Floorplan walls

[nscherneck]

Im sure this is a silly question but its regarding walls on a floorplan. I was recently asked to expand an existing floorplan for some new offices. I ran dimensions on the existing walls and the interior walls were drawn at 4". This doesnt make sense to me. The walls are constructed with 3-5/8" steel studs with 5/8" drywall on each side. That makes these walls 5-3/8" thick, not 4". Am i over-thinking this? Is it industry standard to deem these 4" walls? This would throw off the overall dimensions throughout the drawing would it not?

Also, are there any resources you can send me toward as i am fairly new to architectural drafting but will be getting more and more into it. I want to be in-line with industry standards...

Thank you!

[PIERCE]

In my experience with architectural floorplans you would not dimension
the wall thickness per say but the room lengths and overall out to outs.
Only call out wall thickness on walls that will have plumbing in between
two baths.

Thus yes making it even more confusing. Hope that helps.

[pennylove]

The reason that the walls were drawn at 4" is just bad drafting or bad standards on the previous architect's part. I have seen it done that way too, and I agree, it doesn't make any sense. And the only way that drawing it that way would actually work would be if the spaces were not critical and the wall studs could move a few inches in either direction.

Speaking from experience, it would be preferable to draw the wall studs at the actual size (without adding the gyp board or other finishes into the dimensions). An example would be that the metal wall studs should be drawn at 3 5/8" and a wood stud wall to be drawn at 3 1/2". The reason that I prefer this method is because when these drawings are finished and handed to the contractor, he will need to use these dimensions to layout the wall stud locations prior to erection. Were the finish dimensions to be added to the wall stud length, the contractor would have to take more time to reference the wall types, and subtract out the finish thickness from the dimensions, and THEN layout the stud location for each and every wall stud.

You can see how this will take up a lot more time and become more aggravating for the contractor. Especially if the wall is give an arbitrary width of 4".

Sorry for the long post, it's just a pet peeve of mine.

But just to clarify, I typically draw a string of dimensions to one side of the stud and then be consistant with the side that I chose to dimension to. I don't actually dimension the wall thickness either. But I do draw the thickness correctly.

[f700es]

Well having worked for for a home builder/developer it is always an option if they show the sheetrock thickness on the plans or not. We did not show it on interior walls but did have the thickness for exterior walls well not the GWB but we did for the exterior sheathing. Never heard the reason for the difference but that's they way they did it. So yes we have 3 1/2" interior walls and 4" exterior walls (plus air gap and brick thickness). The good thing was that using ADT all we had to do was grab the correct wall style from the tool pallete and run with it.