Guide · Bidding and tendering · 5 min read · Updated September 18, 2026
Tender drawings: what they are and how to review them before you price
The tender set is what every bidder prices, and usually what the contract rests on. Here is where it sits among the other drawing issues, and how a general contractor can check it before the price goes in.
Tender drawings are the drawings issued to contractors so they can price the work and submit a tender; in the US the same package is called the bid set or bid drawings. They describe the design in enough detail to price, but they are not the set you build from: answers issued during the tender change them, and the Issued for Construction set that follows often changes them again.
Where tender drawings sit among the drawing issues
A project issues its drawings several times, and each issue has a different job. The status stamp or purpose of issue in the title block tells you which one you are holding.
| Issue | Common labels | What it is for | Who relies on it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design | Preliminary, For coordination, For information, DD or CD progress set | Develop and coordinate the design | Design team, owner, cost consultant |
| Tender (bid) | Issued for Tender, For Bid, Bid Set | Price the work on a common basis | Bidding contractors and their trade subcontractors |
| Contract | Contract Set, Conformed Set | Record what the accepted price was based on, with addenda folded in | Owner and the awarded contractor |
| Construction | Issued for Construction (IFC), For Construction | Build the work | Contractor, trades, inspectors |
| Record | As-built, Record drawings | Show what was actually built | Owner, facilities team, future designers |
On the traditional route, the RIBA Plan of Work places tendering at the end of Stage 4, Technical Design, and warns that tendering on Stage 3 information leaves contractors pricing on assumptions.[1] On UK projects that follow ISO 19650, a sheet's status code says how far the information has been approved, not what it was issued for. There is no tender-specific code, so the purpose of issue is recorded separately.[7] In this guide, IFC means Issued for Construction, not the IFC model file format used for BIM.
What a tender package contains
The drawings are one part of the package. A typical tender includes:[2]
- Instructions to tenderers (bidders) and the form of tender or bid form
- Contract conditions and preliminaries; in the US, the general conditions and Division 01
- Drawings, with a drawing register listing every sheet and its revision
- Specifications and schedules
- A pricing document: a bill of quantities, an activity schedule, or the contractor's own breakdown
- Reports and surveys issued for information, such as geotechnical or existing-conditions surveys
- Addenda or tender clarifications issued during the tender period
In US practice, AIA A701 defines the bidding documents as the bidding requirements plus the proposed contract documents, including every addendum.[4] The questions worth asking usually sit between these documents rather than inside one of them.
How a GC reviews a tender set before pricing
- Confirm the package. Match the drawing register to the files you received, record each sheet's revision, and list the addenda. A missing sheet or superseded revision changes what everyone is pricing. The drawing register template has the columns.
- Assign scope to packages. Map sheets and specification sections to the trade packages you will send out. Anything shared between packages, such as supports, openings, connections, and demolition limits, needs one clear owner.[2]
- Compare drawings with specifications and schedules. A product, rating, or quantity that differs between a plan, a schedule, and a specification section is a pricing question. See drawings vs. specifications.
- Check across disciplines. Levels, openings, equipment, and routes should agree between architectural, structural, and MEP sheets. See common coordination errors.
- List what is missing or deferred. Details that are referenced but not included, contractor-designed portions, items marked "by others", allowances, and provisional sums all need a stated basis.
- Log each question with its sources. Record both sheet references and the decision you need. The free pre-bid question log has the fields.
Put the questions that change price or scope first. This is where disputes start: Arcadis's 2025 report found that errors or omissions in the contract documents were the most common cause of North American construction disputes in 2024, and that contract and specification reviews were the most common way teams avoided them.[8]
Tender queries, addenda, and qualifications
Questions go to the design team or procurement lead in writing, by the deadline in the instructions. Answers go to every bidder, not just the one who asked.[3][5]
- Deadlines. AIA A701 asks for written questions at least seven days before bids are due and says addenda are issued no later than four days before, apart from withdrawing or postponing the bid.[4] Public owners set their own dates, so read the instructions to bidders.
- Only written answers count. Under A701 only an addendum is binding, and US federal rules treat oral explanations as not binding.[4][5] A phone call is not an answer.
- Ask, or lose the claim. Some owners close the door on later claims. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, for example, does not compensate claims about an ambiguity or conflict that the bidder did not raise before bid opening.[6]
- Qualify carefully. If a question is still open at the deadline, price a stated assumption and list it with the tender. Clients can treat a heavily qualified tender as non-compliant, so keep each qualification specific.[3]
A useful query names the two sources that disagree, says what each requires, and asks for one decision: "Door 104 is 60-minute rated on A-201 and 90-minute rated in the door schedule on A-601. Which rating governs?" A vague query such as "please clarify doors" gets a vague answer.
Examples from a published review
Two findings from Groundbook's mixed-use residential review show the kind of issue that splits bids. That set had been through permit and tender revisions.
- The governing structural revision was unclear. Two structural schedules carried different requirements, and the set did not say which version governed. Two bidders could price different requirements from the same package.
- Equipment data did not reconcile. Equipment tags, quantities, duties, and materials differed across plans, schedules, and specifications, so purchasing could start from conflicting information.
Neither finding is a pricing error by itself. Each is a question to settle before the price goes in.
Where Groundbook fits
Upload the tender drawings, specifications, and addenda, mark which files to check and which are references, and run a pre-bid review. Groundbook AI returns possible conflicts and missing information with the source on each side, so your team can verify them and turn the real ones into tender queries. It does not do takeoff or pricing, and your team decides what to send.
Sources
- RIBA, Plan of Work 2020 Overview
- Designing Buildings Wiki, Tender documentation for construction projects
- Designing Buildings Wiki, Typical tender process for construction projects
- AIA Document A701-2018, Instructions to Bidders, sections 1.1, 3.2, and 3.4
- Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.214-6, Explanation to Prospective Bidders
- Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, Instructions to Bidders (April 2022), section 2.3
- UK BIM Framework, Guidance Part C: Facilitating the common data environment (Edition 1), section 6.1 and table 2
- Arcadis, 2025 Construction Disputes Report
Keep reading
Related pages
Questions, answered
Frequently asked questions
Are tender drawings the same as construction drawings?
No. Tender drawings are issued so contractors can price the work. Construction drawings, issued for construction (IFC), are the set the contractor builds from. The construction set usually adds addenda, tender answers, and design completed after the tender, so compare the two when it arrives.
What is the difference between tender drawings and bid drawings?
None. Tender is the usual term in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and much of Asia, and it is common in Canada. Bid set or bid drawings is the usual US term.
Who prepares tender drawings?
The design team: the architect and the engineering consultants, coordinated by the lead designer. On design and build projects the client's requirements are tendered, and the contractor develops the design afterward.
What is a tender query?
A written question from a bidder about the tender documents, usually about a conflict, a gap, or an unclear requirement. The answer goes to every bidder, often as an addendum or tender clarification.
Can you build from tender drawings?
Not normally. Tender drawings can still change, and contracts usually say work proceeds on documents issued for construction. Building from a tender issue puts the risk of later changes on the contractor.
What happens if the tender drawings are wrong?
It depends on the contract and on whether the problem was raised during the tender. Corrections instructed after award are often valued as variations or change orders, but some bidding rules bar claims about problems a bidder could have raised before the deadline.
Check your next tender set before you price it
Set up a review yourself, or book time to talk through your project.