New house plans question

[TN94z]

How much would it cost to have an architect draw up some plans instead of picking some out of a book? For instance, in looking through plans, if we find a kitchen from one set, a master bath from one, dining room from one that we like.....can we take that to an architect and get him to draw up some plans using the ideas of the multiple houses that we like?

I have never gone this route. We built our current house ourselves but used plans straight from a book. This is just an idea. We find house plans that we like except the bath is not exactly what we want, or the kitchen is not planned out like we would want, etc....

Or would it just be better to go to an architect, tell him what we want, and go from there?

[Mac62]

How much would it cost to have an architect draw up some plans instead of picking some out of a book?

I'm sure it varies from region to region and architect to architect, so it would be difficult to give even a ballpark figure. When we had ours done a few years ago I believe it cost around $300 - but my wife had already drawn up and printed the floor plan on one of those "home designer" programs, so he didn't have to start entirely from scratch as far as designing it went. He was also a retired guy who just did the architectural drafting from home on a part-time basis, so I'm sure he was much cheaper than many.

For instance, in looking through plans, if we find a kitchen from one set, a master bath from one, dining room from one that we like.....can we take that to an architect and get him to draw up some plans using the ideas of the multiple houses that we like?

Any architect should easily be able to do that...it will just be a matter of you (and/or him) establishing how they will "flow" in the house, where you want them located, etc.

[newtogolf]

My understanding is there are floor plans and engineering plans. Floor plans are what those software programs create which which give you layout of the floor and rooms, they run about $250 - $500 to create.

Engineering plans are what a builder needs to build a house and what you need to submit to your local government for permits and final certificate of occupancy. They have the floorplan layout, but also beam placement, define weight bearing walls, plumbing, electrical, etc. They are much more expensive and pricing is based on size and complexity of the house, plus revisions usually in the thousands and tens of thousands.

[glbrum]

Why not a combination of both. Go to the architect and tell him/her what styles you like, what themes, etc. and also bring your various room ideas along that you've pulled from other projects and describe the features of the rooms you really like and see how it all can be incorporated together.

[TN94z]

Why not a combination of both. Go to the architect and tell him/her what styles you like, what themes, etc. and also bring your various room ideas along that you've pulled from other projects and describe the features of the rooms you really like and see how it all can be incorporated together.

That was rally my original question. That's what I want to do. And I will obviously need the complete plans and not just the floor layout. The house I currently live in (we built most of it ourselves) we just picked the plans out of a book and ordered them and they were like 1500 for 5 sets of plans, which you usually need because many contractors will "forget" to give them back.

After doing some asking around about what I am looking for, it looks like it is based on a percentage of the cost. For example, the architect will charge like 10-20% of the house cost for the plans. That's pretty steep. So, what I am going to do is pick out a plan as close to what I want as possible, and then work with the builder to make the changes that I want. I'm sure that will be the easiest way to go. Thanks