If you are building a new home, the building plans are among the most important documents you see. These plans, sometimes called blueprints, are the guidelines the builder follows as he builds your home.

Unfortunately, if you’re not trained in architecture or have never built a home, a building plan can be very hard to decipher. However, it’s important to understand some key elements of your plan, so that you can communicate effectively with contractors and spot potential problems as they build your home. Even if you don’t know how to build a home, you can still learn to read a building plan.

How to Read Blueprints

For the average person, reading a building plan can be a daunting task. These sheets of paper–which are sometimes called blueprints, though they are no longer printed on blue paper–are the instructions your builder uses to build your home.

Fortunately, you don’t need to know how to build a home to read blueprints. However, it is very helpful to have at least some knowledge, so that you can communicate effectively with the people who are building your home.

Your blueprints will actually include several things, including:

• Cross-section drawings
• Detail drawings
• Door and window schedules
• Elevation drawings, both interior and exterior
• Floor plans
• Foundation plan
• Framing plan
• Plumbing and electrical schematics
• Roof plans.

These different drawings show you what your new home will look like, from the location of electrical outlets to the pitch of the roof.

Understanding Your Building Plan

The first step in reading your building plan is determining the scale the plans are drawn to, and translating that into actual measurements. Most blueprints are drawn to a quarter-inch scale. This means that each quarter inch on the blueprint equals one foot in actual length.

Your building plan should also include a key that can help you interpret the different symbols and signs. These symbols will indicate the locations of doors, windows, plumbing fixtures, electrical sockets and more. While the key may look slightly different from plan to plan, some markings you may see in your blueprints include:

• Thick, solid lines to indicate walls.
• Thin, dotted lines to show the location of overhead features.
• Thin, solid lines to indicate built-ins, such as shelves.

What to Look For in a Building Plan

You should read your building plan carefully before construction begins. If you don’t understand parts of the plan, have your architect or builder explain them to you. Be sure to look at things such as room size, location of windows, and the location of plumbing fixtures and appliances. If you see something you are not happy with, now is the time to speak up, since it is much easier to modify a paper drawing than to make changes once work has already begun.