Are Construction Submittals Contract Documents?

Construction submittals are not contract documents. Under both the AIA A201–2017 General Conditions and the EJCDC C-700–2018 Standard General Conditions, shop drawings, product data, samples, and similar submittals sit outside the contract documents, whether or not the architect or engineer has approved them.¹ That single point drives most of the risk allocation on a project: if an approved submittal conflicts with what the contract requires, the contract wins, and the contractor generally owns the fix.

What the Contract Documents Actually Are

Contract documents are the written materials that define the rights, responsibilities, and scope of work between the owner and contractor, and they legally bind both parties.² A typical set includes the owner-contractor agreement, the general conditions, any supplementary conditions, the drawings, the specifications, any addenda issued during bidding, and any modifications signed after the contract is in place.

Drawings show the scope and character of the work graphically. Specifications carry the written requirements for materials, equipment, systems, standards, and workmanship.² Together these define the enforceable agreement. Everything else produced during the job exists to implement what these documents already say.

Where Submittals Fit

Submittals are documents, data, or physical samples the contractor provides to show how the proposed materials, products, and methods will satisfy the contract requirements. They demonstrate the contractor’s intended way of conforming to the design concept expressed in the contract documents.³ The contractor prepares and furnishes them; the architect does not prepare them and is not responsible for their accuracy or completeness.⁴

The most common categories are shop drawings (fabrication and installation details prepared for the specific project), product data (manufacturer specs and brochures marked up to identify the selected item), and samples (physical examples that fix the standard for the finished work).³ Mock-ups, certifications, safety plans, coordination drawings, and calculations also travel through the submittal process.

Why Submittals Sit Outside the Contract Documents

The exclusion is written into the standard forms. AIA A201–2017 Section 3.12.4 states that shop drawings, product data, samples, and similar submittals are not contract documents. EJCDC C-700–2018 says the same thing, adding that this remains true whether or not the engineer has approved or accepted them.¹

The reasoning is direct. A submittal shows how the contractor proposes to meet what the contract already requires. It does not create, change, or override those requirements. A shop drawing is the contractor saying, in effect, here is how I plan to build what you specified. If that drawing departs from the specifications, the specifications still control. Submittals do not function as change orders, and an approval stamp does not convert a deviation into a binding modification.

The practical consequence is that work installed to match an approved submittal can still be found defective if that submittal did not match the contract documents. Courts have consistently reached this result, and arguments that the deviation should have been obvious to the reviewing architect have generally not carried the day.

What “Approved” Actually Covers

Approval is narrower than most people think. Under AIA A201–2017 Section 4.2.7, the architect reviews submittals for the limited purpose of checking conformance with the information given and the design concept expressed in the contract documents. The review is not a check on dimensions, quantities, installation instructions, or performance details. Those stay with the contractor.⁵

Approval also does not extend to safety precautions or to construction means, methods, techniques, sequences, or procedures. And approving a specific item does not mean the architect has signed off on an entire assembly that includes it.⁵ The architect is looking at design intent, not auditing every measurement on a shop drawing.

One provision that catches contractors off guard: AIA A201 Section 3.12.7 prohibits the contractor from performing any portion of the work requiring submittals until those submittals have been approved.⁵ Proceeding without approval is a contract violation and exposes the contractor to rework at its own cost.

When a Submittal Deviates From the Contract

Sometimes a submittal proposes something different from what the contract requires: a substitute product, a modified detail, an alternative method. AIA A201 Section 3.12.8 addresses this squarely. The contractor is not relieved of responsibility for deviations from the contract requirements by the architect’s approval unless two things happened. First, the contractor gave the architect specific notice of the deviation at the time of submittal. Second, the architect either gave written approval of the change as a minor change in the work, or a change order was issued authorizing it.⁵

EJCDC contains a parallel rule. The contractor must give the engineer specific written notice of any variation from the contract requirements, both in a separate written communication and directly on the shop drawing itself.¹ Where an approved submittal exceeds the contract’s requirements and the design professional wants to hold the contractor to that higher standard, the standard practice is to issue a contract modification, such as a field order or supplemental instruction, alongside the approval.

The takeaway for contractors is blunt. Burying a substitution inside a submittal without calling it out will not make it binding, even if the architect stamps “approved.” That risk stays with the contractor.

The Contractor’s Own Review Duty

Before a submittal ever reaches the architect, the contractor has an independent obligation to review it. AIA A201 Section 3.12.6 provides that by submitting shop drawings, product data, or samples, the contractor represents that it has reviewed and approved them, verified materials and field measurements, and coordinated the information with the requirements of the contract documents.⁶

A contractor who receives a subcontractor submittal and stamps it through without an independent evaluation has not met this obligation. If problems surface later that a real review would have caught, the contractor carries that exposure, and a subsequent approval from the architect does not rescue it.⁶

When the Standard Rule Can Shift

Everything above reflects the standard provisions of the AIA and EJCDC forms, which are the most widely used construction contract templates in the United States. Contracts can be modified. Supplementary conditions, special conditions, or negotiated amendments can alter the submittal process, the scope of the design professional’s review, or even the legal effect of approval.

Before assuming the standard rules apply, read the actual contract for a few things: how “Contract Documents” is defined and whether submittals are expressly excluded; the scope and limits of the architect’s or engineer’s review; the contractor’s obligations before submitting; the notice procedure required for any deviation or substitution; and how submittal-related changes get incorporated through change orders or field orders. Broad catch-all definitions that sweep in “all exhibits, attachments, supplements, and all other such documents” create the exact ambiguity that leads to disputes.² The default hierarchy under the standard forms is clear: the contract documents control, and submittals serve them. A poorly drafted supplementary condition can blur that line in ways that cost real money to untangle later.

1
EJCDC – Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee. Shop Drawings and Submittals Part 5 – Deviations from Contract Requirements
2
Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee. What are the Construction Contract Documents
3
AIA Contract Documents. Construction Submittals – What They Are and How To Manage Them
4
AIA Community Hub. According to Hoyle: The Submittal Process
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AIA Contract Documents. AIA Document A201-2017 General Conditions of the Contract for Construction
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AIA Contract Documents. Does a Contractor Need to Review Subcontractor Submittals