Q & A
Exactly what are your house plans?
Our house plans are a pictorial representation of what you want to build:
- They provide a way for you to communicate to your builder exactly what you want to build.
- They are the guidelines for bids, pricing, and they will become part of your construction documents.
- They are in 1/4" scale and include all elevations; the floor plan with all necessary measurements, the window and door schedules, the kitchen layout with cabinet sizes, and necessary floor plan notes: the foundation plan with necessary notes, and the cross sections that the subs and builder needs for bids and construction. .
- They are also what the bank needs for loan purposes, and they are what your town needs for permits. All of our buildings (except small garages) are designed with 2x6 exterior wall construction. And all but a few of our homes are designed with roof trusses.
How many plans do we need?
- We don't know how many sets of plans each individual client of ours wants, but we suggest a builder set which is 100-150 dollars, (depending on the number of pages). The builder set includes 4 paper sets.(1 for the town, 1 for you and 2 for the builder, plus a PDF set for bidding , and a PDF Permit set for the town. If you want more, we can print what you want.
Do your house plans have everything I need to obtain a building permit?
The short answer is no. You generally need three things for a building permit:
- A set of professional drawings, which we provide.
- A plot plan showing your lot, showing setbacks and building locations. You or your builder generally provide the plot plan. Some towns may require an official survey.
- A septic plan, if you are not on a town sewer. This plan can typically be provided by a licensed soil analyst in your area.
- You may want to check with the town you are building in to find out if they require more than these 3 things.
Do your home plans supply electrical, plumbing, and heating detail?
Although we can, and do, offer electrical layouts at an added charge, we feel that you should sit down with your electrician to complete a basic plan. Once the walls are studded up and you have a better feel for where you want outlets, jacks and fixtures, you can place them with your electrician's guidance. Plumbing fixture locations are included on the plan. Your plumber would handle the plumbing details. Since there are so many different heating systems available today, this should be handled by your contractor or heating subcontractor. All three of these fields have so many variables involved it would be improper for us or any architectural firm or design company to assume to know what is best for your particular needs.
Are your home plans engineer stamped?
With the exception of extremely large or unusual homes, most towns do not require engineer stamps on home plans. Therefore we do not put out clients through the extra expense needlessly. Should we design a home that is to be built in a town that requires some type of engineering approval, we can have it done, or we can work with an engineer in your area.
Our design expertise comes from over 25 years of in field experience designing and building custom homes, and 20+ years of dedicated home design since we stopped building. Our homes plans are designed to be constructed using common and accepted building practices.
All home plans, by any designer, are pictorial drawings of the expected end result. It is required of the builder to see that his construction meets all town and state codes at the time of construction. Our plans state this fact right on them.
Some of our plans require the use of steel or laminated beams. Since there is no way that we could know what brand particular products your supplier might sell, we do not make specifications on these materials. Your lumberyard, or their supplier will usually specify these items for you at no charge.
Can you modify your home plans?
Yes we can, and we do so quite often.
Minor interior modifications that are quick and easy, we usually do at no extra charge. However, we do have to charge for major modifications such as house size changes or adding garages as these kind of changes do require more time.
If you want any changes at all, please feel free to give us a call. We'll give you a quote before hand so that you'll know exactly what the final cost will be.
If you chose a plan and want changes, give us a call, and we’ll be glad to give you a quote.
Do you reverse your home plans?
Yes we do. Even though builders should be able build homes in the reverse without any problems, most of them prefer to have the plan exactly as it is to be built, so that there will be less room for error.
If you want any our home plans reversed it’s no problem, and involves only a $75.00 extra cost. All text will be legible, of course. (Some companies only offer mirror image with lettering backward- yah, that's right).
Do your plans include a material list?
No they do not. Most builders want to create their own materials list to ensure nothing is left out, and all lumber yards (to our knowledge) will provide a bid of the material list for free.
How is square footage figured on your house plans?
The sq. footage shown on our stock plans is the amount of heated living space of the house.
