I have to send out bid drawings, what is the typical completeness level expected for these.
I have all devices shown and any infrastructure (feeder/wiring) revisions shown.
I have not shown branch level circuiting yet.
Is this acceptable for this type of submittal?
Thanks
Bid drawings should be 100% complete. Who decides what is 100%?
As a minimum, you would need to comply with your state statutes in terms of completeness if they are going to be signed/seals and submitted to a permitting department. Look at the design contract and see if there are requirements there, sometimes they go into gross detail, other times they don't. It really depends on the owner and local AHJ. For example, we know to include certain features that different cities look for when they review for a permit so that we don't have to deal with the inevitable comments. A wastewater plant would have its own requirements for what must be provided on construction plans and how it must be shown. A nuclear power plant, on the other hand, is going to have completely different requirements and level of detail expected.
As far as quantities and lengths go, we don't include this information and contractors have no issues bidding our plans. We don't get too many RFI's or change orders either. We show the locations of all equipment on scaled drawings and a riser that shows conduit size and content. A competent outfit can figure it out from there. This is usually good enough for government work, as they say.
We typically only show conduit routing for special circumstances or smaller jobs.
Re: branch circuits, you might be able to get away without showing branch circuiting exactly. We don't tell the contractor how to interconnect the lights/receptacles of a given branch. We only call out the circuit number and panel name and show a home where it's desired. They can decide which ones to connect together. It's in their interest to be competitive so they will optimize it. Unless it's required, its a waste of your time to do it.
