HOW TO READ A COMMERCIAL SITE PLAN, UNDERSTANDING CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS, PRINT READING LESSON #3
Summary
TLDRIn this educational video, Professor Tom Stevenson delves into the intricacies of reading commercial site plans, a crucial skill for construction management. He contrasts these with residential plans and emphasizes the importance of understanding site plans for visualizing building placement, adhering to zoning and building code requirements, and ensuring proper setbacks and elevations. Stevenson also touches on the significance of benchmarks, contour lines, and various site features like trees and infrastructure, providing practical tips for interpreting these elements on a site plan. The video is part of a series aimed at enhancing viewers' ability to comprehend construction drawings.
Takeaways
- 🏗️ The video series focuses on teaching viewers how to read and understand construction drawings, specifically site plans for commercial properties.
- 🏠 The purpose of a site plan is to visualize the building's location on the lot, including existing conditions, elevations, and slopes.
- 📏 Site plans are essential for obtaining building permits, ensuring compliance with zoning and building code requirements.
- 📍 Benchmarks are reference points used to measure elevations, often related to mean sea level, and are crucial for proper building placement and depth.
- 🌐 The terms 'site plan' and 'plot plan' are used interchangeably, with the latter being more common in the United States.
- 🌳 Site plans detail existing structures, vegetation, and infrastructure, and can be adapted for landscape and civil drawings.
- 📊 Contour lines on a site plan indicate elevation changes and can reveal features like hills, depressions, and potential water flow directions.
- 🏡 The video provides an example of interpreting a commercial site plan, including identifying property lines, building setbacks, and elevations.
- 🔍 It's important to verify information from the site plan with the actual site conditions, as plans may not perfectly reflect reality.
- ✅ The video emphasizes the importance of understanding scales on construction drawings, with the example given being a 1:200 scale.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video series by Tom Stevenson?
-The main focus of the video series is to teach viewers how to read and understand construction drawings, specifically site plans for both residential and commercial properties.
Why are site plans important in the construction process?
-Site plans are crucial as they help visualize the building's location on the lot, including existing conditions, elevations, and slopes. They ensure compliance with zoning requirements and building codes, such as setbacks and proximity to adjoining lots.
What is the difference between a site plan and a plot plan?
-A site plan and a plot plan essentially refer to the same thing, with the term 'plot plan' commonly used in the United States and 'site plan' in Canada. Both terms describe a detailed drawing that shows the proposed building in relation to the property.
What is a benchmark in the context of construction drawings?
-A benchmark is a reference point, often related to mean sea level, used to measure and establish elevations for construction. It helps determine the depth for footings and ensures the building's first floor is at the correct height above the finished grade.
How can contour lines on a site plan indicate the terrain's slope and features?
-Contour lines on a site plan show elevations at various points. Closely spaced lines indicate a steep slope, while widely spaced lines suggest a gentle slope. Circular patterns may indicate hills or depressions, and lines following each other can suggest swales or valleys.
What additional information can site plans provide beyond the building's location?
-Site plans can also show existing structures, fences, retaining walls, paved areas, catch basins, and landscaping elements like trees and shrubs. They may also include information on utilities, property corners marked by steel iron bars, and geotechnical data from boreholes.
How does Tom Stevenson suggest verifying the accuracy of a site plan?
-Tom Stevenson recommends visiting the site in person to verify the accuracy of the site plan, as the map may not perfectly represent the actual conditions on the ground. This is important for ensuring that all dimensions and features are correctly understood before construction begins.
What does the presence of dashed lines on a site plan typically indicate?
-Dashed lines on a site plan can indicate various things, such as hidden lines behind other features, vents for plumbing, optional features, or elements to be removed. They can also represent contour lines showing natural or finished grade elevations.
What is the purpose of showing finished grade elevations on a site plan?
-Finished grade elevations on a site plan indicate the desired elevation of the ground around the building after grading is complete. This helps in planning the building's relationship with the surrounding landscape, ensuring proper drainage and accessibility.
How can the scale of a site plan affect the way it is read and interpreted?
-The scale of a site plan, such as 1:200 mentioned in the script, determines the ratio between the drawing's dimensions and the actual size of the property. Understanding the scale is essential for accurately interpreting measurements and distances on the plan.
Outlines
🏗️ Introduction to Commercial Site Plans
Tom Stevenson, a professor of construction management, introduces the topic of commercial site plans. He explains the purpose of site plans, which is to help visualize the location of a building on a lot, taking into account existing conditions, elevations, and slopes. Site plans are essential for obtaining building permits, ensuring compliance with zoning and building code requirements. The video also mentions the author's textbook and encourages viewers to subscribe for more content on construction drawings.
