| DanyJose11 2008-05-27, 1:54 am |
| There was a time when Builders in Kerala changes to house plans were done in the field with no documentation at all. If you wanted to make the house a little bigger, you only needed tell your contractor - and you didn't have a plans examiner and a building inspector looking over your shoulder. When a change is made to a set of drawings, that change must be as well documented as the original plans, regardless of the size or complexity of the change. Sometimes that's not a big deal but sometimes it requires quite a few changes to the set of drawings and expensive changes to the house itself.
Those are just the "architectural" drawings ,you'll also need to have structural changes made, which may require review by a Registered Architect or Professional Engineer. And in areas that require compliance with energy codes, those calculations will have to be redone. Don't let this scare you away from considering altering your design - just be sure you get a firm quote on all of the work needed to get your drawings completely ready to submit for permits. Or better yet, find a plan that doesn't need these changes.
Some plan services have popular "pre-designed" additions and alterations with all of the necessary drawings already completed. If one of those designs meets your needs, that's a much more efficient and cost effective way to go. If you find that the change you want to make isn't offered as a pre-design, you may want to have a custom alteration made. But don't get caught up in major changes - the trick is to avoid doing so much modification that you'd have been better off choosing another plan, or designing a custom home from scratch.
Every day, my staff counsels homeowners who have gotten their home design almost done - and then added just one more room. Too often we find that final room (frequently a screened porch) is difficult or impossible to blend seamlessly into the design. If they don't consider the entire design from day one, they risk "cobbing up" a perfectly good home plan.The same concept applies to pre-designed house plans. Don't buy one that has almost everything you want and assume that your other rooms can be easily added. That one more room could mess up everything you fell in love with about the house plan in the first place. |