Since we're a boutique home design firm, we don't have tens of thousands of plans so we get requests to modify our plans fairly often to curate them to individual family's needs. This guide is intended to provide insight on how and when to modify your home plans so that you can minimize costs and create the home of your dreams.
When Should I Modify Plans?
So you found a house plan that you love but there's just a few things that you want to tweak before sending it out for final bid. The goal is to only have to modify the plans once so you want to make sure that the following items have been taken care of:
- Received confirmation that the plan will be buildable in your budget?
- Have the land/lot already and have performed a zoning feasibility review to ensure that the building envelope will fit on the lot?
- Have a structural engineer lined up (if necessary).
This way you don't end up in a situation where you have to go back and pay to get the plans re-modified.
What's the Best Way to Customize Plans?
After you reach out to us to modify one of our house plans, it's important to try to communicate your needs as clearly as possible so that we can make the edits without wasting your time.
We're happy to arrange a screenshare meeting where we will sketch out the edits in real time and ensure that we're capturing everything that you want changed. Alternatively, you can print the floorplan or elevations from our site and sketch out what you want changed.
What are the Most Common House Plan Modifications?
- Flipping or reversing the floorplan
- Adding/removing a garage bay
- Adding/removing a bedroom
- Changing the exterior wall construction (2x4, 2x6, ICF)
- Adding accessibility features (ramps, elevators, etc)
- Changing roof lines and roof pitches
But don't let this list constrain you, the sky is truly the limit! Note: your maximum allowable building height per local zoning code may be your true limit ; )
We're happy to answer any questions or lend our design expertise as well. So if you have a half baked idea, feel free to give us a call and you can talk through some options with our design lead.
How long does it take to Modify Floorplans?
We noticed that other home designers take days to get back to you with a quote, charge an exorbitant fee and then take weeks (or even months!) to make edits.
Our goal is not to be the bottleneck in your home building process so we simplified how this works:
We charge a flat $400 fee for a round of edits. You can add simply add this to your cart at checkout. We'll contact you within 24 hours to get all the information we need to make the edits and then turn around drawings for your signoff within 5 working days. It's that easy and simple.