The document chain

A millwork job moves through a chain of documents. The architect's drawings become your shop drawings, your shop drawings become a submittal, the submittal comes back marked up, and eventually a version reaches the floor, the site and the owner's files. Each link has an owner, a clock and a legal weight. Learn the chain and you will know where a job is, what can still change, and who pays if it does.

The chain at a glance

Step	Document	Held by	What it proves
1. Design intent	Architect's drawings and specification	Design professional	What the owner is buying. These are the Contract Documents.
2. Shop drawings	Your set, revision 0	Millwork shop	How the shop proposes to build it
3. Submittal	Set, cover, index, material list, samples, change requests	General contractor	That the contractor reviewed and coordinated it
4. Review	The set in the design professional's office	Design professional	Nothing yet. The clock is running.
5. Mark-up	Returned set with a review stamp and notes	Back to the shop	The design professional's action
6. Revision	Revision 1, 2 and on, with the changes flagged	Millwork shop	That each comment was answered
7. Approval	Stamped "Approved" or "Approved as Noted"	All parties	That the design concept is accepted. Not that it can be built.
8. Release to floor	The approved revision, notes worked in	Shop floor	What gets cut
9. Cut lists and nesting	Part lists, bills of materials, machine files	Shop floor	That the drawings became parts
10. Install	Install sheets, field notes	Installer	What the building actually allowed
11. As-built	Record set, marked for field changes	Owner	What was built

1. Design intent

The chain starts with the Contract Documents. Under AIA A201-2017 §1.1.1 those are the Agreement, the Conditions, the Drawings, the Specifications, Addenda and Modifications. The architect's drawings show the look. The specification carries the grade, the standard, the materials and the hardware.

Before you draw, A201 §3.2.2 asks the contractor to "carefully study and compare the various Contract Documents", "take field measurements of any existing conditions" and report "any errors, inconsistencies or omissions" to the architect "as a request for information". That duty sits with the general contractor. You read the documents closely enough to find the holes, so send what you find up the chain as RFIs.

Time is lost here when the questions come late. A question asked on day one waits for an answer while you draw everything else. The same question found in week three stops the set.

2. Shop drawings

Your set proposes how the design gets built. A201 §3.12.4 says so directly: submittals "demonstrate how the Contractor proposes to conform to the information given and the design concept expressed in the Contract Documents." Revision 0 carries the status. On the residential set every sheet's revision block reads 0 · 10/07/18 · MW · SUBMIT FOR APPROVAL.

The Woodwork Institute's sample shows the other half of that status. Its commercial sheets carry a warning printed along the title strip: "These shop drawings are not approved and must not be used by any contractor until they are approved and dimensions are verified. Use of these drawings will be at your own risk. ... These drawings are for submittal review only." Put a note like that on every sheet you issue for approval. A submittal set that reaches the floor by mistake looks exactly like a release set.

3. Submittal

The set does not go straight to the architect. A201 §3.12.5 has the contractor "review for compliance with the Contract Documents, approve, and submit". AWI 100 says the same: shop drawings go "to the general contractor for submittal to the design professional." The federal clause adds a consequence: drawings "submitted ... without evidence of the Contractor's approval may be returned for resubmission."

A submittal is more than drawings. AWI 100 requires a cover sheet with project name, address, specified grade and scope, a table of contents, material lists, samples where required, and any substitutions "itemized separately from the shop drawings." Chapter 21 lists it item by item.

This is the step with legal weight. Anything you want approved that differs from the Contract Documents must be flagged in writing here, at the time of submittal. A201 §3.12.8 leaves the contractor responsible for deviations "unless the Contractor has specifically notified the Architect of such deviation at the time of submittal". A change you raise after approval is a change order. A change you never raise is yours.

4. Review

The set sits with the design professional. How long depends on the contract. Three published figures:

Source	Review period
AWI 100 – Submittals	"After review, one marked copy shall be returned to the general contractor or manufacturer/supplier within 10 days."
UFGS 01 33 00, Navy tailoring	At least 15 working days for quality-control manager approval and 20 working days where the Contracting Officer approves. The guide note suggests 30 working days on projects of 180 or more calendar days.
UFGS 01 33 00, all resubmittals	"The review period for each resubmittal is the same as for the initial submittal."

Time is lost here, and it multiplies. Every rejection restarts the clock. UFGS also says: "The Contractor is responsible for additional time required for Government reviews resulting from required resubmittals."

