Wife and I have a pretty clear idea of the general layout we want.
We've gone through dozens of plans but nothing that checks all the boxes.
Met with the builder yesterday. His daughter does drafting, and would charge $700-$800 for the plans.
I could sketch a general layout and send it to her, but not to scale.
I think y'all have mentioned an app for this type of thing(?)
WWGRMD?
I designed my own house and had a guy draw up the plans. I had built a few houses before that, but next time, I’ll pony up for an actual architect. There are just some things that you don’t take into consideration and you will regret it later.
For that price (or even more!) definitely have her do the plans. Eliminates squabbles between the builder and the draftsman over whose fault it is for a million small mistakes like: not enough room beside the door for the trim, or the drain line has to go through the hvac plenum, or you forgot the outside faucets, etc.
We used an app called Floor Plan Creator when we built recently. There is a learning curve, but once over that it is a good tool. When we had the floor plan the way we wanted we hired a draftsman to do the real plans for the permits and the builder.
I used a 2D CAD program to design the floor plan for the first house we built 20 years ago, and the app is much easier! You still need to know a lot about all kinds of things involved in the building process in order to do a floor plan and stay in budget. How much space do you need for a toilet? What are standard bath tub sizes? How big do windows have to be for local egress requirements? What are standard door sizes and what size do you need? What about future needs for wheelchair or limited stair use? Room sizes, kitchen layout, furnace placement, and on and on. We found it to be a fun learning experience, but it could easily become a nightmare for some people.
Anyway, having the drafter and builder on the same team is a definite plus. The only downside I see is that having her do the plans locks you into that builder which might increase the price. Who owns the plans, and can you use them to get competitive quotes from other builders if you want to?
Sketchup is a CAD software that is pretty easy to learn and free.
Unless you find a residential architect who sells stock plans - they do exist - then you are going to have anywhere from $5000-$15000 in fees for a custom designed house and required drawings.
The downside is that buys a lot of new furniture. The upside is that you get what you want and Maybe even some things you didn't know you wanted.
Duke said:Unless you find a residential architect who sells stock plans - they do exist - then you are going to have anywhere from $5000-$15000 in fees for a custom designed house and required drawings.
The downside is that buys a lot of new furniture. The upside is that you get what you want and Maybe even some things you didn't know you wanted.
Lots of people pay a realtor that much (or more) to buy/sell a house without much remorse.
Do you have any CAD experience?
You can download and install Revit student/instructor license for free. I've taught myself Revit with the tutorials and YouTube, but I've got formal training in AutoCAD and made a living with Solidworks for a few years, so I picked it up pretty quick. Still it's not like it's that difficult.
Revit is pretty powerful, part of Autodesk's design software catalog, and what a lot of professionals use. I've got a friend who's a professional architect it's that's what her firm uses. Revit has a lot of options baked in, but Revitcity.com is a great resource for all kids of designs, options for doors, windows, furniture, fixtures etc.
poopshovel again said:Wife and I have a pretty clear idea of the general layout we want.
We've gone through dozens of plans but nothing that checks all the boxes.
Met with the builder yesterday. His daughter does drafting, and would charge $700-$800 for the plans.
I could sketch a general layout and send it to her, but not to scale.
I think y'all have mentioned an app for this type of thing(?)
WWGRMD?
My "plans" consist on a sketch on a yellow legal with the sizes listed. I paid my fee He put the the official stamp and I went to work. But it took 24 years to get to that point and me Running for Mayor and almost winning.
I just kinda followed the sizes and set back rules. But designed as I went. Well I did make an exact scale model of where all the timbers went. But details I kinda figured out on the way. I was putting up roof timbers and Noticed a fantastic view I'd missed so a dormer went there.
I kinda couldn't figure out the stairs thing so for too long everything was ladders. Then inspiration and I decided on putting in a tower, except I was up on the third floor. So that's where the tower starts from.
Nights I'd solve how I'd do things and days I'd figure out if I liked it or not.
Since I was in charge I didn't compromise if doing something took months longer so what. I rolled the edges of my roof then made the front round because it was hard to do and I wanted it that way.
Large format graph paper works better than a yellow legal pad and you can draw to scale very easily.
