The House Plan Shop Blog

The House Plan Shop is proud to announce our newest collection: House Plans with Photos. This photo collection represents the work of residential designers, architects and builders throughout the United States and Canada. Many home plans in this collection display both interior and exterior photos while others simply have exterior photography or interior shots. No matter how few or how many photographs are available with each plan in this collection, they all deliver a better sense and feel for the finished home. These house plans also include color renderings and left, right and rear elevations when available. Please visit our new collection, House Plans with Photos, and enjoy the photography the designers, builders and home owners have proudly provided for our customers to view.

Please Note: The photographs displayed on The House Plan Shop’s website may differ from the actual plans, depending on the modifications performed by the owner/builder. Refer to the floor plan for the actual layout of the home.

Tags: home plans, house plans, photographs, photos

Building a new house is very exciting, but it is important to be educated about the many factors, elements and requirements that should be considered before construction begins. If you are planning to build your new home using stock house plans, be aware that these blueprints are not stamped or sealed by an architect or engineered. These pre-drawn plans are designed to meet the national building codes set forth at the time and place the blueprints are created. While the stock plans may meet national building codes, they may not meet all local building codes.

In some cases, various states, cities, counties or municipalities require an architect’s seal or stamp on the stock house plans, meaning the blueprints have been officially approved for construction. The architect or engineer must be certified in the state in which the home is to be built. If you are building a new home using stock house plans and are required to have the plans sealed or stamped in order to obtain building permits, it will be necessary to have a local architect do this for you. Typically, your builder, building official or the building department can recommend someone to seal or stamp your house plans before construction begins.

Do your homework before purchasing stock house plans. Contact your building department and ask if a seal or stamp is required. Next, contact a local architect and make sure he or she can approve the blueprints. Ask how long it will take. These simple steps will save you time and eliminate headaches if you know what is required by your building department before you begin. It is no fun to purchase your house blueprints hoping to begin construction right away only to discover there will be delays because the floor plans must be approved first. Be sure to educate yourself about stock plans and whether or not an architect’s seal or stamp is required. This important step is a necessary part of the construction process.

Tags: engineered plans, house plans, sealed blueprints, stamped plans, stock house plans

If you are planning to build a new home using stock blueprints it is necessary to educate yourself about building codes. When a home plan is drawn, each residential designer or architect puts great care into ensuring the blueprints meet or exceed the national building code in place at the time of creation. However, this does not mean the house plans will meet all or even some of the local building codes for the area in which you plan to build. Beyond the national building code, each city, county, township or municipality follows its own list of residential building codes based upon specific geographic qualities for that area. It is necessary that you contact your local building office to learn more and/or find out what is required for the construction of your new house in the area where you plan to build. Furthermore, you may need to work with your builder or building official or hire a residential designer to make modifications to your house plans ensuring they will meet any additional building codes required by your municipality.

In addition to your blueprints, you may need to provide a few other documents and items when you apply for a building permit. Check with your building department for the items you will need. They can supply a list which may include the following:

·         Energy Code Compliance – A form that must be filled out verifying the materials used to construct the house will be energy compliant.

·         Site Plan – A drawing or sketch of the lot reflecting the location and positioning of your future home as well as locations of other structures presently on the lot. Your builder will be able to help you with this.

·         Septic System Design – A diagram showing the details of the septic system. This is not necessary if your lot is served by a sanitary sewer system.

Be aware, some areas of North America have very strict engineering codes. It may be necessary to hire a local engineer to review your house plans and provide additional drawings, details and calculations required by your building department. For example, Northern areas have snow load and 2×6 wall framing requirements. There are wind load requirements for hurricane-risk areas along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Earthquake-prone areas of California follow seismic zoning regulations and demand additional structural elements.

If you need further information about any of the items mentioned above or have questions about local residential building codes, be sure to contact your building official regarding the requirements in your area.

Tags: building codes, house plans, local building codes

If you are planning to build a new house, it may seem possible to build the home using only one set of blueprints, especially if you are doing all the work yourself. You may think it is only necessary to buy one set of blueprints. However, before purchasing stock house plans, it is important to know that a single set of blueprints is stamped “not for construction.” While the stamped set of construction drawings is a complete set of blueprints, it is considered a study set and is intended for review only by you the homeowner and/or the builder. A stamped set of home plans allows you to view the floor plans in more detail and obtain estimates and bids for the labor and materials for your new house.

Once you have reviewed the house plans and decide to move forward with your construction project, you can upgrade your one-set blueprint package to a greater set of blueprints. Most house plan publishers allow upgrades for a limited time. For example www.thehouseplanshop.com allows customers to upgrade their one-set house plan package to a greater blueprint package within 90 days of the original purchase. This means that you will only be required to pay the difference in cost between the single-set package and the larger blueprint package.

Other important information before you order:

• You cannot apply for building permits with a stamped set of house plans.
• If you order a one-set blueprint package, be aware that shipping charges apply again when you upgrade your house plan package to a greater number of blueprints.
• Copying or building from a set of blueprints that is stamped “not for construction” is considered copyright infringement and is punishable by law.

Tags: house plans, not for construction, one set of blueprints

My husband and I have been looking at a home plan online that we absolutely love! But, we know we can improve it just a little bit in a few areas to better suit our needs and lifestyle. With this being our first building project, we are learning a lot. Take for instance what we learned about making changes to our floor plan. Our builder told us the modifications we want to make are fairly simple and easy to handle (making the master bedroom walk-in closet a couple feet deeper and changing the rear screened porch to a covered patio and adding an outdoor fireplace.) However, he cautioned us the building department would have to approve our changes. The changes are nothing major in our eyes, but after calling our building department we discovered they require any changes to be drawn on the blueprints before the plans are approved for building permits. Making changes after the plans are approved will cause issues with the building inspector.

So, this looked like a roadblock to us until I contacted The House Plan Shop. We were happy to learn that we have a couple of choices when it comes to modifying our house plans and either choice seems fairly easy. (Looks like this won’t be a roadblock anymore, but rather just a little hill to climb.) The representative at The House Plan Shop told me we can submit a modification request to their customizing department. If we like the quote and the time frame for making the changes works with our schedule, they can handle all the changes. A designer will go over the changes with us and send a preliminary sketch before they begin modifying the plans. Our other option is to purchase a CAD file or a reproducible master and have a local residential designer, architect or even our builder (if he feels comfortable) make the changes for us. Either way, it doesn’t seem like making the changes to our house plans will be too difficult. That’s a relief!

I am happy to find that wanting to change our blueprints is not going to be a setback for us, but rather just another little step we need to work into our schedule.

Tags: customizing, house plans, modifications