How to read a floor plan before you approve it

The floor plan is the cheapest place to find a problem. Once the plinth is cast, a wall in the wrong place costs money to remove and a doorway in the wrong place costs you every single day you live in the house.

This is what we suggest you look at, in this order, before you approve a plan.

Start with how you will walk through it

Draw your route from the front door to the kitchen with shopping bags in both hands. Then from the bedroom to the bathroom at two in the morning. If either route crosses the living room, or passes through a door that has to be opened first, the plan will feel awkward for as long as you live there.

Five things to check on every drawing

• Door swings. Every door should open against a wall, not into the path of travel and not into the neighbouring door.
• Wall thickness. A 115mm partition and a 230mm wall are different drawings. Check the plan says which is which.
• Storage that is actually reachable. Mark where the wardrobes, the loft and the utility cupboard go, and check the doors can open.
• Wet areas stacked. Bathrooms and the kitchen above one another keeps plumbing short and leaks cheap to trace.
• Furniture, drawn to scale. A bedroom that fits a 1.5m bed but not a wardrobe is a bedroom you will argue about later.

Ask where the sun lands

A plan tells you the orientation if you know which way north is. Kitchens on the east side get morning light and dry out early. Bedrooms on the west side heat up by evening. In Kerala the bigger question is usually water: which walls face the driving monsoon rain, and can those walls take a deeper overhang or a verandah.

Bring in the constraints early

If the plan has to follow Vastu conventions, if elders will live with you, if you plan to rent out a floor, or if you have already bought a specific sofa, say so while the layout is still loose. Every one of those is easy at the sketch stage and expensive at the structure stage.

What to send us for a second opinion

A PDF or a clear photograph of the plan, the plot dimensions, and one sentence about how your family uses a home. You will get a written note on what we would change and why. See our services for what that covers, or send it through the contact page.