Learning to Draw House Plans in a No Nonsense Way

The Ebook containing the popular House Plan Drafting 101 Online Drafting Class

To go to the online lessons, click here

LEARN TO DRAW HOUSE PLANS USING A CAD PROGRAM OR DRAFTING BOARD

Concept

So you want to draw House Plans! If you haven't got the time or the money for a formal architectural education, what do you do? Well, you could find an architect or designer to apprentice under. Just seems that the concept of apprenticeship has disappeared though! You could take a correspondence course, but after searching out the different correspondence schools, you find that the professors are, for the most part, people who have never practiced the art as a professional! Now, that's not the way to learn!

As a matter of fact, it's almost impossible for the poor working stiff to learn this field of study unless there are certain professionals who are willing to jump in and help you learn! That's exactly what you have found here! I am an "Architect Trained" Architectural Designer who has been practicing my skill for over 20 years now. In my career, I have had to train quite a few drafters. I used every method under the sun available to me until I came up with the concept you are about to learn by!

Now, lets see if you think this is feasible! In the United States, the most common house built is the Straight Rancher. A Straight Rancher or Ranch Style House is a rectangular home with a gable roof. Nothing complicated, but all in all pretty well straight forward in design. If we learn to draw the simplest house from the beginning, do you believe it's quite possible that from learning this first, we will be able to step up to the more complicated homes with less difficulty?

Yes, as a matter of fact, most of the homes built here in America are actually Modified Ranchers! A Modified Rancher has the main body of the home, which is the Ranch style with appendages extruded from the main body! Basically this applies to a single story home but the same principle can be applied to the Two Story homes as well!

House Plan Drafting 101 is the first step! Here you will learn to draw and understand the construction principles of the Ranch Style House. The next step is the Advanced "2 Story" class. In this class we are taking our training to a more complex stage and even learning a somewhat different dimensions style along with more complex details.

Contents of the Lessons

Lesson Descriptions for the Single Story Class

1. Laying out your Floor Plan ~ Beginning with a sketch, you will learn how to place and size rooms and locate doors and windows.
2. Service Areas ~ Layout a comfortable kitchen, a workable bathroom and utility room.
3. Dimensioning your Floor Plan ~ How to place your dimensions where they would be best understood, labeling your doors and windows, what notes go in the plan and which belongs elsewhere on the page, labeling do's and don'ts.
4. Adding Electrical to your Floor Plan ~ Where should you place receptacles and where not to, what lights a room best, when to use Ground Fault, placing your meter base, etc.
5. Drawing the Foundation or Basement Plan ~ Something has to hold up your new house.
6. Drawing The Elevations ~ What's it going look like when its built? How to determine the best roof pitch, do we use brick, siding or rock?
7. What Details do I need and why ~ I don't know of any Builders that can read your mind. If your plan is out of the ordinary, somebody has to explain it! We do this with graphics.
8. Checking yourself ~ Finishing your drawings and not letting goofs and slip-ups get out the door. We explain the most common mistakes made by drafters so you can look out for them!
9. Finishing Touches ~ Final notes and labels, double check your checking yourself, those things that dress up your drawings.
10. The Finished Product ~ Where is the Plotter? What order? Where to have copies made? How many copies? Who gets what? Methods of charging for your work. (After all, some of you will probably want to earn money for your labors!)

Lesson Descriptions for the Two Story Class

1. Laying out your Floor Plans ~ As with the one story we begin with a sketch, you will learn how to place and size rooms and locate doors and windows. Most important, lining up and understanding the stairs.
2. Service Areas ~ Layout a comfortable kitchen, a workable bathroom and utility room.
3. Dimensioning your Floor Plans ~ This is one of the most critical parts of the 2 story drawings, how to place your dimensions where they would be best understood, labeling your doors and windows, what notes go in the plan and which belongs elsewhere on the page, labeling do's and dont's.
4. Adding Electrical to your Floor Plans ~ A discussion of the extra electrical required in a 2 story home.
5. Drawing the Basement Plan ~ We already covered the standard foundation in House Plan Drafting 101. Now we need to learn how to draw a basement.
6. Drawing The Elevations ~ What's it going look like when its built?
7. What Details do I need and why ~ What details are needed with a 2 story home that are out of the ordinary.
8. Checking yourself ~ Finishing your drawings and not letting goofs and slip-ups get out the door. We explain the most common mistakes made by drafters drawing a 2 story home so you can look out for them!
9. Finishing Touches & The Finished Product ~ Final notes and labels, double check yourself.