A Short Guide to Looking at an Apartment Floor Plan

When you are looking for apartments for rent, you may also be interested in checking out the floor plan. Reading an apartment floor plan can sometimes be tricky. It would be quite useful to learn how to actually read and understand that particular floor plan.

You need to be able to understand floor plan symbols otherwise you can make costly mistakes such as choosing an apartment which has a really narrow and tight space. But if you can manage to read the elements included in a floor plan, you can actually turn your newly rented apartment into a home which you can enjoy and feel comfortable in.

Different types of apartment floor plans

There are different types of apartment floor plans. For instance, you may have to read a conventional floor plan. A conventional plan is a two-dimensional drawing seen from above. You can get a glimpse of the layout that the apartment has. The plan presents the rooms in the way in which they are related to each other. The location of the fixtures, doorways and windows is also represented in this type of plan.

3-D floor plans can offer a different type of view. The look is rather realistic and they often include furniture to make the whole imagery more impactful. In order to make it more alive, many floor plans can also include paintings, plants and other design-related elements.

Understanding floor plan symbols

As it has been mentioned above, most floor plans include specific symbols such as lines, circles and squares, each of which have the purpose of representing some particular features. Apartment plans may differ in terms of design but there are some frequently used symbols which have their own specific meanings.

For instance, lines are meant to represent the walls. Thicker lines are meant to suggest exterior walls, whereas thinner lines are meant to indicate interior walls. Dotted squares are meant to suggest architectural features such as vaulted ceilings. Apartments with columns are typically represented by solid squares or circles inside the floor plan.

T shapes usually stand for fireplaces, but this may vary from one community to another. You may also find that fireplaces can be represented by boxes or rectangles which contain a shape resembling a hat.

Arcs are meant to indicate the direction in which a door actually opens. This may be a major detail to consider when you have to choose your furniture.

A rectangle, which includes some parallel lines in it, is meant to indicate the presence of a staircase. There may be an arrow there also to show the exact direction that the staircase can take.

The good news is most floor plans have the partition of the apartment also labeled, so you can tell for sure where the living room is, where the bedrooms are and where the bathrooms and kitchen is placed.

The first element represented in a floor plan is the entry. In case it is not labeled, it should be the only doorway symbol you can find on the thick, exterior line.