|
First, you may be wondering what a stock home plan is. Designers
and architects across the country are always actively involved in
custom designing residences for all types of people. Many architects
or designers however, spend a great deal of time creating their
own designs; these are called stock home plans. It is advantageous
to buy a stock home plan for several reasons.
First, home design professionals are involved with the process every
day. They know the ins and outs of home design and strive to design
plans that are functional, with effective use of space without compromising
the curb appeal.
Many times designers will offer a popular floor plan with several
different facades. This allows you to find a great floor plan and
still choose an architectural style like country or traditional.
You may spend a lot of money having a design professional draw and
redraw your plan to see what it would look like as a different style.
Stock home plans are also a lot less expensive than having your
home custom designed. A stock home plan is already completed and
can be copied and shipped right away. Having your home custom designed
may take weeks or even months to complete. This will not only delay
the construction of your home but will end up costing you significantly
more. Custom designed plans may cost you two, three, or even ten
times more than a stock home plan.
What if you need to personalize a house plan?
We have many people contact us for quotes for changes to our plans.
Most often these changes can be easily redlined by you or your builder.
Redlining is very common as changes or modifications can be made
in the field with experienced professionals. We would be happy to
provide you with a quote to customize our plans. On average, the
cost to do this starts around $150 in addition to the cost of the
plan and ranges up to more than the plan itself depending on the
time involved.
What you should know before customizing a
plan.
We have great design professionals that would be happy to customize
your home plan. However, there are a few things you ought to know
before doing so. Often times municipalities will require plans to
be reviewed by a local structural engineer or architect before they
issue a building permit. Why? Designers and architects create their
drawings according to the building practices in the location in
which they reside. Construction practices will not vary tremendously
but homes built in the Rocky Mountains will be able to support significant
snowfall while homes in Florida will not. An engineer will analyze
the structure and size the beams, rafters etc. to assure that the
structural integrity of the home is not compromised by the location
in which it is built. In the same manner, he may be able to save
you some costs by downsizing the fortitude of various framing members;
should you be building a home that was designed for an area with
higher snow loads.
Even if you have a home custom designed by an architect or designer
in your area, the municipality will still require the engineer's
review. It is important to know this before customizing a home
plan
for a couple of reasons. Often times people have minor changes
like moving a door, adding a door or window, or moving an interior
wall.
The engineer, builder or even a local draftsperson, may add these
personalizations to the plan. You may be able to save some costs
by having you changes "redlined" in this manner after
you purchase a plan package from us. Like we have described in
the
section above. You will probably want to purchase the vellum set
if it is available so that you only have to redline the plan once
before making copies. They call this redlining because it is generally
done with a red pen so that it is easily recognized. You may consider
this option before requesting a customized plan if your changes
are not too significant since you may be paying the engineer to
analyze the plan anyway. While we feel it is always best to have
the designer or architect make all the changes to the plan, some
minor issues can be cost effectively resolved through this practice.
Please keep in mind that if you find a plan
that you like on our website or other publications, it is illegal
to take our advertising plan images to a local draftsperson to
have
them redrawn with customizations. This is copyright infringement
and is punishable up to $100,000. You can have our plans redrawn
with your customizations but you must first purchase a plan package
to obtain rights to do so.
Custom Designed Home Plans.
We can custom design home plans upon request but our time frame
may vary according to our current work load. Contact
us for information.
|
