Building house, house plans?

[TacomaJD]

Where did you find your house plans? I'm new to this, but looking online, I see amounts of $1000-$1500 for a set of drawings.....**** balls! If that's normal, I'm in the wrong line of work!

We are trying to decide to build or buy. We'd like to build if we can find an ideal spot of land. My buddy builds houses and is good at it, built his own 6 years ago and done a great job, so I figure he will be our homebuilder. I asked him about house plans and he says people usually just bring him and his crew a set of plans that they found online or wherever. I assumed he has some sort of selection to choose from, but apparently that's not the case. I've found a couple online that I like, but damn is it common for ppl to give a grand or more for drawings?

Also, for those that have built, what is your advice acquired from your experience? Maybe things you wish you had done different or things you are glad that you did end up doing. If we build, it won't be anything super fancy, probably around 1700-1800 sq ft average style home with 2 car garage. Hoping to build at least a 30x40 shop too. It will probably all be hired out, as I won't have time to do much, if any of the work myself.

BUT....if we find the right deal in something already built that satisfies our needs/wants, we may go that route if it will save significant money. Looking at current prices around my neck of the woods and what he says he can build for, it sounds like I may can come out cheaper just building what I want and everything being brand new. That option sounds better to me.

 

[lowbudgetjunk]

Take whatever time they say it will take to build and multiply it by at least 1.5 to 2. Whatever the cost is, be prepared to pay more. Friend or not, quote or not, prices seem to magically change.

Put in a safe room or a partial basement. You live in Alabama and storm shelters work, but indoor safe room can potentially save your life. If you can swing it, add a whole house generator. You may only use it 5 or 6 times in your lifetime, but if it is your forever home, those 5 or 6 times it will pay for itself 10 times over. Get as much insulation as you can afford too. Same thing with double pained windows, you get what you pay for and that investment can save you in the long run. Ductwork/Vents in the ceiling. No more moving furniture in a room to avoid a vent.

I am sure there is more, but I am too tired to think right now. Surgery day again tomorrow and we've got to get an early start.

 

[MoparMan]

We had our house built 12 yrs ago. At the time we had no kids, now we have 5. It was 1850 sq ft with a full basement. I could fit 5 vehicles in the basement and still had a good size area for storage and stuff. We have since built a room where my storage area use to be and it's now a bedroom. So now I can only fit 3 vehicles in the basement cause of all the extra crap from the kids...but there is also three 4-wheelers down there too. We are planning to do an addition to our house soon cause we can't find anything big enough for us.

Ok, sorry for rambling. The best advice I can give is to build it bigger than you think you want cause you will need more space as y'all grow. Also, be sure to get a good central ac unit that is more than big enough for your living area.

 

[grcthird]

Septic tank, **** a sewer bill. Metal roof, once and done. No steps to main living level from parking area and wide hallways in case of (god forbid) someone having to be wheelchair bound. Heck even build a big shower without a curb to step over. His and hers walkin closets, seperate so it is harder for her to take over your closet than it is just to take over your side of the closet. Plumb natural gas line to wherever the grill will be, cheaper than propane. On demand hot water heater. Brick outside, vinyl soffits, metal roof equls no maintenance exterior, painting sucks. Machine gun turrets to keep the solicitors, jehovas witnesses and democrats away.

 

[Bumpers]

Re:

House plans are crazy high.

Imo I would do a metal building shop/house. You have no load bearing walls so you can layout the house however you want. Double insulated (metal building insulated/ insulated walls in house section). Tis what I will be doing one day .


Must haves in a house IMO
-mud room (come in from whatever outdoor activity kick off shoes clean up a little and whatever before entering house)
-safe room small bedroom size (at least 12" concrete walls/ceiling, steel reinforcements/door. Store valuables storm safety ect.)

-at least 24ft deep garage with a 8' or better door hieght.

-good insulation(cellulose/spray foam) good windows/doors. This will cost upfront but really pay off in the long run. Also a good idea to insulate interior walls between high traffic/noise areas just for sound deadening.

-plug-ins in floor next to couches sitting areas ect

- big closets (master at least )

-floor the attic space

-open floor plan kitchen/living room /dining area all one room

-badass fireplace lol

-mancave

I'm sure I will think of much more I will add but these are just a couple off hand I will incorporate when I build.








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[TacomaJD]

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All good recommendations. This is the type of stuff Im looking for. This will be a list of ideas I will revisit multiple times as I prioritize.

Full size basement sounds awesome, but probably not going to be in the budget...along with several other things lol.

I'm definitely for an open floor plan as well!

 

[TacomaJD]

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The no steps thing is also big with me, but thats kinda hard to do and have a crawl space ain't it? Is it common to dig out a crawl space that's countersunk in order to keep the floor level closer to the ground level?

