As-Builts: Square One

As-builts are so handy - I think everyone should have one.  Whether you rent or own, sooner or later you will probably want to buy furniture or a rug or something and it's so smart to have information about the space you want to put said proposed stuff into.   These drawings are a wonderful reference - I mean really, don't you wish you had a set of drawings for your house right now?  Creating your own set is simple and you will learn all about your house.  All you need to start is a note pad, something to write with, a tape measure and a friend to hold the other end of the tape.

The first thing architects do when they start a project is develop an as-built.  To do this they visit the site, sketch, take careful measurements, and snap a lot of photos.  Architects do this because they need to know what they are starting with before they start designing anything - whether the project is new construction or a remodel.

Architectural drawings can look overwhelming if you aren't familiar with reading them, so I'll demonstrate how to develop a set of as-builts, with sort of a Sunday paper comic approach so every step will be easy to follow.  The graphic illustrates the first step - draw the basic shape of your existing house on a sheet of paper.  (I like to use grid paper but letter or legal paper is fine too.)  Our sample project will be a rectangle - based on the project in my book Drawing Home, One Story Additions.

Your homework assignment is to draw the shape your house. If you just can't figure out the shape of your house, here's a hint: go to Google Earth, type in your address to see the shape of your house from a few hundred feet up. Draw that.