📈 Understanding Site Plan Details
The script delves into the specifics of site plans, such as benchmark elevations, which are reference points for construction. It explains how benchmarks are used to ensure that buildings are constructed at the correct depth and grade. The video mentions different terms for site plans, like 'plot plan,' and discusses the importance of looking at legends to understand various symbols used in site plans. It also covers the information site plans provide, such as the location of buildings in relation to property lines and the conversion of site plans into landscape drawings.
🌳 Site Plan Elements and Contour Lines
This section discusses the elements typically found in site plans, including fences, retaining walls, and storm drainage. It emphasizes the importance of contour lines, which indicate elevation changes and can reveal features like hills, depressions, or potential water-holding areas. The script explains how contour lines are used to determine the slope of the land and how they can be used to identify the direction of water flow and the presence of swales.
📏 Measuring and Locating the Building on the Site
The script explains how to measure and locate a building on a site plan. It covers the identification of property lines, setbacks, and the dimensions of the building. The video uses a highlighter to visually demonstrate how to trace property lines and building perimeters. It also discusses the importance of checking measurements on-site to ensure accuracy and mentions the removal of existing foundations as indicated on the site plan.
🏡 Finalizing the Building's Position and Additional Site Features
The final paragraph focuses on finalizing the building's position on the site plan, including setbacks and elevations. It also mentions additional site features like concrete paths, paving slabs, and infrastructure elements like water mains and utility poles. The script provides an example of how to read and interpret elevations and contour lines to understand the site's topography. It concludes with a reminder about the importance of understanding scales in construction drawings.
📘 Conclusion and Call to Action
Tom Stevenson concludes the video with a summary of the key points covered and a reminder to subscribe and turn on notifications for more videos on construction drawing and project management. He emphasizes the importance of the construction community and encourages viewers to explore related playlists.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Site Plan
💡Benchmark
💡Elevation
💡Zoning Requirements
💡Setback
💡Contour Lines
💡Finished Grade
💡Plot Plan
💡Landscaping Drawings
💡Surveyor
Highlights
Introduction to commercial site plans as part of a series on construction drawing reading.
Explanation of the importance of site plans for visualizing the building's location on the lot.
Discussion on site plans as a requirement for building permits and adherence to zoning and building code requirements.
Clarification on the difference between site plans and plot plans, and their usage in different regions.
Description of the role of benchmark as a reference point for elevations in construction.
Detail on how site plans show various elements like fences, retaining walls, and drainage systems.
Importance of checking legends on site plans for understanding symbols used.
Potential of site plans to be converted into landscape drawings for detailed planning.
Explanation of contour lines and their significance in indicating elevation changes and landforms.
Use of boreholes for geotechnical surveys and their representation on site plans.
Guidance on identifying property lines and the building's location on the site plan.
How to determine setbacks and building dimensions from the site plan.
Advice on verifying information from site plans with actual site conditions.
Mention of the significance of finished grade elevations in site planning.
Highlight of the use of steel iron bars as monuments indicating property corners and elevations.
Discussion on the practical application of site plans in construction project management.
Encouragement for viewers to subscribe and engage with the channel for more construction-related content.
Transcripts
hi i'm tom stevenson professor of
construction management in this series
we're looking at how to read and
understand construction drawings print
reading blueprint reading whatever you
want to call it today we're going to be
looking at commercial site plans this is
lesson three in the previous two videos
we looked at different sets of
residential site plans so i thought it'd
be interesting to take a little look at
a simple
commercial site plan and expand upon
some of the things that we've talked
about in the previous videos if you're
interested in learning more about
understanding construction drawings you
can look at my playlist subscribe to my
channel
click on the
notifications icon and you'll see new
videos as they come up i've also written
a textbook called understanding
construction drawings for housing in
small buildings
and it's actually in its fourth edition
it's available on amazon
okay let's get started
so we're going to be talking about a
commercial site plan today but why do we
have site plans to begin with well one
of the things i'm going to stress in
this series of videos is number one you
want to visualize things and a site plan
will help you visualize exactly
where the building is going to be on the
lot some of the existing conditions
potentially some of the various
elevations and slopes on the property
sometimes it will show existing grade
and finish grade sometimes it'll just
show finished grade depending on the
type of drawing it is a requirement to
get a building permit you know they want
to make sure the town or municipality or
city wants to make sure
that you're building it in the right
place
you've sized it according to their
zoning requirements most towns cities
and areas will have zoning requirements
regarding how far the building has to be
set back its proximity to adjoining lots
uh building code requirements for things
