Chapter 3

Introduction to buildings construction

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Outline
1. Introduction
2. Objectives
3. Architectural drawings
1. Floor plan
2. Site plan
3. Elevation Drawing
4. Cross section Drawing
5. Details drawing
6. Architectural Perspective Drawing

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Outline

3. Structure Drawing
1. Foundation plan
2. Framing Plan
4. Mechanical Drawings
1. HVAC Plan
2. Water Supply Plan
3. Drainage Plan
5. Interior design

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Outline
4. Electrical Drawings
1. Lighting System Plan
2. Power System Plan
3. Low current system plan
4. Fire alarm system plan
5. Risers
6. General Drawing
7. Panel board schedules
8. Electrical calculations
5. Drawings phases

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1. Introduction
• A residential building plan is prepared by an architect and consists of a set
of drawings that craft people use as a guide to build the house.
• The electrical engineer must have a complete set of AutoCAD drawings
before proceeding with his design.
• Each drawing must be presented with a clear legend and list of
abbreviation to help the engineer or the technician to understand the
concept.
• Building plans go by many names.
• Prints
• Blueprints
• Drawings
• Construction drawings
• Working drawings

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2. Objectives
• Demonstrate an understanding of residential building plans.
• Identify common architectural symbols found on residential building plans.
• Demonstrate an understanding of residential building plan specifications.

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Architectural Drawing
• An architectural drawing is a technical drawing of a building.
• It is used to develop a design idea into a coherent proposal, to
communicate ideas and concepts, to convince clients of the merits of
a design, to enable a building contractor to construct it.
• Architectural drawings are made according to a set of conventions,
which include particular views (floor plan, section etc.), sheet sizes,
units of measurement and scales, annotation and cross referencing.
• Majority of drawings are created using CAD software.
• Architecture focuses on the appearance, shape, size and use of the
building.
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 Floor Plan
• Drawings show building
details from a “bird’s eye”
view, directly above the
house.
• A floor plan shows the length
and width of the floor it is
depicting.
• Electricians can use the
dimensions drawn on the
floor plans to determine the
exact size and location of
various parts of the building
like doors, windows, and
walls.
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 Site Plan
• A site plan is a specific
type of plan, showing the
whole context of a
building or group of
buildings.
• A site plan shows property
boundaries and means of
access to the site, and
nearby structures if they
are relevant to the design.

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 Elevation Drawing
Show the side of the house facing a certain direction. Use elevation drawings to determine the
heights of windows, doors, porches, and other parts of the structure needed when installing
electrical items such as outside lighting fixtures and outside receptacles.

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Elevation Drawing

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 Cross section Drawing
• The drawing allows the electrician to
see the inside of a building.
• The ‘section line’ is the point on the
floor plan or elevation drawing
depicted by the sectional drawing and
is shown with a dashed line with
arrows on the end.
• A wall section drawing can allow the
electrician to determine how he may
run cable.
• A sectional drawing of a floor may
show how thick the wood will be for
her to drill.

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 Details Drawings
• An enlarged view that makes detail much
easier to see than in a sectional drawing.
• Shows very specific details of a particular
part of the building structure.
• Used to determine exact locations for
placement of electrical equipment

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Perspective Drawing
Perspective in drawing is an
approximate representation
on a flat surface of an image
as it is perceived by the eye.

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3. Structure Drawing
• A plan or set of plans for how a building or other structure will be built.
• Prepared by structural engineers, and informed by architectural drawings.
• They outline the size and types of materials to be used, as well as the
general demands for connections.
• Specify the shape and position of all parts of the structure , thus enabling
the construction of that structure on site.
• They consist of all the drawings that describe the structural members of
the building and their relationship to each other.
• Includes foundation plans and details, framing plans and details, wall
sections, column and beam details, etc...
• Includes roof, floor, wind, seismic, and other loads, allowable soil pressure
or pile bearing capacity, and allowable stresses of all material used in the
design.

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 Foundation plan

It is a plan view
drawing, in section,
showing the location
and size of footings,
piers, columns,
foundation walls, and
supporting beams.

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Framing plan
Framing plans show the size, number, and location of the structural members (steel
or wood) in the building framework

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4. Mechanical Drawing-
• Mechanical systems drawing is a type of technical drawing that shows
information about heating, ventilating, air conditioning, water supply
and transportation around the building (Elevators or Lifts and
Escalator.

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 HVAC Plan
HVAC equipment must
satisfy sanitary, hygienic,
industrial, fire and
emergency requirements
and must comply with
established standards for
construction,
installation,
performance, energy
conservation, and safety.

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 Water Supply Plan
The water supply system must be
designed to achieve appropriate
water pressure and flow, and to
avoid contamination to potable
water.
All water supply systems use a
combination of pipes, valves and
outlets to deliver water to
building users.
Some water supply systems also
use storage tanks and pumps,
water heaters...

