A construction document review checklist organizes the questions a team asks about drawings, specifications, and project requirements before an issue. Use it to establish coverage, assign responsibility, and preserve the evidence behind each decision. The project’s scope and required professional reviews determine which checks apply.
Take a usable checklist into the review
Download the 39-item checklist (CSV)
The download contains every check below, a stable check ID, suggested reviewer roles, and blank fields for the actual owner, source issue, evidence, decision, response, revised documents, and closure verification. Open it in your spreadsheet application and keep it with the review record.
For a shorter preparation pass, use the 16-item pre-permit checklist. The full checklist below adds discipline and interface checks and a more complete response record.
For a focused drafting pass, use the seven-check drawing QA/QC worksheet to track sheet references, equipment tags, schedule entries, and notes before the wider technical review.
Set the scope and the status rules
Record the review milestone, governing document register, included disciplines, and known exclusions before assigning the checks. Name an actual owner for each applicable item; the suggested role in the template is only a starting point. If the team needs a shared reference for what the set should contain before assigning checks, see what a complete construction document set contains.
- Not reviewed: no check has been completed.
- Needs information: a missing or unclear source prevents a decision.
- Open action: the team has identified a question or correction to resolve.
- Verified: the reviewer checked the relevant sources and recorded the evidence, including any required correction.
- Not applicable: the reviewer recorded why this check does not apply to the agreed scope.
A completed checklist row is a record of that check, not a certification that the whole design is correct. Use the review process guide to coordinate responses and verification.
The checklist
1. Document register
- CDR-01: Confirm the governing issue. Match each file and consultant revision to the issued document register. Record exceptions rather than assuming all files share one date.
- CDR-02: Reconcile the drawing index. Check listed, added, deleted, and missing sheets against the actual package.
- CDR-03: Separate current work from references. Identify superseded drawings, background reports, and supporting requirements so their purpose is clear.
- CDR-04: Check document identity. Confirm project identifiers, sheet numbers, titles, and issue information belong to this package.
- CDR-05: Confirm usable source files. Check legibility, orientation, page edges, blank pages, and access restrictions in representative PDFs.
2. Completeness and references
- CDR-06: Follow detail and section callouts. Confirm that the referenced sheet and detail exist and address the intended condition.
- CDR-07: Resolve cross-discipline notes. Follow each reference to the information supplied by the named consultant.
- CDR-08: Check schedules and legends. Confirm that tags, abbreviations, and symbols have definitions used consistently in the set.
- CDR-09: Identify unfinished information. Record placeholders, unresolved selections, and missing dimensions that matter at this milestone.
- CDR-10: Identify deferred packages. Reconcile delegated or deferred work with the notes, schedules, and stated submission responsibilities.
3. Architectural coordination
- CDR-11: Match room information. Compare room names, numbers, and uses across plans, reflected ceiling plans, and schedules.
- CDR-12: Reconcile openings. Match door and window tags to schedules, elevations, hardware references, and adjacent assemblies.
- CDR-13: Trace assembly requirements. Follow wall, floor, roof, and shaft types through plans, sections, details, and specifications.
- CDR-14: Check dimensioned interfaces. Review the stated clearances and dimensions at egress routes, accessible spaces, and equipment access points.
- CDR-15: Check materials and transitions. Compare material changes, waterproofing interfaces, finish levels, and termination details.
4. Structural coordination
- CDR-16: Reconcile members and connections. Match framing plans, member schedules, connection references, and typical details.
- CDR-17: Trace design criteria. Compare stated loads, materials, deflection criteria, and design references with the supplied specifications and calculations.
- CDR-18: Coordinate supports and openings. Check required penetrations, equipment supports, recesses, and slab edges against the affected consultant documents.
- CDR-19: Coordinate foundations and inspections. Check foundation locations, site interfaces, and stated inspection or testing requirements across the relevant documents.
5. MEP and fire protection
- CDR-20: Reconcile equipment identity. Match tags and quantities across plans, schedules, risers, diagrams, and specifications.
