Guide · Coordination · 3 min read · Updated September 10, 2026
REDICHECK interdisciplinary coordination review, explained
REDICHECK is the coordination review method many firms learned from, and the checklist behind a lot of internal QA/QC. Here is what it checks, how a review is delivered, and where an automated review of the same set fits.
REDICHECK is an interdisciplinary coordination review system developed in 1981 by William T. Nigro, a retired Navy Civil Engineer Corps officer, and described in his book of the same name. It uses discipline-by-discipline checklists and overlay comparison to find inconsistencies, errors, and omissions between the architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and civil documents of a project before construction. The firm that carries the name delivers reviews as a service, in Bluebeam, in about two to three weeks, with marked-up PDFs and a debrief. The same checks can now be run by software over the issued PDFs in hours, with the human reviewer verifying findings rather than hunting for them.
What the method checks
REDICHECK's premise is that each discipline's set is usually consistent with itself and inconsistent with the others, so the review reads sheets from two disciplines together. The published checklists work through the interfaces where that matters. The firm's own examples of typical catches are the ones every coordinator recognizes:
- Slab openings that do not line up with the HVAC ducts that need them
- Door and window sizes that differ between the schedule and the plans or elevations
- Electrical power that does not match what the mechanical equipment schedule requires
- Reflected ceiling plans that disagree with the mechanical and electrical plans in the same ceiling
The method also covers the document-control checks that let those comparisons be made at all: matching column grids and dimensions across disciplines, matching room names and numbers, matching equipment tags, and callouts that resolve to real details. The firm reports finding an average of five errors or omissions per drawing.
How a REDICHECK review is delivered
As a service, a REDICHECK review is a human review of the complete set. The firm states that most reviews take two to three weeks from receipt of the documents, that reviewers work in Bluebeam, and that the client receives marked-up PDFs of the drawings and specifications plus an online debrief of the key findings. The book, a hundred and thirty pages with the checklists, is sold as an ebook for under thirty dollars, and many firms use it as the basis for their own internal coordination checklist.
The firm publishes return-on-investment claims (savings of 3.5 to 7 percent of construction cost) that it attributes to its own case studies; treat them as the vendor's figures.
How the checks map to an automated review
The checks in the method are exactly the checks a document-reading tool can run across an entire set, because they all have the same shape: take an element on one sheet and find it on another. The table maps the classic REDICHECK checks to the automated equivalent and to what the reviewer still verifies.
| REDICHECK check | Automated equivalent | What the reviewer still decides |
|---|---|---|
| Overlay architectural and structural plans for grid and dimension agreement | Grid strings and dimensions compared across disciplines; differences listed with both sheets | Which discipline is right, and whether a difference is a datum convention rather than an error |
| Slab and wall openings against ducts, pipes, and equipment | Penetrations larger than a sleeve listed and matched against structural openings | Whether a missing opening is deferred to a separate package |
| Door and window schedules against plans and elevations | Every tag resolved to a schedule row; sizes, ratings, and types compared | Which value is intended when they differ |
| Mechanical equipment schedule against electrical connection data | Voltages, phases, loads, and tags compared across the two schedules and the specification | The correct duty and who changes which document |
| Reflected ceiling plan against mechanical and electrical plans | Fixtures, diffusers, and devices matched between the RCP and the systems plans | The ceiling layout that governs |
| Callouts and detail references resolve | Every callout traced to a detail on a sheet in the index; misses listed | Nothing; a dead reference is a finding |
| Specifications against the drawings | Products, ratings, and performance values compared between drawing notes, schedules, and spec sections | Which document controls under the contract's order of precedence |
What changes is not the checklist but the labor. The overlay and the hunt through the set take the weeks; the decision takes minutes. Groundbook AI runs the hunt over the issued PDFs, including scanned and hand-drawn sheets, and returns each finding with the sheets and the sources beside it, so the reviewer's time goes to the decision column. On a published mixed-use review, most of the 42 potential findings fell into the rows above.
When a human coordination review still earns its fee
An automated first pass does not make a senior coordinator redundant. Keep a human review, REDICHECK or otherwise, when the owner or the contract requires an independent professional review, when the set is unusual enough that judgment matters more than coverage, and always for the decisions in the right-hand column of the table. What the software changes is the starting point: the reviewer opens a findings list instead of a blank set.
REDICHECK is a trademark of its owner. Groundbook AI is not affiliated with or endorsed by REDICHECK or William T. Nigro. Descriptions of the method and service come from the firm's public website and published book listings as of September 10, 2026.
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Questions, answered
Frequently asked questions
What is REDICHECK?
An interdisciplinary coordination review method and checklist system developed in 1981 by William T. Nigro and published as a book, also delivered as a review service by the firm of the same name. It reads sheets from different disciplines together to find inconsistencies, errors, and omissions before construction.
Is REDICHECK still used?
Yes. The firm still sells reviews and the ebook, and the checklists underlie many firms' internal QA/QC procedures. Its recognition by the AIA and the American Consulting Engineers Council is the firm's stated credential.
Can AI replace a REDICHECK review?
It replaces the hunt, not the judgment. Software can run the method's cross-sheet comparisons over the whole set in hours and return sourced findings. A professional still decides which document is right, what is deferred, and what governs. Where a contract requires an independent human review, keep it.
How long does a REDICHECK review take?
The firm states most reviews take two to three weeks from receipt of the documents. An automated review of the same PDFs typically returns findings in 20 minutes to 24 hours, depending on project size, with the reviewer's verification after that.
Where can I get the REDICHECK checklist?
From the firm's website as an ebook. This guide describes the method's categories in general terms and does not reproduce the checklists.
Run the REDICHECK-style checks on your set in hours
Set up a review yourself, or book time to talk through your project.