order just the point cloud?
Yes. A registered point cloud with its registration report starts at about $1,200, for a team that drafts in-house.
Sources
- USIBD Document C120, Level of Accuracy Specification Guide, version 2.0 (2016): the LOA levels as standard deviations at the 95 percent confidence level.