like what we call in canada limiting
distance if there's a fire you know it
may go from hop from one building to
another so where are the openings how
big can the openings be
can there be any openings depending on
how close uh the building is to the
property line
so there's a lot of requirements that
come into into play there
and more that we'll discuss in these
series
so uh as i said site plan gives you a
lot of information but let's let's just
take a quick look at some of the things
that we should uh think about and some
of the things i haven't covered that
much in the other videos although i did
talk about levels and elevations
uh benchmark is a reference point so
usually a benchmark is referencing mean
sea level or average sea level
and everything is sort of laid out and
been measured surveyed
over the years and decades and there's
markings in every town and city at what
the elevation points are and their
reference points that then whoever is
laying out the building can reference
from that
and so that the elevations will tell you
how deep you can go
so that the footing will be at the right
depth so when you build the actual
building the first floor will be at the
right amount above the finished grade
and the finished grade what elevation do
we want that so everything is referenced
from a benchmark which is important from
that perspective you know if they're not
if you're just doing a simple building
it may not be referenced to mean c level
they might you just use a number like 10
or 100 and that just ensures that you
know what depth you're going to go in
relation to that benchmark very often a
fire a local fire hydrant
might be used and that might be
benchmarked at that particular elevation
and that way you're not dealing with
negative numbers uh for those for those
purposes so if you see all of a sudden a
benchmark is listed at 100 that's that's
what's going on because there's no way
the mean sea level is going to be
exactly at 100 and where you're building
it very very unlikely anyways
okay so
a good example here this is a close-up
zoomed in it says top equals bm almost
looks like an 8 but bm benchmark
elevation 100 all right so that's just
saying the top of the fire hydrant that
would be a symbol for a fire hydrant in
that case and it tells you it
right there and this is in metric so
those of you that may be using imperial
measurement wherever you're from
uh the uh difference is it's all the
same the way it's referenced you know
that could be a that could be at 100 uh
yards or that could be at 100 feet
depending on what it is that you're
referencing for us
in canada it's typically going to be in
meters and so that's what that's
referring to
all right
um so
we also should say that site plans plot
plans plot plans is another word for a
site plan
united states they usually call it plot
plan we tend to call it site plan i
think out west we tend to call it plot
plan as well they mean the same thing
and it will show it'll show things like
typically fences existing structural
retaining walls maybe swimming pools
storm drainage paved and unpaved areas
catch basins
there's usually a legend always always
look at the legend whatever drawing
you're you're using look at the legends
especially i find site planned they tend
to have a number of different symbols
that they use from
drawing to drawing and the name and
address of surveyor who supplied the
survey for the site improvement plan or
site plan if you will is very often
shown as well on maybe a registered
surveyor like in ontario canada we say
ols ontario land surveyor as an example
it'll also typically show existing trees
and shrubs maybe above a certain size
site plans can also be converted to
landscape drawings uh specific civil
drawings a
variety of different layout drawings you
know landscape drawings would be very
detailed maybe there's tree protection
zones that have to be
put up
certain trees need to be protected over
a certain size maybe it would indicate
trees that could be removed because
they're dying or they've got some sort
of disease or something like that uh and
uh detailed then there's other
landscaping drawings that'll show where
the plantings are going and where the
new trees are going and list them and
have tables that associate with it so
these are related drawings but the site
plan typically is going to be very
detailed as far as showing you where the
building is going to go in relation to
the property and uh providing that
information and if it's on a simple
drawing it may be having everything on
the one plan
okay so we take a look at it from uh
that point of view and there would be
contour lines contour lines are lines
that show the elevations at various
points and we'll take a look at that
very shortly
contour lines if they kind of go around
in a circle
then it's either going to be a hill
or it's going to be a depression or a
ponding area
because it'll be us
enclosed with a circular contour line
and that would typically
perhaps fill with water or it might be a
designed pond like a storm management
pond
that's put in there for a reason you'll
also see certain indicators like valleys
in the contour line that are following
each other that usually will indicate
that you've got a little bit of a swale
that's in that spot and it will usually
point upstream where the point is and i
think i've got an example of that in an
upcoming
uh little snippet here so here's your
contour lines and contour lines you may
find that they may show existing
and then they might show uh the finished
grade in this case it's showing the um
this particular case well i don't
actually have the legend so i'm not 100
sure but
because they switched them around like i
said so this is probably going to be the
finished grade perhaps just looking at
it
the high point is where the where the
house is and then it's going lower
towards the outside edges 104 103 102
103 102 101 100. so it's basically
sloping both directions away that from
the house usually you'd also want the
right around the house to be at the
highest level perhaps maybe about
150 millimeters or six inches higher
