House drawings, what is involved?
Discussion
Hi all,
I intend to do as much work as is physically possible in our self build, the central heating, electrics etc. All final connections and inspections will be done by the book obviously and no short cuts will be made, the finish we want for our budget will come from me taking my time and infuriating my other half
Last year I oversaw a 21mw power station being constructed in pakistan so this has spurred me on with regards the scale of the job.
What i'm wondering is at what level of detail can we have drawings made up?
I've seen the layouts for underfloor heating, connections into the manifold etc. Can the same type of drawings be made for the electrics, ventilation etc or is this all down to the individual companies who would normally install these themselves?
Regards
Dave
I intend to do as much work as is physically possible in our self build, the central heating, electrics etc. All final connections and inspections will be done by the book obviously and no short cuts will be made, the finish we want for our budget will come from me taking my time and infuriating my other half
Last year I oversaw a 21mw power station being constructed in pakistan so this has spurred me on with regards the scale of the job.
What i'm wondering is at what level of detail can we have drawings made up?
I've seen the layouts for underfloor heating, connections into the manifold etc. Can the same type of drawings be made for the electrics, ventilation etc or is this all down to the individual companies who would normally install these themselves?
Regards
Dave
Electrical layouts are usually done by the Architect (possibly in conjunction with the kitchen design company, or at least based on the kitchen design).
Most of the rest... it depends. You can do 'indicative' structural layouts for floors and roofs (which just show the direction of span and openings in floors, and the ridge, valley and hip lines for the roof), or you can do full layouts, but if you do the former, the joist and truss manufacturers will usually work out the details for you.
Similarly HVAC... you can do indicative layouts, or simply pass the base drawings to the suppliers/manufacturers and ask them to work it out.
It helps if you have done your drawings in a recognised CAD format (AutoCAD .dwg is best) as then you can often just e-mail the file to the supplier.
Most of the rest... it depends. You can do 'indicative' structural layouts for floors and roofs (which just show the direction of span and openings in floors, and the ridge, valley and hip lines for the roof), or you can do full layouts, but if you do the former, the joist and truss manufacturers will usually work out the details for you.
Similarly HVAC... you can do indicative layouts, or simply pass the base drawings to the suppliers/manufacturers and ask them to work it out.
It helps if you have done your drawings in a recognised CAD format (AutoCAD .dwg is best) as then you can often just e-mail the file to the supplier.
Sam_68 said:
Electrical layouts are usually done by the Architect (possibly in conjunction with the kitchen design company, or at least based on the kitchen design).
Most of the rest... it depends. You can do 'indicative' structural layouts for floors and roofs (which just show the direction of span and openings in floors, and the ridge, valley and hip lines for the roof), or you can do full layouts, but if you do the former, the joist and truss manufacturers will usually work out the details for you.
Similarly HVAC... you can do indicative layouts, or simply pass the base drawings to the suppliers/manufacturers and ask them to work it out.
It helps if you have done your drawings in a recognised CAD format (AutoCAD .dwg is best) as then you can often just e-mail the file to the supplier.
Is having the drawings done in CAD the norm for an architect or would we need to specify that at the very start?Most of the rest... it depends. You can do 'indicative' structural layouts for floors and roofs (which just show the direction of span and openings in floors, and the ridge, valley and hip lines for the roof), or you can do full layouts, but if you do the former, the joist and truss manufacturers will usually work out the details for you.
Similarly HVAC... you can do indicative layouts, or simply pass the base drawings to the suppliers/manufacturers and ask them to work it out.
It helps if you have done your drawings in a recognised CAD format (AutoCAD .dwg is best) as then you can often just e-mail the file to the supplier.
All the help i've had on here has been very much appreciated, seperates the wheat from the chaff so to speak
Dave!
Howitzer said:
Is having the drawings done in CAD the norm for an architect or would we need to specify that at the very start?
It depends; it's wortth asking the question - one or two 'old school' Architects still do things on the drawing board, but then if you specified that you wanted the drawings in CAD, they probably wouldn't be able to comply - for working drawings, anyone CAD-literate will use CAD as a matter of course, these days (though some types of sketch drawing are still easier to develop with pencil and paper.It's probably worth specifying that you want access to drawings and CAD data in both .dwg and .pdf format, though, since the normal agreement will only be to provide a ceratin number of paper prints.
It may also be worth specifying that you want the working drawings formatting on A3 sheets, since this will mean that you can print them from the .pdf's yourself to any decent photocopier/printer, rather than pay the Architect £7.50 per A1-sized print, or whatever exhorbitant rate they choose to charge!
Sam_68 said:
eps said:
£7.50? We're under charging!! 
We charge £2.00 for an A1 paper plot (B&W), which I think is quite reasonable.
It varies, but £2.00 per A1 print is very reasonable, particularly if that includes VAT and the costs of postage to your client!We charge £2.00 for an A1 paper plot (B&W), which I think is quite reasonable.
eps said:
ETA : did you really mean a 21mw power station??
I'm afraid so, I installed and commissioned the 3 engines and oversaw the building and groundworks.Edited by eps on Tuesday 1st September 11:31
It was quite strange having to read up on the correct concrete mix and then tell the workers how to do it, measure everything which was done, condem, ask for parts to be altered etc.
Lots of work to achieve very little but great fun in the end when everything is running well
Dave!
Howitzer said:
eps said:
ETA : did you really mean a 21mw power station??
I'm afraid so, I installed and commissioned the 3 engines and oversaw the building and groundworks.Edited by eps on Tuesday 1st September 11:31
It was quite strange having to read up on the correct concrete mix and then tell the workers how to do it, measure everything which was done, condem, ask for parts to be altered etc.
Lots of work to achieve very little but great fun in the end when everything is running well
Dave!
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