Floor plan

A floor plan is the horizontal-cut drawing of a single storey. Separate plans are prepared for the basement, ground, typical and roof levels; where floors repeat, one typical floor plan may cover them all. Walls, columns, doors and windows, stairs, wet areas and room names all appear on it.

What a floor plan contains

• External and internal dimension strings and grid references
• Room names, areas and floor levels
• Door and window numbers or sizes
• Section marks, stair direction and a north arrow
• In construction sets, floor finishes and detail references

Reading a floor plan

When looking at a flat’s floor plan, start at the front door and follow the circulation. Which rooms open off the entrance hall? Are the wet areas grouped together? Are bedrooms kept away from noisy spaces? A good plan wastes little area on corridors and gets the right light into each room.

For marketing and presentations, floor plans are often coloured, furnished or rendered from above as 3D floor plans. That way they tell a story about daily life as well as dimensions. Our article on 3D project drawings touches on these presentation formats.