A building documentation set is the group of drawings and written documents an Adelaide house is actually built from. It is not one document and it is not produced all at once. Different parts of it answer different questions, and a question the set does not answer becomes a decision someone makes on site.
What the set is for
Three separate groups read the same documentation and use it for different things. A pricing party reads it to work out what the build contains. A trade reads the part that covers their own work and builds to it. An assessing authority reads it to check the proposal against the rules that apply.
Because the three uses pull in different directions, a set that is adequate for one can be thin for another. Drawings sufficient to describe a building are not automatically sufficient to price it, and a set sufficient to price is not automatically sufficient to build from.
Architectural drawings: where things are
The architectural drawings fix position and dimension. A site plan places the building on the land and shows setbacks, levels and the relationship to boundaries. Floor plans set out rooms, openings and dimensions. Elevations show each face of the building. Sections cut through it to show heights and how levels relate.
These drawings answer "where" and "how big". They generally do not answer "made of what" — that sits in the specification.
Structural documentation: what holds it up on a South Australian site
Structural documentation covers footings, slabs, framing, beams and connections, and is prepared by a structural engineer against the site conditions and the loads the building has to carry. It usually depends on a soil report, because footing design follows from what the ground does. Across much of metropolitan Adelaide that means reactive soil, which is why the footing design and the soil report are read as one decision rather than two documents.
Structural drawings are read alongside the architectural set rather than instead of it. Where the two disagree, the disagreement is a question to resolve before work reaches that point, not on the day.
Specifications and schedules: what things are made of
A specification is written, not drawn. It states materials, products, finishes and workmanship standards — the things a drawing shows the position of but not the substance of. Schedules do the same job in tabular form for repeated items: windows, doors, fixtures, floor coverings.
This is the part of the set where an unstated item turns into an assumption. A drawing showing a window opening does not say which window. If the schedule does not say either, someone chooses, and the choice appears later either as an assumption in a price or as a variation.
What the set is used for after it is drawn
Documentation does not stop being useful once a proposal is assessed. The same set is what a contract describes, what trades are engaged against, what a variation is measured from, and what a handover record refers back to.
That is the practical reason the level of detail matters. A change made against a documented baseline is a recorded change. A change made where no baseline exists is a disagreement about what was always included.
Common Questions
What is the difference between architectural and structural drawings?
Architectural drawings fix where things are and how big they are — site placement, room layout, elevations and sections. Structural drawings cover what carries the load: footings, slabs, framing, beams and connections, prepared by a structural engineer against the site conditions. The two sets are read together.
What is a specification, and why is it separate from the drawings?
A specification is written rather than drawn. It states materials, products, finishes and workmanship standards. Drawings show where a window opening sits; the specification and window schedule say which window goes in it. Keeping it separate lets the same drawing carry different material decisions without being redrawn.
Why does documentation need a soil report?
Footing and slab design follows from what the ground does — how it moves with moisture, what it can bear. A soil report describes the site so the structural documentation can be designed against it rather than against an assumption.
What happens when something is not in the documentation?
It becomes an assumption. An undocumented item is still built, so somebody decides it — during pricing, or on site. That decision surfaces later either as an assumption inside a price or as a variation against a scope that never described the item.
Is the documentation still used after construction starts?
Yes. The same set is what a contract describes, what trades are engaged against, what a variation is measured from, and what handover records refer back to.
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