Smith 
Having a house designed to your needs and tastes is the best way to build a home. The cost to have a floor plan designed for you by a custom home builder may put you off, but when you consider the future costs of remodelling, renovation, or additions to your current house layout, then you’ll probably pause to reconsider. Consider the following when choosing between a cheap, generic online floor plan versus a custom-designed floor plan:
- Stock plans are designed to appeal to the most people. Therefore, they will have generic layouts, and generic features.
- Every family has their own set of needs. You may need more, bigger, or less rooms. Even the closets, hallways and cabinets may not be what you need. Or located in the wrong places. If you love to cook, you may want a bigger kitchen with an outdoor island for grilling and cooking.
- Having generic plans revised by an architect may even cost more than you think. When you revise a floor plan, the accompanying construction plans will also need to be reviewed and revised.
- Stock plans cannot anticipate your different life stages as you progress and again, revising existing structures will just add hassle and expense to renovating your house to the way you want it.
A house designed and built with the layout and features you want is an everyday pleasure to live in. If you decide to go this route, a first meeting an architect from a design firm is usually free. Here, you should discuss what you want in the house, including any special design considerations you may have. The architect will then go back to the firm with the brief for the preliminary design.
After 2-3 weeks, the architects should be able to come up with the preliminary floor plan for your approval or revision. Expect to be charged around $500 for the work that was done. In this phase, you should ensure that everything you need and want from your customized design is present, and laid out to your liking and expectations. Within reasonable limits, you should be free to revise the preliminary design until you are fully satisfied. When you are sure that you see what you want in the floor plan, the architects can move on to producing the construction plans.
Plan for paying about a dollar per square foot of a construction plan. Before you say that this is too expensive, you should know that a floor plan consists of the entire set of drawings that the builders need to build your house. This includes the footing and foundation plans, the plumbing layout, the electrical plan, roof structure and framing plan, the mechanical plan, and all other detailed drawings that are needed to construct a house. This cost should also include worksite preparation and mobilization.
Contact Hughes Construction’s custom home builders for more information for plan design.