In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :
Maybe but you miss out on the discoveries along the way.
The way the sun lite illuminates a Wall. A view overlooked and unseen at ground level.
sure you trade some space in a closet or give up room in a bathroom
Rather than trying to sketch something out using a generic CAD program, give this free program a try:
It has built in features specifically made for creating house layouts. I played around with it a bit and while it does not replace a professional set of drawings, it does let you put together a pretty good representation of a house layout fairly quick.
I've drawn up and built a few houses. If you are building it yourself....do that.
If you are hiring someone to build it, get plans made. There are a lot of random issues that you can run across
Grab some graph paper and map out what you want, then turn it over to the builder to have his daughter draft it.
At least that way any issues with plans or dimensions belong to them not you. They should be willing to work with you to get it to a design you're happy with by the sound of things.
I've been doing a lot of my layout and rough design work for my house and extension on graph paper, which gives me a great idea of what I want or don't want and some kind of scale so I can see what may or may not work
Yourself said:
Anyway, having the drafter and builder on the same team is a definite plus. The only downside I see is that having her do the plans locks you into that builder which might increase the price. Who owns the plans, and can you use them to get competitive quotes from other builders if you want t
I agree with this. If OP does decide to go this route with his builder, he should certainly stipulate that if he is paying to have the work done, he should own all rights to the plans. Technically if he does the initial layout, it is his Intellectual Property, and the draftsperson is only applying his IP to paper.
Thanks for all the responses!!! I think I'll give the app a shot. I'm not stranger to sketching things out on draft paper though. Then hand either over to the builder's daughter.
I actually walked through the house she designed for herself and was very impressed.
frenchyd said:
Do you really have stone veneer in full contact with, and bearing on, wood timbers?
To the OP: Don't do that.
"I designed my own house!"
yup, sure looks like it.
poofacemike - make sure whoever designs things doesn't make things stupid like making a room 12'3" when most carpet is 12' rolls. The last new house I did any work on was full of dumb stuff like that.
I met with a CAD drafter who specializes in custom home plans. I brought a rough idea (from a plan set available online) and ideas for changes I wanted to see. It took a couple back and forth emails after the initial meeting to get a set of architectural plans I was happy with, but it was super easy. To be fair, they are not as anal-retentively detailed as what you would get from an actual architect. I had some suppliers and subcontractors who didn't want to bid the project because the plans didn't hold their hand as much as they wanted, but those weren't the guys I wanted to work with anyway.
I paid $0.75 per square foot for the plans. On par with what a set of off the shelf plans will cost on the internet.
Then I took the architectural plans to an engineer, the foundation and framing plans were twice as much more. But I'm thinking I didn't get a great deal from this engineer, I should have shopped around a bit.
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:
poofacemike - make sure whoever designs things doesn't make things stupid like making a room 12'3" when most carpet is 12' rolls. The last new house I did any work on was full of dumb stuff like that.
Seems like yet another reason to never use carpet.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Agreed. There will be no carpet.
My attitude about your question changed when I stopped reading "house plants DIY or hire someone".
Another reason: most building materials come in multiples of 2 or 4 feet. So it's really berkeleying stupid to do something like my buddy's porch, which is 8'5". So every 10' board has 1'7" of waste that he still has to pay for just to throw away.
It's less relevant now that most foundations are poured in place concrete rather than masonry, but I always like to work to an 8" module. Dimensions of even number feet should end in either 0" or 8", odd number feet should always end in 4". That's a half-block module which is perfect for minimizing cut block or brick. I once designed a 40,000 sq ft building and the mason complimented me that he didn't have to cut a single brick except for the half units always needed for the openings or corners. I was proud.
This also works nicely with framing, typically on 16" centers, and other materials, which as mentioned above are typically in 24" increments.
Of course, there are always stupid exceptions. Modular cabinetry comes in 3" increments, for reasons lost to the fog of history.
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:Another reason: most building materials come in multiples of 2 or 4 feet. So it's really berkeleying stupid to do something like my buddy's porch, which is 8'5". So every 10' board has 1'7" of waste that he still has to pay for just to throw away.
Trudat. #wisdom
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