#REMODEL A HOUSE PLAN DRAWING HOW TO#

Most lumber supply stores will have a set of tables or book for you region.Д¬onsider each space on your main floor bubble diagram and the functions (from your needs analysis) that it needs to fulfill. Will you have structural walls? Posts and beams? A mix of both? If you are building a wood frame house, pick up a copy of lumber span tables for beams, joists, rafters and lintels. An L-shaped bubble diagram is also easy to work with by combining one or two of the basic house shapes.ДЄs you work, continually ask yourself how the house is going to be supported.

As you design, you can bump out walls where needed. If your bubble diagram is more or less oval shaped, a basic rectangle will probably work for this draw floor plan stage. As we discussed in house exteriors, it's always easy to bump the design out here or there or add a dormer where needed. If not, pick one based on the basic exterior shape of your bubble diagram. If you already have an exterior house shape in mind, go with that one initially. For main floor I mean the level of the house which situates the kitchen and living areas. If you haven't already, read our basic primer on house structure. Laminated beams are great, we have several in our home, but it was carefully planned as to where we could use standard lumber and where we would need engineered products. It is true that just about any floor plan can be built using engineered laminated beams and posts, but stretching the limit of standard framing techniques will add to your design cost. There's no use spending hours drawing floor plans that will end up needing a post in the middle of the dining room to support the house.

Understanding basic residential structural design becomes very important at this point. Consider Structural Design Throughout the Floor Plans Design Process

Later some of these ideas can be adapted to fit into a more practical design.

#REMODEL A HOUSE PLAN DRAWING HOW TO#

Some great ideas will come up when you're not worrying too much about how to build it. The sanity check for your designs should always be, вЂњCan we build this?вЂќ (Along with, вЂњDo we want to build this?вЂќ) But don't let that question stifle your initial design efforts. A change in flooring, ceiling height, paint color, a rug, partially open shelves or a half height wall may define one space or 'room' from another. Oftentimes other design features will take the places of walls. For an open concept home these 'walls' will be more figurative than real. I mentioned firming up the walls of your indoor bubble diagrams. We went back and forth with many different designs where the eating area was right in the kitchen, across a peninsula or island or, as it turned out in the final design, adjacent and open to the kitchen. I'm a big fan of the farmhouse kitchen where the eating area is in the kitchen and there is no formal separate dining area. One of the big variants in our designs was the kitchen and the dining area.

We also had other bubble diagrams for which we did rough sketches. This was one of many rough sketches during the draw floor plan stage of our home. (It is rotated to match the orientation of the bubble diagram above.) The second is a simpler and more economical option.Д«elow is my sketch that ended up forming the basis for our main floor house plan. The second floor plan has a simple rectangle for its exterior shape. The first plan is a rectangle with three bump outs. Next are two rough sketches, with the walls firmed up, for possible floor plans. Do lots of these.Д«elow is the main floor bubble diagram for the 1 1/2 story house from our bubble diagram exercise. By doing them as simple sketches you can sketch them wherever you are using a notepad (or a paper napkin), indoors or out. You don't have to be an artist for this stage. Whether you will end up drawing blueprints by hand or using home design software, I suggest that initially you draw floor plans as simple hand sketches.

Remodel a house plan drawing