Comparison
House Madness vs RoomSketcher: an honest comparison (2026)
RoomSketcher or House Madness? Where RoomSketcher wins (furniture, apps, LiDAR, realtors) and where House Madness is stronger (lofts, structure, drawings).
NewThe assistant is in early access
Draw your house.Plan the loft.Understand the structure.
House Madness is the drawing tool for real houses. Trace your old drawings, get the loft and its knee walls right, see what your walls carry – and print permit drawings to scale. Right in your browser.
- Free for one whole house
- No card
- Nothing to install
Import old drawings
From an old PDF to finished walls
Upload the scanned drawings of your house. House Madness straightens skewed scans, finds the walls – whether they are drawn solid, hatched or as outlines – and recognises doors and windows.
- Scale from the drawing (1:100 on A3) or from a known dimension
- Doors with hinges and swing, double doors, windows and openings
- The scan stays behind the drawing as a calibrated underlay
Lofts and knee walls
The loft, right from the first line
Create the loft from the floor below in one click. The knee wall is defined the way you measure it – inside, from the floor to the sloping ceiling – and the walls under the roof take their shape by themselves.
- Headroom lines update as you change the pitch
- Measurable area per room and per floor – NS 3940 in Norway, more countries being added
- Gable, hip, half-hip, gambrel, shed and flat roofs
Load-bearing walls and beams
See what your walls carry before you take one out
Mark the load-bearing walls and see what each one takes: floor decks, roof and snow, walls and posts above. Press “Replace with beam” to get a rough beam size, posts followed down to a footing and an order of work from permit to finish.
- Glulam, steel (HEB, HEA, IPE) or C24 – visible or hidden in the floor deck
- Bending, shear and deflection, with alternatives you apply in one click
- Temporary propping, the order of work and what needs checking
The numbers are a rough estimate to understand the consequences. A structural engineer must verify them before any work starts.
How to plan opening up a load-bearing wall
Permit drawings
The whole set for your building permit, to scale
One click makes the drawings on A3: a site plan at 1:500, a plan per floor, section A–A and all four elevations, with a title block and a legend. Sections and elevations come from the model, so they always match the plan.
- Existing, new and demolished – drawn to Norwegian conventions today, more countries coming
- Levels, room heights, and eaves and ridge heights above terrain
- Browse the whole set for free, print to scale with Pluss
Address, site and maps
Your site, straight from the map
Search for your address. In Norway, the boundary, terrain heights and neighbouring buildings come straight from Kartverket’s open data, and more countries are on the way. Place and rotate the house and watch the distance to the boundary as you move it.
- Distance to the boundary and to neighbouring buildings
- A suggested floor level from the terrain
- The site plan goes straight onto the permit drawings
3D, dollhouse and walk-through
Walk around the house before it is built
The 3D model is built from the plan as you draw, with roofs, stairs, fireplaces, chimneys and furniture. Open the house like a dollhouse, or walk through the rooms in first person – up the stairs and into the loft.
- Sun and shadows by time of day
- Real terrain when the site has height data
- Export the model as GLB
The assistantEarly access
Say what you want to change. See it in grey first.
The assistant understands plain words – “a window in the living room, facing west”, “the other corner”, “take out the wall to the kitchen”. Every change shows as a grey suggestion that you accept or discard, and the whole change undoes in one step.
- Load-bearing walls are never removed without a beam or your confirmation
- The app computes the numbers – the assistant explains them
- First as a chat in the app, then with voice
And everything else you need
Made for real houses, with the details that make a drawing right.
Runs in your browser
Nothing to install. Works on Mac, Windows, Linux and Chromebook.
Your data stays with you
Projects are stored in your browser, and a whole project can be saved as one file.
Extensions on their own layer
Draw the new work on its own layer, and hide it to see the house as it is today.
Exact dimensions
Type 3600, 3.6m or 2400+125. Walls snap to corners, midpoints and angles.
Stairs, fireplaces and chimneys
Straight, L and U stairs, fireplaces, wood stoves and chimneys through every floor.
Furniture and materials
Grand pianos, sofas, built-in bookshelves, mouldings, cladding and colours.
Open formats
Export plans as PNG and SVG, 3D as GLB, and the project as one file.
Undo everything
Everything can be undone and redone, and your project saves automatically.
How it works
Three steps from the house as it is today to the drawings your permit needs.
Draw or import
Draw the walls to exact dimensions, or upload the old drawings and let House Madness find the walls.
Plan the change
Make the loft, draw the extension or open up a wall. See the area, the loads and the house in 3D as you work.
Print the permit drawings
Site plan, plans, section and elevations to scale – ready for the neighbours and the building authority.
Free for one whole house. Pay when you print.
Draw, analyse and see your house in 3D without paying. You only need Pluss when the drawings leave the house.
Questions and answers
Can’t find the answer? See the help centre.
Is House Madness free?
Yes. You can draw one whole house with every floor and every tool for free – import, loft, structure, 3D and site. You only pay when you want to print the drawings to scale or draw more houses. See the prices.
Do I need to install anything?
No. House Madness runs in the browser on Mac, Windows, Linux and Chromebook. You do not need an account to start drawing.
Where are my drawings stored?
Locally in your browser – your projects are not stored with us, and you can save a whole project as one file at any time. The account is for subscriptions and the assistant. When you use the assistant, a description of the house is sent with your question so it can answer.
Does House Madness work outside Norway?
Yes. Drawing, lofts, structure, 3D and printing work anywhere, and the app speaks eleven European languages. Address and terrain lookups cover Norway for now, and area rules and drawing conventions for more countries are on the way.
Can I use the drawings for a building permit?
Yes, that is what they are made for: site plan, plans, section and elevations to scale, with a title block and a legend. Your local authority decides what your case needs, and some projects need an architect or another qualified professional to apply.
Does House Madness replace an architect or engineer?
No. House Madness helps you understand and plan, and can save you a lot of drawing work. Structural figures are rough estimates, and a structural engineer must verify any change to the load-bearing structure.
What is the assistant?
An assistant you tell what you want to change. It shows the change in grey, and you accept or discard it. It is in early access – first as a chat in the app, then with voice. Read more.
From the articles
Guides and honest comparisons for planning a loft, an extension or opening up a wall.
Draw your house tonight.
Free for one whole house, with every floor and every tool. No card, nothing to install – just open the app and start.