SKETCHUP: BASIC HOUSE

THE FLOOR PLAN

A floor plan is an architectural drawing that shows a scaled relationship between rooms. They show one "floor" or level at a time and are a top down view of the space. Only the permanent aspects of the space should be shown on the floor plan. So for instance there will be the location of cabinets and bathtubs shown on a floor plan but not couches. With a completed floor plan, designed to building standards and codes, a contractor can build the actual structure. Floor plans may also be called blueprints, named for the process of printing the sheets resulting in blue paper. Whatever these plan sheets are called that are the main way to covey design intent for a structure like a house or building.

This is a simple floor plan that shows room locations. There are measurements but they don't take into account wall thickness and not all of them are given. So when we draw this floor plan we will be rounding and making some assumptions. For simplicity, we will set exterior wall thickness to 6" and interior walls 4.5". We will assume that the front and back doors are centered on the walls and are 36" wide as well as setting the hallway to 36" wide. Using these numbers will make the dimensions on the drawing not exact but those are just rounded rough values.

Besides wall layout, the other main function of a floor plan is to show the locations of doors and windows. This means that a floor plan isn't technically on the floor. It is raised to the window level to be able to see the locations of windows. So you can think of a floor plan as a top down section view cutting through the building halfway up the wall to ensure that you would see the locations of windows.

Doors & Windows

Generally speaking when framing a wall with studs you would leave space for doors and windows called a rough opening. This rough opening is larger than the actual door and window to account for the jamb that holds the actual door and window in place. Since we are just drawing a simple house in sketch up and it doesn't need to be to building code. Therefore, we will use openings for exterior doors 36" inches wide by 6'8" tall, interior doors 32" wide. For widows we will use a 4' x 3' opening set to the same height as the doors.

THE ROOF & ELEVATION DRAWINGS

Elevation Drawings

An elevation drawing can be thought of as a drawing that shows the view of a building if you were standing outside looking at the structure. It is a 2D view that helps establish heights and relationship to the ground. They are traditionally named like an orthographic drawing with, front, right side, back, and left side being the standard views given but can also be named with the compass directions of North, West, East, South. These drawings will also give you an idea of the appearance of the exterior with materials and fixtures shown in the drawing.

Roof Types

There are many different styles and types of roofs that are used in construction and there are often times reasons for selecting a particular type. Sometimes it comes down to the style and what is popular in certain regions but the weather that the building will generally be experiencing will play a factor in the type of roof designed.

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