If your charming, long-lived home has no existing floor plans, the logical next step as a homeowner is the as-built drawing.
Does your home have a chimney inside a closet? Perhaps there’s a door that opens to a wall? Maybe the bathroom is a little too close to the kitchen? If any of these home bloopers sound familiar, don’t stress. As-built drawings will help you make sense of it all.
Understanding your three dimensional space with house plan drawings
Getting started by measuring square footage
First, it can seem like a daunting task, but your next step is to measure the square footage of your home (and here’s a resource on how to do that). The square footage is how we estimate your space and after a quick phone call, we’ll provide you with a quote for the service (there’s also an online estimate form). We don’t need to visit your site for estimation. However, sharing useful details about your home is always helpful.
Reserve your appointment for faster turnaround
Second, that’s all you need to do for the moment. Caldas Works will provide you with the next available appointment, and can typically turnaround digital drawings between 1 and 3 days for residential customers. What we ultimately unveil from surveying your old home, might actually surprise you.
Which plans do I need aside from floor plans?
Lastly, we recommend you get the floor plan, ceiling plan and elevations done for your old house. For instance, these 3 drawings are what the city or county expects to receive from you, before any home improvement can be done. By the way, there are additional plans you can request such as electrical, roof and section drawings. Not every plan may be necessary, but having a complete understanding of your three dimensional space, will reveal all of the nuances of your old home.
What if the original floor plans exist and are hand-drawn?
We’d like to inform homeowners that original plans do more harm than help. Above all, they tend to generate unnecessary confusion. We find them to be inaccurate and don’t take into account any updates that have happened over the life of the home.
Hand-drawn plans tend to be less helpful as well. In contrast, today’s drawings:
- Need to be a digital file,
- Need to be edited or manipulated, and
- Allow easy sharing by email
This old house can tell a new story, yours…
Up-to-date as-built drawings will give you control over your home. You’ll be able to confidently share with anyone working on your project. Every nuance of the three dimensional space will be captured and accounted for. Moreover, you’ll be able to write the next chapter of this old house, with your new vision.
