Its time to build your new home. You have picked out your design, chosen your construction professional and purchased your lot. This is definitely an exciting time in your life.
You go visit your architect, and he hands you a great big roll of plans. Or blue prints. The sight of them can be really overwhelming. However, if you are going to finish this project and have your dream home built, you are going to need to read them. And understand what they are talking about.
You can think of your home plans essentially as a map. A map of what your house is going to look like. And more importantly, a map of where every thing is going to go.
Windows, doors, walls, electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems are all located on the blueprints. Which, is why they can seem so overwhelming at first.
But, if you start to break down everything into smaller pieces, it will eventually all come into focus. And before long, you will understand exactly what your plans are trying to show you. At least to the point where you are able to converse with your contractor about them.
The first thing to need to understand about reading plans is scale. For obvious reasons, the plans are not drawn at the actual size of your house. They have been reduced. This means they have been scaled.
The most common size is 1/4" scale. What this means, is every 1/4" on your plans really means 1 foot in real size. For showing areas that need extra detail, this scale can be increased. This allows the plans to show things like finish details.
Next, you need to understand, that just like a map, blue prints show symbols to illustrate certain features. There will be symbols for doors, windows, electrical outlets, HVAC, counters and more.
In order to understand what your plans are trying to show, you need to familiarize yourself with these symbols. There are a number of standard symbols, that are almost universal and some of them are very obvious. For example, it is easy to see what a door or a window is.
Standard symbols can be learned with a trip to the construction section of your library. For specific symbols that are not standard, you need to ask your architect, or there may be a legend printed right on the plans themselves.
Finally, you need to be aware that there are different types of plans that are included as a set of blue prints. The most common ones are the floor plans and the elevation.
The floor plans show a top down look at your home. They look like you are looking at your house from up above. Generally, these plans illustrate what your home would look like if you looked straight down on it, and the top of the room was cut off at a height of 4 feet.
Items that need to be demonstrated on the plans, but would not be visible at that 4 foot cut off point may be drawn with a dotted line.
The next important plan is the elevations. Elevations show your home as it would look if you were looking directly at it. There are normally at least 4 elevations included, one for each side of the house.
The remaining blue prints that come with your set of plans show details, plumbing and HVAC systems.
Trying to understand the blue prints that come with a set of plans for your new house can seem awe-inspiring at first. But, if you think of every blue print as a map, and only look at one at a time, you will begin to understand it.
Study up on the symbols that are present on your plans, so you will be able to discuss the plans with your architect and contractor. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask them, they are there to help.
Building your new home will be one of the most exciting things you ever do in your life. If you can learn to read your plans and treat them like a map, you can make sure that your new house turns into exactly the home you are looking for.