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Treat revised drawings as instructions

A revised drawing that adds scope is a change, whether or not anyone calls it one. Compare each revision with the last, log what moved, and confirm in writing that you will price the difference before you build it.

Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.

Why it matters

A revised drawing arrives with a new revision letter and a short note in the title block, and the site team builds it. Nobody calls it a variation, because nobody said the word. The added scope goes into the job as if it had always been there: a thicker slab, an extra cable run, a moved door. The cost goes in with it.

By the final account there are 30 revisions and no record of what each one changed. The argument becomes whether the tender drawings ever showed the work, and your main contractor answers by pointing at the current drawing. Checking on the day of issue is the only cheap moment to find the change.

How to do it

  1. Log every drawing issue in a register with the date, the revision and who issued it.
  2. Compare each revision with the previous one on the day it arrives. Use the revision cloud where there is one, and a side-by-side check where there is not.
  3. Write a one-line note of what moved, and whether it adds, omits or changes work priced in your tender.
  4. Write the same day if it does, confirming that you treat the revision as an instruction and will price the difference.

Example

Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.

The facts

An electrical subcontractor receives revision D of a floor plan on a Wednesday. The revision cloud shows two extra distribution boards and a rerouted riser. The tender was priced on revision B. The added work is around £9,000.

What happens

  1. The subcontractor's engineer compares D against C and B, and lists the two boards and the riser as additions.
  2. The commercial manager writes to the main contractor's quantity surveyor the same day. The letter treats revision D as an instruction and says a price will follow within the week.
  3. The quantity surveyor confirms the change, and the price is agreed at £8,700 before the work starts.

The outcome

The £8,700 is paid in the next cycle. Left unlogged, the boards would have been built from revision D and argued at the final account as always being on the drawings.

To have this set up for you, see our Unpaid Variation Prevention service.