In my experience, the only "standards" are those developed by the relationships involved in the project and by the office, based on past experience communicating with other entities in the area. After all, the sole purpose of our documents is to communicate--if they don't communicate clearly, they are not accomplishing their purpose. The purpose of bubbling (I'll call it "clouding") and listing the revised content of our documents is to communicate clearly to the viewer what changed from one set to the next. If no set has been issued to the viewer, no clouds or addenda are necessary at all, in theory.
If we're talking about bid addenda: the risks of not clouding and listing every change are that the bidders 1) become confused by the documents, losing confidence in their reliability; or 2) misunderstand the revisions to the documents. Either of these scenarios could result in bid distortion or in bidders dropping out, which would be a disservice to the project and to the owner.
Other miscommunication issues can arises when the Authority Having Jurisdiction has reviewed one set of documents and is reviewing a revised set. Clearly listing and clouding revisions can do a lot to streamline the AHJ back-check process, avoiding delays. I've had projects with pages of comments backchecked and permitted in minutes with properly identified revisions. I much prefer to get my permit over the counter like that than to hand a set over and wait for days for the verdict. Owners and contractors appreciate it, too. When bidding and plan review are being conducted in tandem, the risks of miscommunication of revisions are compounded.
So, to answer the original question and evaluate the options given: How much bid distortion and bidder loss (and backcheck hassle and delay) are we willing to tolerate in exchange for saving time clouding revisions? Once we're making a revision in a particular area of the documents, how much time does it really take to add a tight cloud around the revised area--streamlining bidding/backcheck (communicating effectively) and giving the bidder/reviewer confidence that they can find the revisions listed in a reasonable amount of time? Obviously, I choose option 1.
Having said that: If there are so many clouds that virtually everything is clouded, it becomes necessary sometimes to cloud the entire sheet. That's just reality.
As I said in the beginning regarding relationships: I have worked with some very good Construction Manager/General Contractors and some Design/Build construction partners who have very specific preferences about how revisions are communicated during the bid/buy-out phase. And I have received very good feedback from traditional design/bid/build General Contractors regarding our construction documents. Your mileage may vary--however, the input I have received from them has always been supportive of the approach I have outlined above, along with the advice to make the documentation as complete and concise as possible. No one likes extra, unnecessary pages and no one likes shortcuts that result in missing information. But they have all agreed that taking a few extra hours per re-issue to make the information easy to find saves a lot of headache for everyone, can save many hours later, and can also reduce construction costs by assuring the largest possible bidding pool and reducing bid-day confusion.
In the interest of clear communication: We only assign one revision number to each new re-issue of the documents and we use that revision number for every revised item in the re-issue. And the revision block description only includes a brief description of the purpose of the re-issue. For example: Revision 1 may be described as "Addendum 1" only and all revision items included in Addendum 1 are labeled with a "delta 1" symbol, along with a cloud. The only detailed description of the revisions is included in the Addendum write-up. The same goes for Proposal Requests, Architect's Supplemental Instructions, and RFI responses (sometimes issued in a conformed set during construction and individual sheets often re-issued with the RFI responses, clouded and identified with the appropriate revision data).
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Sean Catherall AIA
Murray UT
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-01-2022 06:41 PM
From: kevin Bloomfield
Subject: Bubbling drawing sheet changes for addenda
I'm curious too. Had someone try to tell me there was "a correct way" before, but I suspect it has more to do with the amount of liability exposure you are willing to accept in the event there's litigation.
Personally I believe drawings describe the project. Not ground breaking stuff, but its the root "thing" I come back to whenever I'm thinking about what needs to be done.
How detailed that description is (and what needs to be drawn or annotated), depends on what's needed and in who's opinion and in what context that matters. Which differs from project to project.
To share my own method, I'm somewhere in-between 2. and 3. when it comes to bubbling changes.
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kevin Bloomfield Assoc. AIA
Things of Any
Lampasas TX
Original Message:
Sent: 10-31-2022 01:26 PM
From: Donald Koppy
Subject: Bubbling drawing sheet changes for addenda
Would like to know if there is a standard in our practice for private (non-government) projects, regarding bubbling changes on drawing sheets for an addendum?
Have seen:
1. Every single change bubbled and tagged, revision block updated, and each change, on each sheet listed on addenda writeup.
2. Just the general areas bubbled identifying the change on each sheet, revision block updated, with a detailed description in the writeup.
3. No bubbles at all on the sheet that changed, revision block updated, with a simple general description of the change in the writeup.
Looking forward to your responses.
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Donald Koppy AIA, CSI, CCS
Mead & Hunt
Tampa FL
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