Floor Plans: What They Communicate
Everyone knows what a floor plan is for, right? It shows where the walls and the furniture go. And that's it, right? Nope!
Common information to find on a floor plan includes the walls and furniture, but it also shows the casework (cabinets), the swing of the doors, window placement, and traffic patterns (yes, we think about how you move through a space). Some plans will show the electrical information (such as outlet locations and lighting). Major mechanical information will be displayed, plumbing fixtures located, and often times, we will note where to find the enlarged plans of specialty spaces like kitchens and bathrooms!
The floor plans will have hidden all those items on the demolition plan and will now illustrate where the new construction is- often times new construction will a "hatched" or solid wall or may be illustrated in a bolder line. Floor plans (as with all drawings) will have several reference notes on them. The clip of the plan below shows "D03" at the doors, representing which door we are referring to. The information will be in a schedule somewhere else in the set.
The bold doors here are new or relocated doors, where the one in a lighter weight is an existing door Walls that have no fill are existing and the ones with the hatch fill are new.
Of course, we also have furniture plans, and I'll talk more about floor finish plans, but these are also things that may be indicated on the floor plan.
Depending on how complex the drawing becomes, some of these may go on their own drawing.
This elevation marker tells us that the wall it is pointing at is detail #1 on page A201.
There is a lot of reference information on plans as well- an arrow with a label may show where to find an elevation.