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.

How to properly read a set of house plans

How to properly read a set of house plans

Reading house plans is not as hard as it sounds, it takes a little practise, someone to point out what the symbols on the page mean and it also helps to be able to picture things in your mind.

When you have a set of house plans drawn up by an architect or draftsmen usually the first page of drawings is an overview of the site that you will be working on, this shows the position of the house relative to the lot lines, road ways and right of ways. It also shows the positioning of the other buildings already on the property or any building that is to be built. A lot of the time this overview page will also have numbers on it that will be around the home and in key areas. These numbers are the grade elevation numbers, they show what the height of the finished grade will have to be around the newly build building. From these numbers you will be able to set the height of the first floor of the house which will set the height of the entire building.

The next pages of a proper set of house plans will show the foundation and footings as an overview (from above looking down).

There should be this same overview for every floor and the roof with details on interior and exterior walls.

What comes next are the elevations, this is the pictures of all the four sides of the home as seen from the outside of the building.

The last pages will be details, cross sections and lists of window, doors and anything else that the architect and engineers deem necessary for the construction of the home.

There are several things you need to understand about house plans;

• Every house plan has a scale. This scale will allow you to measure with a tape measure or a ruler to ascertain the lengths of things on the plan that do not already have measurements. The scale for most plans is ¼” =1’. This means that for every ¼” you measure on the paper in the real world it would have been 1 foot. This is the most common of scales, but a lot of plans depending on the size and scope of the building will use different measurements. Depending on the architect and what they are attempting to draw the scale could change from page to page and detail to detail. It is critical that you take the time to ascertain the scale of the drawing that you are looking at.

• There is always a legend. Depending on what part of the plan that you are looking at there will be symbols that you won’t understand.  You will have to look for a legend that will help you identify what they mean. The part of the plan with the most symbols is usually the electrical layout. There are so many different things that go into a home to do with electrical the only way to do a proper layout is to use symbols. The legend will tell you in detail which symbol means which.

• When trying to understand a cross section you must figure out the location of the cross section. This is done by looking at the floor plans that are shown from an overview (birds view); at certain locations around the perimeter of the building envelope you will see symbols that will say A2 or A5 with a line running away from them towards the building. These numbers are telling you that there is a cross section available to look at, the A means it’s a cross section for that floor of the house and the number tells you what cross section it is. All you have to do is look through the plans until you find the corresponding number labeled on a cross section. This cross section will give you a view of that area of the house as if someone cut the building in half as a straight on view. These are extremely important for interior details and to determine how certain loads and beams are to be built and carried from floor to floor.

• There is always a date on the plans, it will state the date and also if the plan is a revision. Revisions are changes to the plans from the original set of drawings that will affect the building or design of the structure. Everyone most make sure that they are working off the same plan with the same date.

The best thing to do when trying to read plans is ask a lot of questions to your builder while you are reading them together. They will be able to explain to you what they mean and then when you are having discussions about the build either over the phone or via email you will both understand what part of the plan to look at.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.

Why you need to understand how to properly read a set of house plans

Why you need to understand how to properly read a set of house plans

Whether you want to become a carpenter, work in any part of the construction industry or you are thinking about having a custom home built then you need to learn to read a set of house plans or blue prints properly.

If you want to pursue a job with an engineering firm or work for a municipality then being able to put on your resume that you can accurately read a set of blue prints will give you a leg up on the competition. Everyone eventually will need to deal with a construction company or renovation company when they own their own home; this makes it imperative that you take the time to learn how to read a set of plans.

There are many reasons why you need to be able to read a set of house plans, especially if you are having a custom home built;

• When your contractor asks you a question about your home over the phone or by email you need to be able to look at the plans and understand what he is asking you. There are a lot of decisions to be made by you the homeowner on a custom home but not all of them have to be made in person.

• How do you know what the inside of your home will look like if you can’t read the plans the architect drew for you. It wastes time and money if you have to wait for your contractor to build sections of the house before you can understand what it looks like.

• Understanding your house plans will help you understand what you’re being billed for by your contractor.

• Most delays when building custom homes come from the homeowner having trouble making decisions, it is usually because they can’t envision what they are being asked or the options that they are being given.

• Most disputes between the homeowner and either the contractor or the trades are because the homeowner has asked for something that cannot be done because of the way the home has been designed, drawn or engineered.

When having a custom home built or having someone renovate your existing home knowing how to read the plans is not just a one person job, your significant other should always learn to read them as well. This will allow better communication between the two of you and give your contractor the option on who they can talk to when explaining something or asking a question.

Knowing how to read the plans that your house was built with will also help you in the future, even custom homes eventually require renovations or repairs and when that time comes you might not be using the same contractor that built the home. Even if you are using the same company it could be ten to twenty years since they had been to the house and might not remember what’s behind the walls. A set of house plans will inform the contractor and you as the homeowner of the load points and bearing beams that are behind the drywall.
This is critical information when you are planning out a major renovation that requires removing or moving walls.

The more you can understand about your house plans the better it is for everyone involved, it makes your contractors job easier and will help take the stress off a lot of the decision making that you will be required as the house progresses.

Once you learn how to read a set of house plans or blue prints you probably will never forget. It will also give you the basics to reading many different plans and schematics for many other things that you could run into in life.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.