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 Drainage
It is composed of two essential
systems:
Foul drainage carries the used
water from toilets, sinks,
basins, baths, showers, bidets,
dishwashers and washing
machines.
Surface water drainage carries
rainwater from hard surfaces.

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 5. Interior Design

Deals with the process of

shaping the interior space to
achieve more aesthetically
pleasing environment for the
end user.
Deals also with furniture,
colors, and the interior
materials to be used.

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6. Electrical Drawings
• Show exactly what is required for the complete installation of
electrical system.
• Electrical symbols used on the plans
• They are a type of shorthand to show which electrical items are required and
where they are located.
• Used to estimate the amount of material and labor needed to install
electrical system.
• Used in the bidding process to project total cost for system
installation.

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Lighting System Plan
This plan contains the distribution of the lighting points in ceiling or walls.
The lighting distribution must be based on an accurate lighting calculation using BZ
method or Dialux

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Power System Plan
It represents the distribution of general use sockets, appliances sockets and outlets, the
outlets for mechanical equipment such as AC, water heaters, fans etc…

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 Low Current System Plan
The following low current
systems points,
connections and main
racks are shown in this
plan:
Television
Data
Telephone
CCTV if required
Access control if required
Anti-Intrusion if required
Music system if required
Interphone if required

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 Fire Alarm System Plan
Smoke, heat, combined, beam, flame detectors and break glasses are distributed as a function of the type of the local and
its surface to detect a fire.
Fire alarm devices such as fire bells, strobe lighting and control modules are initiated when a fire is detected to evacuate
people in a building and to take corresponding actions to end the fire.

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Risers

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Risers

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General Drawing
This drawing contains the general legend, general details and general
notes to be followed in the drawings..

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 General Drawing
• Types of drawing lines:
oObject lines
Solid dark lines used to show the main outline of the building.
oDimension lines
Thin unbroken lines used to indicate length or width of an object.
oExtension lines
Used to extend, but not actually touch, object lines and have the dimension
lines drawn between them.
oHidden lines
Straight dashed lines used to show lines of an object not visible from the view
shown in the plan.

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General Drawing
oCenterlines
Series of short and long dashes used to designate the center of items such as
windows and doors.
Sometimes dashed line goes through the letter ‘C’ to specify center of an
object.
oBreak lines
Used to show that part of an actual object is longer than what the drawing is
depicting.
oLeaders
Solid lines usually drawn at an angle and have an arrow on the end of it.
Used to connect a note or dimension to a part of the building shown in the
drawing.

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General Drawing

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 General Drawing
• Most residential plans are drawn to a scale of ¼” = 1’–0”.
o Each ¼” on the drawing equals 1 foot on the actual building.
• In addition to the drawing scale, a title block contains other information.
o Name of the building project
o Address of the project
o Name of the architectural firm
o Date of completion
o Drawing sheet number
o General description of the drawing

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General Drawing

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General Drawing
• The standard Symbols for Electrical Construction Drawings is
published by ANSI (American National Standards Institute).
o Lighting outlet symbols
o Receptacle outlet symbols
o Switch types symbols
• Wiring symbols:
o Curved dashed line that goes from a switch symbol to a lighting outlet symbol
indicates that the outlet is controlled by that switch.
o Slashes on a curved solid line are used in a cable diagram to indicate how
many conductors are in the cable.

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Panel board schedules

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Panel board schedules

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Panel Board Schedules

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Main Distribution Board Schedule

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Electrical Calculations

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6. Drawings phases
• Design + Specifications:
• Contract drawings
• Used for bid
• Used for permits
• Include calculations and specifications
• Prepared by the consultant
• Shop Drawings
• Based on the design drawings
• Produced by the contractor, supplier, manufacturer, subcontractor, or fabricator.
• Normally shows more detail than the design documents
• Should be as clear and complete as possible
• should address the appearance, performance, and prescriptive descriptions in the specifications and design drawings
• Could be considered as a step by step “assembly manual”
• As built Drawings
• Revised set of drawing submitted by a contractor upon completion of a project.
• Reflect all changes made in the specifications and working drawings during the construction process,
• Show the exact dimensions, geometry, and location of all elements of the work completed under the contract.
• Used for any future maintenance or update of the building

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7. Conclusion
Before proceeding with his design and drawings the electrical engineer
must have a complete set of drawings form all other engineering lots.
Electrical points will be distributed according to room partitions,
furniture design and mechanical equipment provided by the architect,
the interior designer and the mechanical engineer respectively.
Structural drawings must be taken into consideration regarding the
conduits routing and the embedded back boxes for electrical devices to
avoid cracking in the concrete columns and beams.

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