Do you really need an architect?

 

Hiring professional help or doing it yourself

When you decide to build your own home, one of the question you have to ask yourself is what type of house you are going to build and where are you going to get the plans? There are stock blueprints that can be bought and then modified to specifications by builders to suit your needs. But what if you can’t find any plans that fit what you are looking? You might want to think about having your plans custom drawn by some one. Your next question might be do you really need an architect? Here is some information that will help you to answer that question for yourself.

It is not necessary to have an architect draw up your house plans. However, you have to have an engineer look over them and put his stamp of approval with his signature. The one reason why most people hire architects is because there are a lot of things that go into drawing up a house plan. Along with measurement and placements of bearing walls, different information for the electrical layout, plumbing layouts are something architects know in depth. And because architects know the different codes and standard procedures they are more accustom of what needs to co on house plans then other people that you might have draw your house plans may be. 

What you can do is to have a drafting student or some one that has just graduated from college and is going to be an architect draw up your plans. This is a great way to have your house plans drawn up for a cheaper price than what you would pay an experienced architect to do the same job. New architects need somewhere to start for experience, you get the benefit of not having to pay a price full experienced architects charge.

Finally, you could always draw up your own house plan. There are software available in the market where you can input all of your measurements and everything and have ethe program churn out a floor plan for you to scale. You will need to know a little bit about the codes and where to have your bearing walls. Ask an engineer that you are using for advise if you have any questions. They are going to check all of your work and add their own notes so that the plans are correct and everything will go together and pass code.

Omitting the need for an architect will involve a lot more work but there is also a lot of money that you can save as well. What you decide upon depends on how much is the work and time worth to you.