Worked example: what one resubmittal costs

Take a federal job under the Navy tailoring with a 20-working-day review. The first submittal comes back "Disapproved as submitted; Resubmit". Your revision takes three working days (an assumption for the arithmetic). The resubmittal gets its own 20 working days.

• First review: 20 working days.
• Your revision: 3 working days.
• Second review: 20 working days.
• Total before approval: 43 working days, against 20 if it went through first time.

About two months of calendar time on one set, and the extra is on the contractor's account. On a job run under AWI 100's 10 days, the same loop still costs more than double the first review. The cheapest day in the chain is the day you check the set before it leaves.

5. Mark-up

The set comes back with a stamp and notes. The stamp decides what you may do next. AWI 100 and the federal guide specification use different words, and their outcomes overlap:

AWI 100 stamp	UFGS 01 33 00 code	What you do
Approved	"A" – Approved as submitted	Proceed with production.
Approved as Noted	"AN" – Approved as noted	Proceed, working in the notes. UFGS: only "provided that the Contractor takes no exception to the corrections."
Revise and Resubmit	"RR" – Disapproved as submitted; Resubmit	Revise as noted and resubmit before production.
Rejected	—	AWI: "Do not proceed with production. Meet to determine modifications to be made to gain approval, then resubmit."
—	"NR" – Not Reviewed	Find out why. UFGS returns a set "not reviewed" if it lacks the contractor's review, is incomplete, is not required, or was already approved.

AWI 100 adds a rule for contractor stamps: a review marked "Reviewed", "Reviewed for General Conformance", "No Exceptions Taken" or similar "shall be considered 'Approved' or 'Approved as Noted.'"

6. Revision

Each round becomes a new row in the revision block. Chapter 7 covers the block itself. The chain adds one rule that catches drafters out.

The Contractor shall direct specific attention, in writing or on resubmitted Shop Drawings, Product Data, Samples, or similar submittals, to revisions other than those requested by the Architect on previous submittals. In the absence of such notice, the Architect's approval of a resubmission shall not apply to such revisions.

AIA A201-2017, §3.12.9

While answering the architect's comments, you will often fix other things: a dimension the floor queried, a hinge that changed, a panel split. If you do not flag those, the approval of the resubmittal does not cover them. Cloud every change on the sheet, describe every change in the revision block, and list the ones the architect did not ask for in the transmittal.

7. Approval, and why it is the riskiest word

A201 §3.12.7: the contractor "shall perform no portion of the Work for which the Contract Documents require submittal and review ... until the respective submittal has been approved by the Architect." The federal clause: "Any work done before such approval shall be at the Contractor's risk." So approval is the gate to production.

It is also the word that misleads. It is easy to read "approved" as "correct". The contract says otherwise:

• The architect's review is "only for the limited purpose of checking for conformance with ... the design concept" and "is not conducted for the purpose of determining the accuracy and completeness of ... dimensions and quantities" (A201 §4.2.7).
• "The Contractor shall not be relieved of responsibility for errors or omissions in Shop Drawings ... by the Architect's approval thereof" (A201 §3.12.8).
• "The Architect's approval of a specific item shall not indicate approval of an assembly of which the item is a component" (A201 §4.2.7).

So an approved set with a wrong dimension is an approved set with a wrong dimension. The stamp moves the risk nowhere. It only removes the last person who might have asked.

8. Release to the floor

What goes to the floor is not the stamped PDF. It is the approved revision with every "as noted" comment worked into the drawings, reissued with a status that says it is for fabrication. An outsourcing vendor's quality checklist lists review statuses a sheet should carry, such as "For Review", "For Construction", "Approved as Noted" and "Rejected", so that "only approved drawings are used for the fabrication or installation." Whatever words your shop uses, the floor must be able to tell a release sheet from a submittal sheet at a glance.

The residential set's single general note belongs to this step: "finishes to be reviewed and approved before fabrication." Finish approval runs on its own track, through samples. Do not release finished parts until that track is closed too.

9. Cut lists and nesting

The drawings now become parts. One outsourcing vendor lists what it delivers to a joinery shop's floor alongside the drawings: bills of materials, laminate schedules, nesting and cut patterns, "individual part drawings with exploded isometric views", DXF files for manufacturing, and tooling profiles. Another advertises "Cabinet Cutlists, layered DXF files and CNC files" from its millwork models.

That link is useful and dangerous. A change made on the drawing after the part files were generated does not reach the machine unless someone regenerates them. When a revision follows release, re-issue the parts, not only the sheets.

