How To Measure Your Home and Draw a Floor Plan (Step-By-Step Guide)

Learn how to measure your house, create an as-built floor plan, and design renovation layouts with confidence.

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Introduction

Over the past 20 years, I've measured countless homes and produced as-built drawings and renovation plans for a wide range of projects. One thing I've consistently seen is that many homeowners can handle a big part of this process themselves — with the right approach.

If you're willing to take the time to accurately measure your home, create a basic floor plan, and organize your renovation ideas, you can significantly reduce architectural fees and contribute to the planning of your renovation designs with a greater level of clarity.

In this guide, I will walk you through the same real-life methods that I use, so you can confidently measure your own space and start planning your renovation the right way — even if you've never done it before.

Step 1: Consider What Type of Home You Have

This sounds like I am catching you with a technical question right from the start – but it is actually very simple.

Take a glance around your home. It will generally fall into one of two categories:

1. A more traditional style of design with individualized rooms; or,
2. A more modernized style of design that has open spaces that combine multiple purposes (ie: an open space that combines the Kitchen, Living Room and Dining Room)

There is no advantage or disadvantage of either type, I just go about my measuring methods a bit different for an open plan home vs. individualized rooms.

So, Step 1: Determine Whether Your Existing Home Is an "Open Plan" type design or an "Individualized Rooms" type of design. 

((Your home may also be a combination of both – open space design for public spaces and individualized rooms for more private spaces. If that is the case, you can use the following advice for both "Open Plan" and "Individualized Rooms" measuring methods as suitable to the varied areas of your home.))

Step 2: Select Your Starting Point

Select a ground floor room to be your starting point. It really doesn't matter which room you begin with since all spaces will connect onto one another as your progress.

Note: Unless you are only measuring a single room or space for an isolated renovation, I recommend to always measure the ground floor first. It is not impossible to begin measuring with an upper level; however, there can sometimes be cantilevered floor structures at upper levels which may cause unnecessary confusion for first-time measurers.

Step 3: Sketch The Room or Space

Standing in the middle of the room or space that you have selected, sketch what you see while doing an incremental 360 degree turn while standing in place.

This "sketch" is exactly that – a quick sketch. It does not need to be to scale, it does not have to look good, it just needs to be a sketch clear enough that you can understand what you are documenting.

This is what I would sketch to begin measuring this living room:

As you can see, the sketch is very rough. It is not carefully laid out on graph paper, just a quick observational sketch in a standard ruled, coil notebook that I carry with me to meetings.

Note that I have drawn the shape of the room, indicated windows and doors, and notated what room each door leads ino. It is important to remember to list which room each door leads into so that when you measure that room on a separate sheet of paper you know how it all ties back together.

For example, below, when you would next sketch the Master Bedroom on a separate sheet of paper you have easy reference of how the two pages of measurements connect to one another based off of the entry door for the room. 

Proceed with sketching each room as you travel throughout the house measuring. Add another page for each new room as you require more drawing space.

Step 4: Measure The Room or Space

Regardless of the design style that we determined in Step 1, I typically document the measurements of a room in two ways:

1. Segmented measurements using a tape measure; and,
2. Overall room measurements using a tape measure or laser measure depending on the size of your room.

I have recently discovered that you can now buy a standard retractable style tape measure that also has laser measuring capabilities built into it.  I use both measuring methods regularly so I love that they have been built into a single tool to carry!  

This is where my measuring techniques start to differ slightly between an open style plan and individualized room style plan.

For a more traditional style home, with individualized rooms that are generally rectangular in nature, I typically start by measuring the overall distance of the room in each direction using a laser measure tool.

Next, I would take segmented measurements using a tape measure for every wall that has windows, doors, or other architectural features to be noted. As you are beginning to see, it is very common to go back and forth between tape measure and laser measure as you progress throughout a full measure of a home – making this newly combined tool a convenient addition to any designer!

If a wall is blank for the entire length of the room, you have already covered it within your overall room dimensions. So, it is sometimes not necessary to physically measure all four sides of a room in a more traditional style layout. 

For full as-built measurements of a traditional style home, proceed in this manner, room by room, until all spaces have been sketched and measured.

When starting as-built measurements for an open plan style designed space I typically start by conducting the segmented measurements with tape measure first.  Once I have completed all segmented measurements for the space, I locate a few referenceable overall dimension points for the space, and record those using laser measurements.  It is important to pick up a few overall dimension points for each open space area - as they serve as helpful double-check measurements when you start to assemble all of the segmented measurements into a drafted as-built floor plan in the upcoming steps.

To begin your segmented measurements of the space, select any point that feels to be a natural starting/stopping point. This may be a corner of the room, or a specific window or door within the space.  

From that point, travel fully around the room measuring each item that you encounter. In my starter example below you will see I have measured a 2' section of wall, then 5' wide window (make notation that the 5 foot wide window is made up of two - 30" units), then carrying on - 2'-4" wall segment to the corner, 14'-0" wall segment, and 3'-2" hallway width. Continue in this manner for the full perimeter of the room/space.

Once you have finished measuring the perimeter of the space, take an overall dimension in two directions. If the room or area is large, you may require a laser measure or open reel style tape measure to complete these overall dimensions.

