What Are As-Built Drawings? As-Built vs Record vs Measured

Luiza PlievaJul 29, 2026

Three different documents get called as-builts on job sites, and which one you hold decides how much you can trust the geometry when a renovation is drawn on it. The first is the set the contractor marked up during construction. The second is the architect’s clean closeout set compiled from those markups. The third is drawn from measurements of the standing building, with no design set behind it. This guide explains what each one is, who makes it, and what it can be trusted for.

What are as-built drawings

In the strict sense, as-built drawings are the contractor’s record of the work as it was built: the construction documents kept on site and marked up, traditionally in red, with the changes made during construction, the substitutions and the rerouted runs. A review of the terms used with AIA contracts puts it plainly: “As-built drawings are typically prepared by the contractor.”

In everyday use the term has widened to mean any drawing of a building as it exists, and that wider sense is what an architect means when asking for “as-builts” of a building before a renovation. The two senses have different sources. A contractor’s markup records what one contractor noticed and wrote down during one project; it does not record what the next three tenants changed, and after the project nobody checked it against the building with a tape.

What are record drawings

A record drawing is the architect’s closeout set: the construction documents revised to incorporate the contractor’s markups, the change orders and the approved substitutions, so that the owner has one clean set that reflects the project as reported. The same review describes it as “the final compiled drawing prepared by the architect himself/herself”, and notes that “record drawings are more reliable than as-built drawings because they have gone through the screening of the architect”.

Record drawings are the authoritative history of the project: what was designed, what was approved, what the contractor reported building. They are compiled from reports and screened by the architect, and they stop on the day the project closed. A building that has had tenants since then has usually drifted from them, and nothing in the set says by how much.

What are measured drawings

A measured drawing is drawn from measurements of the standing building, “derived from the measurements taken of a standing building” in the words of the same review. It has no design set behind it and no reliance on anyone’s memory of the project; what it shows is what was measured, when it was measured, to a stated accuracy. On most projects today the measurement is a 3D laser scan. A terrestrial scanner of the Trimble X7 class holds a 3D point accuracy of 2.4 mm at 10 m (one standard deviation) by its datasheet, and the drawings are traced against the registered point cloud, so a wall on the plan is where the wall stands, within the stated accuracy.

This is the document a renovation is designed on, and it is what a scanning company delivers, as floor plans, elevations, sections and ceiling plans in DWG and PDF, when a client orders as-built drawings.

Side by side

	Contractor’s as-built	Record drawing	Measured drawing
Who makes it	The contractor, during construction	The architect, at closeout	A surveyor or a scanning company, at any time
Source	Field markups of the design set	The contractor’s markups, change orders and substitutions	Measurement of the building as it stands
Checked against the building	By the contractor only	Screened by the architect, not measured	It is the measurement
Shows	What was changed on that project	What was designed and reported built	What exists today, to a stated accuracy
Use	Project record	Project history, permit archive, legal record	Renovation, tenant work, modeling, leases, facilities handover

Who is responsible for each

The contractor is responsible for the markups on their own project and the architect for compiling them into the record set. Neither is responsible for the building’s condition years later, which is the gap the owner of an older building holds. When a tenant’s new demising wall is drawn to a record set and lands on a soffit that a previous fit-out moved, the rework lands on the new project, and the record set was accurate on the day it was compiled. A measured drawing closes that gap by making the measurement someone’s deliverable, with its accuracy stated.

Whether a jurisdiction requires as-built or record drawings for a permit or a certificate of occupancy depends on the jurisdiction and the project type, and the project’s licensed professional answers that question. A measured drawing is ordered for the next project rather than required by the last one.

What a measured drawing states that the others do not

A measured drawing needs a stated accuracy to be trusted, and the U.S. Institute of Building Documentation’s Level of Accuracy specification gives that accuracy a number. Its guide states each level as a standard deviation at the 95 percent confidence level: LOA30 is a deviation between 15 mm and 5 mm, LOA40 between 5 mm and 1 mm. The guide also separates the measured accuracy of the field measurements from the represented accuracy of the line work drawn from them, since error is introduced when measured data is processed into lines; a leaning wall, for example, is still drawn as one straight line. A typical renovation set from a scanning company is drawn to LOA30 on a laser scan, and the scope names the level, whereas a record drawing names none, because nobody measured the finished building.

A good sheet also says what was not measured. A scanner records what it can see, so hidden framing, buried utilities and the inside of a wall are drawn from other documents or from openings made for the survey, and the drawing marks them as such.

Which to use

Use the record drawings for the history: the design intent, the change orders and the permit archive. Use a measured drawing for the geometry: a renovation, new ductwork against existing structure, the areas for a lease. When a current record set exists and is trusted, the scan is still a quick check: the cloud is overlaid on the drawings and the set is corrected where the building differs, which costs less than redrawing. The guides to existing conditions documentation for renovation and to as-built drawings for tenant improvements go further into choosing the record for the work in hand.

FAQ

What is an as-built drawing?

In the strict sense, the contractor’s construction set marked up with the changes made during construction. In everyday use, any drawing of a building as it exists; the measured version of that, usually drawn from a laser scan of the standing building, is what a renovation is designed on.

What is the difference between as built drawings and record drawings?

The contractor’s as-built is the marked-up field set; the record drawing is the architect’s clean set compiled from those markups at closeout. Neither is measured against the building after the project, which is what a measured drawing adds.

Who is responsible for as-built drawings?

The contractor keeps and delivers the markups on their project, and the architect compiles the record set from them. A measured drawing of the existing building is ordered separately, from a surveyor or a scanning company, with its accuracy stated.

What is the difference between as-built drawings and construction drawings?

Construction drawings show what is to be built; as-built drawings record what was built, as the contractor marked it up. A measured drawing records what stands today.

Are as-built drawings legally required?

It depends on the jurisdiction and the project type, and the project’s licensed professional answers it. A measured drawing is ordered for the next project rather than required by the last.