Most common floor plan scale in the USA?
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I remember a long time ago British Gypsum used to sell plasterboard with a sash banner proudly proclaiming Metric Width Imperial Height.
To resolve cultural clashes chippies used inch b' deep and twice b' twice for their two by ones and twos.
And OT posh people liked to have their bath panels fixed with cranium plated screws.
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1:1 (1" = 1") works well, because you can use it for construction directly, without having to scale the drawing.
Just lay out the sheet, place the 2 x 4s on it and start nailing away.
Al Hart
IRender nXt from Render Plus -
I don't see the US changing anytime soon, and the only two items I've encountered (in architectural practice) are neon tubing and Haffele cabinet hardware. The imperial system, with a few minor exceptions, is used throughout our weights and measurements standards, wether it be building products, food, land, speed and distance measurements, etc. I think most in the U.S. don't see the need to change.
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The US is already metric in many respects... or inching towards becoming metric...
You have had 'decimal' money forever.
You buy coke/pop/juice in 'liters'.
Your wine bottles are metric [75cl]
Your cars have engine sizes in 'cc'.
The US Army measure horizontal distances in 'meters' [but then heights in 'feet' - as do aircraft the world over!].
Most complex science is already conducted in 'metric'.
I expect that much of the US space-program is 'metric' too - after some disastrous unit errors of yore.
Nutrition values on food labeling are all in metric units.
Photography is metric [35mm etc],.
Even bullets come in metric sizes...Now if only we can get you into using a few metric dimensions for lengths and drawing-scales...
It's not like we are trying to get you to adopt a decimal time or calendar system
I find it surprising that given the US's break from Britain, just as the French were pushing their newfangled 'metric' system, that the US didn't adopt that too, since much of the rest of the world did...
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@tig said:
The US is already metric in many respects... or inching towards becoming metric...
You have had 'decimal' money forever.
You buy coke/pop/juice in 'liters'.
Your wine bottles are metric [75cl]
Your cars have engine sizes in 'cc'.
The US Army measure horizontal distances in 'meters' [but then heights in 'feet' - as do aircraft the world over!].
Most complex science is already conducted in 'metric'.
I expect that much of the US space-program is 'metric' too - after some disastrous unit errors of yore.
Nutrition values on food labeling are all in metric units.
Photography is metric [35mm etc],.
Even bullets come in metric sizes...Now if only we can get you into using a few metric dimensions for lengths and drawing-scales...
It's not like we are trying to get you to adopt a decimal time or calendar systemI find it surprising that given the US's break from Britain, just as the French were pushing their newfangled 'metric' system, that the US didn't adopt that too, since much of the rest of the world did...
Our cars are actually in Liter and CI cubic Inches... Like my truck is a 5.4 liter Triton with a 334 cubic inch engine. Motorcycles however are in CC.
@unknownuser said:
1:1 (1" = 1") works well, because you can use it for construction directly, without having to scale the drawing.
Just lay out the sheet, place the 2 x 4s on it and start nailing away.
Al... lol
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Didn't the US try liters for gasoline (petrol) and had a huge backlash from consumers? (or was that orchestrated by suppliers?).
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In Europe car engines barely creep into more than a few litres so saying you car engine is 1500 cc sound better that 1.5 litres - the 'number' is just bigger - I'm surprised the US didn't opt for the 'big' option! Most European cars are only four-wheeled motorcycles after all
Expensive cars are say '3 litre'... but most of us never get out of the 'teens' !In the UK we now buy fuel in 'litres' - but most people still consider a car's economy in 'xxx mpg' [miles per gallon], which is undoubtedly easier to grasp that "xxx litres/100kilometre" or whatever the alternative EU standard is... we still measure road distances in 'miles' anyway !
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They do love the size of the Liter too. badges on the sides of the cars or at least the faster one's love to boast the big number. My mustang was a 5.0 and cop cars had a 5 liter engine and were thus called Five Oh. Back all the way to the 70's the Trans Am lovers had the 5.7 and 6.6. Like Tig was saying you would think Americans would like the larger numbers of cc.
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Oh and while we're on this topic one of the most incredible things in history to me is the use of measurements while building things such as the Parthenon. 3 different cultures coming together to build an incredible piece of design work and melding their measuring systems together... outstanding.
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Thanks guys for all the responses! Funny you are away for the weekend here (SCF) and you get back to a wealth of learning on monday!
We still use inches for somethings in discussion - over shorter lengths it is certainly easier to visualise. So in any discussion it wont be unusual to hear inches and metres used in the same sentance
@unknownuser said:
And here I was convinced it was the porn industry not willing to redefine length from inches to centimeters.
Yeah I don't think those parts will change - if a woman were to say to me "wow that must be 8" long - I'm not going to correct her with "no it's actually 203mm" but rather I'm going to exclaim "yeah sorry - it is a really cold day"!
Thanks again guys - it's just for some Layout scrapbooks so I'll go along with 1/8":1' (1:96) as it is probably more appropriate. BTW 1/4":1' that's a dam big representation of a floor plan!!! We are trending here for all domestic work to be on A3 size sheet (297x420mm) so 1:50 would most times would fill the sheet.
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