Always remember that conducting both types of measurements for each space is very important as it serves to provide you with a reference check if something isn't adding up the way that you expect it to once you start drafting your as-built floor plan.

Once you have completed the perimeter and overall dimensions for the full space, do a final 360 degree visual evaluation of the space - this time notating any features of importance. This could include a wide variety of notations but some examples include:

• "Vaulted Ceiling Over"
• "Ledge over"
• "Open to below"
• "Two Storey Space"
• "Stairs Up"
• "Stairs Down"
• "Half Wall"

Step 5: Repeat The Measuring Process For Every Room of The House

Repeat this measuring process for every room, and every level, of the house as is applicable to the extent of your scope of work. For a smaller sized, single storey home you may produce this quickly, on only a few sheets of paper; and for a larger, multiple storey home it may take much longer and generate many sheets of paper.

The key is to take your time, document your sketches clearly, and take a break if you need to.

Step 6: Draw The As-Built Floor Plan(s)

Once you have finished sketching and measuring the rooms of your home, you are ready to begin piecing it together into a cohesive, scaled, floor plan drawing of your existing layout (referred to by architectural professionals as an "as-built" floor plan).

There are a few options available when deciding how you want to create your as-built floor plan. Being an architectural professional, I typically do this in computer software (generally using Autodesk AutoCAD to transfer my sketch dimensions into initial software plan form). AutoCAD comes with a subscription fee and some technical know-how; however, so it isn't necessarily the route that majority of homeowners opt into to create their drawings. That is okay – there are a few options available to you:

1. Free software applications:

• Though I have not yet tried it personally, I have come across ads for a software program called "FreeCAD" that is intended to operate very similar to AutoCAD – without the fees. Visit www.freecad.org for more information and tutorials

2. Draft your plan on paper using basic architectural tools:

You can transfer your sketched diagrams into a cohesive, scaled, full floor plan layout drawing using white paper, architectural scales (note that there are both imperial and metric scale types available), t-square and varying triangles/rulers.

3. Draw your plan on graph paper :

• You can transfer your sketch diagrams into a cohesive, scaled, full floor plan layout drawing using graph paper, pencils, eraser and a basic ruler.
• Determine a scale that each square of your graph paper squares will represent based on the overall dimensions of your house or room. Example, if your house is 40' wide, does your sheet have 40 squares in one direction so that each square could represent 1'-0"? If yes, how about in the other direction? Does the width and depth fit your page in both directions?  
• If not, re-assess. Perhaps 1 square needs to equal 2'-0" increments instead. Or, perhaps you can connect a few sheets of graph paper together if one paper isn't large enough for the scale that you wish to use.  Note that there are some large format graph paper sizes available as well if that better suits your needs.

Note 1: You may wish to purchase a set of drafting pencils to draw your as-built plan with.  Drafting pencils are available with H-series lead, which are less susceptible to smudging than standard B-series leaded pencils.

Note 2: There are also many architectural drafting templates available for purchase (such as architectural furniture templates) that can make manual drafting easier. These templates use various common scale increments (ie: ¼" = 1'-0" or ½" = 1'-0") so if you draft the rooms of your plans to a matching scale setting you will be able to make use of templates when exploring furniture layouts for your plans.

All three of the above-listed production methods can create a legible, fully workable as-built floor plan. So, work with whichever option you feel most comfortable exploring and take your time working through it.

Very important note – Remember to allow for wall thicknesses when drafting your as-built and renovation floor plan(s).

Step 7: Dream Away! Draft New Layout Options For Your Renovation!

Once you have completed your full as-built floor plan, you are ready to move on to the fun and creative stage of planning new layout ideas!

Be sure to protect your hard copy of the as-built floor plan(s) that you have just created. You can do this in a few ways:

• If you have been working with computer software to prepare your as-built, title the file as such and complete a "save as" before exploring new layout options.
• If you have manually drafted your as-built floor plan, you can laminate the final as-built plan and explore design options using dry-erase or washable markers.
• Another option to preserve your manually drafted as-built floor plan(s) is to lay tracing paper over your as-built plan and explore various layout options on the tracing paper until you find what you like best. There are even transparent sticky notes if you are just trying alternate layouts for an isolated area of your plan.

HAVE FUN gaining a new level of understanding of your existing home plan while measuring and creating your as-built floor plan(s)!

ENJOY exploring renovation layout ideas for your home at your own convenience and off the billable hours clock. Architectural and design professionals are still your greatest asset when planning a renovation for your home – they are there to help and are full of great ideas from past experiences. But there is no shame in wanting to play a part in the design process as well – it is your home after all.

Explore your options.

Envision yourself living in the newly crafted design of your existing home.

And when you are ready, meet with your local architect or design professional and discuss your all that you have learned about your home - and the aspirations that you have for it - with confidence.

Professional feedback, without any upselling pressure, is always available to you while creating your floor plan designs. 

Architectural Insight Inc. offers third-party professional design reviews completed fully confidentially, fully electronically, from the comfort of your own home.

Visit www.architecturalinsight.net to learn how you can order a professional review of your floor plans today!