By David Bradley
The Associated Press

To many would-be homebuilders, construction documents - blueprints - are as close as they ever get to hieroglyphics.

The snarl of intersecting lines and odd symbols usually are tidy and neat, but how to decipher this maze can make the untrained readers eyes glaze over.

It's a language only contractors could love.

But consumers had better learn the lingo, too, because what's lost in translation places their project - and their pocketbook - at risk.

"I once heard a contractor say even his skills could never save a project from poor design," says Larry Golden, a designer from Santa Cruz, Calif. "Thats where the homeowner needs to start, with a good set of understandable plans."

Room labels and dimensions are easy to identify. The all-important minutia hidden in plans often is overlooked. There are all manner of fine points begging to go undetected: wall or door positioning, material specifications or special requests the client asked for, but doesn't have the foggiest notion if the requests made it on paper.

There's not enough space here for a complete rundown of construction document terminology.

"I spend a lot of time talking about construction practices with clients so they know what they're looking at on the drawings," says Golden. "I encourage them to read the boilerplate and general notes. The customer needs to understand the entire undertaking so they can speak the same language as the tradespeople. They stand a better chance of a successful project."

Golden usually prepares more than one view of a room to help clients visualize the end product.

He walks them through non-glamorous small points such as location of insulation, fixtures and wall studs.

Going the extra yard to create a depth of understanding has pluses for architects and designers, too. Its easier to fire up a CAD (computer aided design) system to make instant changes than to rip out recently completed work that wasn't quite right.

"Homeowners would be well advised to see the work of the designer before they hire someone," says Golden, "but I don't mean finished work. Ask to see what their sets of plans look like. That's the real test."