What Is a Demolition Plan?

Most demolition plans draw items to be removed dashed and existing to remain solid or screened, with a legend stating the convention. Keynotes describe each scope item: remove partition to underside of deck, remove door and frame and salvage for reuse, remove ceiling and grid, protect existing to remain.

In CAD, the same distinction lives in layers. The US National CAD Standard's status field marks existing to demolish as D and existing to remain as E, so one existing conditions file can produce both the demolition plan and the new work background by freezing layers instead of redrawing.

Electrical demolition notes remove devices and wiring back to the source, mark the breaker spare on the panel schedule, and maintain circuits that serve areas outside the work. Mechanical and plumbing demolition caps piping at the main, removes duct back to a defined point, and keeps systems running for occupied floors.

The make-safe note matters most. A demolished partition with a live circuit passing through it to the next suite is both a hazard and a service interruption, so the electrical demolition plan should show what passes through the area as well as what serves it.

Demolition plans inherit every error in the existing conditions drawing. A partition shown in the wrong place, a duct main nobody surveyed, or a panel relabeled years ago surfaces as a field condition once demolition starts.

Notes such as verify in field and contractor to confirm existing conditions protect the design team but shift risk to the contractor, and bidders price that risk. A site walk with photos of panels, nameplates, and above-ceiling conditions before the plan is drawn reduces how many of those notes are needed.

Under the EPA asbestos NESHAP in 40 CFR Part 61, Subpart M, a regulated facility has to be inspected for asbestos before renovation or demolition. Lead paint, PCBs in old light ballasts and caulk, and mercury in thermostats and lamps are often surveyed at the same time, and abatement is usually its own scope on separate drawings or in the specification.

OSHA 29 CFR 1926.850 requires an engineering survey by a competent person before demolition begins, covering the condition of framing, floors, and walls. That survey is the contractor's responsibility, and the demolition plan and structural notes give it a starting point.

Removing a bearing wall, cutting a new slab opening, or taking out a column requires a structural design and often temporary shoring. The architectural demolition plan should point to the structural drawings for those items instead of describing them in a keynote.

Even nonstructural demolition can affect structure. Removing a topping slab, coring for new plumbing, or cutting into a post-tensioned slab needs scanning and the structural engineer's review before the cut.