Make sure you use the proper set of plans to build your custom home

You’ve been working with an architect and a general contractor to create the perfect custom home for you that can be built in your budget, you’ve had multiple plans drawn and finally settled on a final design and budget. There’s only one more thing that needs to be done, settle on the correct plan.

It might sound like an obvious statement that you need to use the proper drawings but it’s not as obvious as you might think.

When architects create new drawings there might be subtle differences but those subtle differences can make a big difference. In the design process there are multiple sets of plans that are drawn one or two weeks apart you can end up with drastic differences to certain things in the home such as windows that are added or omitted or roof lines that have been changed slightly that the laymen might not notice when glancing at the plans.

When a general contractor budgets a custom home for a client they send out the most current drawings out to their sub-trades to price. A sub-trade then keeps those plans that they have priced from encase they get the chance to do the work they have something to reference. When you get multiple drawings for a house a busy sub-trade that arrives months after they originally priced it can easily end up working off the wrong set of plans.

The best way to avoid this is for the architect, the general contractor and the homeowner to agree on the date of the plans that they are going to use to construct the home. Any other plans that people have should be thrown away or destroyed once the general contractor has sent out an email to all the relevant sub contractors informing them of the appropriate date on the plans that they will be using.
This will insure that the wrong plans will not be used when the sub-trades come to work onsite.

Even with emailing everyone involved the general contractor will have to take the time to meet with the sub-trades onsite to ensure that they are using the proper set of plans.

A homeowner that has hired the right general contractor should not have to worry about this because a well organized general should have strict rules when sub-trades are working onsite about the plans that are being used by the sub contractors.

If your given the option to pay a little more to have an onsite site super at all times by your general contractor you should take it, this is the best way to guarantee that the home is built the way that you want it with little to no mistakes that could cost you money in a time and material contract.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.