This article is about quality control tools at work as layout design standards in custom home designing
Any custom house design from our shop undergoes changes, changes, and more changes
the best of plans surprise with discoveries all along the way
As designer house plans mature, it’s beyond most mortals to keep ‘em all straight between various house elevations, house plan views, sections, and details
QUALITY CONTROL TOOLS IN CUSTOM HOME DESIGNING
Two quality control tool sets go to work in wise plan set development
functional quality control tools are more or less natural process with work-throughs of new sheet production, disciplined back-peddling to up-date older work to newer forms and features, design improvements, switching layers on and off in Autocad in order to simplify views for a range of purposes and seeing more clearly whassup, etc.
Comment: It's difficult though not impossible to finish a basic set of plan set sheets and get much wrong between 'em. Floor Plan to Site Plan, Elevations, Electrical and Lighting Plan and Roof Plan atop Floor Plans, Foundation Plan below Floor Plan, Whole-House Section to verify parts of most of the plans that came before. That's the functionality of a good home plan set well done.
as work progresses, you see anew what you didn’t see before and, when it doesn’t work for you anymore, you fix it
you fix it right there and then
these modifications can turn to trails of tears something bigtime as corrections introduce other corrections
fix ‘em there and then
there’s not much more to be told or taught than this about functional quality control
structural quality control tools begin when all else is done.
aspects of such checks can be applied throughout a design enterprise, though incompletely, until what-all’s to be done gets done.
this effort is rigorous and thorough-going and addressed now
STRUCTURAL QUALITY CONTROL
When the dealing’s done, out comes the list of drawings to line up where they should be lined up.
You know – windows, doors, walls (placed, blocked, and framed), ridges, eaves, articulations, desired and designed symmetries interior, exterior or both, etc.
Comment: In this listing below, Before The Architect was working with a main level (L1) over walk-out lower level (L0). The structural quality control litany follows.
A LIST OF QUALITY CONTROL TOOLS
Selected quality control tools in custom home designing
L1 Floor Plan to Site Plan
L1 and L0 Floor Plans, FOH [Front Of House]
L1 and L0 Floor Plans, BOH [Back Of House]
L1 and L0 Floor Plans, ROH [Right Of House]
L1 and L0 Floor Plans, LOH [Left Of House]
Foundation Plan and L0 Floor Plan, FOH
Foundation Plan and L0 Floor Plan, BOH
Foundation Plan and L0 Floor Plan, LOH
Foundation Plan and L0 Floor Plan, ROH
Foundation Plan and L1 Floor Plan, FOH
Foundation Plan and L1 Floor Plan, BOH
Foundation Plan and L1 Floor Plan, LOH
Foundation Plan and L1 Floor Plan, ROH
Then reiterate to the extent changes alter previous quality control tools and, subsequently, reproof
L0 Floor Plan and Elevation at FOH
L0 Floor Plan and Elevation at BOH
Lo Floor Plan and Elevation at LOH
L0 Floor Plan and Elevation at ROH
L1 Floor Plan and Elevation at FOH
L1 Floor Plan and Elevation at BOH
L1 Floor Plan and Elevation at LOH
L1 Floor Plan and Elevation at ROH
Elevation at FOH and at BOH and at LOH and at ROH, like wibble-wobble ducks all in a row
Then reiterate to the extent changes alter previous quality control tools and, subsequently, reproof
L1 Floor Plan to Whole-House Section
L0 Floor Plan to Whole-House Section
Foundation Plan to Whole-House Section
Roof Plan to Whole-House Section
Roof Plan to L1 Floor Plan (at least, if not L0 Floor Plan and Foundation Plan, too)
Thereafter, adjust electrical layouts, daylighting and nightlighting tables, and what-all else affected by all that’s been done to all the sheets.
MORE QUALITY CONTROL TOOLS
Emminently, there are two other packs of quality control tools in a custom home designer's kit bag
These schedules and details generally restate your designs of windows, doors, etc. in
tabular format - disciplined and near-to minutia-like in their bits and pieces - which obliges the design to review anew that which has been drawn
texted format, setting out principals and practices of materials and methods that must rightly relate to the drawn subjects
inset or isolation drawings to further identify a design, requiring the designer to make sure the original design sector jibes with the detail drawing
QUALITY CONTROL PROCESS
Quality Control Process
this work is based on lining things up – in Autocad, welters of construction lines of distinguishing colors - in order to determine whether what’s supposed to be along those lines is, indeed, on those lines
this is a quiet, time-consumptive, sometimes disorienting, borderline contemplative, and remarkably tiring set of tasks akin to rediscovering that which is already drawn
whole sheets are flipped and twisted this way and that on the big, flat screen and lined up to reckon whassup and whassnot
relational skills and knowledge are sorely tested when studying and comparing work from unusual and unfamiliar perspectives
mistaken changes
the wrong objects (line, text, dimension, etc.)
the wrong direction
the wrong sequence dependence
the wrong relational dependencies
the unforeseen connections or consequences
the unremembered
the unreflected as in out-of-sight, out-of-mind
the previously unnoticed
the wrongful impositions a/k/a mistaken identities compared or associated
it’s deceptively easy to convince oneself of being right when it’s not
this house designer permits 1/8 linear inch tolerance to Elevations. This custom home designer permits no tolerance to all other linear relationships
no dimensions are forced
there’s always room for error of judgment or sight, but not much by the time the dust settles
the process is closely considered, unhurried, skeptical, scrupulous, and reasonably comprehensive
There is no set pattern to corrections
generally, L1 Floor Plan rules, but not always, and can be overruled by an Elevation for better style or fit or from below for better fit
L0 Floor Plan may be altered, ruled either by Foundation Plan or L1 Floor Plan or, rarely, an Elevation
interior stairway design layout is immutable under all circumstances short of Hell freezing over which has happened only once and would have happened a second time save for a last-minute epiphany [read: resolution way outside the box]
Elevations are least reliable as bases for distributing modifications, and are subject to almost all other changes derivatively where applicable, i.e., truly interior changes are usually of no consequence to Elevations. Usually
Foundation Plan exterior perimeters are immutable under all circumstances this late in the draw
unless something has gotten totally screwed up
foundation elements interior to the perimeter are fair game
The objective, albeit vicarious, is the proposition that Before The Architect's principals would put themselves up to build from these custom house plans
nope, not before the structural quality control
yep, after it
Before The Architect designs and drafts custom home plans nationwide. Its principals Ralph and Jean Pressel have worked hands-on together since the ‘60s in custom home design, drafting, consulting, plus building and repair in every major trade.Their plan sets are extraordinarily detailed; their clients' active involvement throughout is essential.
Home Design Standards - Home Building Standards 4Q08 Edition e-book at 823 pages and the website www.beforethearchitect.com at nearly 1000 pages of text and illustrations are enterprises of Before The Architect’s principals.
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