Existing-Condition Drawings and Property Records

Recover and reconcile property information

We identify the record, its source, the project decision it informs and any interpretation that belongs with a qualified professional.

• Property, survey and access records

  Compare supplied deeds, legal descriptions, boundary and topographic surveys, recorded plats, easements and right-of-way information. Identify title exceptions, restrictions, building lines, elevations and development conditions affecting the proposed work. Legal interpretation goes to the appropriate attorney; boundaries and certified survey findings stay with the surveyor.

• Association and landlord criteria

  Collect private appearance standards, design criteria, submission dates, prior decisions, construction procedures and access restrictions. Identify landlord requirements for roof work, structural limits and utility responsibilities before the team relies on an assumption.

• Permits and approval history

  Research available permit numbers, scope, status, expiration, inspection and closeout records. Recover approved drawings and compare them with owner or contractor copies. Reconstruct prior applications and submission receipts, including withdrawn or incomplete work, certificates, violations, deadlines and unresolved requirements.

• Usable studies and reuse rights

  Identify the age, assumptions and limits of prior engineering studies. Confirm permission to reproduce, modify, distribute or submit drawings owned by others. An old approval or report does not establish that every condition is unchanged.

Understand the existing building and site systems

Available drawings and maintenance records help identify what may be retained and what needs further investigation.

• Architecture, structure and building services

  Review room arrangements, openings, levels, assemblies and area information alongside foundations, framing, loads and connections. Coordinate mechanical equipment, outside air, exhaust and controls; electrical service, panels, lighting and loads; and water, waste, vent, gas and storm piping records with the responsible disciplines.

• Site, aquatic, landscape and fire records

  Review civil grading, drainage, paving, utilities and off-site interfaces. Pool records may include structure, hydraulics, equipment, barriers and decks. Landscape and irrigation records identify planting, protected trees, water source, backflow, zones and controls. Fire-system records include sprinklers, alarms, suppression, fire lines and acceptance information.

• Energy assumptions and maintenance history

  Identify recorded envelope assemblies, system efficiencies and modeled conditions. Use equipment service history to flag replacements, recurring problems and assumptions needing specialist investigation before reuse.

Document accessible conditions

The agreed field scope sets the areas, measurement needs, access restrictions and limitations. Observations are not certification of hidden conditions.

• Measured plans and building geometry

  Record accessible room dimensions, offsets, diagonal checks, walls, columns, openings and circulation. Document ceiling heights, grids, soffits and visible system locations; exterior elevations, façades and roof edges; and accessible roof equipment, penetrations and drainage. Identify visible structural members, supports, openings or distress for professional assessment.

• Doors, windows, stairs and accessible routes

  Measure door widths, heights, swings, thresholds, hardware and clearances. Measure window openings, sill heights and head heights. For stairs, measure landings, risers, treads, headroom, guards and handrails. For ramps, measure slopes, landings and edge conditions. Record the agreed accessible routes, fixtures, counters and other clearance-dependent conditions.

• Equipment, utilities and finishes

  Record visible meters, panels, disconnects, backflow assemblies, plumbing fixtures and safely accessible labels. Mechanical and electrical inventories capture model information, ratings, locations, apparent connections and service access for qualified evaluation. Note floor, wall, ceiling and wet-area finishes and their observed condition.

• Site and neighboring conditions

  Document parking stalls, access aisles, signs, circulation, fire access, gates, hydrants and obstructions. Record visible drainage, swales, inlets, outfalls, ponding and retaining features, along with vegetation and tree concerns. Flag apparent encroachments and neighboring grade or access relationships for survey or legal evaluation; field observation does not establish a boundary.

• Delivery routes, photographs and comparisons

  Measure agreed equipment delivery routes, turns, doors, staging areas and vertical clearances. Record fences, gates, contractor access and occupied-area restrictions. Organize dated photographs by location and issue, then distinguish the available plans, observed conditions and proposed arrangement in the drawing record.

Coordinate the information a specialist must establish

When ordinary records and accessible measurements are insufficient, define the question before commissioning additional work.

• Survey and construction layout

  Coordinate boundary, ALTA/NSPS land title, topographic, elevation, easement and right-of-way survey scopes with the licensed surveyor. During construction, form, foundation, staking and as-built survey products may address location, elevations, tolerances or certified completion information. The surveyor determines the professional product and its limitations.

• Scanning, imagery and mapping

  Coordinate laser scanning, point clouds, photogrammetry or authorized drone documentation around coverage, control information, accuracy and the intended drawing or model output. Capture technology does not remove the need for qualified interpretation or verification.

• Utilities and concealed features

  Coordinate subsurface utility engineering, private locating, selected utility potholing and ground-penetrating radar with qualified providers. Record investigation limits and follow-up needs before relying on marked or interpreted information. Exposure work needs appropriate authorization and construction interfaces.

• Ground, materials and concealed assemblies

  Coordinate geotechnical borings, sampling, laboratory work and recommendations with proposed loads and development plans. Selective openings require approved access, protection, specialist observation and repair. Material tests and hazardous-material investigations are separately defined before design or construction relies on unverified conditions.

A usable starting point for design

The deliverable should make both known information and remaining uncertainty easy to identify.

• Backgrounds, record inventory and open questions

  The agreed handoff can include measured drawing backgrounds, a property-record index, dated photographs and clearly labeled unknowns. We distinguish information observed in the field from information copied from records, identify access or measurement limits and assign the remaining investigation decisions.

• Prepare for the field and records work

  Share available plans and approvals, authorize access and identify occupied or restricted areas. Area, travel and access arrangements, record quality, required accuracy and specialist investigations affect fee and timing. Surveys, testing and professional reports have their own scopes and costs.

Drawing digitization, file conversion and model development

Start with the source file, its reuse rights and intended use. PDF to CAD or PDF to DWG requests concern editable drawings; scan to BIM and point cloud to Revit requests concern interpreted model content. Confirm the actual deliverable and supported workflow before engagement.

• Convert or trace a drawing

  Computer-aided design (CAD) conversion may reuse vector linework; a scanned image may need manual tracing. Agree units, known reference dimensions, layers, sheet coverage and the receiving team’s accepted file/version, including whether DWG is required. Distortion, missing dimensions and conflicting sheets must be flagged. Converting a PDF does not verify the building or establish survey accuracy.

• Develop a model from a scan or point cloud

  Building information modeling (BIM) needs agreed elements, detail, coordinates and intended coordination uses. Provide capture/control information, point-cloud coverage and the receiving team’s model requirements. For a Revit request, confirm the responsible provider and compatible software/version before the proposal commits to that model format. Record inaccessible areas and modeling assumptions separately from measured geometry and professional design.

• Verify only what the scope establishes

  Choose whether the next step is records-only digitization, additional field measurement or an agreed model package. A conversion can preserve the source’s errors; field verification is a separate task. Deliver a source/version register, agreed files and explicit uncertainty notes so permit designers know which dimensions and concealed conditions still need investigation.

Before you begin

Common questions