- CDR-21: Compare service requirements. Check capacities, voltages, connection sizes, and duties across the disciplines supplying each item.
- CDR-22: Trace routes and levels. Follow risers, mains, shafts, and changes in level through the corresponding plans and sections.
- CDR-23: Coordinate installation and access. Compare equipment dimensions, supports, stated clearances, and maintenance access with architectural and structural information.
- CDR-24: Trace controls and protection. Compare operating sequences, control diagrams, fire-protection interfaces, and rated-assembly references.
6. Civil and shared interfaces
- CDR-25: Establish common datums. Reconcile grids, reference elevations, units, finish levels, and structural levels before treating a difference as an error.
- CDR-26: Coordinate site-to-building connections. Match utility locations, connection requirements, and site interfaces with the building documents.
- CDR-27: Review grading and foundation interfaces. Compare the stated grades, thresholds, drainage interfaces, and foundation steps where the documents meet.
- CDR-28: Review limits of work. Check existing-versus-new conditions, demolition, tie-ins, and phased work boundaries across disciplines.
7. Specifications and project requirements
- CDR-29: Reconcile the specification contents. Confirm listed sections are present and reference the current project and applicable work.
- CDR-30: Match drawn and specified requirements. Compare materials, assemblies, equipment performance, and installation conditions across drawings and specifications.
- CDR-31: Check bid scope consistency. Reconcile base work, alternates, allowances, unit-price descriptions, and addenda where included in the review scope.
- CDR-32: Trace owner and code references. Identify the governing requirement, edition, amendment, and relevant project condition. Have the qualified reviewer confirm applicability.
- CDR-33: Coordinate phasing and verification. Compare drawing notes with stated sequencing, submittals, mock-ups, testing, and commissioning requirements.
8. Review decisions and closure
- CDR-34: Record both sides of each question. Capture the affected file, issue, sheet or section, location, and conflicting or missing requirement.
- CDR-35: Assign a decision owner. Identify the responsible discipline and the date the project needs an answer.
- CDR-36: Distinguish decision from correction. Record whether the finding is accepted, rejected with a reason, duplicated, or waiting for information.
- CDR-37: Record the intended resolution. Identify the governing requirement and each drawing, schedule, detail, or specification that needs an update.
- CDR-38: Verify the issued correction. Open the revised sources and check dependent references; a promise to revise is not closure evidence.
- CDR-39: Preserve the review record. Save the checked issue, response, closure evidence, verifier, and remaining limitations with the project record.
Run this QA/QC check on your set
Add these checks to your review instructions. Groundbook flags potential conflicts with links to the source sheets.
Turn an open item into a traceable decision
When a check finds a question, record the affected file, issue, sheet or section, and location. Identify the conflicting or missing information and explain what answer is needed. Track the individual finding in the review and resolution log when one checklist item produces several comments.
Keep the review decision separate from implementation. “Accepted; will revise” is an open action. Closure requires the revised issue or the evidence explaining why a change is unnecessary, plus the verifier and date.
The worked report example shows how source evidence, an illustrative response, and closure criteria fit together.
Choose the emphasis for each issue
- Developing design: focus on the agreed deliverables, assumptions, and major interfaces. Record which details are intentionally provisional.
- Near-complete documents: follow schedules, details, specifications, and prior comments through the coordinated set.
- Permit preparation: check the intended submission package and relevant requirements with the responsible reviewers.
- Bid preparation: focus on scope, conflicting requirements, alternates, and unanswered questions that can affect the pricing basis.
- Revised issue: verify changed requirements and the documents that depend on them.
Use the milestone matrix or pre-bid workflow to tailor the pass.
Use the checklist with Groundbook
Define the checks that apply, export the relevant checklist scope to a readable PDF, and include it as a reference with your project documents. State the milestone and known exclusions in the review instructions.
Groundbook can surface potential issues and supporting sources for your team to investigate. Maintain the response and closure record in your team’s chosen process, and verify each finding before deciding what needs to change. See how Groundbook reviews construction documents.