HOME BUILDING PLANS
BEFORE & AFTER
HOUSE PLAN - SPECIFICATIONS
"No house plan is perfect; our house plans are just better than the rest." AG '05
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BEFORE
Here’s an opinion of what you can see about house plan specifications from the other guys:
Wiggle-room is wiggle-room. If you don’t specify materials and methods, you can get the big whatever. Whatever can mean –
 | Whatever’s cheap and easy |
| Whatever isn’t said (speak no evil and hear no evil) |
| Whatever’s nearby |
| Whatever some contractor wouldn’t use or do if he were working on his own house |
| Whatever works right then and there |
| Whatever is left over from the last job |
| Whatever somebody’s uncle has on sale |
| Whatever isn’t written down (see no evil) |
| Whatever is minimum by somebody else’s standards, or less than minimum |
| Whatever can get covered up soon (see no evil) |
| Whatever it is clear to some mechanics that you don’t know from nothing. |
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Before The Architect spells out materials’ and methods’ specifications trade-by-trade, subject by subject, including but not necessarily limited to –
| Environmental design standards for basic wind speed, degree days, etc. |
| Contractor conduct on-site. |
| Precedence of authority. |
| Foundations, including concrete mix and amendments, strip and spread footings, placed and blocked walls, grade beams, slabs-on-grade, jointing and covering both interior and exterior applications, etc. |
| Fastening – nails, screws, bolts, adhesives, etc. into wood, sheetrock, etc. |
| Framing for floors, walls, ceilings, roofs. |
| Venting, passive or active or both. |
| Electrical. |
| Water plumbing. |
| HVAC. |
| Finishing |
| Adaptable design, if applicable. |
The house plan specifications from Before The Architect come from the latest edition of their quarterly-updated e-publication, “Home Design Standards-Home Building Standards.” Literally, section-by-section, text is copied right from these standards and adapted line-by-line as needed to apply to a specific house plan set. We add, delete, and modify all the time; no two house plan set Specifications are exactly alike.
Designer opinion: Nobody does house plan specifications so completely as does Before The Architect. You’ll see simple to-do lists scattered around in the other guys’ house plans, but not 8, 10, 12 sheets 3’x2’ covered in small type.
The importance of setting the ground rules in Specifications comes back over and over again as these specs are used as cross-references throughout the sheets. You’ll see those references come to life in footnotes, annotations, and circled citations.
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