What Are House Blueprints Used For?

House blueprints are working drawings used to show how and from what materials a new building will be constructed from.

traditional log cabin They are required 95% of the time by the building inspector. They usually take between 6-8 weeks to be processed by the building department.

Developing a set of blueprints for a house is fairly straightforward. The first task is to learn how to read blueprints.

How Are Blueprints Made?

House Blueprints are no longer blue due to the advancement of computers and CAD (Computer-aided-design).

It is now possible to print plans of on all kinds of paper and sizes using large plotter printers. There are many pieces of software available on the market for producing detailed house designs.

If your starting out from scratch with no "CAD Software" experience I would not advise learning a design program for a one off design.

Instead, to save time, use pen and sheets of architectural tracing paper to draw your your house plans on.

Step 1 - How to Plot a Detailed Construction Plan

First of all you should buy lot's of paper mistakes are likely to be made and are part of creating a well developed design. Now, to begin, most house floor plan scales are 1cm = 250mm/1/4 inch to 1 foot in scale. Buying a scale ruler at this point is good investment they are not expensive and essential for making your drawings accurate.

Develop A House Plan Sketch Scheme Yourself

Now, draw using a sharp pencil your outside wall profile, quite lightly to create an impression of the outer building profile. Complete every wall, notch, include window and door openings and any chimney structure and stacks. Continue the lines just slightly beyond where the walls are likely to turn.

Then draw the inside walls after that. You should be able to keep everything within the page. From that point, you can add in the necessary Architectural, Electrical, and Service Symbols.

Architectural Symbols/Layouts

Click to Enlarge the Image

Electrical Symbols

Click to Enlarge the Image

House Blueprints and Layouts

Click to Enlarge the Image

Blueprints for new houses usually cost around $2000 (£1500) to have them made by a professional.

There are some companies who will produce them for far less, but you must check their reputation and quality of work before agreeing terms, try and find some customer testimonials.

Modular Home Plans - Build a house in 3 months.

Blueprints For Houses Including Floor Plans Sections And Elevations

How To Read Blueprints - Blueprints are easy to grasp once you've reviewed them.

See More of Electric Symbols

See More of Architectural Symbols