 

[jp fan]

We designed it on all on graph paper and built it ourselves, only had a few contractors. Block and brick, HVAC, Drywall, the rest we done ourselves, it was a lot of work for over a year and still moved in without it being complete but took our time and tried not to borrow to much money, Good luck to you as this is a very stressful process

Things I would do next time
1 .25 advantech flooring I used .75
use 1x12 on the roof I used shingles again
add a few more outside water outlets
not have a dinning room just bigger kitchen

 

[Hillbilly Beast]

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The no steps thing is also big with me, but thats kinda hard to do and have a crawl space ain't it? Is it common to dig out a crawl space that's countersunk in order to keep the floor level closer to the ground level?

You could always pour a slab and build up from there and run all of your duct work and water lines in the attic. I've seen a few houses built like that, when no steps are desired.

 

[TacomaJD]

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I'd rather shy away from a slab house. I'd hate my life if something ever happened and I had to tear up the floor and bust up concrete to fix some plumbing or something.

 

[86chevota]

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The no steps thing is also big with me, but thats kinda hard to do and have a crawl space ain't it? Is it common to dig out a crawl space that's countersunk in order to keep the floor level closer to the ground level?

Yes that's the exact way my house is built!

 

[halcat]

You need a budget,
Size, how big
A licensed contractor.
Most of the time a contractor can get a better price from the trade subs because they work for him all the time. They will also work faster. if it takes a contractor four months to build your house, without him it could take a year for you to sub-contract it out. If you pay him 25 grand, you might save that over contracting it out your self. Get a contract with a materials list on paper . I have built a lot of houses and have never went over the amount unless the owner changes there mind. Set down with your contractor and make SURE you and he are on the same page and you BOTH know what you want. Make sure it is turn key. Finishing a house while trying to live in it sucks. Remember this, if you have a god job and make good money, work at your job and make your money and pay your contractor to do his job. Most people want to save money and do some work there selves and miss so much work it actually can cost more than if you stay on your job and let him do his. If you want to help him, make sure you do your leg work and have everything picked out so it will be on the job when he is ready to install it. All the other things like steps to the house, crawl space, basement and garage size will depend on the lay of the property you build on. That is the part you contractor can help you with the most, he builds houses for a living and knows how to set a house up on a lot right so it looks good and water drains well around it. He will probably have an architect who can design what you want for a lot less that you will pay for prints on line. Good luck.

 

[Elliott]

That seems reasonable on house plans, I just payed 6,300 for site plans for my new shop, they was suppose to take 3 weeks ended up taking 3 months. Point is if you can get time frames with penalties I would. There are to many people in construction that drag their asses.

 

[John Galbreath Jr.]

I have never built. Had three houses, one 10 years, second 11 years, and 16 years where I am now. One thing not yet expressed is that building a house is very stressful on your relationship. Our current house is a Southern Living house plan. The odd thing to me is that is cost more for them to mirror image the plans, so the builder built our current house off the non mirrored plans. I would have had so much fuked up if I had tried that.

 

[paradisepwoffrd]

Re:

X2, I would say that price is good if they are stamped. Not sure about your area, but some municipal require stamped plans for permits. Architects are $$$$. We looked to build for a while, and started looking at the websites for the big builders/modulars. Most of them have plans on their site and give you some ideas atleast. The mods u might even be able to find and visit.

I wanted to do a metal building with house inside, but wife nixed that. We ended up buying as the price to build here was 2-3x for the same thing, and I already had the property.

I would check with builders/GCs to set what their typical $/sq ft is on what they build and start there.

One thing I can recommend with crawlspace, put a thin layer of concrete down and make it 3'+ high. Then you can roll around on a creeper.

 

[Mongo44]

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X2, I would say that price is good if they are stamped. Not sure about your area, but some municipal require stamped plans for permits. Architects are $$$$.

Unless his county/city require a stamp, Alabama state law does not require an Architect stamp. And I have honestly never heard of a county/city that does for residential buildouts.

Plans are expensive because software and technical skill are expensive. Plus dumbass people wanting to make a million changes but not wanting to pay for it. High initial cost + obscene hourly rate for modifications keep the indecisive folks honest.

Last set of house plans I did were $800 out the door. They found a free plan set that had the exterior design they wanted and the required structural components I needed but wanted to change up the interior to better suit their family needs. $75/hr adds up quick when you change your mind a lot.

 

[j-mox]

http://www.hardlinecrawlers.com/forums/index.php?topic=43748.0

Some pretty good info from just last year

 

[y2knole]

****, I was quoted $2000+ for stamped drawings for a couple hundred sq foot addition...

 

[ROKTOY829]

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Just had a set of plans drawn up for 50 cent a square foot. Buddy that builds houses, said he could build it off the floor plan.

The bank will need a story, so I went ahead and had a complete set drawn up.

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[FlatlandFSJ]

Hell those prices are nothing compared to some of the **** down here on the beach. It's 7500+ for a full set of stamped plans for the big beach houses, this stuff is all 1 off design though.