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Drawing Packages
Design Concept drawings. These drawings provide pictorial views of the overall concept of the building design and the room configurations. These drawings are called schematic drawings because they show the schematic design of the house and are used for evaluation purposes to become more familiar with the design and to help decide on specific livability characteristics. Design Concept sets include three dimensional artistic sketches showing renderings of the exterior design from several viewpoints and interior perspective views to help better understand room configurations and spatial associations.
These drawings will demonstrate the inherent characteristics of any design features and amenities of the house design such as spectacular views from the dining room or sculptural qualities when viewed from a particular point of view. The quality and feel of the prints will be similar to what you have seen here on the web site. Sometimes the concept nature of the design drawings exists because we have not yet developed design sets or construction sets. Sometimes the details just need to be worked out.
Design preview drawings provide a more refined architectural look of the building design to help demonstrate enough information to communicate with a contractor and assist in preliminary pricing and project feasibility. Design sets show the floor plan of the house, and the exterior views, but none of the technical content required for actual construction of the house. Some of the perspective views used in the design concept drawings are included in this set as well. These drawings are particularly useful in interviewing builders and contractors.
Each preview set includes:
- scaled floor plans - showing room layouts and sizes, doors, windows, decks, and porches. Use these drawings to help determine how the house design integrates with your property and topography. Might be a good idea to have a preliminary meeting with the zoning department.
- elevations - front view with window and door locations and showing approximate building height. This is also helpful for preliminary zoning review.
- interior building section - showing ceiling heights, and an idea of any predominant vaulted conditions.
- artists' rendering plus detailed square footages for interior and exterior living areas. The rendering views are what really help people envision what the completed project will look like. These renderings are somewhat artistic in nature because, well, they take less time to generate and mainly because photorealistic renderings tend to encourage people to focus on the details of the image rather than the concept of the design.
Construction Drawings:
These drawings describe and depict the means and methods of construction depict the house design in sufficient detail to allow contractors to price the project reliably, for plan examiners to review the house for permit, and for the builder to eventually construct the house. There are no drawings for heating, air conditioning, or plumbing work. The heating and cooling layout need to be designed and sized locally as climatic conditions vary. This is normally supplied by the HVAC subcontractor as part of their job. Most plans provide an interior place for the unit, however a crawl space location is recommended if conditions in your area do not prohibit this. These drawings are 24"x36" and are printed in black ink on white bond.
Each construction set includes:
- Cover sheet - sort of your introduction to the project with a perspective view and miscellaneous project specifications, standards, and definitions.
- Foundation plan - the gruntwork of the project. The information here includes all information and specifications needed to form and place the footings and foundations with detailed information about concrete or masonry walls, footings, pads, posts, beams, bearing walls, and foundation notes. Foundation details and cross sections are included on additional sheets. Unless we are hired to make customizations, the foundations will be designed for a relatively level flat site with 24” tall stemwalls.
- Floor framing - the information on the floor framing plans includes material specifications, joist and header sizing and configuration, hangers, fasteners, shearwall and bearing points, notes and necessary dimensions. Framing details and sections are typically located on additional sheets in the drawing package. The floor framing information usually needs to be verified with the framing contractor or joist manufacturer.
- Wall plans - commonly called floor plans they are actually plans to lay out and construct the walls of the house. These drawings delineate the locations of all interior and exterior walls, door and window locations, point loads, shear or load bearing walls, cabinets, fixtures appliances, stairs, and notes, dimensions, key marks for referencing sections, details, and interior elevations.
- Roof framing Some plans contain roof framing plans, however because of the wide variation in local requirements, many plans do not. If you buy a plan without a roof framing plan, you will need an engineer familiar with local building codes to create a plan to build your roof. Even if your plan does contain a roof framing plan, we recommend that a local engineer review the plan to verify that it will met local codes.
- Building, wall sections and framing details - these drawing views are enlarged and are intended to show in greater detail pertinent methods of assembly of the foundation, interior walls, exterior walls, floors, stairways, and roof assemblies. Cross-sections may show specific construction details in floor, ceiling, or roof height, or the relationship of one level to another. Extremely useful during construction, these sections and details show contractors how the various elements of the building are to be assembled. Additional sheets may include enlarged wall plans.
- Exterior elevations - most people are familiar with these exterior views of buildings. These are scaled orthographic drawings depicting a flat-on view of the exterior surfaces of the house. Drawn to scale these are extremely useful to the contractors in estimating material quantities and for communicating details during construction.
- Garage plans & details (optional) - some of the designs have detached garages and people may elect to only purchase the plans for the house.
- Interior elevations (optional) - we try to include cabinet elevations whenever possible. These are useful when shopping for cabinets and millwork and in laying out cabinet door and drawer configurations.
- Optional lighting and electrical plan The electrical plan offers suggested locations with notes for all lighting, outlets, switches, and circuits. A layout is provided for each level, as well as basements, garages, or other structures. This plan does not contain diagrams detailing how all wiring should be run, or how circuits should be engineered. These details should be designed by your electrician. NOTE: A majority of our plans include electrical plans but some do not. To determine if a plan includes these details click on the "What's Included" tab on the plan detail page.
- Specifications - describes the materials and methods of construction. This may or may not be part of the construction set of drawings. May be a separate amendment document that is useful for selecting and specifying interior finishes, plumbing fixtures, appliances, etc.
