The handover file for a new warehouse or extension

27 October 2026

The day a warehouse extension is finished, everyone knows where the drawings are. Some time later a racking supplier asks about floor loading, or an electrician wants to know where the new sub-main runs, and the answer depends on whether anyone kept the handover information somewhere it can be found.

What a building handover should contain

Where construction work involves more than one contractor, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations require a health and safety file to be prepared and handed to the client. Alongside it, a well-run job leaves:

• as-built drawings that show what was actually constructed, not only what was proposed
• operation and maintenance information for doors, docks, lighting, heating and fire systems
• test certificates for the electrical installation and building services
• the completion and planning records relevant to the work
• warranties, with the conditions that keep them valid

Drawings that say which version they are

The usual problem with building records is not missing drawings but too many of them. A design develops through several revisions, and when the files arrive as email attachments over months, nobody can say which one reflects the finished building. Ask for the as-built set as a single issue with a drawing register, and move earlier revisions into a superseded folder rather than deleting them. They still explain how decisions were reached.

For logistics premises the drawings that matter most are often the ones nobody looks at during the build: yard drainage layouts, the position of interceptors, floor slab specifications, dock leveller details and the vehicle swept paths used to plan the yard. These are the ones a future tenant, insurer or buyer will ask for.

Keeping the file usable

Scanned drawings on a shared drive are fine if the folder structure follows the building: one folder per building or unit, then structure, services, drainage, fire and external works. Photographs of the frame, slab and buried services taken before they were covered are worth backing up separately, because they cannot be recreated.

The paperwork is easier to plan when the building's use is clear. Commercial building work covered by Commercial Builder includes new industrial premises, extensions and refurbishments designed around how the space is used. For a logistics firm, that means keeping records of the yard as well as the warehouse. Where old drawings are missing, photographs and notes of areas exposed during the new work can fill useful gaps in the record.

When a firm compares builders, it is reasonable to ask what the handover will include and in what format. A clear answer before the contract is signed saves a lot of chasing afterwards, and it tells you something about how carefully the site will be run.