which plan will better meet your operating expectations? Even
though you like the aesthetics of both designs, which will take
less money and time to build?
Is there an easy way to find some quick, concrete answers to
these questions before you cut the first stick of lumber? The
answer is a resounding “Yes!” With a calculator, ruler, and a
scale track plan, you can get solid answers to these questions
with an hour or two of analysis.
LAYOUT DESCRIPTION STATS
Let’s look at these basic “layout description” statistics and
how to compute them. We list each stat name (with its units),
define it briefly, tell how it is calculated, and then discuss what
that stat tells us about the design.
ROOM AREA (sq ft):
Calculate the layout room’s square foot-
age. If your room is much larger than the layout – such as a
4x8 layout in a large family room – then only include a reason-
able amount of access space around the layout – don’t include
all that extra room space. For instance, with a 4x8 layout in a
large recreation room, you might add a 2 foot aisle all around
the layout. This means the total “room area” for a 4 x 8 layout
might be 8 x 12, or 96 square feet.
This stat tells us the approximate space requirement for a given
layout, regardless of its shape. This is a clue that two differently
shaped layouts could be altered to fit into each other’s space.
This won’t always work, but at least it’s worth exploring.
LAYOUT AREA (sq ft):
Calculate the total area taken up by just
the layout “tabletop” itself. This does not include aisle space.
For the 4x8 layout, this will be 32 square feet.
Layout design assessment - 2
MRH-Oct 2014
