One of the most common challenges when purchasing a pre-construction home is not being able to physically walk through the space. This makes floor plans an important tool to understand all of your home’s features. Floor plans give a flattened, two-dimensional bird’s-eye view of a suite, showing things like structure, door and window locations, room layout and more. But if you’re buying pre-construction for the first time, a floor plan can look like an undistinguishable collection of lines and numbers. This easy-to-understand guide is just what you need to comprehend what you’re looking at on your next visit to a presentation centre.
Renderings
When you’re looking through floor plans, they’ll be accompanied by various renderings, which will be labelled with a ‘Style’ and a square footage. These styles correspond with different exterior ascetics. Most often, Style A is all paneling, Style B is a mix of paneling and brick and Style C is an all brick exterior.
1. Name of your model
Each model will have a name that you can easily remember and refer to when deciding which home design you like. The number beside the name refers to the size of the lot your home will sit on, measured in feet.
2. Style information
The different styles refer to the exterior look of the home. These may affect the interior square footage slightly, and for this reason, we list the square footage corresponding with each style.
3. Major elements
Major elements in the floor plan will be labeled for ease of reading. These elements will almost always include the main features of your home, such as the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, porch, laundry room, foyer and living area. They may also include other important elements to make the floor plan easier to understand such as the breakfast bar, soaker tub, storage area or linen closet.
4. Commonly-used abbreviations
Because of space limitations, you’ll often come across abbreviated words throughout the floor plan. Here are a few common ones you’ll encounter:
- W.I.C – Walk in Closet
- W/D – Washer and Dryer
- W.I.P. – Walk in Pantry
- STOR. – Storage area
- LN. – Linen closet
- DN. – Used on stairs, indicating the stairway down.
- OPT. – Optional features that do not come standard with your home
- PR – Powder room
5. Dimensions
Throughout the entire floor plan, the dimensions of the various areas and rooms will be indicated in feet and inches. As with the example below, the bedroom contains two dimensions. The diagram below will give you a better understanding of how these dimensions relate to the space.
It’s important to note that dimensions are measured from the center of the room and assume the space is rectangular. The true dimensions can vary slightly with the shape and curvature of the room.
6. Doors
All doors will be indicated by a dotted line in the direction it opens. Sliding doors, as seen on some closets on the example above will be indicated with two thin, slightly overlapping rectangles.
7. Tiles
The presence of tiles will be represented by squares on the floor plan. It’s not uncommon to see part or all of the kitchen tiled, although this isn’t the case for every model. Keep in mind that despite the size of the tiles indicated, upgraded tiles are often available in different sizes and colours. You can discuss your options with your sales or design consultant.
8. Cabinets
The presence of upper cabinets is indicated by a dotted line, and the base cabinets are indicated by a solid line, as seen in the kitchen area above. This gives you an idea of their depth. Your design consultants will be able to review your kitchen layout.
9. Closets
Different closets will have different doors and built-in storage systems. The door will be indicated by either a swinging or sliding door icon, and the storage system will be show by a solid and dotted line, which represents a shelf and/or rod feature for clothing organization. With the example above, the master bedroom walk-in closet (W.I.C) shows a swinging door that opens inward, and features a clothing storage system in an L-formation. Bedroom 2 features a sliding door and storage system along the length of the closet.
10. Stairs and multiple floors
It can be difficult to understand how the relationship between the different levels and open space between floors will all work together when looking at a two-dimensional drawing. Each staircase will display the location of the staircase, any features under the stairs (storage closets etc.) as well as the direction of the stairs, marked with an UP or DN and a directional arrow. The second floor is often open in some area to view the floor below, and this area will be labeled with a “Open to below”, as with the example above. Other elements will be clearly labeled, such as the railing on the second floor. The jagged line shown on the stairs of the main floor and basement plan is simply there to indicate the divide between the levels.
11. Walls and windows
The various walls, outside doors and windows will be indicated by different lines and icons. Shaded areas are used to show different features, such as pillars and or structural beams, and sometimes space around different features such as the shower is needed due to the plumbing required behind the walls. Dotted lines, shown between the Kitchen and Great Room indicate a trimmed opening. The various windows will be indicated by various rectangles that indicate the size and number of window panes there are.
12. Options
Throughout the floor plan, you will see various features indicated with ‘optional’. For example, the OPT. fireplace in the Great Room or OPT. pantry in the Kitchen. The optional features and pricing can be discussed with your design consultant.
13. Unfinished basement
Our homes will have unfinished basements, which means the basements have a concrete floor, but do not have framing, drywall, or flooring. Elements that are installed in your basement are represented with a dotted line, such as the stairway and mechanical area. Most homes will have the option of a rough-in bathroom. This means that the plumbing is installed but the bathroom remains unfinished, without framing, drywall, tiling or fixtures. The large areas with a dotted X, marked ‘Unexcavated’, mean that those areas will be inaccessible and your basement ends along the wall where that area is shown. As with the example above, there is an option of a Cold Cellar, which will be excavated if the homeowner purchases this option.
We find that the best way to really visualize your space is to use a combination of our renderings, model homes or vignettes where available as well as the help of our sales and design professionals. Start by visualizing yourself walking in the front door and take yourself through the home to really understand how your space will work, look and feel. Not every design will work for your lifestyle or living situation and that’s okay. And of course, if you have any questions, we’re always here to help you find the home that works for you.