Laying Out the Building’s Footprint

            Once the concrete is poured and has cured or the Floor joist and sheeting are down it’s time to start layout the footprint of what you’ll be building. The first I like to check my corners for square. I do not use a t square or a sheet of plywood I use Pythagoras’ theorem. This theorem is a fundamental relation in Euclidean geometry concerning the three sides of a right triangle. Simply stated, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the other two sides. Or A squared +B squared =C squared) This is important because I can play with this knowledge during my laying out of the footprint.

After this is accomplished, I snap the lines of my perimeter walls. I subtracted an eight inch or maybe a little more and allow the plate to hang over on concrete foundations (on raised foundation I’ve done so on the seal plate.) This is so that I can go around the border of the foundation and cold pack or add the finish to the concrete. This is solely is an appearance measure. I also have separate chalk lines I use for snapping the layout of the footprint. I do this because I add concrete die to my chalk so my layout doesn’t get washed away. (A word of caution here. I do this in old clothing because the mix doesn’t get washed away. The clothing you have on will become stained permanently.

After this has been accomplished, I snap the two control lines. I snap then 2’ from two outside walls. I use the longest two wall that form a right angle. I use different color chalk mix to do this. This control lines are a reference line to help ensure the accuracy and precision of the building. If there are multiple stories to the building, I transfer these lines up but the are stacked on top of one another and not re-figured each time.

Now that this has been accomplished everything is snapped or laid-out from the control lines which are also squared also. There are times during the building process when a small adjustment needs to be made. These are made in reference to the control line to keep the building plumb and square during the building process. It does take a little time to use this method but the final results are worth the effort and they save you time in other task you’ll need to accomplish to complete your building project.

• Note: Images on this blog site are from a free source or taken by the author. No image or group of photos is intended to represent the people the author serves. The author does not care about Race (that is a politically correct term that he does not like because we are all of the same Race, the Human Race. He prefers the term ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender, marital status, disability, genetic information, national origin, source of income, Veteran or military status, ancestry, citizenship, primary language or immigration status.) He is a service provider for all people. We will all rise together when we band together and help one another. Joseph Erwin is a Real Estate Broker, DRE # O2131799, and a CA general contractor # B 696662. He’s a member of the CRMLS and The East Valley Association of Realtors located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California.