CA for future home builder/owner

[Rickt1962]

It falls back on your construction knowledge and Building codes that are required where you work. I am one of those few that have done both. Been building homes since the 70's and when the first home PC's came out in the late 70's was also learning how to use them. I started out with Auto Cad 10 the dos version wow it sucked typing in the command lines for x and Y for a single line to be drawn ! When i picked up a version of 3D home a Architect and loved it ! Is when i researched if ther was a more powerful version out ther ! Is when i started with Chief back in the late 90's. Chief classes back then with AL who was a home builder that worked for A.R.T which was Chiefs name before they changed it. Went around the country promoting the use of CHIEF for builders to cut out the Architect. Just so long you have the knowledge of spans of lumber and steel and you will do fine !

[beachcomer]

Alright! Somebody opened pandora's box

[tompapa]

I know for a fact that you can do this in California. It is neither illegal or unethical, in direct contradiction to what some of the people on here are saying. I've done the drawings for every structure I've built over the last six years since I bought a copy of chief. It's easy to find structural and civil engineers who are happy to review and stamp your work. They will require that you meet their standards, but you want to do that anyway. Not even remotely a problem here. Most of the engineers I know don't even do their own drawings anyway. They sub it out. You can do this in the city or out in the country, doesn't matter at all.

[tompapa]

By the way Preston, it took me a couple of months to learn the program well enough to do my first set of plans. It was a very custom house though, so if yours is easy to build it will be easy to draw. The program is really simple to learn, it's just that there's a lot to learn. I'm a builder with 35 years experience so that may have given me a leg up but if you look at a set of plans that has all the necessary information on them for guidance you'll be able to accomplish this easily. You probably don't really need chief though if the design is straightforward. Doing construction documents is pretty basic whereas a big part of chief is the rendering and such, which is helpful when dealing with clients. Not really necessary in your case.

[lbuttery]

I know for a fact that you can do this in California. It is neither illegal or unethical

the key is the level of supervision

Lew

[perryh]

I've been doing it for almost 40 years now and every plan I do, uses a structural engineer.

[moak]

Lew is right.
Getting away with the infraction does not make it legal or ethical.

[bbbuilders]

A know a local semi retired architect here was essentially rubber stamping drafter set plans. About two years ago he got a letter from the state requiring him to have "Direct Supervision" over plans he stamps, or they were going to pull his license.

However, that is very different from sending a set of plans to an engineer for their review/red-line, making the red-line corrections and then having the engineer stamp the plans. We use this process all the time with two different engineers we work with.

With regards to design, in general I would agree that a good designer and/or architect can add a lot off value to a project and we often work with them on projects and value their input and ability to add value and flow to a project. On the other hand the title of designer or architect does not mean your good at it. Over the years I have seen terrible plans from designers and architects. We have also seen great design ideas from homeowners, though most of the time they don't have the time or knowledge to put those ideas into a working set of plans. I got into the business 20 years ago by drafting and building my own first home with very little construction experience, and no design or drafting experience. If you have an eye for good design, a desire to do the project and you are willing to seek and take advice there is no reason you can't do your own plans. That being said, I'm not sure it will save any $ in the long run but it can be an enjoyable project if approached correctly.

[lbuttery]

However, that is very different from sending a set of plans to an engineer for their review/red-line, making the red-line corrections and then having the engineer stamp the plans

Ben:

again, the key is direct supervision

too little and there could be a violation....

Lew

[tlmarcott]

Absolutely! In 2007 I started the designing. In 2008, I built. My final plans were developed by a lumber yard who would provide drawings for free if you bought lumber from them. I'm an engineer by trade so I felt my drawings made sense. They were invaluable for iterations and space optimization with my wife. If you look at the detail that some provide on these forums the lumber yard fell short so watch it. Example - wall details. I made up for a lot of was not on drawings with a 16 page spec. The loan was on me but I paid my trim guy/GC to run the project for 8% of total cost. 5466 sf 2 story with 1900 sf of the basement finished.

[tlmarcott]

Another thing or two to watch. Bad roof lines - I have a bad "cricket" or two. Areas that require special flashing or other solutions. Surprise no one caught it before build. You can see one on the right side of the house. The other was the bay window. I had decent drawings aside from the official drawings but they still screwed up the pitch and copper roof. I also needed extreme details for the dryvit/succo on the bay.

