In these months of preparing the plans for submission, I found it very difficult to get all the Informaton I needed to draft the drawings correctly with the right colours and hatching. Even though we worked with an architect to submit the plans, the information I needed to complete the set of drawings and get them 100% correct was difficult to find. In another post I explain why it is that I and not the architect himself did the drafting; over here, I explain what is required in the set of drawings when submitting to council. However, in this article, I explain the conventions and reasons for various colours, hatches, and line types required on any set of building plans in South Africa.

The standard colours for building plans are as follows:

ON PLANS, SECTIONS & ELEVATIONS

• New Masonry: Red
• New Concrete: Green
• New Iron or Steel: Blue
• New Timber: Yellow
• New Glass: Black
• All existing materials: Grey

ON THE SITE PLAN

• Proposed work: Red
• Existing work: Not Coloured
• Work to be demolished: drawn with black dotted lines

DRAINAGE – on all drawings

• Drains and soil pipes: Brown
• Waste pipes: Green
• Soil and combined vents: Red
• Waste vents: Blue
• Industrial effluent pipes: Orange
• Existing drains: Black
• Storm water drains: not coloured

In addition to the standard colours, certain things must be indicated:

• The fall of the storm water from the roof and how it is dealt with on site
• The direction and end point of sewerage
• The highest (HNGL) and lowest (LNGL) level taken on the envelope of your building, the baseline between them and the height limit (see this post where I explain this in detail)
• The finished floor level (FFL) and all the lintel and ceiling heights in relation to this
• Gas lines and the position of an outdoor gas closet with a secured gate
• The position of the geyser (and solar water geyser)
• All electrical points and their voltage (see this post where I go into detail about this)

What do all of these drawing conventions actually look like?

If you are a visual person like I am, then simply reading about the requirements doesn’t give a proper explanation. Below are examples from our plans of some of the above conventions and how I drew them. Bear in mind that I didn’t have to use all of them (there are no existing structures on our property and we have no intention of disposing of industrial effluent!)

Example 1

The masonry is cut through so it is hatched in with a slanted line and coloured in dark red. The concrete floor is viewed in elevation, so is coloured in light green with no additional hatching. Only the exterior floor is hatched and indicates paving. The steel columns are indicated in dark blue (as they are cut through) and the steel cladding is indicated in light blue. (See Detail 1 below)

The gas line is shown as a dashed, thick blue line. The waste pipes (everything emptying into the gulley) are shown in a dashed, thick green line. All soil pipes (the pipes from the gulley onward and any toilet pipes) are shown in dashed, thick brown line. (See Detail 2 below)

Rodding eyes (RE) and inspection eyes (IE) must be indicated. A rodding eye is at the end of any soil pipe and is used as the entry point to run a rod down a blocked pipe. An inspection eye is at any junction of two pipes and is used to see if there is a blockage at this point or further up the pipe.

Anything that isn’t visible is shown in a dashed line. I have tried to differentiate non-visible items above from those below with a slightly different dash. In this example, one can see the footprint of the pad foundation for the steel column indicated with a dashed line. Similarly, the sun shading devices above the doors are also indicated with a slightly different dashed line. (See Detail 1 below)

Behind our house will be a stone embankment. This is indicated similar to the style of a map with a ‘blanket stitch’ line – the shorter lines showing the lower part of the embankment.

Example 2

The upper floor of the house is going to be timber on a timber structure and is shown on plan in elevation so is coloured in pale yellow with no additional hatching. The roof of the living area is also visible in elevation but as it is an external material, the hatch of the IBR steel sheeting is indicated in addition to the light blue colour. The masonry walls are indicated the same as example 1.

The atrium off the landing is hatched with a slanted dashed hatch to show a void as opposed to a material.

Again, the waste pipes, which all exit to the single stack (including the toilet) are indicated in a dashed, thick green line. (See Detail 2 above)

The damp proof membrane that will enclose the shower before the tiles (or sealed plaster) are laid is indicated with a dot dash, thick aquamarine line.

On both sections and elevations, the pitch of the roof must be indicated and the angle given. Similarly, where ever a geyser is visible, it must be shown on sections and elevations, as can be seen by the solar panel of the solar water geyser in this example. (See the South West Elevation and Section AA above for further examples)

Example 3

In the section that runs through the stairwell, one can see the timber of the staircase, the concrete of the lintel and the masonry of the wall cut through. These are therefor hatched to indicate the material and coloured in with a dark colour. Concrete has a speckle and triangle hatch (to indicate the use of sand and crushed stone) whereas treated timber (eg SA Pine) is shown with a criss-cross through it. (See Detail 3 below)

The walls, balustrade, external materials (all that is shown in elevation) is coloured in with a light colour. As before, only the external materials are hatched.

The concrete slab and foundations are shown with a speckle and triangle hatch and is coloured in dark green. So is the cement screed that goes over the slab. The damp proof membrane (DPM) – the sheet of plastic that will lie under the concrete slab – is indicated with a dot dash, thick red line. The insulation below that is hatched with a slanted line hatch (different from masonry) and the bed of sand that this all lies on is hatched with a speckled/dotted hatch (no triangles). Lastly, the compacted ground below is shown with a basket weave hatch.

Note

Strictly speaking, all the timber windows in section should be coloured in dark yellow where they are cut through but because I printed these at a scale of 1:100 the colour would not have been visible so was unnecessary work.

The Site Plan

One must keep in mind that these drawings are a legal document and are referred to as such. For this reason it is really important to include as much information about the property and proposed plans on the site plan as possible. This is the first drawing in the set and is the one that will give reference to all that follows.

Typically the site plan is shown at a scale of 1:200 but scales as much as 1:500 and 1:1000 can be used. Our site plan was submitted as 1:200.

The site plan must show the following:

• A compass within north pointing up – the drawing must be oriented so that due north is at the top of the page
• The beacons on all corners as per the Title Deed – these will usually have coordinates but the drawing obtained from the geographical survey will include this information (see this post where I explain the survey)
• The erf number and the erf numbers of the properties surrounding
• The boundary and a title to show what that line is
• The dimensions of the whole site. Again, these should match the Title Deed
• The building line. This changes from place to place and can be found in the Land Use Zoning Scheme document for your property type. In our case, the land is Agricultural in the Urban Edge, so we follow Agri 2 which is 4m.
• The contours from the Geographical Survey
• The High Natural Ground Level point (HNGL) and Low Natural Ground Level point (LNGL) which should be indicated on the envelope of each proposed building – the exact figures can be obtained from the surveyor
• The buildings must be indicated as ‘massing‘ with a title for each part – new work to be indicated in red, existing in grey, to-be-demolished in a black, dashed line
• The fall of the water off the roof, its path from there and the exit from the property must be indicated (in our case, all the water goes into the leiwater channel and on to the storm water drain)
• All gulley’s, soil pipes (in brown dashed line), rodding eyes and inspection eyes. The soil pipe must carry a note explaining the fall and where it exits
• The point of vehicular access
• The name and distances to the intersections with the closest streets (from site boundary)
• The name of the road adjacent to the property

See the two snippets of the whole drawing below.

Not shown here but also required on the site plan are the area schedule, XA calculations and general notes. I explain the area schedule in this article and the notes are explained in this one.

I hope this is helpful to other Owner Builders in South Africa, if not to prepare your own plans then maybe to just read them more easily. If you think I missed something or want to ask me about anything, please contact me on info@ownerbuilderinsouthafrica.co.za and I will see if I can assist.

All the best for your project!