Commercial Blueprints
Learn how to efficiently navigate commercial blueprints, interpret construction drawings, and apply these concepts on a real job with carpenter and builder, Elly Hart. Spanish subtitles available.
Price: $75
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Learn From a Pro
Elly Hart is a carpenter and site lead on multi-family developments in Vancouver, Canada. She is constantly learning, and is excited to share with you how to navigate and work with commercial blueprints.
12 In-Depth Lessons
Each video lesson dives deep into understanding and navigating commercial blueprints. Lessons average about 5 minutes each, with a total course time of 1 hour, 2 minutes.
Practical Resources
Downloadable blueprints and exercises help you get real-world practice. If you would like a physical copy of the blueprints, we recommend printing them on 24" x 36" sheets at your local copy store.
Certificate of Completion
After completing the training and passing the assessments, you will receive a Certificate of Course Completion. Share with future employers to show your commitment to continuing education.
Lifetime Access
With a course purchase, you have lifetime access to the course. Take the Commercial Blueprints course anytime, anywhere, as often as you'd like. Our courses are meant to be an ongoing resource for you, no matter where you are in your journey.
Affordable and Convenient
Our online courses are an affordable and convenient way to develop new skills. If you aren't sure you want to make a time and money commitment to colleges and trade school, our courses are a way to gain skills in a more flexible and cost-efficient manner.
About Your Instructor
Elly Hart is a site lead on multi-family developments in Vancouver, Canada. Born and raised in Australia, she was an award-winning journalist writing and editing stories about consumer technology. In 2012, Elly traveled to Canada for a short working holiday and never left. She picked up woodworking, which inspired her to quit her desk job. In 2015, she signed up for a four-year carpentry apprenticeship. Her job site experience started with renovations for a design-build company before moving on to multi-family developments where she worked her way from apprentice to lead carpenter to assistant site superintendent. Elly graduated from the apprenticeship program with distinction in 2019, holds a Certificate of Qualification (Red Seal) in carpentry, and is currently working towards a degree in construction management. She is dedicated to challenging public perceptions of the construction industry and advancing the skilled trades through education and mentorship.
Lesson Plan
12 Video Lessons (1h 2m)
Lesson 1: Course Overview
Welcome to the course! Meet your instructor, Elly, a carpenter and site lead in Vancouver, as she shares her journey with you and discusses the importance of being able to read commercial blueprints.
Lesson 2: Residential vs. Commercial Drawings
Residential blueprints and commercial blueprints have a lot in common and plenty of differences. Elly teaches you the basic distinctions between them.
Lesson 3: Title Sheet and Project Statistics
The title sheet lays out the what and the why of a project, the context, and the scope of work. Learn to read this crucial and often-overlooked page.
Lesson 4: LEED and Built Green Requirements
Built Green and LEED are environmental standards that are increasingly applied to commercial builds. Learn to navigate these requirements and the tradeoffs associated with them.
Lesson 5: Window Schedule
Schedules provide detailed information about specific building components like walls, doors, windows, and hardware that may appear multiple times throughout a building.
Lesson 6: Door Schedule
Learn even more about how schedules function on a commercial build with this deep dive into doors.
Lesson 7: Site Plan
The site plan is a bird's eye view of everything contained within the property lines of your build, and contains critical information that will be especially helpful during pre-construction.
Lesson 8: Demolition and Retention
Demolition and retention drawings are used in renovations: they show you what gets demolished and what stays in place.
Lesson 9: Floor Plans
Floor plans are often considered to be the most consequential drawings in a set of blueprints. Elly shows you how to navigate them and use them as the basis for surfacing and solving problems on your build.
Lesson 10: Reflected Ceiling Plans
Reflected ceiling plans, or RCPs, give you additional context about ceiling construction than is often included in the floor plans.
Lesson 11: Sections
Section views show you a building from the side, as though it were sliced like a layer cake. This useful perspective can help you understand how the whole building fits together.
Lesson 12: Detail Drawings
Detail drawings show you how specific elements of the building should be constructed. Here, Elly demonstrates how to find the information you need to build a key component of commercial builds: the exit stairs.
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