[Rickt1962]

Another thing or two to watch. Bad roof lines - I have a bad "cricket" or two. Areas that require special flashing or other solutions. Surprise no one caught it before build. You can see one on the right side of the house. The other was the bay window. I had decent drawings aside from the official drawings but they still screwed up the pitch and copper roof. I also needed extreme details for the dryvit/succo on the bay.

Don't feel bad ! Ive had many professional plans come to me and when building the homes, ive come across wrong window sizes in dormers that list the correct size for fire egress in the plan but the roof pitch ends up a foot higher in the window ! or Bay roofs drawn wrong on the plan with missing ridges etc etc etc LOL I love the plans they give me with great style and never any thought of the cost of Framing which the burden is put on the home owners wallet which they can't afford. But i do like the challenges and curve balls when building someone else's plan. Just don't like pissed off home owners when its not my fault when those glitches show up !

[Architex]

Don't feel bad ! Ive had many professional plans come to me and when building the homes, ive come across wrong window sizes in dormers that list the correct size for fire egress in the plan but the roof pitch ends up a foot higher in the window ! or Bay roofs drawn wrong on the plan with missing ridges etc etc etc LOL I love the plans they give me with great style and never any thought of the cost of Framing which the burden is put on the home owners wallet which they can't afford. But i do like the challenges and curve balls when building someone else's plan. Just don't like pissed off home owners when its not my fault when those glitches show up !

I saw this just the other day. A builder friend of mine brought by a set of plans that someone else had drawn so I could print them out for him. I glanced at them and noticed they had a room over the garage that was contained within the roof. I told him the exterior wall would only be 42" high even though they labeled the wall at 96". The homeowner though he was lying to them and fired him (I am sure other issues arose other than just this) Fast forward, while they were framing the house I noticed they did not change the plans (it is being built in my neighborhood so I can see what they are doing). They had to rip off part of the roof and re-frame it since surprise surprise the wall was only 42" tall. the homeowner did mention they got the plans drawn for only $800. It just shows you get what you pay for. Save a couple of bucks now to spend thousands later.

[Rickt1962]

WOW LOL yea start the digging process in the wallet ! If i have a customer that is a little tight on the budget, I talk them into allowing me to draw the plans so NO SURPRISES show up !

[keithhe]

already Yes,

I know this is a month old thread, but I'm one too that believes that anyone can do their own design if they so choose. Let's face it, most people simply don't have the apptitude, but some do. Recognize what you can do, have professionals do what you can't, either legally or otherwise.

I'm a GC and have been drawing in one program or another for 15 + years, but relatively new to Chief and drafting on my own behalf. Where I'm at, wet seals are required for all structual portions of the project, regardless of what that part is. I draw up preliminary plans, have the EOR I work with draw all the structural details then I coordinate what I have with what they specify. He reviews my stuff and vice versa and when we both are happy, they provide the structual sets, I provide the rest. Frankly, I've been doing this for a long time, so I already know what they will require, so we are never that far off to begin with. I have not seen any issues with this method, and don't believe it is in any way illegal or unethical.

Prior to my current life of residential remodeling and renovations, I was managing very large commercial aviation projects around the country. Primarily building hangars and FBO's. During that time, we had architects we worked with and engineers. As neither of those, I typically did much of the preliminary design work, and the architects made it legal and pretty. The reason for this was that early on it was apparent that the architect, talented as he was, had no idea of our business or what really mattered to us, and our business. How could he.

One example was a West Coast project where we had several wings planned as addition to our facilty that was also a LEED target project (LEED CI). The architect gave numerous plans that everyone hated. The flow and space use was simply not what we needed. I spent a Christmas vacation drawing it up and everyone loved it. Architect drew it up my way and our target LEED Silver for FBO and 2 hangars made LEED Gold. First at that time in the country. All the while I was, and still am not, an architect or an engineer. I found that by working closely with both, I could direct traffic and get what we wanted.

Later, we redesigned our core buildings (FBO's) in three typical size ranges depending on target. Through this same approach (my design layout), those in some configuration are still being built today.

Again, I think it comes down to apptitude. Not genetic by the way. My sister tried to design a new home for my folks some years ago and it was laughable. The garage was so out of proportion it was like the size of a basketball court. I redesigned it in CAD, we handed off to an architect in Panama, who made minor changes (mostly cosmetic) and we had it built about 5 years ago. That is worthy or another post all together as building anything abroad is a nightmare.

To the OP, if you are still around here, go for it. Sounds like you have plenty of time and the apptitude. (my caution to you though, required or not, have an engineer review the structual parts)

Now, if only I could get more apptitude with CA...............