Designing
Is your home a bit obsolete? Do you need more space; perhaps another bathroom?; a larger kitchen? A new family room or porch?
As home owners we have generally solved this by selling our home and looking for and buying another. The market has usually supported that.
Sometimes we have purchased property and had that "perfect home" designed and built.
But, alas, the "economy". Can't touch it. Can't even find it - but it is "there" and affecting many of our capabilities - or so we think. [click to continue…]
Consider that you have just had a home designed. You look at the plans and elevations, maybe a few perspectives, and struggle to fully understand what it is that you are studying.
Consider how nice it would be to be able to, at your own computer, in your own home, with software that you can download free of charge, to tour your dream home, not yet built, as though you were taking a stroll.
You walk room to room, through the doors, look left and right, look up and down, seeing the kitchen, the spacious living room, all the details. Consider that the walls, the colors, the textures are all close approximations of what will actually be in the home.
Walk through the front door, to the outdoors and take a walk around the home, levitate over the top of it, and fully view and fully understand the design concept.
Seems like science fiction. Yet it can be done with ease today. [click to continue…]
In Florida, currently, most construction projects require stamped drawings to obtain the building permit. This includes residential projects. "Stamped plans" are plans bearing the seal of a Registered Engineer or Architect. If you have attempted to get a permit and been informed of this, this article explains the seal (or stamp) and what is needed. The words Engineer and Architect are capitalized because they designate licensed professions. Many people call themselves engineers, but none may call himself or herself an "Engineer" without being duly licensed. This is also true with Architects.
Architects are more protective of the word than are Engineers. A Professional Engineer carries the designation "PE" following his or her name.
Each profession has a seal. Either of these seals will suffice in Florida in most building departments.Professionals who can seal are mostly self-regulating as to what they may or may not seal. Basically one should be skilled in an area of design before he or she affixes a seal to the project.
Engineers and Architects come in all shades of ability, as do all people. The thing to do, in hunting for a professional, is to find one competent in the field encompassing what you need.In seeking a design, it is best to hire one who is a skilled designer AND can seal the plans so you can get the permit.If you have a set of plans that you like, or have purchased, which, itself, needs a seal, then you may look for someone to stamp them. But this is something you should be very careful doing. Professionals will not simply seal plans without putting much attention and effort into the design, plans, details, etc. (though this was a rather common practice in the past and may still have some hangers-on). But beware. You want a professional on your team. Not just someone who has a seal.The professional, if he or she considers reviewing your plans, will have to add his or her own data to the plans, and carefully go over every elements to assure that the key structural points are met.
It is best to get a licensed professional to do the entire service for you.
