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INTRODUCTION
- This e-article is about designing a home elevation
- It's part of Before The Architect's program series on custom home design
. . . . .
ABOUT DESIGNING A HOME EXTERIOR ELEVATION
- A home Elevation shall be provided for
- each major face
- each face obscured by wall, etc.
- each face obscured by angles between orthogonals (particularly faces at right angles to major faces)
- finish grade lines and slope shall be indicated in an elevation
- A home Elevation shall include
- all features at perimeter of Floor Plans
- vertical footprint of below-grade structure
- roof profile
- identification of all exterior
- trim
- clad
- vents
- roof
- crawlspace
- A home Elevation shall include
- horizontal elevation markers for not less than
- finish grade and slope
- each floor level, including porch floor level
- header bottom of face
- each bearing plane
- roof ridges
- chimney cap
- all amendments to the building envelope, including but not limited to
- chimney chase
- roof vents
- gas
- DWV
- attic
- windows, properly styled for
- type
- size
- header height
- muntins
- doors, properly styled for
- panels
- transoms
- sidelites
- finish clad indications
- by wall surface area
- including frame lines behind masonry clad
- cross-references to selected details presented elsewhere thereunder
- exterior elements and features, including but not limited to
- roof
- stairs, properly presented in
- width
- unit rise
- unit run
- total rise
- total run
- hand and guard railed with definition
- height of rail
- clearspan between balusters
Elevation, Addition, Left Of House
Key to abbreviations: APX=APproXimately; BEL=BELow; BG=BEL Grade; CNR=CorNeR; CONT=CONTinuous; CWE=Consistent With EXG; DK=DecK; DN=DowN; DRN=DRaiN; EL=Elevation; EXG=EXistinG; FDN=FounDatioN; FGL=FIN Grade Level; FIN=FINish; H=Height; HOR=HORizontal; INT=INTerior; LF=Linear Feet; LI=Linear Inches; LT=Less Than; MIN=MINimum; MTL=MeTaL; NLT=Not Less Than; OA=OverALl; PRM=PeRimeter; PT=Preservative-Treated; RF=RooF; RFL=Rough Floor Level; RV=Ridge Vent; TOF=Top Of Face; TP=Top Plate; TYP=TYPical; VERT=VERTical; W.=West; WL=WaLl
Comment: In the Elevation, Addition, Left of House, the symbols' legend is omitted for space considerations. Herein under, this Elevation Addition identifies as to existing in barest outline of detail (gray) and new in darker and more detailed presentation.
Comment: Home elevations are commonly inexact reflections of the perimeters of Foundation Plans, Floor Plans, and Roof Plans, it being seemingly ok to get a little more artsy than accurate especially in presenting elevations. That is, what you see may not be what you get.
You know –
ü ‘well, those columns looked symmetrically arranged in the elevation' or
ü ‘who knew that wing would turn out so much larger than the other?' or
ü ‘the intersecting gable wasn't supposed to intersect those windows' or
ü ‘what window?'
As a cross-check throughout later stages of the custom home design process, Before The Architect, straight-line vectors Elevations with the other, related sheets' perimeters without tolerance past a saw kerf, usually dead-on. In this context, it's worth noting that it's a toughie to include a Roof Plan in this vectoring analysis without a 3D representation of the roof layout. An example follows –
Elevation-Elevation-Foundation Vector Analysis
Herewith, Left and Right Of House Elevations, respectively, are vectored across each other and to the Foundation Plan on the right. Colored, straight lines are drawn to determine, in this work, the accuracy to several key points between Elevation roof peaks, including side porch gable ridge on center; inflections in wall lines interior to end lines between Elevations and to Foundation inflections; perimeter endlines between elevations and Foundation Plan reinforced concrete wall lines at exterior sides of face.
Actual sheets are employed, in order to minimize confusion by force of more than one of any sheet on the working file, without further color-coding, e.g., gray for as-was, blue for as-will be, red for no freaking way, magenta for test only, etc.
- Size and Scale
- sheet size
- commonly, ARCH D (36"x24") in landscape
- sufficiently large to get most any residential presentation on it with room – sometimes, not much – to spare
- smaller gets dinky, hard to read
- larger get unwieldy
- Scale
- 3/8":1' to 1":1' for smaller things
- 3/8":1' works well, most often, for interior elevations
- upwards of 3/8":1' works well for really smaller things, e.g., layers of things
- 1/4":1' works well for the preponderance of exterior elevations and footprint-related plan views, except for larger real properties
- 3/16":1' becomes hugely useful for larger real properties both in exterior elevations and footprint-related plan views
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