Tag Drawing

We have now moved into the final stage, Construction Documents.

Construction Documents are just that, documents used for the purpose of securing a building permit and to use to build the structure. (If a contractor tells you he doesn’t follow the plans, walk away, you will not get what you want, you will get whatever he builds.)

These documents are the fruit of your labor, so to say. They visually and textually communicate your ideas and desires to the permit review office so they can determine if it fits within the codes they have set forth for their area and also communicates how you want this structure to be built and what materials you want to use and where you want them.

It dictates the placement of the house on your lot and of the rooms within the house. It dictates the room sizes and the door and window sizes and placement. It dictates the exterior materials and can dictate the actual colors you want inside and out.

These are very important documents and you worked hard to get to this stage. With these in hand, you have the ability to finally see your build come to life. Now you can sit back and relax. Well, maybe not.

First, as stated above, these plans will be used to acquire your building permit. Several copies will be needed. Hopefully, by this stage, you have chosen a contractor to build your home and have made your selections of materials and finishes.

Your contractor will then send these drawings into the permit office for approval. Yes, they may make comments and require some corrections. They may have a requirement that exceeds the standard codes, which they are allowed to do. At this point, comments are sent back to the contractor, who should send to the designer to get revised drawings with the comments addressed. This is actually very typical as designers do not know every detail of every localities codes. The corrections should be made expediently and returned to the permit office for review. Once this is done, you should get an approval and you can move to the next step of construction.

It should be noted that every locality has their own timeline on getting permits approved and their own set of guidelines to go by. They are based on the International Residential Code book, but it is within their right to add to this set of codes. As of this post, the IRC2022 is being planned out and most localities are still using the IRC2012 to the IRC2015 codes, so your designer may know the main code book, (Which is about 2″ thick) but may not realize that your area has added something more stringent to a specific code.

Got the permit, now what?

At this stage, your house has probably already been staked out, silt fence up and equipment brought in to begin digging for the foundation. At the very least, your contractor will have a start date for all of this scheduled out. You will begin to see your site developed and your foundation placed. During the construction, there will be many inspections, depending on the permit office and your area. Your contractor can let you know what their schedule is and it is your responsibility to stay on top of the schedule and the budget.

Things like weather and material delays can change the schedule, often dramatically. So, when you go over the schedule with your contractor, you may want to find out what his/her contingencies are for things like “acts of God”, or just severe weather that stops the project for days. What they do if materials are delayed, what they have in place to secure your lot and materials.

Now, you are under construction and your dream home is being built. Congratulations and enjoy it for years to come.

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So, now that we have covered some basics about where to start and what to expect from the beginning, let’s take a look at what the design process will look like, or could look like, with some modifications as needed.

The initial meeting

The initial meeting has traditionally been either at the designer’s office, or place of general meetings or at your current location of residence. As I said, this is generally the tradition, but as times have changed, so have meeting venues.

A Zoom meeting, or GoTo Meeting, or Face time, or even Skype can offer the virtual meeting space across long distances, making your choice of designer much broader and the designers clientele, much broader. This allows for meetings over long distances at a reduced cost, and offers each party more flexibility.

This meeting will be the meeting you bring information to. Your plot plan, deed restrictions, survey, etc. Anything regarding the land you want to build on. Refer to part 1 for information regarding what you should do and what you will need.

The designer should be very attentive to what you are sharing with him/her. You should bring any pictures, articles, product specifications that define the style and feel of your new home. More information is better than nothing at all. This doesn’t mean your designer will put it all into your home, but it does give them reference material on how you want your home built. They will take notes and refer to this information throughout the design process.

The initial meeting is also where any contracts are discussed and often signed. This contract/agreement will cover the scope of work expected from the designer and the responsibilities and pay schedule expected from the client. A down payment is usually made to start the project and a timetable for at least the preliminary plans will be agreed upon.

Should you decide that this is not the designer for you to use, or they decide that they are not the designer for you, there may be a fee for the time spent in the initial meeting. This should have been discussed prior to the meeting and should not be a surprise.

Starting the Preliminary drawings

This is a process. It may require a site visit before anything is started. This may be done right away, or, if it is a busy firm, it may be scheduled out. Either way, this is optional, depending on the circumstances and the designer or firm. A site visit is good, however, not always feasible or possible.

If the site is multiple hours away, there may be a separate fee for travel. This may make the site visit not feasible. In such a case, Google Earth can be a great resource. Any pictures you provide can also help. With today’s smartphone technology, you can do a video of your property and surrounding community, either live or shoot it and send it to the designer. (Live would be best, in case they have questions.) The purpose is to get a general sense of what can be built in the area and on the land. The foundation may change dramatically if the area you want to build on is a steep hill as opposed to flat ground, or if it is a wet area as opposed to a higher, dryer climate.

Some things that are taken into consideration are overall lay or slope, as discussed prior, Where the best views are, where the worst views are, how the sun travels across the property, what type of trees/foliage are there, what scenery is naturally available, how the wind and sun effect the land and so much more. These are details that will often decide things like the location and orientation of the house, any outdoor living spaces, outbuildings and even driveways.

This is where the survey or plot plan is required. The setbacks, sewer/water hookups and other site issues are discussed and considered.

Preliminary drawings

So, the designer has a lot of information to sort through. Ideas, pictures, site evaluations, etc. They will take that back and begin to interpret everything into a drawing. They will start with some concept sketches and move onto something they are ready to show you.

Preliminary plans will generally be a layout of your floor plans and an idea of the front elevation. These should be detailed enough to allow you to see the basic sizes of each room and understand the flow. The elevation should give you a good idea of what the street face will look like.

At this point, these are a rough draft interpretation. They are for you to look at and decide if there are any changes that need to be made to the layout and flow. This also allows you to start choosing materials. Things like exterior finishes, flooring, colors, cabinets and countertops.

We will stop here for now and resume on our next blog post.

If you have started here, make sure to start at the beginning with Custom Home Design – Part 1

To see the post prior to this, check out Custom Home Design – Part 2

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