FLOOR PLAN

A Floor Plan shows the view of a building interior from above. It demonstrates the structure of a house's map, rooms,
space, and arrangements of other elements used for building construction. This plan illustrates the layout of a home
or a building. A floor plan is embodied with floor plan symbols.

The placement of elements is done professionally, and all the symbols are used according to the requirements and
needs of an architect. These symbols cover all the elements used to complete a floor map. It includes symbols of doors,
windows, walls, plumbing, stairs, electricity connections, appliances, interior design, cabinets, bookshelves, tubs, and
stoves. In this article, you can learn everything about floor plan symbols.

Types of Floor Plan Symbols

To start understanding a floor plan, you must learn and understand the standard symbols that you will see in all
projects. Following is a list of standardised characters for day to day use.

1. Compass Symbols

This symbol will help you navigate through the floor plan and show you the property’s orientation concerning the
cardinal directions. It is mainly represented by a circle with a north arrow pointing towards the north.

2. Door Symbols

The doors are annotated by a large gap between the walls and a curved line that shows the direc�on of the swing. In
addi�on, the path traced by the swing is shown in a doted line showing the clear area the door would cover.
However, there are different ways to show a door depending on the type of door that is to be installed. For typical
triple hinge door swings, the curved line makes a quarter circle arc indica�ng the extent of the swing (up to 90
degrees). Double doors are indicated with a symbol like a leter M, with the two curved arcs mee�ng at the centre.
In closets that have bifold doors, it is always indicated as open doors. It is symbolised by two twin peaks and a space
between them. The distance between them shows where they will meet when the door is closed. When a sliding
door or pocket door is shown, it is mainly indicated with a rectangle represen�ng the door inserted into the wall and
is atached to a doted rectangle. The doted area shows where the posi�on of the door would be when closed.

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3. Window Symbols

Windows are shown as part of the walls. They are symbolised by an empty rectangle inserted into a wall with a solid
hatch.
Sliding windows are symbolised by three parallel rectangles representing each sliding window panel joined at the
edges below the other.
Casement windows look like mini doors, with an arc showing how much they protrude from the wall while they are
open. Bay windows are shown by breaking the straight line of the wall, and the face of the window is pushed
outside.

4. Stair Symbols

Like most symbols, staircases are seen parallel from the plan view. Simply put, they look like a series of rectangles
attached from side to side. The rectangles can change to other geometric shapes depending on the design of the
actual staircase.

Sometimes they are also indicated with a line running through the middle and an arrow at the top. This shows the
direction of the staircase. The arrowhead indicates going UP.

Mid landings are shown as large slabs of rectangles or squares as per design.

A curved staircase looks like a bicycle tyre with all the sections attached to the central circle or pole.

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5. Wall Symbols

The most basic and typical element of the floor plan is the walls. They would have a much-standardised
representation worldwide unless something unique, e.g. a wall made up of glass bottles.

The intensity of the lines indicates the location of the solid wall. Thicker lines indicate the interior walls of the
architectural plan, whereas exterior walls are shown by double lines or a thin black outline.

The material of the wall also plays a massive role in their representation. Brick or concrete walls are coloured with
hatches at 45-degree angles. Items like wood are shown in a brief depiction of wood grains. Insulated walls are
indicated in spring like a pattern infused in the walls.

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6. Appliances Symbols

Appliances like refrigerators and stoves are indicated as a simple outline of the item itself. In the case of built-in
appliances, it is shown in dotted lines accompanied with a short text or an abbreviation, e.g. DW for dishwasher. The
dotted lines, therefore, indicate they the appliances are hidden under the counter or inside a storage unit.

Sometimes they are additional details, such as a drawing of the four burners in the case of a stove in the kitchen.

7. Plumbing Symbols

Plumbing fixtures are predominantly depicted as would be seen from the top in a parallel perspective. They include
items like a bathtub, toilet, shower and sinks.

The sink sizes can change depending on what type it is, such as single vanity sink, cabinet sink, double sink, kitchen
sink, freestanding sink etc.

Uncommon fixtures include items like urinals. Sometimes bathroom features are also depicted, such as towel racks.

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8. HVAC Symbols

The HVAC system, otherwise known as the central ac system, is depicted by various symbols for different system
areas. These areas include wall vents, ceiling vents, air conditioning units etc.

The more detailed floor plan for HVAC would carry details of items like heaters, pumps, return air vents etc. The
system’s piping can be seen in two parallel lines running through depicting the ducts to carry the air. Items like a
heating subcontractor may require separate drawings of their own since it could get too congested if you plan to
show both heating and cooling on the same line.

9. Electrical Symbols

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Electrical plans will carry a host of symbols that will signify the lighting points, locations of wall jacks, thermostats, TV
and switch outlets. They will also have markings of electrical items like ceiling fans denoted by a circle and three lines
originating from the centre like a propeller.

The light point is represented by a small circle and crosshairs extending beyond the circle’s circumference.

Electrical floorplans always include a legend since there are a lot of symbols that you would need to keep track of.
Sometimes along with the item name, a small note on the feature is also written if it requires further explanation,
such as the wattage of a particular light.

10. Furniture Symbols

Furniture symbols are almost always self-explanatory. Depending on the draughtsman, they can draw items like
sofas and tables in simple rectangles or extensive details. Sometimes it becomes mandatory to consider the detailed
furniture drawings of the couch and armchairs to overlay them into the standard home plan.

Sometimes draughtsmen also draw plants and props on top of the table for artistic effect. This is mainly done when
the floor plan is made for sale or marketing purposes.

Most commonly used symbols in the common areas like the living room and dining room range from sofas,
armchairs, dining tables, dining chairs, sideboards, cupboards to smaller items like tepoys, pouffes and side tables.

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The bedroom can carry the bed and nightstand symbols and should be to scale. For example, the bed is denoted by
two small rectangles inside the head of the larger rectangle, indicating the pillows. A line with a triangle below the
two rectangles represents the blanket line.

This is a basic form of annotation. Many firms use more detailed drawings where the material and the folds of the
cloth are also incorporated to make the drawing look better. The site plan generally sees outdoor furniture like
garden seating or patio furniture. In addition, the site plan covers the landscaped area around the built space.