Got chewed out by a senior drafter in Chicago for using too many layers on a single drawing

He pulled me aside after a redline review last month and showed me how he does it with just 6 layers instead of my usual 18, so now I'm wondering how many layers do you guys typically run on a commercial floor plan?

3 comments

3 Comments

diana_moore7520d ago

18 layers? Rookie numbers, I was pushing 30 on a kitchen remodel once, the senior guy just sighed and handed me the red pen. Now I'm down to maybe 8 and half of them are probably just decorative.

ryanf6620d ago

I dropped from like 25 layers to around 6 after a senior guy on a bathroom job told me to "just trust the tape" and walk away for an hour. The trick for me was switching to a high-bond blue tape (the 3M stuff, you know the one) and really burning it in with a plastic scraper before the first coat. I also stopped doing a full recoat on every sanded spot, I just spot-prime those areas with a small brush and let the final two coats even everything out. Actually saved me a ton of time and the finish looked way cleaner without all those built-up edges.

ward.fiona13d ago

Strong disagree on the spot priming thing. Every time I've tried skipping the full recoat over sanded areas the final coat ends up flashing different, and I end up having to do extra coats anyway just to kill the sheen mismatch. Burning in tape with a scraper is solid advice though, that's one trick I'll never go back from.