Site surveys from a multi-location rollout, read into one schedule your project manager can check.

Before a rollout can be released to the shop, someone reads every survey and builds one schedule from them: what stands at each address now, what the wall and the power look like, which photos prove it, what it takes to reach the sign, and which of the customer's sign types belongs there. Reports come from your own installers and from subcontractors in different states, on paper forms, spreadsheets and phone photos with notes.

For the test, AI reads copies of those reports and drafts one schedule, a row per sign at each address: existing sign type, wall and electrical conditions, the photos that show them, access and lift needs. A separate list names every location where the survey is incomplete or conflicts with the customer's sign program, quoting both sides. It assigns no crew, orders nothing and picks no winner when two documents disagree.

A survey reads the sign, the wall and the rules at once. An Ohio community college's 2025 wayfinding request shows how basic the first pass is: a walkthrough of four main campuses and six other locations, a photo catalog giving each existing sign's actual content, size and whether it is single or double sided, and a keyed map of where each one stands. A commercial program asks for that at every address, with one surveyor writing "cabinet, lit" and the next "box sign". Reface or replace matters too, because local codes can treat a new face and a new cabinet differently for a nonconforming sign. So a row needs to say what stays. Status is for the jurisdiction to decide.

The finish isn't the wall. Trade guidance on EIFS, the foam-and-thin-coat exterior found on many commercial fronts, has long said to fasten through it into a structural member and not to it, with spacers so bolts don't crush the foam and every hole sealed. Gypsum sheathing behind the foam doesn't count as structure for this. A report saying only "stucco" leaves that open. The draft records the finish as written, any note about what's behind it and any access to the back of a wall or parapet, and marks the rest not verified. Whether a wall can carry a sign is a licensed person's call, and the test never makes it.

A survey has to find the circuit. Public summaries of NEC Article 600, Electric Signs and Outline Lighting, describe an outlet at each tenant entrance of a commercial occupancy accessible to pedestrians, on its own branch circuit rated at least 20 amps, a disconnect at the sign or within sight of it, and sign equipment at least 14 feet above areas vehicles reach unless it's protected. The edition a city has adopted governs, and your electrician reads it. Retrofits leave a further trail. Article 600 calls for a label on signs relamped with tubular LEDs on the old sockets, and Washington's WAC 296-46B-600 adds a contrasting label near the retrofit parts and wants them reachable for the inspector. So the schedule has lines for circuit seen, disconnect location, listing label seen and retrofit label seen, and a photo reference for each.

Getting to the sign is part of the survey. OSHA's 29 CFR 1926.1408 makes the employer work out whether any part of the equipment, at its maximum working radius, could come within 20 feet of a power line, and its Table A sets 10 feet for lines up to 50 kV. The International Sign Association's FAQ ties crane operator certification to equipment rated over 2,000 pounds and says most service vans, aerial ladders and lift platforms without such a crane fall outside it. A note reading "bucket truck" doesn't say what's overhead or what the truck stands on. Interior work brings its own paper: one university health system's published policy requires an infection control risk assessment for every above-ceiling permit, and a barrier permit naming the fire stop wherever a rated barrier gets a new penetration. The draft carries lift type, overhead lines noted, hours and landlord limits, and any facility permit mentioned. Equipment and safety calls stay with your installation lead.

Where the survey and the sign program part ways. The program says what each address should get, and the survey says what it can take: a letter set wider than the fascia measured, a program sign with no panel on a shared pylon, a room sign specified where the wall is missing. That last one has a public reference. The Access Board's guide puts raised characters and Braille 48 to 60 inches above the floor on the latch side of a single door, or the nearest adjacent wall if the latch side has no space. The draft quotes both documents and names the address. Your reviewer, usually the rollout project manager, checks each row against the schedule your team built: sign type, conditions, photo references, lift, and every blank or conflict marked.

After a yes, surveys from a live rollout get the same draft schedule for about 30 days.

Your project manager checks every schedule before it reaches the shop, an installer or a customer, and re-surveys and crew assignments stay with your team.

Drafts keep being compared with what your team decides. Any next job is a separate decision with its own price.