Reference library
Everything we know about job-site paperwork
Field guides for the documents that have to be on site, and comparisons of every way builders have tried to share them. Written for people who read plans, not marketing pages.
Field guides
Three guidesThe three problems that actually generate phone calls from a job site — written for the person who has to answer them.
- Guide 01
What documents belong on a job site
Permits, approved plans, inspection reports, truss letters, product data, safety paperwork. Which of those has to be physically posted, which only has to be reachable within a minute, and how to tell the difference before an inspector asks. Requirements vary by jurisdiction — this is the working checklist, not a legal one.
Read it - Guide 02
Managing plan revisions without a rebuild
A framer building from Revision B while Revision C sits in the truck is the most expensive filing error in residential construction. Here is how superseded sheets stay in circulation, and the habits that pull them out the same day they are replaced: one current set, a revision letter anyone can read at a glance, and a single place everyone looks.
Read it - Guide 03
Getting ready for inspection day
What to have staged before the truck pulls up, how to stop the trades stalling while somebody hunts for an engineering letter, and what to do the moment a report comes back with corrections. Includes the short list of documents inspectors ask for most often.
Read it
How it compares
Three comparisonsStraight comparisons, including the parts where the old way still wins. If a page here only flatters DryPlans, it is not doing its job.
- Compare
DryPlans vs. a plastic permit box
The box costs almost nothing, needs no explaining, and holds the permit card the department wants posted. It also fills with water, holds whatever set was printed the day it was stocked, and cannot tell anyone the plans changed. A side-by-side on cost, weather, revisions, and who ends up making the phone call.
Read it - Compare
DryPlans vs. a shared Dropbox or Drive link
Most builders try this first, and for the office it works fine. The friction shows up on site: sign-in walls, app install prompts, a folder tree on a five-inch screen in the sun, and no way to retire the sheet that is no longer current. Where a shared folder holds up, and exactly where it breaks down.
Read it
By trade
Four tradesSame product, different paperwork. What a job page looks like when the work is a roof, an array, a pool, or somebody's kitchen.
- For
Roofing contractors
Tear-off and dry-in inspections land on short notice, and the documents that matter are the ones nobody wants to print: product approvals, nailing patterns, underlayment specs. How a scannable placard keeps the crew and the inspector reading the same detail.
Read it - For
Solar installers
Electrical permit, structural letter, one-line diagram, equipment cut sheets, and a utility interconnection that has its own paperwork. Multiple sites in one day, each with a different AHJ. How to keep every packet one scan away from the roof you are standing on.
Read it - For
Pool builders
A pool runs through steel, plumbing, bonding, deck, and final — with barrier and safety requirements that get checked hard. Long build, many trades, one placard on the fence that every one of them can read.
Read it - For
Remodelers
You are working in somebody's house, the scope changes mid-job, and the homeowner is standing right there asking questions. A public job page answers the client and the subs at once, without you giving out your cell number again.
Read it
General notes
These guides are not code, and they are not legal advice
What has to be posted on a job site, and in what form, is set by your building department — and it differs from one jurisdiction to the next. Everything here describes common practice and how DryPlans works. When it matters, ask the department that issued the permit.
Reading about it is slowerthan printing one.
One job site is free and stays free. Post the placard, see whether anyone scans it, then come back and read the rest.