Rating: 
Summary: Just enough to make you dangerous
Review: As an architect I worked for noted, this book gives you just enough information to make you dangerous. Ching provides a beautifully illustrated guide to basic concepts of building construction. It is a great introductory book filled with much useful information, but one can't necessarily build from this book. I use it mostly to explain construction ideas, especially when it comes to wood-frame buildings, than I do as a set of graphic standards. Ching does offer some specific information, such as thermal resistance of building materials and a general span guide for roof and floor trusses, but much of this information is general and should be verified with more precise data books. However, Ching didn't set out to create another "Standard Architectural Graphics" book, but rather an affordable guide to building construction which would provide some useful information to the design student and home builder alike.
Rating:
Summary: Just enough to make you dangerous
Review: As an architect I worked for noted, this book gives you just enough information to make you dangerous. Ching provides a beautifully illustrated guide to basic concepts of building construction. It is a great introductory book filled with much useful information, but one can't necessarily build from this book. I use it mostly to explain construction ideas, especially when it comes to wood-frame buildings, than I do as a set of graphic standards. Ching does offer some specific information, such as thermal resistance of building materials and a general span guide for roof and floor trusses, but much of this information is general and should be verified with more precise data books. However, Ching didn't set out to create another "Standard Architectural Graphics" book, but rather an affordable guide to building construction which would provide some useful information to the design student and home builder alike.
Rating: 
Summary: Great companion text!!!
Review: As an architecture student i am overwhelmed every day with pieces of information and references as to where to get more. This text provides excellent examples and descriptions of numerous details in the construction world. The book has been extremely helpful in several of my current classes. I plan on using this text for as long as the book itself will stand. Too bad it's not a hardback!
Rating:
Summary: Great companion text!!!
Review: As an architecture student i am overwhelmed every day with pieces of information and references as to where to get more. This text provides excellent examples and descriptions of numerous details in the construction world. The book has been extremely helpful in several of my current classes. I plan on using this text for as long as the book itself will stand. Too bad it's not a hardback!
Rating:
Summary: A practical guide to building a house from foundation up.
Review: I am a carpenter and I have had this book for ten years. It has answered many practical questions encountered when a vague plan is the basis for the structure. This would be a good book for every person in the world to own.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference material for architectural students
Review: I am a professor at Pratt Institute's School of Architecture. I teach a construction documents class for wood frame. This book is an invaluable resource and my students use it exclusively for a reference guide for their project. It is one of the best books I have come across for its value.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty but Light on Detail
Review: I bought the first edition of this book years ago and what attracted me to it was the very accessible way it was produced, it just looked so inviting. Francis Ching writes about technical matters in a simple straightforward style and Cassandra Adams illustrations are a joy to look at. She produced the entire book (except for the bar-code) by hand, cover, title page, contents, index and drew over a thousand technical illustrations and even hand wrote the detailed captions. This latest updated edition uses the same illustrations but the text is now typeset in a typeface (Tecton, I think) very similar to her handwritten style.As other reviewers have said this is not a book for the DIY handyman but a guide to construction basics, chapters deal with the site, the building, foundations, floors, walls, roofs, moisture protection, doors and windows, finish work, mechanical and electrical, materials. The thirty-two page Appendix gives addition technical information, followed by a ten page index. I do have one very minor criticism of this latest edition though, for some odd reason the publishers have decided to print all the illustrations in a tint of black which detracts them from their original beauty. However this will not stop readers from enjoying and learning from a unique looking book that can hardly be improved on. A masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Still a classic after twenty-five years.
Review: I bought the first edition of this book years ago and what attracted me to it was the very accessible way it was produced, it just looked so inviting. Francis Ching writes about technical matters in a simple straightforward style and Cassandra Adams illustrations are a joy to look at. She produced the entire book (except for the bar-code) by hand, cover, title page, contents, index and drew over a thousand technical illustrations and even hand wrote the detailed captions. This latest updated edition uses the same illustrations but the text is now typeset in a typeface (Tecton, I think) very similar to her handwritten style. As other reviewers have said this is not a book for the DIY handyman but a guide to construction basics, chapters deal with the site, the building, foundations, floors, walls, roofs, moisture protection, doors and windows, finish work, mechanical and electrical, materials. The thirty-two page Appendix gives addition technical information, followed by a ten page index. I do have one very minor criticism of this latest edition though, for some odd reason the publishers have decided to print all the illustrations in a tint of black which detracts them from their original beauty. However this will not stop readers from enjoying and learning from a unique looking book that can hardly be improved on. A masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Great overview---but in the end covers too much
Review: I bought this book as a reference guide for home framing, and was disappointed. This book covers ALL aspects of construction, so if that is what you want-BUY IT. However, if all you want is a general understanding of home construction instead of learning how to build an elevator shaft---LOOK ELSEWHERE. Smails
Rating:
Summary: beautiful drawings, complete information
Review: I bought this book expecting a building manual and got the most amazing drawings on the issue that I have seen. It keeps a very logical order, beginning with the managing of the building site and ends with special construction techniques. The drawings are handmade over CAD drawings and that fact doesn't matter because of its quality. It has at the end the complete CSI masterformat System for specificactions, which scopes the whole field of building and a lot of references to institutions related to each division of the CSI system. It's a very useful book. I't's less complete in information than the Graphics Standards or the Neufert, but it's precious, and I must say that books need to be useful and complete, but they need to be beautiful too. I would recommend this book, because is one of the good purchases I have made.
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