When to Modify Your Predesigned House Plans

Predesigned house plans offer homeowners significant savings over hiring an architect. But just because you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for doesn’t mean you have to design your home from scratch. You can often modify a set of floor plans to fit your needs; it typically costs a little extra, but you’ll still save tons of money overall – and have the plan of your dreams.

House plan modifications can range from simple cosmetic tweaks – such as moving a door or window – to major structural alterations. When deciding whether to modify stock home plans or create a custom plan from scratch, assess the number of changes you need to make. If you are modifying more than a third of the home, a custom design may be just as cost effective.

Here’s a look at some of the common factors that require changes to stock home plans:

Geographic challenges.

Specific conditions at the building site, such as sloped terrain or special geotechnical circumstances require modifications to predesigned house plans. For example, you can adapt your chosen floor plans to a graded lot by adding a pony wall and stepped foundation – or even a walkout basement.

Local building restrictions.

Many municipalities impose setbacks, height restrictions, and other limitations on home design. Stock house plans can generally be modified to accommodate these requirements. It is common to stretch or shrink a chosen design by a couple of feet to fit within the site restrictions.

Uncommon construction materials.

If you plan on building your home with non-standard building practices such as including a high performance wall system, advanced mechanical system or even constructing your entire house out of concrete ICFs, your construction methods may impact the details required in your house plans.

Size needs.

Clients sometimes fall in love with the style and layout of house plans that are too large or small for their needs. While it’s possible to add rooms or remove square footage, such changes typically affect everything else about the house, including its structure, character, and silhouette. Reductions and enlargements can sometimes be some of the most expensive modifications you can make. Keep in mind it is much easier to enlarge a plan than to reduce its size.