Explore the systematic approach to organizing construction documents, from the initial steel series to final engineering plans. Learn about the regulatory requirements, architectural plans, floor plans, detailed plans, and the specific purpose each series serves in a construction package.
Key Insights
- The construction plan document structure typically starts with the steel series. This includes a cover page, a sheet index, and follows the regulatory requirements that can range from 3 to 5 pages or more, providing notes and verification lists for the regulatory agency.
- The steel series is followed by the A series, which contains architectural plans, and could include civil engineers' plans. These sets generally provide top-down views, with sub-series like A1, A2, and A3 presenting floor plans, exterior views, and building sections respectively, usually drawn at the same scale.
- As the document proceeds towards series A5 and beyond, it includes more detailed images such as door placements, window programs, interior elevations for kitchens and bathrooms, and ultimately ends with engineering plans for structural, mechanics, plumbing, and electrical engineering.
When we create a set of plans or construction documents, there is usually a certain order in which the drawings are presented in the package, because we have to remember that the plans are presented to the regulatory agencies, generally for construction permits. Our sheets will normally start with our Sheet Series, which could include a cover page, a sheet index, and then follow the regulatory requirements. These days, those requirements can be three, four, five pages or more, but they are a lot of notes and verification lists for the regulatory agency.
Those pages, the Sheet Series, are typically followed by the Series A, which is the Architectural Site Plan series. Sometimes, the Civil Engineers' plans are included in this area. The views in these sets are generally top-down views at a large scale.
For example, here we have the outline of the house, the property line, the sidewalks, the central line of the road and then the minimum distances. The Series AS are, therefore, Architectural Site Plans, generally large-scale top-down views. Then we have the Series A1, A2 and A3.
The images in these series of drawings are shown or drawn typically at the same scale, which can be a quarter inch equal to an inch or an eighth inch, but all of these are shown typically at the same scale. Series A1 includes Floor Plans, which are usually drawings cut about four and a half feet above the ground looking down. This could include the First Floor Plan, Basement Plan (if applicable), Second Floor Plan, and Roof Plan.
Then we have Exterior Elevations, which are also at the same scale. These are vertical views from the outside of the building. You would have the front, rear, left, and right.
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The Series A3, also drawn at the same scale as A1 and A2, includes sections cut through the building. If we need them, we can create a series of A4 documents, which would be larger images, like a wall section. Series A3 has a building section, but it is possible that we want to make enlargements of certain areas, and that would be called a wall section.
The wall section could be drawn twice as large as the building section to transmit more detailed information. Then we can move on to Series A5 of documents, which is where we get even closer. These are typically images of plans, as in this drawing here, which shows a door.
The doors have a frame, and therefore this image shows how the door is placed and how the frame is joining, so that we can make the door look as we want it to look in the house. These are the A5 sections. The A6 series typically includes schedules, so we could find Door and Window Schedules in the A6 areas.
Then we have the A7 and A8, which are typically elements such as the Interior Elevations for Kitchens and Bathrooms. After this, follow the Engineering Drawings for Structural Engineering, Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical Engineering. This is how a set of plans is typically organized, with the General Notes, followed by the Site Plan, Floor Plans, Elevations, Sections, potentially Wall Sections, Detail Plans, Interior Elevations, and finally, Engineering Drawings.