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Almost nobody in the UK CAD outsourcing market publishes prices. Ask most providers what as-built drawings cost and you will be asked to send your drawings for a quotation. That is understandable — scope varies enormously — but it makes it very difficult for a contractor trying to price a package at tender stage to put a number against the record drawing deliverable.
This page sets out how as-built and redline work is actually priced, what drives the cost up and down, and what we charge.
Per markup. A fixed price for each marked-up drawing incorporated, regardless of how long it takes. The contractor knows the cost before the work starts and the risk of a complex drawing sits with the provider. This is how we price.
Hourly. A day rate or hourly rate against recorded time. Common with freelancers and smaller providers. Flexible, but the final cost is unknown until the work is finished, which makes it hard to price into a tender.
Per drawing sheet. A fixed price per sheet regardless of how much change it contains. Simple, but tends to overcharge for lightly marked-up drawings and undercharge for heavily revised ones.
Redline markup incorporation and as-built drawing production is priced at £50 to £80 per marked-up drawing, regardless of how long the drawing takes.
Where a drawing sits in that range depends on the density of the markup and the discipline, not on the hours involved. A drawing with a handful of dimension corrections and a re-routed service sits at the lower end. A heavily revised M&E layout with dozens of changes across multiple services sits at the upper end.
For full drawing sets and ongoing programmes, we agree a fixed rate per drawing at the outset so the whole package can be budgeted before work starts.
The quality of the markup. A clear, legible markup with dimensions and locations shown is quick to incorporate. A note reading "pipe moved" with no route shown requires a query, a delay and often a second pass. Markup quality is the single biggest variable in this work.
Whether the source CAD exists. If the original drawing is available in DWG, the work is an edit. If only a PDF exists, the drawing has to be redrawn or converted first, which is a separate and larger piece of work.
Discipline and density. A single-service layout with light revision is faster than a coordinated M&E drawing carrying changes across mechanical, electrical and public health.
Volume and timing. Drawings submitted steadily through a project are cheaper to manage than a full set arriving in one batch at closeout, where queries cannot be resolved because the site team has demobilised.
A CAD technician in the UK costs somewhere in the region of £32,000 to £42,000 a year, plus employer NI, pension, software licensing, hardware and management time. The fully loaded cost is meaningfully higher than the salary.
For a contractor with a steady, year-round drafting workload, an in-house technician is usually the right answer. For a contractor whose drafting demand is concentrated at project closeout — which describes most M&E and fit-out businesses — the capacity sits idle for much of the year and is then insufficient at the peak.
The relevant comparison is not the hourly rate. It is the cost of the peak capacity you actually need against the cost of carrying it permanently.
Send a sample marked-up drawing and we will confirm a per-drawing rate for the package before any work starts. There is no charge for the quotation and no obligation.
Contact info@outsourcecad.com or +44 28 9009 8876, or see our as-built drawing services and redline markup incorporation for more on the process.
Redline markup incorporation and as-built drawing production typically costs £50 to £80 per marked-up drawing when priced per drawing rather than hourly. Where a drawing falls in that range depends on markup density and discipline. Full sets are usually agreed at a fixed rate per drawing at the outset.
Per drawing gives a known cost before work starts, which matters if you are pricing the deliverable into a tender. Hourly can be cheaper on simple drawings but carries the risk that a complex drawing costs far more than expected.
Not on a per-markup basis. The price is fixed per drawing regardless of the time taken, so the risk of a complex drawing sits with us rather than with you.
That is a different piece of work. The drawing has to be converted or redrawn in CAD before markups can be incorporated, which is priced separately. Send a sample and we will confirm the cost.
No. We work on single drawings as well as full project sets. Many clients start with one drawing to check the output before committing to a package.
Nice to meet you! If you have any question about our services, feel free to contact us.
