Building codes and archectural plans

I am pretty green to building codes and architectural plans.

So, if you want to build a house, do you need to have an architect draft a design, and then submit the design to the town that you live in? Does the town keep a record of every architect drafting for every house in the town?

 

You don't need an architect and can design your own if you know what you want. My Dad drew and submitted his own for the house I grew up in along with the first addition. I later added a small wing and designed and drew them myself. You can also buy plans on line. Most code at the plan level is common sense, but if you don't meet it they will let you know what needs to be corrected. I was frankly amazed at how lax the drawing standards were and was told that my amateur drawings were better than those submitted by most builders.

One of the weirdest things I ran into when I designed an entire house I had planned was the number of outside corners as they wanted a more "architectural" look, so you had to have a minimum of six.

The City will usually have all the codes available on a website. You also need to make sure your property is zoned correctly for the house you want to build and if there is sewer capacity available if you are hooking into the City,

In addition to city codes you may need to observe neighborhood/development/HOA covenants. You can usually find this at teh County website. The County may also perform certain inspections.

 

I haven’t built my house yet but I found and paid for a design (with materials list) online that I liked. The lands county requires it to be built to certain international building codes (as posted on the towns website). When I am ready I can present it to the town city hall and get it approved/denied.
Not sure if they keep the plan on file because I haven’t submitted mine yet. If they deny it then I can try again once I revised it. I’d call the city and ask.

If there is an HOA you will also have to follow any building restrictions they have.

The post above this one is far more detailed- I’m building in Texas if that helps at all. HOAs are honestly the worst around here for restrictions but I managed to find land without one after a few months of searching.

 

It all depends on the local government and the rules it must follow. While in the USA there are "health and safety rules, and green rules you must follow, one town will let you do a lot on your own and the next will make you dot every I. A friend built a farmstand- sales building, on his own design, the town required an engineering and architect approve them and sign off, that cost $25,000 and basically they redrew his plans and said that it was overbuilt. It also cost him about $10,000 in permit fees, zoning permits, and engineering studies for zoning permit etc. In a neighboring town I built a garage, on my own land and replacing an "existing building", built it to code and had building inspector look at each stage and got a permit. Total cost was $100 and I never submitted a plan or drawing. If I had built it 15 miles away as a friend did with his garage, the same process cost him about $2,500. Here biggest problems are zoning and environment. Walls have to be 2 by 6 with x insulation, double pane windows, insulation in floors and ceilings met specs, drilled well, septic system, rod and power into site, the whole thing with an average 2 acre minimum lot size will mean that you will have at least $100 thousand invested before you start your house and another $100 minimum in house before you can move. No trailers allowed and manufactured house on required foundations start at about $100 thousand when you move in.

Headlines in local paper are about lack of inexpensive housing but the rules and regulations make the cost of cheapest that you can build yourself at least $200 thousand. In this area you are not going to win, the state laws on who can plumb, wire, install pumps, etc. the minimum standards for health and safety, the zoning rules and lot sizes and lack of building lots, all lead to very expensive houses. Some states still let you do things, but it is getting ever more difficult in New England.

Just as an aside, the garage I built, 24 by 30 and a 12 by 30 attic space was built on an insulated slab, stored upstairs are sleepers, insulation, and plywood to cover the concrete floor, 2 by 6 walls of rough sawn lumber insulated with r21, rough sawn 2 by 10 ceiling joists with r30, everything covered with 1/2 in sheetrock, and a chimney and a composting toilet, solar on roof, battery storage and wood storage attached to garage, and vinyl siding. Plywood and siding stored to insulate overhead garage door openings, metal roof, 2 by 10 rough sawn rafters with r30 insulation and plastic spacers between roof and insulation. While truck and tractor are there now, son and family have first dibs on it if things go bad. Not saying it will be perfect and it never will be a house, but I have lived in a lot worse and with existing well, grey water into a grease trap and some pref pipe, composting toilet, wood heat, and solar lights and water, it would be better than a tent. Friends live in "camping trailer" on land while they build a house, but they completed their "garage" first and seem to spend most of their time in it. Hint! But it all gets down to town and HMA, life can be great or impossible, its out of yur hands and talk with others first, it just isn't possible in some places anymore.

