Elevations

ELEVATIONS are orthographic projections, showing the finished interior and exterior appearance of the structure. Interior elevations are required for important features, such as built-in cabinets and shelves, but it is not uncommon for elevations to be drawn for all interior walls in each room of a building. Cabinet elevations show the cabinet lengths and heights, distance between base cabinets and wall cabinets, shelf arrangements, doors and direction of door swings, and materials used. Interior wall elevations show wall lengths, finished floor-to-ceiling heights, doors, windows, other openings, and the types of finish materials used.

Exterior elevations show the types of materials used on the exterior, the finished grade around the structure, the roof slope, the basement or foundation walls, footings, and all of the vertical dimensions.

Basically, the following four elevations are needed in a set of drawings to complete the exterior description: the front, the rear, and two sides of a structure, as they would appear projected on vertical planes. A typical elevation is drawn at the same scale as the floor plan, either 1/4 in. = 1 ft or 1/8 in. = 1 ft; however, occasionally a smaller scale may be used because of space limitations, or a larger scale maybe used to show more detail.

Several methods are used to identify each elevation, as it relates to the floor plan. The method Seabees most commonly use is labeling the elevations with the same terminology used in multiview and orthographic projection; that is, FRONT, REAR, RIGHT-SIDE, and LEFT-SIDE ELEVATIONS or sometimes NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, and WEST.

STRUCTURAL DRAWINGS

The STRUCTURAL DRAWINGS (usually identified with the designating letter S on the title block) consist of all of the drawings that describe the structural members of the building and their relationship to each other. A set of structural drawings includes foundation plans and details, framing plans and details, wall sections, column and beam details, and other plans, sections, details, and schedules necessary to describe the structural components of the building or structure. The general notes in the structural drawings should also include, when applicable, roof, floor, wind, seismic, and other loads, allowable soil pressure or pile-bearing capacity, and allowable stresses of all material used in the design.

Foundation Plan

A FOUNDATION PLAN is a top view of the footings or foundation walls, showing their area and their location by distances between centerlines and by distances from reference lines or boundary lines. Actually, it is a horizontal section view cut through the walls of the foundation showing beams, girders, piers or columns, and openings, along with dimensions and internal composition.

Primarily the building crew uses the foundation plan to construct the foundation of the proposed structure. In most Seabee construction, foundations are built with concrete-masonry units (CMU) or cast-in-place concrete. Figure 2-7 shows a plan view of a 20' x 48' PEB, as it would look if projected into a horizontal plane that passes through the structure. In this typical drawing, notice that only the placement of the anchor bolts are shown, along with a typical detailed drawing of the footing, the column, and the slab.

Framing Plan

The FRAMING PLANS show the size, the number, and the location of the structural members constituting the building framework. Separate framing plans are drawn for the floors and roofs. Occasionally, the Draftsman will draw a wall framing plan; however, wall framing plans are generally viewed in the sectional views or detail drawings.

The FLOOR FRAMING PLAN must specify the sizes and spacing of joists, girders, and columns used to support the floor. Detail drawings must be added, if necessary, to show the methods of anchoring joists and girders to the columns and foundation walls or footings.

The floor framing plan is basically a plan view, showing the layout of the girders and joists. Figure 2-8 shows the manner of presenting floor framing plans. The unbroken double-line symbol indicates joists. Joist symbols are drawn in the position they will occupy in the completed building. Double framing around openings and beneath bathroom fixtures is shown where used. Bridging is also shown by a double-line symbol that runs perpendicularly to the joist. In figure 2-8, the number of rows of cross bridging is controlled by the span of the joist; place the rows no more than 8 feet apart. Hence a 14-foot