How to read a floor plan?

How to read a floor plan?

A floor plan is one of the most detailed and significant aspects of the drafting process and for a house construction, it is important to know how the interior of the home will be laid out. In this article, you’ll get to know about what are floor plans and why are they important in construction.

The floor plan is a two-dimensional plan of the way the house will look starting from the top down. Floor plans are a type of cross-section, showing the layout of the house from a perspective roughly three to four feet above the ground. In case the house has one or more storey, your floor plan will feature clearly labeled diagrams showing each separate floor.

What’s on a floor plan?

There is a lot of detail on a floor plan, and even though a lot of people might be able to make a basic sense of it at a glance, there is still plenty to explain if you are not really acquainted with how things are shown. Below is an instant explanation associated with the more important features on a floor plan and exactly how they are represented:

Walls – the walls are possibly the most important part of the floor plan because they identify the measurements and shape of your home showing how rooms are laid out. Exterior walls are shown on the floor plan as thicker than interior walls generally to show the scale of the actually intended width.

Doors – The doors in the home are depicted on a floor plan signifying where they are installed and in which direction they’ll move. Sliding doors are commonly represented either by showing the individual panels, or simply just using a narrow line, sometimes with an arrow at one end.

Stairs–In architectural drawings, stairs normally feature an arrow to show which way is up or down. It is essential that the important details for the stairs are correct on floor plans, and they also include specs about handrails and balustrades, which are a very important safety feature.

Windows – The windows on floor plans are indicated using an empty block in areas along walls. If the windows are opening outwards, the curve they move in can also be drawn in as it’s for doors. They often feature a symbol on the drawing showng the detailed specifications and product details

Fittings and fixtures – Standard fittings and fixtures are usually diagrammed into floor plans. It consists of things such as kitchen cabinetry, bathtubs, toilets, shower heads, ovens, sinks (with drain boards) warm water units, dishwashers, bidets and so on. You will find standard symbols for the majority of these elements, and where possible they must be drawn to scale. Where dotted lines are accustomed to depict things such as kitchen cabinets, this means these things are mounted overhead.

The title block

A floor plan should also contain a title block at the bottom right corner of the plan which consists of the details like:

• Contact information of the Architect, designer or builder
• The title associated with the drawing
• The drawing or revision number
• Signatures, initials, dates etc.

The title block might also show the overall floor area in square metres and also the areas of various parts of the home. This can be useful because most builders quote for work by square metre

Floor plan orientation

Floor plans should feature a north point to show the way the house is oriented. The direction it faces makes an impact on heating, cooling and lighting the home. Where possible, other plans (e.g. site plans, drainage plans etc.) should also be oriented in the same manner to simply help prevent any type of confusion

Cross references and additional detail

Floor plans are made to show your house from a specific angle, and also to a particular scale and amount of detail. While they’re very helpful, other diagrams are clearly required to provide greater detail about how an exactly certain areas of the house must be laid out or constructed. Cross-reference symbols are widely used to show which areas of a floor plan correspond with other drawings. The top number on these references relates to the drawing, detail or sequence number under consideration, and the bottom number tells sheet number for that drawing.

Undertaking

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