home addition drawings

BIGWOODY

BIGWOODY

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Thomasville
I'm going to add a master suite to the house after the first of the year. I need someone to do a mechanical drawing of what I want done , I also need some guidance as to the best way to accomplish what we want to do. Any recommendations? When we first started our rehab of this house I shelled out a lot of coin to a guy who didn't really listen to me and came up with a lot of drawings that just weren't practical for what we needed, I don't want to go through that again.
 
Yes..I need something I can hand to my subs. It will be single story with a basement, around 500-800 sq. ft on the main level. I need help with exterior ideas so it will fit the rest of the house.
 
Stephen Jobe designed our house. He was so good we actually had him help direct us which stone, brick, and exterior paint colors to use. I highly recommend him.

Stephen H. Jobe Architect, PLLC |
 
I'm a Mechanical and Plumbing consulting engineer, and do side work in architectural design. I have references for side work

Do you need professional sealed P/M/E and architectural drawings for permit? Or just a set of plans to hand a builder?

Do you HAVE a builder? or will you pulling the permits yourself and acting as your own GC?

Davidson county, or Thomasville city?

I'm in Wallburg so I'm fairly close.
 
CasterTroy said:
Do you need professional sealed P/M/E and architectural drawings for permit? Or just a set of plans to hand a builder?
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What is usually needed for standard residential work like this for normal permitting? I've been wondering that, as I'm planning a project too.
 
Fabrik8 said:
What is usually needed for standard residential work like this for normal permitting?
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Totally depends on your AHJ (auth having jurisdiction)

For residential, typically Towns/county usually will take a napkin with ink, larger towns/city will want a scale site drawing with dimensions to your property line.

If you hire a GC to do the work they can usually get by with a set of plans with no seal.

@95yjjeep can probably answer best what is needed for a stand alone garage since he's neck deep in that now
 
Hey Guys, in Cabarrus County it's pretty easy. All I had to have was the building size and the overall renovation/addition cost. They can tell you what the max size building you can build. I put a simple sketch on the paperwork for the City of Concord Zoning Dept to give the basic area where the garage would be located. They approved the size and gave me the county/city setbacks that I had to follow. Then once the city zoning approves the placement and size, you take that approval to the county where you get the building permit from the county. If the renovation/addition is over ~$35k IIRC, you'll have to setup a trust agent to protect the contractor and homeowner in case something goes wrong on the GC end, or in case the homeowner can't pay.
 
I am in a similar boat, going back and forth whether or not to build on our land. How's the process for getting drawings ? I have searched the interwebs and found not a single plan I care for. I am wanting 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, nice master suite with walk in closet with a 4 car garage for a basement. Something like 1500 - 1800 square foot ranch.
 
Getting the permit is easy. They're mostly going to be concerned about site issues (distance to property line/setbacks/septic), septic capacity, maybe FAR or building height if you're in a city.

But @BIGWOODY has the right idea -- the drawings are for your contract with the GC and/or the subs. If you have guys you know you can trust, then just talk it through. But if the job goes sideways, you need a good set of drawings that are part of the contract. Otherwise it's just your word against theirs -- and their lien against your property for non-payment.
 
CasterTroy said:
I'm a Mechanical and Plumbing consulting engineer, and do side work in architectural design. I have references for side work

Do you need professional sealed P/M/E and architectural drawings for permit? Or just a set of plans to hand a builder?

Do you HAVE a builder? or will you pulling the permits yourself and acting as your own GC?

Davidson county, or Thomasville city?

I'm in Wallburg so I'm fairly close.
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No builder, plan on pulling permits and acting as GC myself. I'm in the city of Thomasville , We're in a neighborhood but on 4 acres so setback etc shouldn't be an issue. No HOA's or anything. We've worked on our house for 5 years solid, I've paid cash for everything we've done (I could have a state of the art ultra4 car by now,priorities suck sometimes) but I have a feeling with what we want to do i'm going to have to hit the bank up or go damn near broke.I'm thinking it's going to be between 550-850 sq. ft. addition, so I'm sure I'm going to need something "official" to give them. My wife is finishing grad school now and will be rejoining the work force in January after a 5 year hiatus. I told her the day she came home and said "I'm on the payroll" I'll start the build. I'm just trying to get everything in place so there's no hold ups when the time comes.
 
