The Cost of House Plans in Spokane
The rule of thumb is that the cost of house plans can run as much as 1 percent of the total expenditure of the whole house building project. That is a bit high for many home buyers but if you were to hire an architect that is a very realistic number. In order to maintain their accreditation, architects must include much more detail and information than is necessary to build a home. When you use draftsman/home designers like myself, the cost of house plans are typically a few to several thousands of dollars cheaper. Read more on the whether you may need an architect.
Small project plans such as decks normally cost between $300 and $600, additions between $700 and $1800, and shops with living spaces $1800 to $3,800 depending on the complexity of the project, your location and many other variables such as size and levels and roof lines and so forth. The going rate is around $1.40 a square foot for designing and drafting plans for a custom home project.
The cost of house plans can depend somewhat on how close of an idea the client has when we start. Many times people come to me with a floor plan they have drawn from a software program they downloaded cheaply or perhaps freely and learned quickly. Some have been dead on and were easy to turn into a working set of blueprints. Others were not so good and required much more time and so drove up the cost of their house plan somewhat.
Many times, clients come with one plan they found on the internet that needs just a little tweaking, while some come in with four very different ones that they want blended together. Often clients have only very vague ideas and that is alright too. So there are a lot of variables that determine the cost of house plans but plan development is a fun and creative process that I happen to enjoy very much. Read more on the plan development process.
Sometimes it goes quickly and sometimes it takes longer. Either way, it does not matter in the grand scheme of things. What matters is that the blueprints we create together is an exact depiction of what ever it you want build.
Click here to read a recent post I put up on how to save money on a set of custom house plans and give you a perfect example.
Recently I got a phone call from a guy planning to build a house in Electric City. He told me that he would be in town the following Friday and wanted to meet. He also told me that he was going to meet with two other Spokane plan drafting businesses that day as well.
When he showed up he informed me that he had been to one before me and had a meeting scheduled following ours with a third draftsman. We talked for a while and he showed me all that he had prepared which was unusually extensive and accurately drawn out on a software program he mastered to create his design.
This was the second home he had built and so he knew what he was doing and I told him his efforts would save me a whole lot of time and I gave him what I thought was a fair price. He quickly told me I was hired and that he would cancel his next appointment.
When he picked up his plans the following Thursday, I had to ask what the first drafting company had quoted him. I was shocked when he said they wanted $3,300. No wonder he hired me on the spot. I made my $60 an hour and he saved $1,800! ( Bear in mind this was 2015) Click here to the blog/ video I show what he brought me and what I did with it.