Switched to paper blueprints after 15 years of tablets and came out ahead

Tried it on a job site in Tulsa last week because my tablet battery died and I grabbed a roll of paper from the truck. Didnt have to keep wiping dust off the screen. Crew could huddle around it. Nobody dropped it on concrete. Thinking about switching over for good on smaller builds. Anyone else ditch the tech for paper sometimes?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_patel9h ago

Had an old timer once tell me paper plans make you use your brain more. He was right. When everything is zoomable and scrollable on a tablet you just stare at one little piece at a time. With a big paper sheet laid out you see the whole thing at once. The connections between walls and roofs and MEP chases just pop out. My subs actually talk to each other more too because they are all looking at the same paper instead of each having their own little screen. It forces real coordination instead of everyone hiding in their own digital bubble.

stellac9711h ago

My buddy Mike runs a crew over in Oklahoma City and he tried this last summer on a small strip mall job. Said his guys kept fighting over whose turn it was to clean the tablet screen with their shirts, so he finally just printed out the whole set on bond paper and taped it to a plywood table. He told me they finished the framing two days faster because nobody was hogging the device and everyone could just walk up and look.