DREAM: Go to a site. Take measurements and write them down very neatly with different colors to organize different conditions. You are able to easily access every space in the house. You photo document every wall and special conditions happening. You return to the office in 3 hours because you were able to complete it all in that time. You sit at your desk after having a delicious yet healthy lunch to draw up the measurements. The dimensions fit perfectly with each other making an accurate and complete As-Built base!
REALITY: Go to a site but then unexpected traffic piles up. Taking measurements that only you can read… most of the time. Start with the color coding but the last half is all the same color. A door is locked and the client isn’t around to give you permission to enter. There are heavy shoe cabinets blocking you from getting an accurate width measurement, even after you tried moving it (twice!). You photo document every wall in the house in between taking measurements… or so you thought! You somehow missed that ONE corner wall!!! It’s now been 7 hours and your stomach is growling for food, you consider eating the leaf from a tree but find the strength to hold back. After some more traffic on the way back you sit at your desk to quickly eat and your lunch 4 hours late. As you put the measurements into CAD they… YUP! You guessed it, that damn corner wall you don’t have a picture of doesn’t make sense and the measurements don’t align! You save what you have, shut down your computer and cry to yourself a little bit before heading home.
The next day you come into the office to make sense of what happened yesterday and to find any misread dimensions (because even you can’t tell if that “3” is a “3” or an “8”.. or just scribbles). You Tetris the measurement sheets together to piece the rooms together and when you look down you see this:
After going through every room dimension a couple times and using whatever photos you have, you slap “TBV” dimensions all over this damn thing for the next trip out to site!! YAY AS-BUILTS!!!
**This post is dramatization of our As-Built experience**
Is it just us? Let us know how your experience doing as-builts are? Here are other As-built experiences we have had including some tips and tricks!