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Many communities maintain archives with old photographs, building plans, and maps. These records may be heaped in disorganized piles in the town hall attic or cataloged and shelved at your local library, museum, or historical society. Public officials should also know something about the building history of your town or city, so check with the building inspector or assessor’s office at the town hall. Builders must file for a permit before beginning new construction or remodeling an older home. This process ensures some safety standards for occupants and the fire company that protects your home. Your neighbors might know about the history of your house or have a similar home.
Search your local building department or archives
Official records should back up any guesstimate about construction dates and alterations, especially for a house built in the 1900s. “Around the turn of the century, owners had to start getting permits for alterations, for plumbing, that sort of thing,” says Gilmore. Architects and engineers generally protect their work from unauthorized use and homeowners who pay for custom designs don’t necessarily want their blueprints copied so easily. Home blueprints are a publicly available record only if the city or county of the property under consideration has them on file as part of a public transaction. Otherwise, blueprints are copyright-protected works unavailable to the public for copying or borrowing.
Ways to Get Your House’s Blueprints or Plans
Planned and gated communities usually limit the available house styles, which means they used stock plans for that community. There’s a good chance that the neighbor’s home may have been designed by the same person or developer who built your home. However, finding blueprints of a building is not always as easy as one might think. Not all documents are digitally saved and some documents may not still exist, particularly for older structures.
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However, there are often cross sections within the plan pages that outline the general methods of wall construction or floor assembly. A roof layout plan will give you a bird's eye view of the roof which shows the ridges, valleys, and other necessary information. When looking at the print drawings, remember that they are drawn to a scale so that if any specific needed dimension is missing, the contractor can scale the drawing to determine the right measurement.
How To Find My House Floor Plan
Each avenue offers a unique perspective on your property’s past, making them valuable components of your blueprint search strategy. While these alternative sources may not provide the same level of detail as blueprints, they can still offer valuable information about your home's construction. Consider exploring these sources alongside your blueprint search to create a more comprehensive understanding of the building history, materials used, and any modifications that have taken place over time. If your house is relatively new, you may be able to get blueprints from the original home builder. They may have kept a copy of the plans in their records, and if so, they may be willing to share them with you.
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Builders who use in-house draftspersons own the works created, allowing them to reuse the same design multiple times without infringement. If blueprints were not included in your closing documents, call the realtor and ask how you can get the blueprints. They will be able to provide you with the documents or tell you how to get them in your area. Blueprints usually come with original house documents compiled by your realtor. It’s standard practice for realtors to give you all relevant documents at closing, which may be part of a digital file on a disc or hosted online through a private login.
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With more people than ever before using the library—a record 17 million last year alone—your support helps the Library provide people with the resources they need to succeed and thrive. While trying to find the history of a residence can be very difficult there are some things you can do at the Los Angeles Public library to start such a search. When in doubt, having a friendly conversation with your neighbors can also be a great way to find out how to contact the developer or local municipal agency.
George Van Kleek’s house is clearly visible on an 1851 map, the earliest one in the Somers Historical Society that shows property locations. Looking at maps in chronological order, a researcher can pinpoint the date a house first appears in a town survey. They are usually on file with historical societies or available through the Sanborn company, which still exists. By thoroughly exploring these official channels, you increase your chances of unearthing the blueprints that hold the key to understanding your home’s architectural history and layout.
Whatever the reason may be, obtaining the blueprint of your house can seem like a daunting task. If you are not the first buyer of the home, another way of getting the information you want is by contacting the former owner. Sometimes you may find that the former owner of your home has those documents, making the work very easy. If the former owner does not have the architectural design, then ask them whether they have contacts of the architect or the engineer who may be having the plan. Sometimes the former owner may have gotten a loan from the bank to build the house, and the bank may still be keeping the plan.
But keep in mind that while looking at visible features reveals a lot, there may be a hidden chapter to the story. Many a contractor has been surprised to uncover an old wall, a few stair steps, or some other vestige during a renovation. If you are not inclined to dismantle your house, a tour of the neighborhood to scope out similar homes can suggest the original blueprint lying within altered walls. Fortunately, many copyright owners make their blueprints available online for those wishing to build their own homes. You can get the blueprint of your dream home, and the content creators receive their fair pay. Homeowners have limited ownership of copyright-protected house documents.
These are drawn to scale so that measurements can be taken for any aspect necessary. The elevations specify ridge heights, the positioning of the final grade of the lot, exterior finishes, roof pitches, and other details that are necessary to give the home its exterior architectural styling. Dimensions may be drawn between the walls to specify room sizes and wall lengths.
The pages typically will be ordered by the way the house will be constructed. If your neighbor's house has never been modified, you might even ask to walk your neighbor's halls to understand the original floor plan of your own home. It can't hurt to ask if they have their home's blueprints lying around. In the early 1900s and before that, builders rarely drew up the kind of detailed specifications found in modern blueprints. House construction was largely a matter of convention, using methods passed down by word of mouth.
Determine the specific local government office responsible for building permits and records in your area. This is typically the building or planning department of your city or county. You can find their contact information through a quick online search or by referring to local government directories. Farm journals and women's magazines also featured advertisements for building plans.
You'll see parallel lines that scale at whatever width the walls are required to be. The parallel lines will normally be filled in to appear solid or have a series of angled or wavy lines to indicate the presence of insulation. If there are dark, solid lines for walls, then exterior walls will appear thicker than interior walls, or they may have an extra parallel line on the outside (sometimes shaded in) to indicate siding.
You might not get a permit to convert a garage to living space if the garage was illegally constructed. Electrical layouts are sometimes on a separate page to make reading them a little easier. The layout will show locations of light fixtures, fans, outlets, light switches, etc. There is usually a legend on the page, which explains what each symbol represents. There may be such legends for heating systems, door swings, and sizes, or even to specify certain finishes.
To see what the plan will look like with your preferred materials and paint choices, you can utilize brick&batten’s virtual exterior design service. For the price of a nice dinner out for two, you could have blueprints for your very own tiny house, thanks to The Small Hosue Catalog. Tiny homes aren’t just for people who want to devote their lives to minimalism. These structures make great Airbnbs, hobby sheds, backyard guest houses, or retreat spaces. With the blueprint in your possession, you have successfully completed the process of obtaining the architectural blueprint of your house.
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