Customizing Your Home
Often a future homeowner finds what they think is the perfect house plan for them. After carefully reviewing the home plan and looking at it in detail, it may be necessary to make some changes so the finished home better suits your needs. We offer a customizing service that will work with you to incorporate your desired modifications into the blueprints. This gives you a cost-efficient way to create your dream home. Typically, our home plan modifications team can make the necessary changes for you.
While our modification team is capable of making most modification requests, the most common changes are listed below.
- Changing a foundation type (i.e. slab to crawl space)
- Changing exterior building materials (i.e. siding to brick)
- Adding a garage to a home without
- Changing the location of a garage door (i.e. side to front)
- Adding square footage
- Moving basement stairs
- Adding or removing a fireplace
- Converting 2x4 exterior walls to 2x6 exterior walls
- Redesigning a kitchen
- Making modifications for handicap accessibility
- Adding a bonus room in the attic or over the garage
Some commonly requested changes that we cannot provide are listed below.
- Reversing the house plan
- Adapting or engineering the house plan to meet local codes
- Creating a new house plan from two different house plans
- Unless noted on the quote, elevations and rooflines are not redrawn
Changes and modifications to your house plan can be made using our customizing service. Please follow these easy steps:
- Choose the changes you want to make to your house plan.
- Complete and submit the modification request form. Be as specific as possible when describing your changes. If the floor plan refers to the "breakfast nook", use "breakfast nook" in your description of changes. Provide detailed descriptions of your changes as if you are looking at the home plan from the front of the house. Use key words such as, "to the left", "towards the back", and "on the second floor". Give dimensions when available and include a labeled sketch if possible. Use "width" when referring to measurements running right to left on the home plan. Use "depth" when referring to measurements running front to back.
- A designer from our modification team will contact you within 2 business days to give you a quote for your desired modifications. (Please note: The quote you receive is for the changes you want to be made to the house plan. The quote does not include the cost for the reproducible master/vellum house plan that you must purchase for our designer to legally make the modifications.)
- Call to accept the modification quote and purchase the reproducible masters for the house plan of which the modification quote was made. If the home plan costs $650 and the modifications cost $750, your order total will be $1400 (reproducible master and cost of labor) plus two shipping charges (one to ship the plans to the modification team and one to ship the modified plans to you.)
- You will receive up to three drafts from our designer verifying your initial requested changes submitted on the modification request form. After the third draft, additional charges will apply. Any extra modifications requested after your original changes have been submitted will incur additional charges.
- Approve a final draft of the house plan changes.
- The modifications team will make changes to the reproducible master by adding additional sheets to the plan. The original reproducible master will not be changed. It will be shipped directly to you with the additional house plan sheets reflecting your modifications.
Other important information:
- Your house plans cannot be drawn in reverse format. If you wish to build your new home in reverse, you can make mirror reverse copies of the home plan at a local blueprint shop or copy center. Note: You will need to bring your copyright release with you when you take the reproducible master to blueprint shop or copy center to make your copies.
- Our modifications team will provide the first draft of your requested modifications for your review within 4 weeks (plus shipping time) of receiving your order and will reflect all of the customizations submitted on your original request.
- Up to three drafts will be submitted to you prior to changing your original house plan. Your home plan will be modified after you have verified all of the changes and approved a draft. Additional customizing changes not included in the original request will be charged independently at an hourly rate of $75.00 or a flat quoted rate.
- Modifications will be drawn on separate sheets with the changes shown and noted to see the main/original sheet for details. For example, a foundation sheet in the original plan may be labeled as Sheet 2. The new foundation page reflecting your modifications will be labeled Sheet 2-A and will follow Sheet 2 in the set of plans.
- Plans are drawn to meet national building codes. Our modification team cannot draw the plans to meet any specific building codes. We do not guarantee that the revisions will meet your local building codes. Have a local architect review the plans to ensure they comply with your city, county, or state building codes.
- Time and cost estimates are good for 90 days.
- All modification requests must be submitted in writing. Verbal requests are not accepted and will not be quoted. Note: When filling out the modification request form, please type or write dark and legibly if you plan to submit it via fax so it can be read after the form is faxed. Be sure to include all available contact information.
For FAST service, please follow these two easy steps.
- Download the modification request form.
- E-mail the completed form to customize@thehouseplanshop.com or fax it to 314-439-5328.
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