 

Great responses. Very informative. Thanks all!

One thing I was wondering is if you could have a basement that the town didn't know about. Like a safe room type basement that wasn't recorded and on record. I guess if you don't need to submit the plans to the town, this is do-able. But if you do, then there's public knowledge of it.

 

Depends on the City/State. I live out in the country in Kentucky and there are no codes. Out here you have to have an electrical inspection if you want the power company to hook you up. I drew up the plans for the first part of our house using an old program called 3D Home Architect and took them do a draftsman who made them into actual blueprints. When we added on to the house I drew up the plans without the draftsman and had them printed/laminated and put them up on a wall so we could mark them with notes and measurements.

 

If there is an HOA, you really need to reconsider building there. Do you reallly want busybody Karens dictating how you live?

 

A Karen town with building inspectors, zoning board, tax collectors out for ever buck, code enforcement officers, environmental freaks taking you to court for trimming trees within 30 feet of a seasonal stream or crossing a wetlands with your tractor, taxing every shed as if you just bought it at Lowes last week, will totally ruin your life. DO NOT GO THERE!! Caps are not accidental, know of a house where sale was tied up for 5 years, kids had to spend $50,000 to restore a wetlands where their dad had put a culvert and 10 loads of gravel into a road so that he could reach 22 acres of land on other side of wetlands. Town didn't help when Karen in land next to him called in the greenies and went to court over everything. When they finished, 3/4 of land could only be reached after the ground froze as she would call every time she saw a four wheeler and up in the "protected wet lands."

 

That is the answer. There will thousands of variations around the country and you won't know which is yours until you inquire locally.

 

IF YOU BUY A LOT WITH A "HOA" OR A HOUSE

YOU SHOULD KNOW

YOU GIVE UP CONTROL OF EVERYTHING ABOUT THE HOUSE

EXCEPT YOU PAY FOR IT................OVER AND OVER

 

I've run into HOA's in rural areas that existed primarily to fund snowplowing in the subdivision. Agree that the vast majority are Karen magnets.

 

If you dig on your property to build a basement then you better know where any gas/water/sewage lines are. It really depends on where you build. If you haven’t bought the land yet you can ask your realtor about any building restrictions.

There was beautiful piece of land that was in the mountains about an hour outside town (not in Texas) had an HOA on it. They wanted me to build a $8,000 septic system of a specific size...pay to have the house built to a certain size and look....they also wanted me to pay to build a road. Plus besides all of the above I was going to have to pay them $200 monthly or else. The land was beautiful. The HOA was not. I did not end up buying that land.

 

Yep,, as stated earlier,, it depends on your city/ county offices. It depends a lot on your design if you'll need an engineer ,,,, beam spans , rafter spans, floor spans and loads . A lot of places now will require engineered drawings,,, which will take any liability away from your inspectors , as long as its built to engineer specs. Here in my AO ,,, NC ,, the houses I'm building are mostly bought from the internet, or home plan books ,,, and they all have to be engineered.
I built an outdoor kitchen, pool cabana with 24 foot beam spans with a hip roof ,, and it needed to be engineered for beam spans and hip rafter sizing.
As far as you fl4848 ,, if you're building in an area that is going to require Inspections ,, I dont know how your going to hide the fact that you're building over a basement.

 

As a general rule I ONLY buy property of a rural nature with NO Zoning or Restrictions. But as Stated the variances from County to County let alone State to State can many and very different. Three things are pretty common across the board though, You will have to have an electrical inspection before most power companies or coops will hook you up. If you Drill a well the County Health Department will usually require a inspection and permit. If you install a septic tank or lagoon the Health Department Environmental Inspector will want a permit and a pre and post inspection. And a bonus...... The Tax Assessor will be around sooner rather than later. You get into Zoning, Codes, HOAs and Permits it can get real crazy real fast.