How to Read a Floor Plan: Symbols & Sizes

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A floor plan is a drawing with rules, and once you know the rules you can read a flat in thirty seconds, including the parts the brochure would rather you did not notice. This is the version for buyers, new agents and anyone who has nodded at a plan without quite following it.

Walls

Thick black lines are walls. The thickest are structural or external walls, about 9 inches in most Indian apartments; the thinner ones inside are partitions, about 4 to 4.5 inches. Two parallel lines with white between them are also walls, drawn hollow, which is how CAD exports from most architects look.

Where a thick line stops and a thin one continues, something is open: a window, a door or just an opening without a frame.

Doors and windows

A quarter circle attached to a gap in a wall is a hinged door. The straight side is the door; the arc is where it swings. It tells you which way the door opens and where you cannot put furniture.
A long thin line across a gap, sometimes with a second line behind it, is a sliding door. Between a living room and a balcony it is almost always a glass slider.
A thin line or double line across an outer wall with no arc is a window. On many plans it is drawn in blue or cyan.
A small triangle or arrow on the outside of a wall, often with the word ENTRY, marks the main door.

Sizes

Rooms are labelled with a name and a size: M.BED ROOM 16'6" × 12'0". The symbols are feet (') and inches ("). Multiply to get the area: 16.5 × 12 = 198 sq ft. Some plans use metres (3.6 × 4.2). Sizes are measured between the finished faces of the walls on an honest plan, and between the centre lines of the walls on a generous one; the second kind makes every room 4 to 9 inches bigger each way.

Add every room, toilet and passage together and you have a rough carpet area, which is worth comparing with the number on the price sheet. We have a separate piece on carpet vs built-up vs super built-up area.

Fixtures

Architects draw furniture and fittings so you can judge the room, not as a promise of what you get:

Kitchen: an L or straight counter with a circle-of-four (the hob), a rectangle with a tap (the sink) and a square labelled "fridge".
Toilet: the WC is the oval with a tank; the basin is a small oval or rectangle on the wall; a square with a diagonal or an "S" is the shower area.
Bedroom: a large rectangle with a pillow line is the bed; a long thin rectangle with zig-zag hatching along one wall is the wardrobe.
Utility: "wm" and "dw" squares are the washing machine and dishwasher positions.
Pooja: a small room or niche, usually near the living or kitchen.
Shaft / duct: an empty rectangle, often between the toilet and the outer wall. Open to the sky; not yours.

North, facing and the arrow

Indian brochures say "east facing" or "west facing" before they say anything else, because vastu matters to a large share of buyers. "East facing" means the main entrance is in the east wall. Find the north arrow, then the ENTRY mark, and you can confirm the facing yourself rather than taking the sales team's word. We cover what each facing means for the plan in east-facing vs west-facing house plans.

If there is no north arrow at all, ask. A plan without one cannot be checked.

Five things to check before you like a layout

The passage. A 3'0" passage is the minimum; 3'6" feels normal; 2'6" is a problem with a wardrobe door open.
Where the doors swing. A bedroom door that opens onto the wardrobe wall costs you a wardrobe.
The toilet entry. A toilet that opens straight into the dining area is a layout flaw many plans hide behind a thin partition.
Window positions. Two windows on adjacent walls means cross ventilation; one window next to the shaft means a dim room.
The balcony width. 5'0" fits two chairs and a table; 3'0" fits a plant.

When the symbols are not enough

Plans are honest about dimensions and silent about feel. The quickest way to get the feel is to see the plan furnished at true scale, with the walls exactly where the drawing has them. That is what the 2D to 3D floor plan converter does: every wall, door, window and printed size stays as drawn, and the furniture is to scale, so a 10'9" × 9'8" "bedroom" shows you honestly that it is a study with a single bed. If you have a photo of a printed plan rather than a clean drawing, the free floor plan redraw turns it into a clean 2D first.

Frequently asked questions

What does 12'6" × 11'0" mean on a floor plan?

Twelve feet six inches by eleven feet. The first number is usually the width you see across the drawing and the second the depth, but plans are not consistent, so look at which wall is longer. 12'6" × 11'0" is about 137 square feet.

Which way is north on a floor plan?

Look for the north arrow, usually a small N with an arrow in a corner. If there is none, the ENTRY arrow and the words 'east facing' in the brochure tell you which outer wall faces the road. Many Indian plans are drawn with the entrance at the bottom regardless of north.

What are the thin double lines inside the walls?

Windows. A thin line or pair of lines across an outer wall is a window; a long one between a room and a balcony is usually a sliding glass door. A quarter circle in a doorway is the swing of a hinged door.

What is a shaft on a floor plan?

An open-to-sky vertical duct between flats for plumbing, ventilation and AC outdoor units. It is drawn as an empty rectangle, often labelled 'shaft', and is not part of your carpet area.

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How to read a floor plan: symbols, sizes and the things brochures hide