Why shop drawings are so useful these days  

“Shop drawings” is a very popular term in Building Construction Industry today. The reason is quite clear – so many utilities and wide range of applications. Swiftness and accuracy is what matters today in this highly competitive building construction industry. Shop drawings are therefore so useful these days, because they give quick and accurate outputs for your business.  

What are shop drawings? A common question that is bound to rise in anyone’s mind. Well, shop drawings are a collection of accurate drawings of pre-fabricated components of buildings. These drawings are widely used by builders, contractors, designers and architects. Each profession has a different perspective regarding the use of shop drawings, and as well a different responsibility in the process.  

·          Fabricator – The transfer of information from the Contract Documents into 

accurate and complete shop and erection drawings and the development of 

accurate, detailed dimensional information. 

·          GC - To confirm that the system is in general conformance with the Contract 

Documents and the GC/ Sub-contractor agreement and to also coordinate with the other affected trades. 

·          Erector – To develop the erection sequence of the steel frame, making sure the structure is safely and economically erectable. 

·          EOR – To confirm that the structural steel system is in conformance with the 

intent of the structural design and the Contract Documents. 

·          Architect – To review the shop drawings for general conformance with the Contract Documents 

 With the help of such drawings, they can remove their headache and can more effectively concentrate on their core building construction activities.  

Shop drawings are critical for any building construction or fabrication unit nowadays due to the cost involved in redesign or rework. Shop drawings are required for many structures and wide range of materials such as curtain wall, skylights, storefronts, woodwork, structural steelwork and reinforced concrete work. Flexibility and precision are the keywords for the success of your project. Shop drawings play a key role in the efficiency of your workforce right from the design to concept and to final manufacturing or fabrication. 

Seriously, should you consider using shop drawings? 

The curtain wall, storefront, skylight, and panel system industry takes shop drawings seriously. However, due to feverish time constraints placed on the various parties due to self-created short construction cycles, (otherwise known as ‘I need it yesterday’) sometimes attention to detail is missing, and some vital checks are not made. It is easy to resolve problems during the review stages before construction but it is much more difficult to resolve problems during construction. To begin with, the individuals (engineers, architects, and draftspersons) who prepare contract drawings must do a good job of preparing accurate and complete drawings. They must provide enough section details and views on the contract drawings so that RFIs (Request for Information) from fabricators and detailers are considerably reduced. As a rule, the designer must ask this question when the job is ready to be bid, ‘Can the structure be built from these Contract Documents?’ If the answer is no, it is an indication that more clarity is needed.