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My wife and I love our current house. We'd like to rebuild in another state. To build, we'll need to have an architect create blueprints of our existing house.
Has anyone done that before? How hard is it for an architect to do? What kind of service are we looking for (i.e., how do we describe to the architect what we want)? Should we get copies of the floorplans from the county that issued the original building permit?
That would be a start. If its a newer home there should be a detailed set on file. I would contact the architect who stamped the drawings to see if he wants to do this for you. Otherwise you may have a kind of copywrite problem. If its just the layout that you want to replicate and not every detail, then there may not be a problem with an architect making a measured plan and taking it from there (I'm not really sure). You might check with the nearby AIA chapter (every major city has one) to get their view on the legality of redrawing the plans.
Depending on how old your house is, or if it is a tract house, there may not be existing plans so no issues there. I wouldn't think it would be very difficult for a decent architect to copy your floorplan and roofline, but you haven't given us any details of your house.
It would be an easy task for an architect. It would be best to find on where the new house will be built. It is likely the new house will be different because of climate, site, building codes, and your your needs which the architect would take into consideration.
If you can draw a somewhat rudimentary floor plan and measure every room, you can take that info to a CAD operator (one that does residential specifically) and (s)he can "draw" you a scale drawing. taking into consideration wall thicknesses. Going directly to a CAD operator will save you substantially; because if you were to go to an architect guess what (s)he is going to do- give it to a CAD operator. Yet you're still paying for the "architect's fee".
With that drawing on a flash drive you can make as many changes and/or prints as needed with little cost.
It's a fairly common practice- I've even done it on a couple of occasions. Happened upon a plan another builder was building, like it, copied the floor plan, gave it to my CAD guy and he worked his magic and had scale drawings- from there I tweaked; enlarged, scaled back, eliminated, rearranged.
The general flow and feel was there without an over glaring "copy" to the plan I "stole".
Most states don't require an architect/wet seal for drawings. Some AHJ's still don't require plans for a permit, but that is slowly disappearing.
Last edited by K'ledgeBldr; 06-16-2015 at 06:45 AM..
Yep, K'ledge is right. I've done a lot of these. I've measured the existing house, draw the plan and elevations then make the revisions the owner require and submit it to the city for a building permit. Just remember the new house will have to meet the current building codes.
I hired 2 different architects in past 2 years, purchased 2 sets of plans and still haven’t built our dormer... it seemed both plans took forever. I’m not happy with either idea and am trying to rework it myself but am getting frustrated. Is there anyone out there that could look at the floor plan as a blank space and give me any ideas??
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