Doug Patt: Hi, I am Doug Patt and this is the how to draw like an architect series. Part 3. The wall section. A wall section is one of the main tools the contractor uses to build a building. For the architect, establishing the details of a wall section is critical to design development and construction document phase of the process. The wall section literally describes in detail what the foundations, walls, floor systems and roof are made of. This is the area in the elevation that we will be looking at.

Our wall section is derived by cutting through this wall in plan and looking at it in section. To draw the wall section, you will need to have many questions. Answer a few examples might be what the foundation material is and do you have a basement. What are walls made of and what is the interior and exterior sheathing made of. How are you insulating the building and where are you putting the insulation? What are the finished interior heights, window heights, door heights and structural system depths. What do the eaves look like from the exterior. How the roof fended and what is is the roof pitch and roofing material. Your wall section should have many notes that are well organized and thoughtfully considered. Those notes will in turn have arrows that point to the object or material to which they refer.

The wall section should be drawn like the plan with the outline in a thicker line to delineate finished situation as well as material thickness. The wall section should also utilize a number of recognizable symbols like insulation, structure, framing or foundation. This is to make clear to contract of the materials you’ve chosen. Your wall section should also call out the finished floor and finished ceiling heights as well as framing locations, if they will be helpful to the contractor.

A couple of things to remember. Don’t duplicate notes throughout the drawings, because if one is changed, all of them have to change. And it is not always easy to remember to make the changes. Also if you want something to be build a certain way, draw it and call it out in the wall section. Once the pricing has been done or it’s been built , it is not easy to add something that you forgot in the first place. Hope you’re looking at a couple of details in part 4. See you next time.