Essential Advice for Owner-Builders
(Page 2 of 6)
December 2006/January 2007
By David Eisenberg
Baker has one more piece of advice for those who haven’t yet bought their land, especially for those who want to build with alternative materials or techniques: “Make visiting the building and zoning departments part of your routine, like checking out local schools, before deciding where you want to buy land, build and live. It makes it much more likely that you will get to build what you want to build.”
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Getting the Technical Plans
A checklist from the building department, describing what plans and inspections are needed for a permit, also reveals what the codes cover. Whether you can produce these required plans yourself or will need help with the design or drawings will depend on the complexity of your design, your level of skill and knowledge, and local codes and rules governing when a design professional is required. At a minimum, you typically need:
- A scaled site plan showing adjacent streets, dimensions and locations of existing structures, setbacks, easements and any other significant features.
- A detailed foundation plan.
- A dimensioned floor plan showing rooms and their uses with locations of plumbing fixtures.
- A roof framing plan (possibly a floor framing plan).
- Elevations (exterior views) of all sides of the building.
- Section views (views cut through the structure) to show structural details and connections.
- An electrical plan showing the location of the service entrance, lights, outlets, and special circuits for electric stove, clothes dryer and air conditioning equipment.
- A plumbing plan showing water, drain, waste and vent lines.
- A mechanical plan showing heating, cooling and ventilation equipment and ductwork.
- General structural and architectural details, notes and specifications.
Some technical design questions can be answered by the building department, but don’t be a nuisance. If you are new to designing houses but want to do your own plans, consider hiring an architect or professional designer for a couple of hours to have him or her review your preliminary plans. An architect will usually have insights and strategies that can save time and, frequently, more money than their fees.
Be willing to admit when you are in over your head. For example, you may need an engineer for the structural design or the septic, mechanical or plumbing systems. Better to seek help in the design phase than after your plans have been submitted and rejected, or worse, discovering what was wrong with the design after building it.
Consider this approach for any part of the process you don’t feel confident tackling yourself, including once you begin building. You often can hire experienced tradespeople by the hour to help with the work and teach you how to do it at the same time.
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