Old drafter at my shop told me something on my first day that I still think about 5 years later

He was like 65 and been drafting since the 80s. He saw me erasing a line for the 3rd time on a set of floor plans and said "son, perfect drawings don't build buildings, good enough drawings do if you know the builder." At the time I thought he was just being lazy. But after seeing a guy hold up a whole job because his lines looked too pretty but didn't match the field measurements, I get it now. Has anyone else had an old timer drop a line on you that took years to click?

2 comments

2 Comments

juliawalker22d ago

Take it from someone who's been burned by both sides of this. I've seen drafts that looked like art but missed a critical foundation line by an inch. Cost everyone time and money. But I've also seen guys treat blueprints like vague suggestions and the whole thing turns into a mess. I get the old timer's point but honestly a bad builder with good enough drawings still builds junk.

finley_flores2822d ago

You ever trip over something that was right in front of you? Like a measuring tape you set down and forgot about? I watched a crew build a whole wall off a set of plans that looked like museum quality. Drawn by a guy who loved his parallels. But the foundation was off by three inches because the builder eyeballed the field measure instead of double checking. Took them a week to fix it. The old guy who drew it just shrugged and said "told you so." Never seen a grown man throw a hard hat that far.