We are wondering about building another house. This will be our first construction project here in the US, but we have built elsewhere in the world before.
The first thing we need to do is work out a floorplan that we would like to use. (we have a number of lots in mind but due to the nature of the area we wish to build in, there isn’t much flexability in the size of area we can use).
What is the best way to do this? Are there floorplans with materials lists that are available? If so, recommendations?!
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A quick web search will give you dozens of sites with house plans and material lists.
There are of course a million results (probably more!) on Google for anything related to this. I was hoping more for personal recommendations...
I'm sorry, I wasn't being flip. Builders use customer supplied plans, architect supplied plans or have their own in house designers. I've certainly looked at plenty of plan books but have never used one to build a house. I tell my customers to look online for floor plans they like then find an elevation that appeals to them. At that point I bring in my draftsman to make the floor plan look like the elevation. In short, builders don't use plan books.
I’d agree that you should start with a book or software program with hundreds of design options. Narrow down what you like, and hire an architect to do a full design for you. Good luck!
Last I looked most building supply places had book sections with books of floor plans, plus many such stores sell sets of blueprints for "favorite" designs.