How To Hit The Ground Running On Commercial Flooring

Looking to take your residential flooring skills and make the transition into commercial flooring? The first step on that path is learning to read a blueprint.

Parts of a Blueprint

• Title Block: contains architect’s name, project name, diagram name, date, revision, and scale information
• Diagram area: the part of the blueprint where the building is drawn
• Legend: additional notes about the plan, or products to be used in the building may be found in this area
  • Example: (contains notes on Vinyl “SV” to be self-coved 6″ up walls in restrooms)

Architectural drawings are drawn to a “scale”. This scale, typically shown as a fraction, equals 1.

• Example: (1/4″ = 1′) It is crucial to verify that the plan is scaled correctly in order to ensure an accurate estimate whether the estimation is to be done by hand or digitally.

A revision is an area of the title block used to track changes in the set of plans. Rev A = the first version of the diagram, Rev B = second version etc. It is important to estimate off of the most current revision to guarantee an up to date estimate as finish schedule changes may occur.

For more resources about working with blueprints in commercial takeoff software, feel free to reference our import and scale video.