A floor plan isn’t just a bunch of lines and numbers. It can help you navigate through the space that you haven’t seen, help you decide what changes to make in your one home or help you create a perfect layout for your house. But if you don’t properly understand it, then none of this is useful to you. In this article we will explain what a floor plan tells you, and how to read it.
If you are uncertain what exactly a floor plan is, read our article where we define it, explain different types and its importance.
3 Key Takeaways
- Floor plan can show you the composition of your House/Building.
- Every floor plan is different, but there are certain elements that a good floor plan has to include.
- Reading dimensions on a floor plan is very simple, every measurement is clearly marked on a floor plan. You will be able to see the length and width of each room.
What can a floor plan tell you?
There are certain things that every floor plan can show you. This information will be very useful for optimizing your home and creating the best design for your space.
- A floor plan will give you a good understanding of correlation between rooms. This is very important when you want your design to be cohesive.
- You will know how much natural light each room has. This can help you decide where you should put additional light fixtures.
- A house plan shows you dimensions, which can help you decide on perfect furniture and different household items and their placement.
- You will be able to see the circulation of the space, where you enter and how you move from one room to the other.
- With a good floor plan, you will be able to create a perfect layout design for your space.
If you need any additional information about your property, you will probably need to see different types of plans, elevation or site plan. Now let’s explore the main elements of a floor plan.
Floor plan elements – 5 main features of a good floor plan
Depending on your needs floor plans may vary. But there are some elements that every floor plan has to include, those are:
- Property information
- Compass mark
- Dimensions and scale
- Room layout
- Floor plan symbols
1. Property information
Information about your property will be included in the floor plan. That information includes your address, parcel ID, lot area, and plot size. They will be in the upper left corner of your floor plan.
2. Compass mark
A compass mark on the floor plan shows you which direction north is. This is important to know, because then you can better understand how light travels through your house. With this information, you can optimize your space accordingly. A compass mark will be in the upper right corner of your floor plan.
3. Dimensions and scale
The scale on most floor plans is ¼” or ⅛”. That means that every ¼” or ⅛” equals one foot on the field. The scale will be in the upper right corner of your floor plan, below the compass mark.
Dimensions on the floor plan are presented in feet and inches. They show the length and width of each room. Knowing the exact measurements of each room can help you with furnishing them. You will always be able to tell what dimensions your furniture or household goods should be.
4. Room layout
Floor plans show not only the dimensions of the rooms, but also the correlation between each of them. Having this visual representation of room layout can help you with creating the perfect space. A bird’s eye view allows you to better understand the layout of the rooms and helps you envision any changes you want to make.
5. Floor plan symbols
Every floor plan will include doors, windows and stairs symbols. As you can see, there are different types of each of those symbols. Depending on your needs, aesthetics and the space itself, different symbols will be illustrated on your floor plan.
Furniture isn’t an essential part of the floor plan. But when you need a better understanding of your space, furniture will be shown.
How to read a floor plan measurements
Dimensions on a room plan are presented in feet and inches. Measurements are clearly marked and are next to the line which length they represent. If there is something that is “breaking” the length, it will be marked as well.
For example if there is a window on a certain wall, the measurements will go – wall length to the middle of the window, wall length from the middle of the window. Above those measurements there will be a total length. You can see an example of this on a floor plan.
If you look at the top of this picture you can see the outer wall of the master bedroom. You can see that the length to the middle of the window is 8ft 6in and the length from the middle of the window is 7ft 10in. And above that you can see the total length of that wall, which is 16ft 4in.
FAQ
What do the numbers mean on a floor plan?
There are two types of numbering on floor plans. One is the scale, and the other numbers show you the measurements of the rooms (length and width).
How do you read a layout plan?
Layout is the way in which the rooms are arranged or laid out. One of the main purposes of the floor plan is to illustrate that. If you can see from above how the rooms are laid out in your property, then you can have a better understanding of the space.
How do you calculate floor area from plans?
In this illustration you can see how to calculate the floor area. Regardless of the shape of your room, just “break” it into squares or rectangles for the easiest calculation.
Get a Floor Plan today
Now that you are familiar with elements of a floor plan, and you know how to read them, let our team of professionals help you. We can create a custom floor plan and you can start with your project. If you have any additional questions, please contact us.
Credits:
- featured image – freepik photo, author: wayhomestudio (link)
