With a drafting firm for concrete construction, the question almost always revolves around a specific sheet or model. There is an element overview that needs to be rearranged, a set of sections that no longer matches the latest change, or a stack of openings that has to be carried through all floors.
That is the work we take on. We draft and model on the basis of the data and design criteria the client supplies. We explicitly leave calculations, structural advice and permit work to the party responsible for them, because our trade is drafting.
In practice, that means 2D sheets, 3D models where needed, revisions and as-built drawings, delivered in the format the practice already uses. We work remotely from our own office, with our own licences and to the client's drawing conventions. Staffing moves with the project, because our large, variable team scales up or down per project. You will hear from us within 1 to 2 working days.
Cable tray routing in the model, built with parametric families that carry the material schedule with them.
Who we draft for in concrete construction
Our requests come from engineering firms, architectural practices, contractors and manufacturers, and more broadly from companies with a lot of technical drafting work. The people at the table are managers, team leaders and owners, so people who see for themselves what is piling up in the drawing office. Their problem is almost always capacity. There is an order, the lead time is tight and their own drafters are already tied up in ongoing work. Sometimes a vacancy has been open for months without anyone turning up, sometimes a package suddenly lands on the department after a tender is won.
In concrete construction there is a second pattern: the work is full of repetition, and that repetition eats up hours of the people who should really be steering the project work. An element overview with sixty variants of the same wall, openings that sit slightly differently on every floor, a change to a window opening that has to be carried through ten sheets: it is not complicated work, it is a lot of work. We take over that block, so your own drawing office stays at the front of the project. Our role is sharply defined, and that suits both sides.
The client sets the structural design criteria and supplies the data, and we turn it into sheets and models that match their own standard. We do not check calculations, we do not advise on structural matters and we do not handle permits. That way responsibility for the engineering stays where it belongs, even when many drafters from our large team are working on it at the same time. For companies with lots of drafting work and too few drafters, it is often the shortest route to more output.
Drawings and models we produce in concrete construction
Our focus is on 2D detailing. We produce floor plans per storey, sections, elevations, element sheets, numbered overviews and sheets showing openings and connections. We carry changes through the complete set, including title block, date and revision letter, so no sheet is left behind with an old status. We develop detail sheets according to the principles the client supplies, not according to our own interpretation. Where a project calls for it, we model in 3D, with Revit as our main package and Rhino for shapes that are hard to build in a standard environment.
For parts heading towards fabrication, we use Inventor. Our deliverables leave as DWG, DXF, Revit file or STEP, and in any other common CAD format. We deliver source files, because the client needs to be able to carry on without calling us in. As-built work is a standard category in our assignments. The material supplied is often barely legible, printed incorrectly or partly drawn in by hand, and we work that out ourselves rather than calling the client about it every day.
Every sheet passes through at least three review layers. A drafter does the work, a second team member checks it, Sam, our team leader, then reviews it and Barry, our project manager, goes over it last. As a result, the number of errors stays limited in practice and the project leader keeps their own checking round short. We would rather say straight away what falls outside our package: no strength calculations, no structural decisions, no application files. We keep that boundary sharp, even when a project is under pressure and a decision is needed quickly.
No ongoing payroll costs and no idle staff once the peak is over. If one of our people is off sick or on holiday, we replace them and the work simply carries on.
The cost side of a drafting firm for concrete construction
We invoice by the hour or per project at a fixed price, and we decide by agreement which form fits. A defined series of element sheets with a lot of repetition fits a fixed price perfectly. If a project runs on for months with constant new rounds of changes, an hourly basis is fairer, because nobody can count those rounds in advance. We only bill pure working hours. If someone takes five minutes for a coffee, we do not bill that time. That is not symbolic but a way of keeping the timesheet traceable, so an invoice does not lead to discussion afterwards. We only make an estimate after we have seen the documents, because without material every estimate is a guess. We then look at the number of sheets, the degree of repetition, the state of the set supplied and the clarity of the drawing conventions.
Together, those four points determine almost the entire picture of hours. What keeps costs down is predictable. A clean set, a clear standard and a contact person who makes decisions save detective work. Lots of similar sheets lower the price per drawing, because our team works faster after the first series. Smart components also pay for themselves as soon as the same part comes back in several sizes. What drives costs up is equally predictable: a messy file, incomplete information and changes that arrive late. We flag that up front instead of quietly putting it on the timesheet. We do not work with prepaid hour bundles or a monthly hours subscription, and the client bears no ongoing payroll costs.
Getting started with a drafting firm for concrete construction
The process starts with a conversation. Barry picks up the initial request, goes through the project with the client and records what is there and what is needed. Sam then takes over the technical side, so there is one fixed point of contact instead of a changing line of contacts. As team leader, Sam has more than fifteen years of background in architecture, worked in Iran for seven years, ran his own design practice in the Netherlands and still works as an engineer.
Before we start, we ask for the existing drawings, the structural design criteria, the drawing conventions, the layer structure and the sheet layout.
Usually there is already a set that needs a revision, and we build on that. As soon as we have enough information to work independently, we can begin. If something is missing, we first work out for ourselves what makes sense before disturbing the client. We deliberately deliver the first block early, so the project leader can adjust course before a deviation repeats across the whole set. After that we deliver in batches, gather feedback, make adjustments and carry on.
We match the meeting rhythm to the pace: every two days for rush jobs, weekly for a calmer project. A short first assignment is fine, and many clients deliberately start that way to test our pace and accuracy. You can reach us by phone and via the contact form, and we respond to a new request within 1 to 2 working days. That is followed by a conversation in which we go through the project.
Frequently asked questions about a drafting firm for concrete construction
Hand your concrete construction drafting to us
Send us your documents and drawing conventions and we will let you know within one to two working days what we can take on and when.