10. Install

Install is where the drawing meets the building. AWI's installation standard asks the installer to "confirm the presence of wood blocking or metal strapping as indicated in contract documents" and to "seek written directives" if it is missing. It sets the installed tolerance for plumb and level at "3.2 mm [.125”] in 2438 mm [96”]." It also says installers need not scribe to walls, ceilings, floors or openings that are out beyond the contract's tolerances.

Your set shapes this step. The Woodwork Institute sample's elevations note that a "4" high toekick may increase w/ shimming depending on job site floor conditions", and give a limit: "shim to 34" max A.F.F." That is a drawing that expects the floor to be out and tells the installer how far to go.

11. As-built

The chain ends with a record. A201 §3.11 has the contractor keep the Contract Documents "marked currently to indicate field changes and selections made during construction", and the approved shop drawings, and deliver them "upon completion of the Work as a record of the Work as constructed." UFGS calls this class of paper SD-11, Closeout Submittals.

A civil drafting textbook describes the as-built drawing the same way across the construction trades: it "is drawn after a construction project is finished to document final construction", it "can reveal changes made during construction that differ from the design", and it is "referenced for maintenance and operations, and future alterations". It adds: "As-built changes are often drawn by the contractor, and shown in red." Your millwork set becomes part of that record. The next fit-out of the same room starts from it.

Where the time goes

• Late questions. A question found in week three stops a set that a day-one RFI would not have.
• Resubmittals. Each one costs a full review period, and the contractor owns the delay.
• Owner-supplied items. An appliance or device with no model number holds the cabinet around it.
• Finish samples. They run on their own track and can hold release after the drawings are approved.
• Revisions after release. A change that reaches the sheets but not the part files gets cut wrong.

Checklist: moving a set down the chain

• Every issued sheet shows its status. Submittal sheets say they are not for fabrication.
• Every deviation from the Contract Documents is itemised in writing, at submittal.
• Every returned note is read before anyone proceeds. Notes that change scope get a written reply.
• Every revision not requested by the reviewer is flagged, in writing or on the sheet.
• The release set carries every "as noted" comment, and a fabrication status.
• Part lists and machine files are regenerated after any post-release revision.
• Field changes go back onto the drawings for the record set.

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Sources

• American Institute of Architects, A201-2017 General Conditions, §§1.1.1, 3.2.2, 3.11, 3.12.4, 3.12.5, 3.12.7, 3.12.8, 3.12.9 and 4.2.7 (owner-issued sample copy). The document chain, RFIs, record documents, deviations, flagged revisions, the gate to production, the limits of approval. Primary.
• Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.236-21, Specifications and Drawings for Construction (Feb 1997), paragraph (e), acquisition.gov. Contractor approval, work before approval at contractor's risk. Primary.
• US Unified Facilities Guide Specifications, UFGS 01 33 00 Submittal Procedures (August 2026), wbdg.org, §§1.9.6.1, 1.11, 1.12.1, 1.13. Review action codes, review periods, resubmittal periods, notes that constitute changes, SD-11 closeout. Primary.
• Architectural Woodwork Institute, AWI 100 – Submittals, §§3.2(c), 3.2.1, 3.2.3(d)–(g), awinet.org, read 21 September 2026. Routing through the contractor, 10-day return, the four review stamps, contractor stamp equivalence. Primary.
• Architectural Woodwork Institute, ANSI/AWI 0620 – Finish Carpentry/Installation, §3.1, awinet.org. Installer's blocking check, scribing limit, plumb and level tolerance. Primary.
• David A. Madsen and others, Civil Drafting Technology, 8th edition, Pearson, chapter 1, "As-Built Drawings". Definition of the as-built. Civil drafting, not millwork. Document (published textbook).
• Woodwork Institute, Sample Shop Drawings. Submittal-only warning strip; toe-kick shimming notes. Document.
• A residential millwork submittal, 16 sheets, revision 0, SUBMIT FOR APPROVAL. Revision block, finishes note. Not reproduced: live job. Document.
• Dolly Bulchandani, "15 Essential Elements of a Shop Drawings Quality Checklist", qecad.com, 2025, a drafting vendor's blog. Review statuses on sheets. Claimed.
• Ripudaman Singh, "Essential Details You Should Look For in Millwork Drawings", hitechdigital.com, 2 July 2024; UR CAD Services, "Millwork Shop Drawings", urcadservices.com, mirrored 20 September 2026. Outsourcing vendors describing their deliverables. Claimed.