Understanding the scale of the house, the meaning of the symbols on the plans, and the legend is essential to getting the most out of the information contained in these documents.

Identifying the layout of a house, determining its orientation, or pinpointing certain elements of its interior architecture may seem simple. However, interpreting a house plan can be quite a challenge. These documents are not only key to understanding some of the essential characteristics of the house in question; the information they contain can also provide many other details.

Although you don’t need to be an expert to decipher them, it’s helpful to understand the meaning of the symbols on floor plans to get the most out of this graphical representation of your home. After all, that is essentially what this document is: a graphical representation—with varying degrees of detail—of any building.

Types of Floor Plans

To interpret a floor plan correctly, you must do more than just consider the symbols used. It is also important to keep in mind that there are different types of floor plans, and each one provides different information.

Among the architectural drawings of a home, however, the most common are the floor plan and the site plan. The site plan is the one that allows you to locate the building in relation to its surroundings; in other words, it shows the location of the building that houses the residence in question. Information typically provided by an aerial view of the area includes streets, parks, or other structures near the building.

The floor plan, however, is one of the most interesting house plans; after all, it provides a detailed view of the home’s layout. It shows everything from the dimensions of the rooms to their orientation, as well as the placement of furniture, doors, and windows…

But since interpreting a house plan is not a matter reserved solely for the end client, this chapter also includes other, more technical types of documents. Structural plans, for example, include construction-specific details such as materials, column dimensions, beams…

They serve as a sort of roadmap for experts. The same is true of facility plans. In this case, they cover everything from electrical systems to plumbing, including heating and any other elements relevant to this chapter.

How to Read House Blueprints Step by Step

While it’s true that you don’t have to be an expert to read house plans, it doesn’t hurt to have a clear understanding of certain aspects. Each plan has its own unique features, but using a floor plan as a reference, there are elements you should familiarize yourself with in order to interpret a home’s plans correctly.

Housing Scale

One of the first things to keep in mind is scale. This concept refers to the relationship between the size of what is depicted on the drawing and reality. In other words, it is the ratio by which each element is “condensed” or reduced on the drawing.

The most commonly used scales in architectural drawings are 1:50 or 1:100. To better understand this, if we consider the latter, each centimeter shown on the drawing corresponds to one meter in reality.

Symbols

Symbols also play a key role in interpreting house plans. While they vary depending on the type of document, there are certain common symbols or representations that make it easier for the average person to read plans.

Doors, windows, walls, columns… Understanding the meaning of the symbols on floor plans isn’t complicated. Through them, you can learn everything from the type of partitions between rooms to the layout of the house, including the type of furniture that can be included, the bathroom fixtures, and the kitchen layout…

Caption

In addition to the floor plan—which is key to understanding the layout—the plans must include a legend that lists the dimensions of the property and the various rooms. In this case, it is necessary to include other important terms to ensure that the floor plans can be interpreted without error: the usable area and the gross floor area.

The first refers to the area of the home measured without taking into account walls, pillars, or partitions—that is, the area that can physically be walked on. In addition to including, for example, built-in closets if present, it also accounts for 50% of spaces such as balconies, terraces, and covered clotheslines. The total floor area, on the other hand, is the sum of the usable area plus the area occupied by the exterior walls.

Other useful information

The information provided by the floor plans must be supplemented with additional details, ranging from the name and address of the development to the specific apartment in question, including its orientation and location within the building.

Floor Plans: How to Make the Most of Them

It’s clear that understanding the meaning of the symbols on the floor plans, knowing the scale of the home, and clearly identifying the terms in the legend are essential for interpreting the floor plans. But to ensure the document doesn’t become just a mere source of information, there are also some recommendations you can put into practice.

Printing them out is the first step toward appreciating every aspect of the home in detail. But there’s more. With the document physically in your hands, it will be easier for you to consider making changes, arranging the furniture differently, or reorganizing the space…

However, if you prefer digital versions, you can always use the information they contain to create a 3D rendering of the home and experiment with the layout, materials, or furnishings to get an idea of the final result before you even set foot inside.

Now that you understand how to read floor plans, take a look at the floor plans for our developments and put what you’ve learned into practice.