The Title Block Field by Field
Why this matters
Every sheet in a drawing set carries a title block, usually a strip down the right edge or across the bottom, and most techs read exactly one box in it: the sheet number. The rest is the sheet's identity papers. It says who designed it, which project and which building it belongs to, what it was issued for, when it last changed, and who to call when it is wrong. A crew that reads the whole block once per sheet catches the stale print, the permit-only set and the sheet from the neighboring project before any of them cost a day of rework. Reading it takes thirty seconds a sheet.
The block, filled in
Layouts vary by firm, but the fields are close to universal. Here is one for a mechanical sheet on a tenant fit-out:
+------------------------------------------------+
| ARCHITECT: (firm, address, phone) |
| MEP ENGINEER: (consultant firm, phone) |
+------------------------------------------------+
| PROJECT: SUITE 210 TENANT FIT-OUT |
| 4400 COMMERCE DR, BLDG B |
| OWNER: (building owner) PROJECT NO: 24-118 |
+------------------------------------------------+
| ISSUED FOR CONSTRUCTION DATE: 03/14 |
+------------------------------------------------+
| REV | DATE | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | 04/02 | ASI-03 DUCT REROUTE AT CORRIDOR |
+------------------------------------------------+
| [PROFESSIONAL SEAL] DRAWN: KT CHECKED: RLM |
| (signed and dated) SCALE: AS NOTED |
| KEY PLAN: [##.......] (shaded = this sheet) |
+------------------------------------------------+
| MECHANICAL FLOOR PLAN M-101 |
+------------------------------------------------+
What each box tells a trade
Design firm and consultants. The architect is usually the prime designer, and the MEP engineer is often a separate consultant firm whose name sits below or beside it. For a service trade this box answers who actually designed your system. Questions still go through the GC, but knowing that the mechanical design came from a consultant tells you an RFI on duct sizing will take an extra hop, so ask early.
Project name and address. Obvious until the day it is not. Shops working two jobs for the same GC, or two suites in one building, end up with a sheet from the wrong job in the truck. The address and the building letter are the check, not the project name, which is often generic ("Tenant Fit-Out").
Owner. The building owner or the tenant, depending on who hired the architect. It matters later when warranty letters and closeout paperwork have to be addressed to someone. If the block names the landlord and your contract is with the tenant's GC, note it; who your paperwork should name is a question for the GC, and anything with legal weight is one for your own attorney.
Project number. The architect's internal job number. Put it on every RFI, submittal and transmittal you send. Design offices file by it, and a submittal that arrives without it can sit on the wrong desk for a week.
Issue purpose and date. The line that says what this set is for: bid, permit, construction, conformed, record. It is the single most important line in the block for anyone holding a tool, and it has its own card. See What the Issue Stamp on a Drawing Set Means.
Revision column. Each change after the issue date gets a row: a number, a date and a short description, matched by a numbered triangle and a cloud around the changed area on the drawing. The latest row is the sheet's real date. See The Revision Block and Why It Decides Everything for how to read it; this card only asks you to look at its last row.
Professional seal. The stamp and signature of the licensed architect or engineer responsible for that discipline's design. When a seal is required, and what it must show, is set by each state's licensing law and the jurisdiction's permit rules. The operational fact for a trade: a sheet that should carry a seal and does not, on a set marked for permit or construction, is usually an unfinished or internal print, and it is worth one question before anybody builds from it.
Drawn by and checked by. Initials of the drafter and the reviewer. They do not change what you build, but on a large firm's job they tell the GC whom to call, and an unfilled "checked by" box on a construction sheet is the same kind of tell as a missing seal.
Scale. One scale for the whole sheet, or "AS NOTED", meaning each drawing on the sheet carries its own scale under its title. Never assume the title block scale applies to a detail in the corner. See Architectural and Engineering Scales on One Ruler.
Key plan. A small outline of the building with the area this sheet covers shaded. On a building split across several plan sheets it tells you whether the room you are standing in is on M-101 or M-102. See How to Find Your Place by Column Grid and Key Plan.
Sheet title and number. What the sheet is and where it sits in the set. See Sheet Numbering and Discipline Letters on a Drawing Set.