Design Concept drawings. These drawings provide pictorial views of the overall concept of the building design and the room configurations. These drawings are called schematic drawings because they show the schematic design of the house and are used for evaluation purposes to become more familiar with the design and to help decide on specific livability characteristics. Design Concept sets include three dimensional artistic sketches showing renderings of the exterior design from several viewpoints and interior perspective views to help better understand room configurations and spatial associations.
These drawings will demonstrate the inherent characteristics of any design features and amenities of the house design such as spectacular views from the dining room or sculptural qualities when viewed from a particular point of view. The quality and feel of the prints will be similar to what you have seen here on the web site. Sometimes the concept nature of the design drawings exists because we have not yet developed design sets or construction sets. Sometimes the details just need to be worked out.
Design preview drawings provide a more refined architectural look of the building design to help demonstrate enough information to communicate with a contractor and assist in preliminary pricing and project feasibility. Design sets show the floor plan of the house, and the exterior views, but none of the technical content required for actual construction of the house. Some of the perspective views used in the design concept drawings are included in this set as well. These drawings are particularly useful in interviewing builders and contractors.
Each preview set includes:
- scaled floor plans - showing room layouts and sizes, doors, windows, decks, and porches. Use these drawings to help determine how the house design integrates with your property and topography. Might be a good idea to have a preliminary meeting with the zoning department.
- elevations - front view with window and door locations and showing approximate building height. This is also helpful for preliminary zoning review.
- interior building section - showing ceiling heights, and an idea of any predominant vaulted conditions.
- artists' rendering plus detailed square footages for interior and exterior living areas. The rendering views are what really help people envision what the completed project will look like. These renderings are somewhat artistic in nature because, well, they take less time to generate and mainly because photorealistic renderings tend to encourage people to focus on the details of the image rather than the concept of the design.
Construction Drawings:
These drawings describe and depict the means and methods of construction depict the house design in sufficient detail to allow contractors to price the project reliably, for plan examiners to review the house for permit, and for the builder to eventually construct the house. There are no drawings for heating, air conditioning, or plumbing work. The heating and cooling layout need to be designed and sized locally as climatic conditions vary. This is normally supplied by the HVAC subcontractor as part of their job. Most plans provide an interior place for the unit, however a crawl space location is recommended if conditions in your area do not prohibit this. These drawings are 24"x36" and are printed in black ink on white bond.
Each construction set includes:
- Cover sheet - sort of your introduction to the project with a perspective view and miscellaneous project specifications, standards, and definitions.
- Foundation plan - the gruntwork of the project. The information here includes all information and specifications needed to form and place the footings and foundations with detailed information about concrete or masonry walls, footings, pads, posts, beams, bearing walls, and foundation notes. Foundation details and cross sections are included on additional sheets. Unless we are hired to make customizations, the foundations will be designed for a relatively level flat site with 24” tall stemwalls.
- Floor framing - the information on the floor framing plans includes material specifications, joist and header sizing and configuration, hangers, fasteners, shearwall and bearing points, notes and necessary dimensions. Framing details and sections are typically located on additional sheets in the drawing package. The floor framing information usually needs to be verified with the framing contractor or joist manufacturer.
- Wall plans - commonly called floor plans they are actually plans to lay out and construct the walls of the house. These drawings delineate the locations of all interior and exterior walls, door and window locations, point loads, shear or load bearing walls, cabinets, fixtures appliances, stairs, and notes, dimensions, key marks for referencing sections, details, and interior elevations.
- Roof framing Some plans contain roof framing plans, however because of the wide variation in local requirements, many plans do not. If you buy a plan without a roof framing plan, you will need an engineer familiar with local building codes to create a plan to build your roof. Even if your plan does contain a roof framing plan, we recommend that a local engineer review the plan to verify that it will met local codes.
- Building, wall sections and framing details - these drawing views are enlarged and are intended to show in greater detail pertinent methods of assembly of the foundation, interior walls, exterior walls, floors, stairways, and roof assemblies. Cross-sections may show specific construction details in floor, ceiling, or roof height, or the relationship of one level to another. Extremely useful during construction, these sections and details show contractors how the various elements of the building are to be assembled. Additional sheets may include enlarged wall plans.
- Exterior elevations - most people are familiar with these exterior views of buildings. These are scaled orthographic drawings depicting a flat-on view of the exterior surfaces of the house. Drawn to scale these are extremely useful to the contractors in estimating material quantities and for communicating details during construction.
- Garage plans & details (optional) - some of the designs have detached garages and people may elect to only purchase the plans for the house.
- Interior elevations (optional) - we try to include cabinet elevations whenever possible. These are useful when shopping for cabinets and millwork and in laying out cabinet door and drawer configurations.
- Optional lighting and electrical plan The electrical plan offers suggested locations with notes for all lighting, outlets, switches, and circuits. A layout is provided for each level, as well as basements, garages, or other structures. This plan does not contain diagrams detailing how all wiring should be run, or how circuits should be engineered. These details should be designed by your electrician. NOTE: A majority of our plans include electrical plans but some do not. To determine if a plan includes these details click on the "What's Included" tab on the plan detail page.
- Specifications - describes the materials and methods of construction. This may or may not be part of the construction set of drawings. May be a separate amendment document that is useful for selecting and specifying interior finishes, plumbing fixtures, appliances, etc.