than the surrounding area so it slopes
away from uh the house
all right and so
as i said uh contour lines will give you
those indicators now if they're fairly
close together it indicates it's a steep
slope in the previous videos we looked
where there was a steep gradient change
and there was a different hatching for
that in this example today we'll look at
where the contour lines are pretty close
and that just means it's steep in that
particular area and that when they
connect around um
they basically form that sort of hill or
pond uh that i was mentioning but you
got to remember that every point along
this line it's telling you that it's at
that elevation so if it squiggles off a
little bit that means that it changes an
elevation at a certain point now sorry i
think this one is actually the existing
grade because it's kind of
off in a few spots more likely when this
would have been
finished graded it would be probably
more even of a slope
all right and so here's a good example
here we can see uh in this area here
there's a storm pond
and so the base of the storm pond is
pretty much level out because that's
going to be where the the water is going
to be filling up so the base of it they
don't want it to be having high and low
points where some is out of the water
and some is not so they pretty much have
that leveled out and you see that along
here these lines are pretty close
together and so 128 127.5 you can see
it's going down so the number is going
down same thing over here number is
crested at
127.5 128 over here following that
contour line and then it's flowing
downward in that direction here
you can also see existing trees these
circles here are representative of
existing
trees that are
circling around the pond and we can also
see some shrubs around here
let's point out we can see these little
points here so this would indicate here
that there would be kind of like a swale
almost flowing down towards uh the water
in this direction so
swale and then it's kind of a more
uniform
kind of falling down of the water in
that direction
so we see a bunch of those different
indicators
flowing around and oh these little
symbols here
are for boreholes again if you had the
legend it would tell you that's for
boreholes and the boreholes are numbered
uh essentially the boreholes are done
for geotechnical surveys and studies um
to
reference a whole bunch of different
tests that might be done on the soils in
that particular area to check basically
the soil types perhaps to see if there's
any
toxins in the soil if it's a brownfield
site
that basically maybe it was a former
factory area or those types of things so
the boreholes can be done for a number
of reasons
and are required typically so contours
uh
as i said are placed closely together
that means it's more steep steep and if
they're farther it's less so you can see
in this particular example
uh this is our commercial building here
and it's always helpful to try to figure
out what you're what you're actually
looking at
and try and reference that so let's see
if i can get a highlighter maybe going
here
maybe go with yellow that looks like
i've got it here
and
so we will go draw some lines across
here see if you can see them all right
so that's yellow that line there is a
property line
and then i'm going to go down i think i
went a little bit too far with that
property line line it's going to be a
little bit squiggly here
but we'll just follow this down
continuing to follow this down here
and i'm going to bring it across
at the property line
nice wide line here
bring it straight up
[Music]
i can connect that there
there we go
we can clearly see now that the
outline here is following right along
here
right along down there right along here
on the yellow
and up the side here okay so that's the
property line now we got to decipher
where is the actual building so maybe we
use
blue for that so you gotta look fairly
closely
and in this case i can see that the
proposed new building is going across
here
it's going
down
this
side there
it's coming across
here
and it's going up
there so now we can see where the
building is actually
located right so that is the perimeter
of the building which is important to
figure out
use the laser pointer all right
so
you see it says north here that always
look for that it sometimes it's just
outside the image here it's inside the
image right there but north as we've
said in other videos that means that's
west that's east that's south all
they'll ever give you is north that i've
usually seen
and here so going from the east properly
property line towards the west this is a
setback 7.6 meters yours it could be you
know
20 feet could be 15 feet 30 feet
dash
decimal so many feet
this is the width of the building from
outside to outside 16.8 meters
from the west side 8.4 meters right so
you've got your width you've got your
location you've got your setbacks here's
your rear setback uh
line is at
flowing through well that looks like
it's exactly in alignment with the
building here
i would check that because easy to check
here you've got 5000 right
and then you've got
so 5000 from the front property line the
building is 20.8 meters 20.8 meters
means it's 20
800
millimeters right so that's very easy
again to check you just move in metric
you just move the decimal place three
places one for decimeters
centimeters millimeters right so one
that's the nice thing about metric each
space has a hole there so all you got to
know if i'm dealing with meters i move
it three places and then i'm into
millimeters most construction drawings
you know they'll measure out if they're
in metric they'll measure out in
millimeters the actual architectural
drawings which we look at later
is in going to show it in millimeters so
you got to know how to quickly convert
one way or the other plus if you're
ordering concrete or something like that
very easy uh if it's given in
millimeters to convert it to meters
that's the nice thing you just go the
other way three decimal places
all right so we can see where the
building is set back from we've got
these different locators here and yes
because this is 20.8 as i said that
