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Before you start drawing

The best floor plan doesn't begin on screen – it begins in the apartment. Spend a few minutes preparing and you'll draw the whole thing in one go, instead of stopping to re-measure three times. Three things should be ready before you open the editor.

First, the measurements: measure every room and note its length and width. A laser distance meter is the most convenient, but a plain tape measure works just as well. Second, a rough sketch on paper – a quick freehand outline showing which room borders which. That sketch is your map while drawing. Third, a room list of every space that should appear on the plan: living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, hallway, storage room.

With these three building blocks, drawing becomes pure transcription. You no longer have to invent any measurements – you simply reproduce what's on your notes, and that's exactly what separates a guessed floor plan from a reliable one.

Tip: photograph your paper sketch with your phone before you begin. That keeps it within reach while you draw, even when the note itself disappears under the keyboard.

Six steps to your floor plan

The order makes the difference. Set the rough outline first and work your way inward, and you'll save yourself later corrections. Here's how to build a clean floor plan step by step in the editor:

1. 1

   Draw the outer walls

   Start with the outline of the apartment. Draw the outer walls along the actual measurements – the editor snaps to the grid lines, so right angles line up automatically. The outer outline is your frame, and everything else fits inside it.

2. 2

   Add inner walls and split the rooms

   Divide the area into individual rooms with inner walls. Follow your sketch and work from the large rooms to the small ones. Room by room, a complete floor plan takes shape.

3. 3

   Name the rooms

   Give every area a name – living room, bathroom, bedroom, hallway. Labelled rooms make the plan instantly readable for prospects; an unnamed box only raises questions.

4. 4

   Place doors and windows

   Position the doors on the right walls and mark the windows in the outer walls. Mind the swing direction of each door so every room stays realistically usable and no one has to guess which way a door opens.

5. 5

   Add the dimensions

   Add dimension chains for walls and rooms. Now anyone can see at a glance how wide a room is – and the plan looks professional rather than estimated. In a listing, that builds trust.

6. 6

   Check the living area and export

   Check the calculated area per room and in total, compare it against your measurements, then save the finished plan as an image or PDF. A clean export at good resolution looks more credible than a photographed paper plan.

Measuring rooms correctly

Before you draw, you need real measurements. Measure every room wall to wall – ideally with a laser distance meter, or with a tape measure and a second pair of hands. Note length and width at the widest point each time, and stick to one unit so no errors creep in when you transfer the numbers.

Don't forget alcoves, bays and recesses: they count towards the area and change the plan noticeably. Also measure the position of doors and windows along the wall so you can place them in the right spot later. A room is rarely a perfect rectangle – the more precisely you capture corners and offsets, the less you'll need to correct in the editor.

Measure carefully and you'll save yourself a second trip to the apartment. Record every value in one pass, and at the end check whether the parts add up to the full length of a wall – that catches transposed digits immediately.

Tip: measure once too often rather than guessing in the editor. For hard-to-reach spans – across furniture or in tight alcoves – a laser distance meter is more reliable than a sagging tape measure.

Scale and dimensioning

A floor plan is only as good as its scale. Always draw to scale rather than sizing walls by eye – otherwise the proportions are off and the living area comes out wrong. The editor works with a fixed ratio, so a four-metre wall is shown twice as long as a two-metre wall.

Which scale makes sense for print or a listing, and how to use standardised symbols for doors, windows and stairs correctly, is something we go into in the in-depth guide. Here the rule of thumb is enough: measure carefully, draw to scale, add dimensions.

Doors, windows and details

Doors and windows turn a box sketch into a real floor plan. Stick to common sizes: interior doors are usually around 0.80 to 0.90 metres wide, and windows typically sit between 1.00 and 1.40 metres in height. Millimetre precision is rarely needed for a listing – what matters more is that position and swing direction are right, so the room stays usable.

Dimension chains round out the picture: a continuous chain along the outer wall shows the overall length, while individual measurements break down the rooms. It looks professional and answers a prospect's most common question – how big is the room really – without a single follow-up. Small details like a hinted stair symbol or a marked balcony make the plan even easier to read.

Tip: place doors exactly where they actually are and set the swing direction to match. A viewer can tell at once whether a room is laid out sensibly – and whether the sofa fits against the wall they have in mind.

Stating the living area correctly

The living area is the number prospects look at first. In Germany it's usually calculated under the Living Space Ordinance (Wohnflächenverordnung, WoFlV) – sloped ceilings, balconies and terraces only count proportionally. The editor sums up the drawn room areas and gives you a quick reference value.

That total is a good orientation, but no substitute for your own paperwork. The final, binding figure for a listing should always be checked against your tenancy agreement, purchase contract or an existing living-area calculation – especially with slopes and outdoor areas, the exact treatment can differ.

Avoiding common mistakes

Most failed floor plans trip over the same small things. Run through these points once more before you export:

• Not drawn to scale – walls sized by feel instead of by measurement make every area figure useless.
• Duplicated walls – overlapping or doubled walls distort the area and look messy.
• Doors or windows forgotten – a room with no visible openings looks unfinished and unsettles prospects.
• Alcoves and slopes ignored – round them away and you end up stating the wrong living area.
• Rooms left unnamed – a plan of nameless boxes forces the viewer to guess.
• No clean export – a pixelated screenshot devalues even the best plan; export as an image or PDF instead.