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Floor Plans: Design Guidelines

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Message 1 of 6
elinedesign
2784 Views, 5 Replies

Floor Plans: Design Guidelines

When you begin to work on the floor plans for your dream home there are a few things you want to keep in mind. To begin with the type of house your designing needs to be the first thing you decide when you get to this point in the Architectural planning stage. The floor plans for one type of house like the Colonial for example and a design for a ranch style home are going to be completely different. If the correct layout is planned before the floor plan is developed than there should be no problems encountered throughout the design and building process.
Once the floor plan has been created to the point of what seems to be a final design, it is a good practice to make sure the plans meet the principles of room planning. To successfully achieve this, scale the rooms and make sure there is proper room for things like furniture, and that the traffic areas throughout the home have enough spacing to ensure an adequate flow of traffic. Make sure that there is plenty of room so you can walk through the home comfortably and freely. Taking these steps ensures that you don't have problems in the future, and it doesn't take much more work to adjust a room to be a little larger in the beginning of the design process compared to the end.
When you get to the point in the design when your deciding the width and length, make sure you always keep the distance in sixteen inch modules. If you don't know what a module is, just think of it as a standard unit of measurement. When you use this sixteen inch module to design your floor plan all the materials line up perfectly. Framing and Construction materials come in increments of four foot normally which are three sixteen inch modules aligned. In wood framed housing every 2”x4" stud is placed exactly sixteen inches OC or On Center. This practice of design allows for less material to be wasted, and less labor to be used due to the simplicity in design. This standard allows for production to be more efficient and less costly.
Saving money in this economy is a must. Everybody is trying to save a dollar and things within the Architectural design process can maximize space and reduce extra cost that are not necessary. For example when designing the floor plan for the floor and ceiling joists you have to remember that all lumber comes in two foot increments, such as 10'-0", 12'-0", 14'-0", 16'-0". If a ceiling joist is designed to be at 12'-3" you still have to purchase a 14'-0" Joists that needs 1'-9" of it cut off and thrown away. Not only is that a waste of material, the home could be designed to have that much more square footage. Incidents like this can definitely be prevented with careful planning and a close attention to detail. When measures like this are taken it enables the design process to be done more , and productively, and with less material wasted it allows more room for profit, and who couldn't use a little extra green.

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Message 2 of 6
Charles_Shade
in reply to: elinedesign

Oh contrair mon frare: Many of the cutoffs provide blocking needed for such things as:

Cripple Studs

Handrail backers

Corner fillers

T-Pole fillers

Cornice backing

Plumbing blocks

Fire stop

Girder blocking

Stair blocking

Cabinet blocking

Mid line blocking (especially on 10' ceilings) (But there is something interesting since most suppliers do not carry a 117" stud)

Building up bearing points.

 

Or would you advocate purchasing additional full length material for these cuts?

 

Designing for 12' (or other 2' lengths) can be problematic in itself in regards to floor joist. IRC requirements of 3" of lap at the center bearing condition can be difficult to achieve unless the joist is +1" or more than the actual length. Square cutting the band abutting edge could shorten the joist enough that this cannot be achieved. A 14' Joist used on a 12' span when trimmed +/-1/2" on each end and then using a 14-1/2" cut for girder blocking and having +/-4" for overlap might produce a waste of +/-8". I find that acceptable and have come across many a joist where I needed to have that 8" for a knot, split, or broken end. It is poor practice to order joist the same length as the span. 

 

They only way that all the materials line up perfectly is if the framing contractor makes that happen. Design of the room will have little to do with that except in the case of bearing walls which should align regardless and are generally perpendicular to the framing path having little to do with whether the framer starts layout from the right or left. You cannot design poor workmanship out of the process and I would love to earn a fee that allowed me to baby-sit the job.

 

20 years of framing homes and over 30 years here in the biz makes me a little cynical of the work I do.

Message 3 of 6
JamesArya
in reply to: elinedesign

An architectural design along with a well executed floor plan is important today, essentially because it incorporates a design that the owners of the home will like and approve of. People want their homes to be safe, and at the same time, have aesthetic appeal. Architectural design ensures the aesthetic appeal and a floor plan incorporates smartly planned interiors with all safety features.

It is important to have an architecturally designed home for several reasons. The primary reason to opt for architectural design is that the house needs to be made resistant to natural calamities. A proper architectural lay out, along with floor plans of the same, allow the residents of the house to know how their house is going to be resistant to a natural event like an earthquake. Simple things such as a solid foundation, and the eradication of pillar garages, to prevent destruction due to tremor waves of an earthquake, are often overlooked due to the absence of a well-planned architectural design. These factors need to be incorporated by having well drafted floor plans of the house. Another useful quality of floor plans is that they give a proportionate view of the house, as they clearly indicate the area and proportion of each room of the house. This helps in designing interiors of each room that can also be done by the owners.

Thanks to the presence of advanced design technology, any architectural design can take a form of a 3D design as well. A 3D architectural design layout of a house gives the resident a very clear picture of what their house is going to look like. A suitable architectural design layout also ensures that the house will be well-ventilated, and agreeable with all sorts of weather conditions. Floor plans usually cover such needs of the resident of the house, and that is why floor plans are of growing importance; they showcase the needs of the resident. An example of this is open floor plans. Open floor plans have a perfect intervention of architectural design, as these plans have fewer walls in the house, leaving more free space around the house.

Also upcoming these days, are Computer Aided Design (CAD) services, and AutoCAD services. The purpose of these services is to help firms provide efficient and fast architectural design plans, floor plans, or even interior design plans to their customers. CAD services such as AutoCAD are hugely important in the development of architectural design as well as in the drafting of floor plans for architectural designs. AutoCAD service providers make provisions for Building Information Modeling (BIM) and 3D modeling so as to enhance the architectural design, and create a comprehensive floor plan that will make for a happy client.

Message 4 of 6
Bob_Zurunkle
in reply to: JamesArya

What a bunch of hooey. Where do people live, that a building department allows a home to be built apparently shoddily anyway, just because an architect wasn't involved in its design?

If by some odd chance my nattering was useful -- that's great, glad to help. But if it actually solved your issue, then please mark my solution as accepted 🙂
Message 5 of 6

Play nice with our new guest now.

We hope that he will continue to visit and enhance the Forums.

 

Everyone knows that the building codes are minimum requirements for occupant safety and design.

Why the whole ICC exsits to create these minimum codes is the real question.

We really should rely on the manufactured lumber industry to oversell their product in terms of minimum deflections and CYA ratings and provde the information for the building official to base their opinion on.

 

 

Message 6 of 6

😉

If by some odd chance my nattering was useful -- that's great, glad to help. But if it actually solved your issue, then please mark my solution as accepted 🙂

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