Drawings are an essential component of designing services within a building to help visualise and communicate the design intent. These services in a building can vary from electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and they are essential for the building to function effectively.

Capturing all the necessary services within a drawing support the variation of contractors that will be working on site helping to communicate the designs intent. With all the services planned onto a drawing with locations and fitting descriptions they help avoid misunderstandings and confusion and support with the coordination of the project. With todays safety standards these drawings will also support with ensuring all building regulations and standards are met and approved prior installation to save time and money in later alterations.

Obtaining an initial drawing of the development also help to control the costs of the project by providing accurate and detailed information of the services required. This information helps estimate the costs of materials, labour and equipment required to deliver the project.

At GJS Design we know how important our drawings are to ensuring the success of any project. Capturing details accurately, clearly and communicating with contractors throughout the project so all changes are identified. With our years of experience we are able to identify potential risks with a project and can raise these challenges in advance of any on site construction works. All of our schemes have clear legends to support contractors understanding the equipment that is being installed and its location and are also able to provide clear parts list to support with the costs and purchase of equipment to keep within the set budget of the project.

CASE STUDY 2 - LIGHTING TRACK FIT OUT

Lighting plays a very important role within any design feature which can change the environment to suit the necessary desired experience. Lighting can change the way you feel and when working within the Retail sector lighting can make all the difference to encourage a customer to purchase the products on display.

GJS have worked alongside many lighting contractors and within this Case Study the requirement to set out and position a complete sales space with the lighting tracks was requested. While given the basis of the number of lighting tracks and lights that were required GJS set to work planning each area to suit the clients desires.

While taking into account existing ceiling fittings but also ensuring an even balance of new proposed lighting tracks GJS set to work calculating room space and suitable lengths of track to obtain the correct ambience within the Retail Store.

Once the full layout was complete and approved GJS then set to work completing the materials list and specific measurements so all tracks could be cut prior being delivered to store and installed to the set dimensions across the Store. The preparation and drawings completed were key to ensuring a smooth and successful installation on site.

CASE STUDY 3 - AS INSTALLED DRAWINGS OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE MANUALS

During a development of a new build or existing building it is often the request that an Operations and Maintenance Manual is produced for any future maintenance, decommission or demolition of a building. These O&M Manuals are often required after a project is completed to suit the final handover off a project. As part of the O&M Manual drawings are a necessity to provide an As Installed layout of services that have been installed from electrical sockets, containment tracks, data points, distribution boards, AC ducting, sprinkler to name just a few elements.

With the GJS Design team skilled and experienced with construction and the ability to survey and work with various CAD software we are often asked to provide these specific As Installed drawings.

In this case study our client already held a basic sketch scheme of all the works that had been completed and the locations of fixtures and fittings. But with no CAD Team within the business we were tasked to create a professional Cad drawing providing a true drawing demonstrating all the fixtures and fittings that had been installed and their locations. To support the scheme a legend is added to the plan clearly identifying each item so if any maintenance work is required for a specific service they can be easily identified and the scheme followed to its installed location.

These As Installed drawings vary for each specific contractor and often a collection of drawings are produced for each individual service and collated to create a full Operations and Maintenance Manual Drawing documents.