Two boxes to check before touching a tool
Every field above earns its place, but two of them decide whether the sheet is safe to build from, and both are pass-or-fail:
- The issue purpose reads for construction (issued for construction, a conformed set, or whatever the project's contract says is the construction issue). A bid set, a permit set or a progress set fails.
- The latest date on the sheet, meaning the last revision row or the issue date if there are no revisions, matches the latest date for that sheet on the GC's current sheet log. A sheet older than the log fails, however clean it looks.
Both have to pass. A current sheet from a permit set and a construction sheet one revision behind are equally wrong.
One gate, two prints
Two copies of M-101 are on a job on the same morning. One is clipped to the plan table in the crew's work area. The other is in the GC's trailer. The crew lead runs the two checks on both before the duct crew starts the corridor.
The trailer copy. Issue purpose: issued for construction, 03/14. Revision column: one row, Rev 1 dated 04/02, "ASI-03 duct reroute at corridor". The GC's sheet log lists M-101 with a latest date of 04/02. Check one passes, check two passes (04/02 against 04/02). This copy is buildable.
The crew's copy. Issue purpose: issued for construction, 03/14. Revision column: empty. Check one passes. Check two compares 03/14 on the sheet against 04/02 on the log and fails: the crew's copy is one revision behind, and the revision is a duct reroute in exactly the corridor they were about to hang.
The crew lead pulls the crew's copy, writes "SUPERSEDED" across it with the date, and the crew works from a fresh print of Rev 1. The cost of catching it: a few minutes and one print. The cost of not catching it would have been a corridor of duct hung and then taken back down when the GC's superintendent walked the job against the current sheet.
What would change the outcome. If the GC keeps no sheet log, check two has nothing to compare against. Then the comparison is against the most recent transmittal or the project's document portal, and if neither exists, ask the GC in writing which revision of each sheet in your scope is current, and keep the answer. If the two copies had matched each other but both said "issued for permit", check one fails on both, and neither is buildable until the GC confirms a construction issue.
When the block is thin or missing
Small residential and design-build jobs often arrive with a title block that carries a name, an address and nothing else, or with drawings that have no block at all: a designer's plan printed from a home-design program, a sketch the homeowner paid for, a kitchen layout from a cabinet supplier. The two checks still apply; you just have to supply the fields yourself.
- No issue purpose. Ask the customer or the GC directly whether this is the version the permit was issued on and the version you are building, and write the answer, with the date and who said it, on the sheet.
- No revision column. Treat the print date, or the date the file was emailed to you, as the sheet's date, and ask whether anything has changed since. Keep the email.
- No seal. Many residential projects do not require one, so its absence is not a defect by itself; whether a given job needs one is the building department's call, not yours. It does mean nobody licensed has taken responsibility for the design, so a structural or code question goes to the person who drew it or to the plan reviewer, not into your field judgment.
The quieter clues in the margin
Two small things outside the main boxes repay a glance:
- The plot stamp. Many firms print the file name and the date and time the sheet was printed along the edge in small type. A plot date well before the sheet's latest revision date, more than the day or two a drawing sits between printing and issue, usually means somebody reprinted an old file or relabeled a sheet by hand. A plot date after the revision is normal.
- "Do not scale drawings." A common general note, sometimes printed in the block. It means figured dimensions govern, and if one is missing you ask rather than measure. See How to Scale a Dimension Off a Print for when measuring is reasonable anyway and how to do it.
Verifying you read it right
At the start of any day that uses a new or reprinted sheet, the crew lead confirms for every sheet in the day's scope: the project address and building match the job; the issue purpose is the construction issue; the latest revision date matches the GC's log; the seal box is filled where the set is sealed. Any sheet failing one of those comes off the table and gets a question, not a judgment call. The habit that makes it stick is writing the sheet number and latest date on the daily log, which turns the check into a record. See related: The Drawing Revision Control on the Truck SOP.
References
- United States National CAD Standard (NCS), National Institute of Building Sciences, title block and sheet identification conventions
- Your state's architect and professional engineer licensing board rules on seals and signatures
- See related: The Revision Block and Why It Decides Everything; How to Cross-Reference Between Drawing Sheets
- See related: What the Issue Stamp on a Drawing Set Means; How to Confirm the Truck Set Is Current