Custom House Design and Draftsman Cost

When we decided we wanted to build, I wondered how much a custom house design cost with a draftsman bringing your vision to life? I thought it would surely be more expensive than buying an online plan from a website.

This is part 2 in my “How Much Does It Really Cost to Build a House Series.” Find Part 1 HERE!

To Design A Custom House

Perhaps you are like me. I looked for hours online at many different house plans. And I did discover some great websites with beautiful house plans such as Architectural Design and Allison Ramsey House Plans.

However, I would find that I liked the exterior on one, but the interior would have to be redone to make it work for our family. Or vice versa. I had a vision in my mind of what I wanted, and nothing I found came close enough to consider.

So, I grabbed some paper and started to sketch.

Considerations in a Custom House Design

There were so many aspects I needed to take into account, the slopes in our 1.5 acres, the electrical 20 ft easement on the east side of the property, the location to the road. I thought considerably about the orientation of the sun, how I would maximize the southern sun for those short winter days, and how I could deal with a heat of the western sun, while still appreciating a beautiful mountain sunset.

Then there was the exterior design. I knew I wanted something traditional and symmetrical. I thought about what design elements help a home to feel timeless and proportionate. And I loved our current 100-year-old farmhouse, so I wanted it to feel reminiscent of that home. I would sketch up a design, think about it for a few months, then resketch.

The interior of the house developed over time. But one thing stayed the same, the large focal point windows I planned in the kitchen. This truly impacted the whole design of the house. The attached garage was a must, but to incorporate it into the house took some trial and error, adjusting to make sure there would be a view from my kitchen windows.

Then I started to sketch my ideas to scale. I would take a measuring tape and walk around our current farmhouse, measuring doorways, hallways, stairs, rooms, heights, and just about everything else. I would research recommended sizes until I feel like I had a good idea of what code and comfort required.

So many measurements came into play when I sketched the floorplans. I planned on 3 ft for doorways. I discovered that stairways need to be 3 ft, but 4 ft feels more comfortable. Same with hallways. In the kitchen I found the distance from the kitchen island to the countertop should be at least 3 ft, but 4ft or more would be better if you have a dishwasher, range or fridge that needs to open in the space. Kitchen countertops usually come to 36″ high. I needed to plan on windows needing 1ft header and 1.5 ft from the floor or I would need to do tempered glass. And on, and on the measurements went.

Around this point, I got a free account on floorplanner.com and started to draft my plans to scale.

I literally sketched and resketched for years. We had purchased our land, but we weren’t ready to build yet. So, I would work out an issue I saw in the design, give it a rest, and pick it up again when I felt ready.

Finally, I came to point where I really loved the layout. I loved the exterior, and I loved how it worked with our land and location.

Bidding Draftsman Costs

Many draftsmen base their costs off of house sq footage. I found this to be the case, as I search on the internet for local draftsman. The first draftsman I found, charged $.65 sq/ft for living space. This included the unfinished basement I was planning. And an additional $.10 sq/ft for garage and covered porch space.

Our house had about 2200 sq/ft of basement and similar main floor living space. Additionally there was 1375 sq/ft of upstairs loft area, 320 sq/ft of front porch, and 900 sq/ft of garage.

That would have brought our draftsman bid close to $4000 with tax.

I had a hard time with that number, we had just paid off loans and were working hard to pay off our land.

Our Custom House Design Cost

So, I asked around to some friends who had built recently. They recommended a guy, a couple hours away, who worked with them via email to come up with their plans. He was a builder but would do drafting on the side. This wasn’t a number you could find searching on the internet, so we were grateful for this contact.

We reached out to him, and he sent us back pricing information. We were ecstatic to find he charged $.37 for living spaces, $.10 for covered porches, and $.17 for garages. That would come to almost half of our first bid.

We started working with him right away. Because I had used floorplanner.com and grid paper to work out my design to scale, it was a fairly quick process for him to draft our plans. He would give us suggestions, and inform us what building code allowed. After a few weekends of back a forth we were happy with our plans and he sent us the bill.

To our surprise, it came to $1070.51. He had also been keeping a time log, and adjusted our price to reflect the number of hours he put in. He printed our plans and mailed them to us.

After looking through our plans for months, I realized there were a few things I needed to change. I hadn’t accounted very well for headroom when designing the stairs, I wanted to change some windows, and I rearranged the master bathroom.

When changes were completed, he printed us five copies of blueprints, and we paid another $275.

Another year and we were getting bids for our house. We needed more copies for contractors, so he printed another five copies, which cost us $160.

Costs for Custom Build Plans

In the end, our custom house design cost for plans was,

$1505.51

This was considerably less that we thought, was even cheaper than buying plans with the equivalent 5775 square footage, and we got exactly what we wanted.

Of course, if you were to hire an architect or designer, this would probably not be the more affordable way to go. But with a little understanding of code requirements and a good draftsman helping, you could have the blueprints for your dream home for a bargain cost.

Money Saving Tips for Drafting Custom House Plans

1. Even if your Draftsman bids out by sq footage, ask them to keep track of hours and see if they will offer a discount if you take less of their time than anticipated.
2. Make your edits as clear as possible. I did this by numbering the things I wanted changed, AND drawing how the change would look onto the pdf plans. This will take less time for the draftsman to edit.
3. Take your time to make sure your plans are exactly what you want before committing. Have family or friends look them over for problems. This would have saved us a couple hundred dollars if we caught the few mistakes we had to change.
4. Ask local contractors and neighbors who have built, who they use to draft their plans. You might find that one draftsman who isn’t found in a google search.

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You can find part 1 of my “How Much Does it Really Cost to Build A House Series,” HERE, where I talk about finding our land.