The garage sq. footage is the garage space, if a set of stairs goes from the garage to the cellar, they are counted as garage space.
Do you have photos of homes you've designed?
We don’t get around as much as we should to take pictures of our completed projects, but any home plan that is displayed with a photograph is one of the actual homes constructed with that plan. As we continue to develop this site and receive more pictures from our clients, they will be substituted in for the line drawings. Who knows, your new home could be the next house to be featured on our home page.
Do you design custom house plans?
Yes we do. We always recommend that you start your planning process as early as possible so that time is not too much of an issue. If you are cramped for time, we recommend that you chose a plan that is close to what you want and have us modify it instead. This is always a lot quicker. Custom plans start at .80 cents a sq. ft. for a "straight forward house plans and go up from there. Garages attached to the the house plan start at .40 cents a sq. ft. Unique, or large custom homes and/or custom garages are individually priced. The time frame for custom plans depends on the complexity, of the home, how busy we are with other projects, and how quickly you get back to us with changes.
How long will it take to receive my home plans?
Stock plans with no changes can generally be ready for pickup, or mail to you within a week or so depending on our work load at the time of your order. When you call to place an order we will inform you of exactly how long it will be before they are ready.
Stock plans with changes take a little longer depending on the nature of the changes, and our work schedule.
Custom plans (as stated above) can take awhile depending on how long it takes to develop and get approval from you on floor plans and elevations. Different times of the year also factor into house plan production time as well. We are much busier in the spring and summer months than we are in the fall or winter.
No matter what the type of plan, or time of year, we will do our best to get your plans to you when you need them. Try to order house plans as early in your planning phase as possible. I do not believe you should pick out a plan today and build next week. I feel that the longer you sit on a plan the happier you'll be after it's built. Sitting on it for a while, allows you to work through the small details, rather than rushing through last minute revisions. Sitting on plans for a while also makes it easy to come back and have us make changes (if you want any) before you start construction.
How do I purchase your house plans?
The simple answer is call us.
Over the years we have found the best and and easiest way for you to purchase our plans, is to simply call us during normal work hours. We prefer this method, as it allows us to take the time with you to answer any questions or concerns you may have about the plan you want.
If you want any changes to a plan, it's easier through phone conversation than through e mails.
Should you call and and get an answering machine, it is because we are either busy with a client, on the phone with a client, or on an outside call. If you leave your number and the best time for us to return a call, we will try to contact you back the same day, but at the most within 24 hours.
If you email us through the site, please leave a number so we can call you back.
Please feel free to call us if you have any home plan related questions. Our business hours are normally 8:00 am thru 5:00 pm EST, Monday through Thursday. We are usually closed Fridays, weekends and major Holidays. On occasion, someone may be in the office working on Friday. If that is the case they will answer the phone.
May I build more than one house with your plans?
The real short answer is no. All of our home designs are sold with the understanding that they are for the construction of one house only, for the person and address named on the plans. If you wish to build more than one house from the same set of plans, we can negotiate an appropriate rate.
Copyright Information :
All of our plans, designs, printed material, and information on this site, are copyright protected under federal copyright laws. We retain sole rights to any and all of this material.
- Our plans cannot be copied, or constructed from without our written permission.
- Purchasing a set of plans does not transfer copyright ownership other than to give the purchaser permission to build one home for themselves.
- All of our designs are sold with the understanding that they are for one house only, for the person named on the plans.
- If plans are purchased by a builder for a "spec" house, the name of the lot and development will be needed for copyright purposes.
- Home plans sold to a developer building multiple homes, such as condos in the same development, will require special arrangements.
- When you purchase our home plans, you will receive one copy stamped "for building permit only". The remainder of the plan copies will be stamped "for bid or construction – not for building permit purposes".
- Plans may not be given, loaned, transferred, or resold without our written permission.
- We request that all plans given out for bid purposes be returned to you once bids have been completed and submitted.
- Feel free to call with any questions not answered here. John and Donna Call