Overheard a foreman say something that made me rethink my whole drafting approach

I was at a job site in St. Louis last Thursday and heard a foreman tell his apprentice that 'a good drafter makes the constructor's job boring.' It got me thinking about how we often try to show off with complex details instead of just making things simple and clear. That comment has stuck with me ever since because it really changed how I look at my own drawings. Has anyone else had a random comment like that shift your perspective on drafting?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaelchen1mo ago

72 year old steel fabricator buddy of mine in Portland told me the opposite once - he said boring drawings make his guys lazy and they miss things. Over-simplifying details means you're taking away their chance to think through the problem, @henry315, and that's when mistakes happen on a good crew. I've seen it firsthand where a "boring" drawing led to a beam layout error nobody caught because they just tuned out and went through the motions.

julia_carter7029d ago

That's a really good point about the fine line between simple and too simple. @henry315, you mentioned designing for the lowest common denominator, but I've seen that backfire when the guys in the field are good. Had a job where we simplified a stair detail so much the framers just slapped it together without checking the headroom. A little more thinking on their part would have caught it before we poured the landing. It's almost like you have to know your crew's skill level and draw for that, not just for some theoretical worst case. Do you adjust your drawings depending on who's building it?

henry3151mo ago

Has anyone ever stopped to think that maybe the foreman was right but for the wrong reasons? I mean sure, boring drawings mean the builder doesnt have to scratch his head. But the real trick is making your drawings so simple that even a bad crew cant mess it up. Its kind of like designing for the lowest common denominator instead of the best case scenario. That whole mindset change has made me focus more on clear notes and basic dimensions over fancy sections.