Every town, city, and county has their own regs, but rarely do residential plans require a seal. Maybe a letter from a structural engineer if there's a beam to be sized. Thomasville looks like a one-page deal, @BIGWOODY . Durham County is, if nothing else, a bit more complicated to find, with the City-County UDO. I'm waiting on a call-back for confirmation on county construction that's not a subdivision. @retroedaddy

City of Raleigh, for example, now requires a surveyor stamped site plan for additions, I believe? @BRUISER
 
trailhugger said:
. Durham County is, if nothing else, a bit more complicated to find, with the City-County UDO. I'm waiting on a call-back for confirmation on county construction that's not a subdivision. @retroedaddy [/USER]
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My land is in Person county on the Flat River. It's about 2 acres and I know the bottom part of the land is in a flood zone.
 
:lol: That should simplify things a bit. You have a PM.
 
trailhugger said:
Every town, city, and county has their own regs, but rarely do residential plans require a seal. Maybe a letter from a structural engineer if there's a beam to be sized. Thomasville looks like a one-page deal, @BIGWOODY . Durham County is, if nothing else, a bit more complicated to find, with the City-County UDO. I'm waiting on a call-back for confirmation on county construction that's not a subdivision. @retroedaddy

City of Raleigh, for example, now requires a surveyor stamped site plan for additions, I believe? @BRUISER
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YOu are correct on the city of Raleigh
 
Site Plans are required for EVERY municipality / county in the RDU area. We have 1 guy in the Survey Department that is dedicated to plats and he stays busy. If you need one you can do the Site Plan yourself very easily with an approved plat, a pen, a square or even a straight edge and a civil scale.
 
6BangBronk said:
If you need one you can do the Site Plan yourself very easily with an approved plat, a pen, a square or even a straight edge and a civil scale.
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Not so in the City of Raleigh, which is what I was saying. Used to be in the City of Raleigh, a site plan could be as you described for new construction or an addition... we had a note we put on everything that stated, "site plan info. was taken from a survey by xyz on the 25th of Juvember"... Survey could've been 25 years old, and often was, but no one cared. Now you have to get it surveyed for new work.

Not picking on you or trying to split hairs, but everywhere is different and I try not to generalize too much... that's when someone says, "But so and so said!"
 
trailhugger said:
Not so in the City of Raleigh, which is what I was saying. Used to be in the City of Raleigh, a site plan could be as you described for new construction or an addition... we had a note we put on everything that stated, "site plan info. was taken from a survey by xyz on the 25th of Juvember"... Survey could've been 25 years old, and often was, but no one cared. Now you have to get it surveyed for new work.

Not picking on you or trying to split hairs, but everywhere is different and I try not to generalize too much... that's when someone says, "But so and so said!"
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pfffft.
acting like you are a damn architect or something.
 
trailhugger said:
Not so in the City of Raleigh, which is what I was saying. Used to be in the City of Raleigh, a site plan could be as you described for new construction or an addition... we had a note we put on everything that stated, "site plan info. was taken from a survey by xyz on the 25th of Juvember"... Survey could've been 25 years old, and often was, but no one cared. Now you have to get it surveyed for new work.

Not picking on you or trying to split hairs, but everywhere is different and I try not to generalize too much... that's when someone says, "But so and so said!"
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Good catch. Just checked and you are correct. But it must have changed in the past 7 years for I did my own on my rental? No revision dates listed on the COR documentation to verify though.

I went step by step with the Planning Department at the time. I did everything possible I could do myself including my own architecturals. Bet you can't even do that now? I was even able to use rough cut lumber with the note added that "lumber to be dried on-site". Bet even that has probably changed...:shaking: I even helped mill it myself.

I will add that it's silly for a site plan is so basic it's ridiculous. And we have yet to submit one for a residential addition. Can an architect submit one then even though they aren't PE's?
The red tape has gotten absolutely ridiculously out of hand around here... Being the factor why I'm changing my career direction and getting out of this bull :poop: all together.

Got a project in Holly Springs that we're on our 8'th set of comments and it's still 9 pages long. The PE has already put a foot down that our future bids in TOHS will be double. Every municipality is going their own direction. Their standards are so different from one another you better have a grip before you bid.

The top 3 worst in order:
1. Holly Springs
2. Morrisville
3. Durham

The top 3 best in order:
1. Wake Forest (We love them!!!)
2. Fuquay-Varina
3. Clayton (but they are starting to change)
 
BIGWOODY said:
I'm just trying to get everything in place so there's no hold ups when the time comes.
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If you don't have a survey from your purchase of the house/property....whatever, now's the time to go ahead and get a survey of at least your boundaries and the house located ON that property. Regardless of what you decide to do, most AHJ's will require that as a minimum to issue a permit.
 
I did one in Davidson County (Lexington) about ten years ago. They give you a packet that is pretty helpful at the inspections department. Start there. You can do it yourself. The only thing that needed architectural drawings were the trusses and they were provided by lumber yard
 
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