“This is not at all what I had expected.”
“It isn’t what I had in mind.”
“I’m completely disappointed; this is not what I had imagined.”

Relatable? We bet.

If you’re an architect or a designer and have ever designed a new home or a commercial building out of stone, these are some of the most dreaded phrases that you can expect to hear from your clients. It’s often the gap between “how it looked like in my client’s head” and “what you built” that causes friction and dissatisfaction. 

Mistake #1: Lack of the “Big Picture”

Can you locate a treasure without a map? Think of shop drawings as a map of your treasure hunt. It’s very difficult to glean the entirety of your residential stone projects or commercial stone projects without the right shop drawings.

Stone context drawings help interior designers and architects envision what their design looks like, in different elevations. These drawings show the exact placement of each tile, the overall dimensions of the wall, floor, or building, the logical sequence of the stones or tiles, and the numberings of all the pieces. With such insights, it is possible to always stay focused on the big picture while taking the right steps to reach it.

Mistake #2: Missing Out on Nuances

Your client might have an idea for an out-of-the-world natural stone house, but they may not be able to offer you the clarity needed to turn their vision into reality. Questions as basic as “Where to install stone in the house?”, “how to choose the right stone for my house?”, or “Selecting the right stone pattern” require absolute clarity that only stone shop drawings can deliver. These nuances can make or break your stone installation.

Let’s try to understand this with an example. Modern homes can accommodate stone in several settings, the fireplace, for example. The stone design here can rise up to the ceiling, creating a chimney effect.

Accent walls can also use stones as backsplashes and columns. While your clients may have an idea about how they want their finished stone project to appear, they may not be able to offer you concrete details on how to make it happen. This is where stone shop drawings come in.

These drawings show 3D axonometric views and furnish every detail required for installing stones and tiles. Such a level of detailing offers the accuracy that manufacturers, distributors, metal contractors, and roofers will need to manufacture, deliver, and install stone designs within a house or an office space.

Mistake #3: Wasting Time and Money without Stone Shop Drawing Services

Not saying that your contractors need to rush through the entire installation and construction process – all we’re trying to emphasize is that stone shop drawings and piece lists also prove handy to your installers.

Contractors can consult these drawings to stay aligned with any changes to the plan. Stones arrive in numbered pieces in batches with a work plan and the stone shop drawings help ensure that there is minimal cutting, less noise pollution and waste, and almost no rework.

Stone and Tile Shop Drawings Services – Your Key to Successful Stone Construction Projects

Shop drawings offer a high level of detailing, adding a significant advantage to your construction design and development phase. These drawings also ensure that your clients have total visibility on what to expect out of their real-estate project and whether it aligns with their vision or not.

These also make certain that all client feedback your architects and designers receive is positive and there is almost no need for any rework post-construction.

Many interior and architectural design firms are turning to stone for their creative projects because it is low maintenance, sustainable, and globally available. Moreover, stone is quite easy to build with as it offers multiple textures, variations, and patterns.

Countless stone monuments dating back thousands of years have stood the test of time and continue to awe millions of people – think the Mayan Temples in Mexico, the Parthenon in Greece, and the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

In the USA, buildings with stone detailing were reintroduced by midcentury modernists such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra. They designed linear houses that had natural stone veneers complimenting the overall layout.

Modern-day technologies are further facilitating the installation of stones in construction projects. If you are also thinking of adding a stone structure to your construction portfolio, take the first step by getting stone shop drawings designed.

Once you’ve used stone shop drawings, you’ll never want to create a blueprint without them again. Want to know more about what stone shop drawings are? Looking for technical drafting services for the stone industry? Want to find out how much stone shop drawings cost? Reach out to our expert drafters for custom architectural stone drafting services right away!

The outcome? Faster installations and time savings, so you don’t have to pay your contractors for overtime or cut short other important deadlines to finish construction on time.