Custom House Plans, Luxury Residential Designs:

What Do They Mean?  What Are House Plans? What Is It That Your Residential Architect Actually Creates?

There is a lot of slang used to describe what it is your architect creates for your home.  Some people refer to them simply as “plans.”  Others say floor plans or house plans.  Rarely does anyone say what the legal description is: Schematic Design, Design Development & Construction Documents, per the AIA (Amercian Institute of Architects).   That is a mouthful, so I guess it is no surprise that the public at large has invented shorter phrases to describe what it is architects do when they create the design and construction documents for a home.

Drawings are usually produced on computer these days, regardless of whether you call them house plans or construction documents, and it takes a lot of skilled human design involvement.

So what’s in these house plans or house plan design?  Are they just “plans?”  No.  There are floor plans, for sure.  And site plan(s), a roof plan, exterior elevations, building sections, wall sections, details, specifications, door schedules, finish schedules, Index, title, abbreviations, energy code information and other drawing sheets that can also contain electrical plans, cabinetry plans and elevations, interior documents, framing and more.

(C)Copyright 2010 Rand Soellner, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.  Anyone is hereby licensed to Link to this article from your website, from the anchor text on your website of: House Plans.

So What is in a House Plan?

What is contained in your house plans drawing package is determined by two main things:
1. What the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) requires
2. What your Architect feels comfortable including.

He may also offer sketches or even colored renderings (for which you usually pay) and perhaps 3D computerized imagery.  None of these items are free, nor are they easy to accomplish.  You do not simply punch a button and they magically appear.  They require a great deal of time and specialized skills, often with the assistance of consultants.  And while we are at it, let’s clear the air about Computerized Aided Drafting (CAD) for house plans.  It too, is not accomplished by the pushing of a single button on a keyboard.  It is simply another way to draw.  A smart, experienced human needs to guide the creation of lines, just as they would on a drafting board.  Sure, a few things are helped, using some copying and mirroring, but other tasks can actually take longer.  Where CAD really shines is in revisions of house plans.  It is much easier to revise a computer drawing and then plot it out than it is to redraw something from scratch.  For us, we only charge for what we do, so any savings is passed along to you.

Luxury Home Architects Create Detailed House Plans

Usually, you are better off having your architect provide a very detailed set of house plans.  Why, you might ask, if you know it will cost more.  It will cost more to pay your designer, but it will typically cost less to pay your builder and what you pay for your construction costs is usually many, many times more than what you pay your architect.  So how will more detailed house plans from your residential architect make your home construction cost less?  Because on a construction site, time is money and lots of it.  Anything that can expedite the construction process will end up lowering the cost, because it will take less time.  Why?  Because the builder will not have to spend time scratching his head figuring things out if your Architect’s careful planning and documentation have already done this in the house plans.  Particularly how things go together in three dimensions.  Your documents (house plans) should have lots of dimensions indicated for length, width, and height.  Things should be located in space.  With computer-assisted dimensioning, this is pretty easy to accomplish these days.

Call them House Plans or Plans or Whatever You Like

You may call them what I do, house plans or home plans or the like.  That’s alright by me.  I have even used some of these generic slang terms in my website articles to help you find them.  By the time I am through designing your project, you will see the real extent of what I and other architects do.  And it will help you during your construction.  That’s a win-win for us all.  Information courtesy of Rand Soellner Architect.

Contact Information:

Rand Soellner Architect
rand@homearchitects.com
www.HomeArchitects.com
828-269-9046

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