A floor plan is a crucial tool for architects, builders, estate agents, interior designers, and those looking to remodel their home or property. They are ideal for helping to envision how a space will eventually look and understand the relevant dimensions. Floor plans provide a guideline for how the project will turn out when it is completed.

At Sova Surveys, we are a team of experienced surveyors working on both residential and commercial properties, and we are often called on to provide high quality floor plans. Whether it is for refurbishment, redevelopment, or simply up-to-date floor plans to help the process of gaining planning permission, our team has the expertise to help.

But how do floor plans come together? In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at the process of drawing 2D and 3D floor plans to give you some insight into what we will do to ensure that we get accurate and high-quality plans.

What we include in a floor plan

When we talk about a floor plan, we mean a document that shows an accurate scale drawing of the property. This is a top-down view of the rooms themselves, as well as an understanding of the other physical features across the building, and the traffic patterns found in the property.

More than just physical measurements of the layout, a high-quality floor plan provides an understanding of the features of the building. This includes identifying and labelling structural and stud walls, as well as the positions and swing of doors and windows.

Our floor plans also feature measurements of ceiling heights and floor levels, meaning that all elements of the building structure are covered. We will even incorporate existing sanitary fittings.

The process

Carrying out a floor plan is a multi-stage process. The process is roughly as follows:

• Initial consultation – we will discuss the parameters of the floor plan with you to understand what is needed and what the eventual use for the floor plan is. This helps us to understand exactly what the plan needs to show.
• Taking measurements – our team will attend the site and take accurate measurements of the building as it stands using the latest laser scanning equipment and techniques. This process takes millions of measurements PER SCAN, allowing us to extract measurement data back in the office. This data can include information such as the dimensions of the rooms and information about other architectural features.
• Drawing the plan – our team of specialist technicians will take the captured data and use them to create a high quality, accurate floor plan for each floor of the property. All drawings will be completed to the correct specifications outlined.

One plan per level

Floor plans should be significantly detailed with individual measurements and an outline of all of the key features. As such, every floor level of the building requires an individual floor plan. We will always set out the scope of the plan with clients before getting started to ensure that we are providing exactly what is required on each floor.

Each floor may have different features, or the elements of the building might interact differently on each level. As such it is important to ensure that the floor plan is personalised for every floor.

How we measure a floor plan

It is crucial that the floor plan is entirely to scale and is as accurate as possible. To achieve this in our plans we use a range of tools and techniques at our disposal. We will typically take measures with a mixture of handheld digital tape measures and extremely accurate laser scanners.

Our floor plans can be provided as 2D models, 3D CAD plans, or 3D Revit models. We will always take the time to discuss the specific needs and requirements of the project with you before we get started so that we can provide you with the most appropriate floor plans for your project.

Our team of specialist technicians will draw up the floor plans using industry standard software, using the measurements taken at the site.

If you are interested in having a floor plan draw up by our experienced team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We work in Bristol, Bath, and London as well as across the UK.