How Many Revisions Is Too Many When Working With a Drafting Company?
We are currently working with a drafting firm on a commercial project and we are already on our fifth round of revisions. I am starting to wonder if this is normal or if we should have gone with someone else from the start.
To be fair some of the changes have been on our end, the client kept updating requirements halfway through the process. But a few of the revisions were clearly drafting errors, dimensions that did not match what was discussed, wall placements that conflicted with the structural layout, and one elevation that was missing an entire section we had specifically asked for.
What frustrates me most is the turnaround time on each revision. We were initially told 24 to 48 hours per revision but some of them have taken four to five days which is pushing our permit submission back significantly.
I am curious how others handle this situation. Do you have a revision limit written into your drafting agreements or do you just go back and forth until it is right? And how do you distinguish between revisions that are the drafting company's fault versus scope changes on your end that you should reasonably expect to pay extra for?
Five rounds of revisions on a commercial project is on the higher end but not unheard of, especially when client requirements are changing mid process. The real issue is separating which revisions are billable scope changes and which ones are errors that the drafting firm should be fixing at no extra cost.
A simple way to handle this going forward is to document every revision request in writing with a clear description of what needs to change and why. That creates a paper trail that makes it much easier to identify whether a revision is a drafting error or a client driven change. Most professional drafting firms will not push back on this because it protects them as much as it protects you.
On the turnaround time issue, 24 to 48 hours is a reasonable expectation for minor revisions on commercial drawings. Four to five days suggests either the firm is overloaded or the changes are more complex than they initially indicated. Either way that needs to be addressed directly before it delays your permit submission further.
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