Planning & Design: Drawing Plans

Plans

There are two sets of plans you need when purchasing a property to refurbish, you need the plans of the property in its current state and the plans that you anticipate after carrying out any internal work to walls or any extensions. These may go through several revisions and it’s important to make sure each trades person has the most up-to-date set of plans when carrying out work to avoid any mistakes. Ideally you will have finalised the plans prior to work starting but issues may arise when an engineer or contractor come on board and amendments may need to be made.

Current Plans

Once your offer has been accepted ask the agent if you can organise access to measure each room.

Turn up with layout plans so you can measure everything quickly and accurately, take a couple of measurements just to be sure.

Things you need to think about when measuring.

• Floor to Ceiling Heights

• Door Dimensions (if thinking about replacing)

• Window Dimensions (if thinking about replacing)

• Full wall dimensions

• Distance of windows and doors from walls

Future Plans

Once you’ve got a set of measured plans you can start planning out the layout of each room, and any extensions or changes you’re going to make. This will help you work out what trades you’ll need, and what/where they’ll need to carry out work to get to your refurbishment to completion.

• Plumbing Points

  • Bathrooms and Kitchens

• Electrical Points

  • Especially in kitchens think of each appliance that’ll require a switch below the cabinets, and where you’ll need points above the cabinets.

  • So plan the layout of the kitchen, you can do this on a number of kitchen websites, but as a bare minimum you’ll need electrical points for;

    • Fridge Freezer

    • Oven

    • Hob (even if gas the ignition will likely require an electrical point)

    • Extractor

    • Dishwasher

• Lighting Points

• Light fittings, for instance;

  • Recessed Lighting e.g. Spot lights

    • Electrician will need to first fix the wiring

    • Plaster will need to know where the lighting will be

    • If fitted in cabinetry, the joiner will need to know

  • LED strip lights

  • Pendant Lighting

  • Wall Lighting