Which one is correct for this dimension method?

Which method is the correct way to dimension the location of the door for the floor plan top of the bottom one (on pic below)? i am not sure if i should reference from the wall to the center of door or the the door jam? Do you guys have the standard dimension reference sheet that i can have, could you please share with me thanks.

If you dimension to the center the door size (width) could change but the dimension would stay the same.

Or the dimension to the door jamb could be the over-riding factor.

Take your pick

I kind of lean towards dimension from the wall to the door jam and maybe call out the door size, but not sure what others do.

First thing, there should be a door schedule showing nominal size w & h, for example 3068, (3'-0" wide, by 6'-8" high), and the rough opening dimension for each. The manufacturer's website should have sizing charts. The rough opening needs to accommodate the nominal size of the door, plus the jamb/header thickness, plus a minimum of 3/8" shim space at the jambs and header. The door schedule should also include (we're talking pre-hung doors, right?) the manufacturer's nomenclature including quantity by size subdivided into quantity of swing direction. There probably should also be a sub catagory for door type, interior slab, patio, entry, etc.

Then, when you get to the plan view, a lot of the doors will fall exactly in the center of a given space, like a hallway or closet, or they will be at a set minimum distance out of a room corner. This minimum distance has to allow for whatever the door casing width is. There is really no need to dimension these doors at all. Now when a door does not fit these criteria, you can either dimension to the center of the door, or to its NOMINAL width, and leave it up to the Framing carpenter to read the door schedule. That is his/her job.

Each door and window needs to be called out whether they need to be dimensioned or not. Put a 3068 or whatever the nominal size is right by it, and the door type too.

EDIT: I meant Framing carpenters, they are the ones that make the holes for the doors.

I would never leave it up to some guy in the field to determine where a door should fall. Give a dimension of some sort (jamb or center I don't care) and end any doubt.

It depends on what you want to put behind the door

I would never leave it up to some guy in the field to determine where a door should fall. Give a dimension of some sort (jamb or center I don't care) and end any doubt.

Never leave anything open to interpretation. There will come a time when if you do it will come back and bite you in the ass.

So what you are saying Dana is if I gave a set of plans for a house where the doorways were not dimensionally located to three groups of framing carpenters each house would be built exactly the same?

Never leave anything open to interpretation. There will come a time when if you do it will come back and bite you in the ass.

 

So what you are saying Dana is if I gave a set of plans for a house where the doorways were not dimensionally located to three groups of framing carpenters each house would be built exactly the same?

Residential construction is a life style, not a science. We are not flying the houses to Mars.

In the field there is nothing as small as 1/8".

If it's Friday we stop at Noon, drop the tailgates and open the beer coolers, then go home at 2:00.

If you can't deal with rude comments about your sister, your dog or your car, go get an office job.

Between the door schedule, and the project manager bossman guy indicating that all corner doors are to be 6" out of the corner to the rough jamb, and all doors not otherwise noted are to be centered in the available wall space, it gets done. Framers usually have at least one guy on the crew that expects to hear and see information like this.

If you have a 48" wide hallway, with a 36" door in the 48" wide end wall, where would you put it? Even a high school drop out with a brand new shiny pair of work gloves would be able to reason that it gets centered in the available space. If he makes a hole overlapping the end of the hallway wall, then we will fire him so he can go put together chemical tanks, or something else safe for him and others.

Same thing goes for a 96" wide by 25" deep closet, with a 84" wide bi-fold door.

Now a door located at a random position along a wide expanse of wall needs to be dimensioned, like if the architect thinks it would be nice to have furniture space between the corner and the bedroom door, then somebody has to tell the framer where the door goes.

Still though, I would never dimension the rough opening, usually only to the center of the door. The door schedule and maybe some large scale section views take care of the rough opening size. Vendors change, door designs change. If a builder puts up 300 of the same 4 & 2 1/2, w/ 2 car gar ticky tacky houses every year, he isn't going to pay somebody to spend three days redrawing every door opening but he will accept a half hour or so to change the door specs on the schedule.

I can account for probably 3,000 houses over 10 years, built all over central Maryland using these practices and drawings I did. Not one of them has door rough opening dimensions on the floor plans, Not one of them has any dimensions at all locating an obviously centered door.

Rough opening dimensions belong in a schedule just like that for windows is what I was taught.

Both manual and CAD architectural drafting and design classes I took had us dimension the centerline of the door opening.

Rough opening dimensions belong in a schedule just like that for windows is what I was taught.

 

Both manual and CAD architectural drafting and design classes I took had us dimension the centerline of the door opening.

Here's an example. As to the single door on the right, the entry into the office. It is automatically assumed that the door will be centered if there are no dimensions. It is standard practice among ticky tacky suburban sprawl builders, and it is what my current client is used to seeing. He will be the G.C. on this, his own house, and will probably be doing a good deal of the construction, or at least yelling at people that are building it.

What's not standard are the alternate units. This house will be bid on by materials vendors here in Florida, and will be built in Southeastern Panama.

First thing, there should be a door schedule showing nominal size w & h, for example 3068, (3'-0" wide, by 6'-8" high), and the rough opening dimension for each. The manufacturer's website should have sizing charts. The rough opening needs to accommodate the nominal size of the door, plus the jamb/header thickness, plus a minimum of 3/8" shim space at the jambs and header. The door schedule should also include (we're talking pre-hung doors, right?) the manufacturer's nomenclature including quantity by size subdivided into quantity of swing direction. There probably should also be a sub catagory for door type, interior slab, patio, entry, etc.

 

Then, when you get to the plan view, a lot of the doors will fall exactly in the center of a given space, like a hallway or closet, or they will be at a set minimum distance out of a room corner. This minimum distance has to allow for whatever the door casing width is. There is really no need to dimension these doors at all. Now when a door does not fit these criteria, you can either dimension to the center of the door, or to its NOMINAL width, and leave it up to the Framing carpenter to read the door schedule. That is his/her job.

 

Each door and window needs to be called out whether they need to be dimensioned or not. Put a 3068 or whatever the nominal size is right by it, and the door type too.

 

EDIT: I meant Framing carpenters, they are the ones that make the holes for the doors.

Ok, thanks Dana i should do the schedule sorry for taking so long to reply, had been tied up with work.