tells you this is the
setback from the north property line to
the building 12.6
millimeters so now you know that those
locations so we can locate where the
building and this is the exterior
building walls are going to be located
so basically the outer part of the
foundation wall
you can also see here that's interesting
you see the dash line
line of existing foundations to be
removed so there must be an existing
building here or at least an existing
foundation and if you
investigate the site you should always
go to the site anytime you're going to
be quoting anything looking at anything
there's this old say saying that the map
is not the territory right so this is
the map
may not be exactly the way the map shows
on sites you always want to verify
things and review it and check it on
site that's why usually and also in the
title block it'll be telling you to
verify dimensions and check with the
consultants if there's any discrepancies
because there's discrepancy the map is
never exactly like the territory but
it's usually pretty good all right
so we have that uh we're showing that we
would remove the existing so
these dashed lines they mean a lot of
things in construction drawings
they can mean hidden lines and that
usually means something that's behind
something we'll get into that more as we
go further in the course
uh
it could mean vents for plumbing pipes
usually as a dashed line it could be
describing something that is an option
that if you want to pay extra for it you
can get it
it could mean that
there is something like this that's to
be removed and for sure see the contour
lines it can mean contour lines me
representing certain elevations in this
case it's the natural grade so this is
before it's graded finish grade on this
particular set of drawings is giving out
a variety
of um different uh plate actually the
finished grate is given like at the
where the
furnished first floor is going to be and
where the structural slab is going to be
on this simple drawing like on our
previous drawings it would show the
underside of the footings that would
give you the depth that you have to
excavate to so there's usually a lot of
finished elevations that are provided so
here you see a finished grade indicated
by the box and so this is showing you
where you've got some finished grade
elevations that are provided right
and
concrete path 99.4
99.2 that would tell you that this
concrete path is going to slope from the
building towards
the road or the sidewalk out on the
other part right south street here um so
99.4 to 99.2 it's going to slope in this
distance 5 000
uh 15
feet if you will a little bit over the
15 feet it's going to slope 200
millimeters which is 8 inches so it's
going to have a pretty good slope
towards the front
here we've got 600 by 600 concrete
paving slabs
that would be laid out in this
particular area here and so that's what
that's telling you there and they're
going to be at 99.3
i elevation
and we have also here this is showing a1
this is an for an architectural grid on
the architectural drawings you would see
basically a grid layout which is
tied to the planning grid or structural
grid to show
where key structural elements are and
this is basically your reference point
so you know when you look at a1 on the
floor plans this is where this is on the
actual
uh site plan
where you typically don't need the grid
because you're not doing those
structural
points but at least you know and you can
orient yourself you're always trying to
orient yourself with the drawings right
and these steel sibs this is for steel
iron bars i talked about that in a
previous uh video one or two and i gave
example those are your those are
basically your monuments that are driven
into the ground those steel iron bars
and that's showing you the corners of
the property surveyors do that to
indicate where the corners are of the
property and you can see what the
elevations are at those corners as well
so if i was to ask you
what is the highest elevation on the
corners you could merely look around and
you could see okay that's
99.950 that's 99.525
a little bit higher you'd see down here
that's 98.820
and
99.450 so you know that it's kind of
sloping a little bit this way right and
you see here it's 99.4
and so you got 99.4 99.525
uh that it is indeed sloping a little
bit that way
all right
so it's giving you a little bit of
that information you can see this is
basically representing a little bit of a
walkway or sidewalk around
the outside of the building this is an
asphalt
service area
here
for the building and we have
uh again here some infrastructure things
the water main
hydro and telephone pole so it says tp
and hp
telephone pole hydro pole right so it's
indicating where they are 300 represents
the size of the water main so it would
be a fairly large water main at 12
inch size of course we see some simple
uh legend points over here benchmark
telephone pole hydroline pole steel iron
bar natural grade you should get a good
sense of elevations
contour lines by looking at this drawing
and how it's set back from the property
lines first step
figure out where the property lines are
next step figure out where the building
is right and visualize that and then you
can get a good sense of what is actually
going on in that particular case we'll
talk about scales in another video but
this is scale 1 to 200 so it's 1 200th
full size it's been greatly reduced and
that's what we do with drawings we
reduce them that basically means that
every millimeter represents 200
millimeters in real size or every foot
represents 200 feet in real size if it
was represented that way it's a ratio
okay that's what i wanted to get done
today uh this is tom stevenson wishing
you a wonderful day and don't forget to
click the subscribe and notifications
icon so you can see more videos as they
come
up on print reading and you'll see many
on my different playlists that are
related to construction project
management microsoft project
trying to help everyone along in our
construction community
bye for now
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