Length of Time Required to Store Calculation Records

[umgrego2]

How long do you need to keep your calculations in storage? Is there a point after a certain number of years that you can start pitching stuff in the garbage?

Our administration is looking at reducing the cost of storing drawings and engineering calculations. Is seven years reasonable? 20? Never?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[AUCE98]

umgrego2,

Our firm retains structural drawings for seven years, depending on the project sometimes longer. Design calculations are thrown away after completion of the project through the CA phase. After the CA phase, one should use the contract documents to do any further analysis on the structure that may be required to ensure that the analysis is based on as built conditions.
Regards,
Auce98

 

[Ron]

It depends on the state having jurisdiction over the work. For instance, in Florida an engineer is required to keep the info for 3 years. It varies by state.

 

[Rich2001]

One must ask themselves why they need to retain the calculations. If you expect to receive future work, exampli grati upgrades, modifications or maintenance activities for the system (structural, mechanical, electrical...) the design calculations would come in very handy.

If there is high probability of future legal action, use your own judgment, these documentations could help or hurt you.

 

[umgrego2]

Thanks for the input.

I guess the distinction needs to be made between drawings and calculations. Auce98 stated that drawings were kept for 7 years and calculations kept until end of CA phase.

Ron: when you say 3 years, are you referring to drawings or calculations?

Rich: I think I need some clarification on how the documentations could hurt a designer.

Thanks again!

Mike

 

[TFL]

i can think of many ways documentatin could hurt a design engineer here is one scenario.

1. you sketch a detail A that works. that sketch is correct

2. an architects talks you into changing the detail A into something stupid (detail b) because of architectural reason blah blah

3. the new detail fails in some way

4. the laywers suponea your records

5. the laywers ask you under oath why you did not build detail A and you should have known better

just one possibility

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Here is a link to a recent, similar dicussion
thread507-110366

 

[Rich2001]

here is another scenario -

During the discover phase the opposing lawyer can request all documentation that your firm has for any similar project.

Opposing counsel can then compare your design with others designs that you produced and question your judgement on each of these designs when it goes to trial.

---------------------------------------------

If I am suing someone I will make their life miserable during the process, forcing a settlement prior to trial. C'est la guerre, n'est-ce pas?

 

[epr]

Here's a collateral question . . .

What if the building doesn't get built? How long do you keep your plans and calculations then?

The reason I ask this is the following: Probably 25 years ago I designed three or four, mid-rise residential buildings, with parking under them. The plans were completed, but the project never went ahead.

About 5 to 8 years later, I was threatened to be sued by my original client. When I asked why, he said that they had submitted the plans for construction permit, and that my structural plans were incorrect, and it was costing him a lot of time and money to make changes now. He even threatened to take me before the state engineers' board.

I actually had to go to a pre-hearing to help clear my name, and luckily I still had my calculations in my files. The structural plans had been rejected due to inadequate capacity of primary structural members in the framing above the parking.

I had to prove that I did not make an error, and that the current building code was different from that which it was designed under, primarily with respect to Live Load Reduction. If I did not have my calculations, the suit would probably have gone beyond the pre-hearing level, and I could have been embroiled in a long battle.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is true. I found out that the client never had the site approvals and got held up in court for numerous years until he finally received court-ordered site approvals. The client never stayed in touch (he was very unwilling to part with any fees for professionals, as he knows better than them), so I had no idea that the project was ever going to be built. (And by the way, I had a very hard time collecting the final fees way back when I designed the buildings.)

Ah, the great life of a structural engineer !!! Always new ways to be sued that you can never forecast.

 

[Ron]

umgrego2....applies to anything signed and sealed by a P.E.

We tend to keep geotech info for many years because of its usefullness on adjacent or area projects.