House Plan

You can go on the Internet, peruse and purchase any of 1000's of different house plans. Or you can hire an architect to design house plans for you, but this tends to be expensive and often too esoteric. Some people design their own house plans, but this can be tougher than you realize. In any of these cases, being able to read and understand a set of house plans and floor plans is essential.

The most important part of a set of house plans is called the floor plan. The best way to understand a floor plan is to picture it as a special map of your house. What makes it different from a regular map is the top section of the house is removed so you can see all the interior doors, walls and fixtures from above. The standard location for this chopped off section is about 4 feet up from the level of the floor. If your house has more than one story then there is a floor plan for each of the stories. Each floor plan represents a section taken 4 feet up from each of the floors. So to describe it figuratively, a floor plan of your house would be as if you were several 100 feet above your house looking down and everything from above about the middle height of the walls was removed completely. This is what is called an abstract image of your house because it isn't actually real. Unless a hurricane or tornado came along and chopped the top off of the house and you flew overhead in a plane you would never actually "see" the real floor plan of your house.

But the importance of a floor plan to your house plans is crucial. No other drawing or picture is more important. It shows how the rooms in your house are organized and how they flow together; or don't as the case may be. The floor plan establishes borders, openings, views, and relationships between things and people.

Take the front door to your new house for example. You would not want it opening into your bedroom or bathroom. That would destroy privacy. Often the front door opens into the living room, but for many people this is not acceptable and only a separate entrance foyer will do.

Another example is the main semi-public living areas. Some people prefer that the kitchen, living room and dining room be all in separate rooms. While other people prefer what is called an open plan that has no or minimal walls between the kitchen, dining and living areas. All of this you can easily see in the floor plan for your house, so understanding floor plans is a fundamental part of your house planning.

So if you are planning to build your own house in the near future, and you are not sure how to read a floor plan or house plans, then do yourself a favor and get a good guide book on how to read home blueprints and floor plans.