Illustrative Blueprint Analysis
Using drawings to locate dedicated utilities and quantities before the site visit, then confirming them in the field. Educational information, not tax advice.
Educational information, not tax advice.
Updated 2026-10-14
Assumptions
- Educational information, not tax advice.
- Assume mechanical and electrical drawings exist for a restaurant. As-builts are preferred when they exist; this file has a design set plus an inspection.
- A hood on a drawing that was never installed is not an asset. Inspection controls.
- Document extraction is described as a proposed Super Intelligence stage, not as a claim that drawings are classified without review.
Key takeaways
- Drawings propose; inspection confirms. As-builts beat design sets when they exist.
- A hood on a drawing that was never installed is not an asset.
- Quantities taken off drawings (linear feet of dedicated gas, panel amperage) still need unit costs and a reconciliation to basis.
- CostSeg SI’s proposed extraction stage is designed to read those sheets; a person still confirms what was built.
Mechanical and electrical drawings for a restaurant show a 12-foot hood and a dedicated 400-amp kitchen panel. The study takes those off as candidate personal-property systems. Those candidate labels are not classes until inspection, the restaurant matrix, and Treas. Reg. §1.48-1 are applied. Suppose, for arithmetic only, the design set also shows 80 feet of dedicated gas and a makeup-air unit tagged for the hood. Those quantities are a checklist, not a result and not a typical restaurant mix.
The inspection finds the hood was shortened and the panel was installed. Quantities are updated. A 12-foot hood that was built at 8 feet is an 8-foot asset. CostSeg SI’s proposed extraction stage is designed to read those sheets; a person still confirms what was built. This illustration does not claim that drawings are classified without review, and it does not claim an operational extraction or RSMeans agent.
Order of operations: gather the drawing set and specs; take off candidate quantities; inspect and photograph; revise quantities; assign classes; price from actual costs or a cited estimate; reconcile to depreciable basis, excluding land. Drawings are documentation, not a substitute for the legal analysis the ATG lists as a quality element. A beautiful takeoff that does not add to basis is not a quality study.
Status of technology
Document extraction is described as a proposed Super Intelligence stage, not as a claim that drawings are classified without review. CostSeg SI’s six-step workflow — extraction, normalization, classification, estimation, QA, engineer certification — is a product description. No source supports an accuracy or time-saving claim. Engineer certification is not claimed as an operational staffing fact on this website. The ATG says the IRS has not established preparer qualifications.
A person still compares the sheet to the room. If extraction misreads a 12-foot hood as 21 feet, inspection is the control. This illustration does not treat a model output as a filed schedule.
What to take off before the visit
From the mechanical sheets: hood length, makeup-air unit tag, whether that unit serves only the hood, and whether kitchen HVAC is a separate unit. From the electrical sheets: kitchen panel rating, dedicated equipment circuits, and house lighting homeruns. From architectural sheets: floor-finish schedule (VCT versus ceramic), millwork, and restroom cores. From civil sheets: paving, curbs, and fence. Those quantities become the inspection checklist.
Specifications explain attachment: strippable adhesive versus thinset, demountable partitions versus gypsum to deck. Specs can be wrong if the contractor substituted. Inspection records what was installed.
As-builts, addenda, and vanished scope
As-builts beat design sets when they exist. Addenda and bulletin drawings can delete a walk-in or shorten a hood. A study that prices the bid set without the bulletin will invent an asset. The ATG’s documentation element for new construction includes construction documents, as-builts, specs, and AIA G701–G704 pay applications.
If as-builts are missing, say so in assumptions and limiting conditions — another quality-report element. Weight the inspection more heavily. Do not hide the gap.
Matching drawings to classes
A dedicated 400-amp kitchen panel is a personal-property candidate under the restaurant matrix’s dedicated-outlet rows, still subject to function. House lighting homeruns stay with the building. The shortened hood and makeup air solely for that hood are 5-year in that matrix. A rooftop unit shown cooling the dining room stays with the tenant’s building improvement. Do not allocate it. The restaurant matrix says allocation of HVAC is not appropriate. Scott Paper functional allocation, if used at all on the electrical sheets, is limited in the ATG to primary and secondary electrical distribution with design-load support. Do not extend that method to gas pipe as an IRS-accepted percentage.
Blueprint analysis does not create basis. If the hood was owner-supplied and already in an equipment account, do not take it off the contractor’s millwork line a second time. Floor-finish schedules that show VCT in the dining room still need an inspection to confirm strippable adhesive versus a permanent set. Ceramic restroom tile on the finish schedule is building in that matrix even if a takeoff tool tagged every “floor” as 5-year property.
Who owns the work on the sheets
Tenant drawings do not depreciate the landlord’s shell. If the set includes base-building HVAC or a restroom core the landlord built, those sheets are context, not the tenant’s basis. Basis follows title and the lease. A study that prices every fixture on a combined permit set will not reconcile to either party’s books.
If the restaurant were instead purchased as a going concern, read any written allocation before treating the drawing takeoff as open. Peco Foods is a risk when a §1060 writing exists; it is not assumed to apply to every file. This illustration is a build-out with drawings, not a Peco holding.
Reconciliation and filing
Updated quantities are priced from actual invoices where they exist, or from a cited unit-cost source with volume, page, and item. Totals add to depreciable basis. Land, if this were a pad, stays out. Change orders that altered the hood after the design set must be in the file or the takeoff is stale. The CPA files Form 4562 and applies §168(k) as of Notice 2026-11 to qualified personal property. This page does not compute tax.
If this drawing review is part of a look-back, the same quantities feed a §481(a) discussion. Filing decisions stay with the CPA (F-04). Educational information, not tax advice.
Sources
- 1IRS Publication 5653 — Cost Segregation Audit Techniques Guide (rev. 2-2025)(opens in a new tab)
Written for IRS examiners. The guide states it is not an official pronouncement of law and cannot be cited as authority. It predates the July 2025 law.
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