When you order Prints you will receive a set of drawings for the Plans of the house design you have chosen. For each house there are two types of Prints available, Design Prints and Construction Prints. Design Prints are schematic drawings illustrating the design of the house. These are for evaluation purposes only and help you become more familiar with the house design and help you decide if this is the house you want to build. Construction Prints are used for pricing the work, acquiring building permits, and used by the builder during construction for building the house. This is what you can expect to see in the Prints:
Design Prints: The purpose of these drawings are to give you a good look at the design so that you can decide whether or not this is the house for you. They typically consist of a cover sheet which has perspective views of the interior and exterior of the house. These views are the ones you see here in the online catalog. This is followed by a perspective plan, or "doll house" view which shows the main levels of the house (basements are usually not included here). This looks like a doll house with the roof off. Next are elevations which show the facades of all sides of the house. Depending on the design of the house different combinations of the above, or other drawings may be used to best explain the house. These drawings are usually in color, but they are not archive quality and the colors will fade (keep prints out of the sun). I encourage you to get as many of these as you need to make your decision. They are a fraction of the cost of the construction prints. Get them - they will be a big help. They are available in Design Prints which are a full size sheet (22x34in); and in Small Design Prints which are a reduced half size sheet (11x17in) at a reduced cost to encourage you to look at more designs.
Construction Prints: The purpose of these drawings are to depict the house in sufficient detail to allow contractors to price the project reliably, for plan examiners to review the house for permit, and for the builder to construct the house. These are printed in black on plain bond paper that is suitable for large format copiers. I also include a color printed Owners copy - a backup for you to keep in case the print shop looses your originals, or coffee is spilled on them. Construction Prints typically consist of a cover sheet which has a description of materials to be incorporated into the construction, and a list of products which should be selected by the Owner. This is followed by a complete set of floor plans, including a basement and roof plan. These floor plans are dimensioned and notated, including sizes and locations of structural members and overall floor and roof framing. Following the floor plans are the elevation drawings which show each of the building facades with notation of materials, window sizes and vertical dimensions. These are followed by section drawings which are also noted to label major spaces and vertical dimensions, as well as references to wall sections. The wall sections are next and show in detail how the construction goes together with vertical dimensions and extensive identification of materials. There are no drawings for heating, airconditioning, plumbing, or electrical and lighting work.
Our technical drawings are every bit as outstanding as our home designs and I would never be shy to compare our work to any home plan publisher.
Some definitions: Some terms will be used in reference to the Plans and Prints so I thought it would be worthwhile to have a brief explanation.
Common architectural terms describing the Prints:
floor plan: You know what a plan is - it shows you the arrangement of rooms in a house. A plan is drawing of a house or a building, usually a flat non-perspective projection with a view point above the floor plane that is being described. It is an abstract view that depicts the arrangement of spaces by indicating the locations of walls, doors, windows, and other openings in walls and floors. They are usually noted for further explanation.
elevation: This term may not be as familiar but it is the type of drawing that is usually used to describe the facades of a house or building. It is a flat non-perspective projection usually taken from a view point perpendicular to the facade being shown. They are usually noted for materials and vertical dimensions.
sections: This is the name for a drawing that depicts an abstract view of a house or building as if it had been sliced open in order to see what was inside. Think of cutting an apple in half right through the core. This is used to show the relation of spaces in the vertical dimension and is very similar to a floor plan in this regard - a floor plan is actually a horizontal section. They are usually noted for vertical dimensions and other features only seen in section.
wall sections: These are detailed section drawings that focus on a single wall of a house or building. The drawing is at a larger scale and depicts all of the major components that go into the construction of the wall. These are followed during construction to ensure the various parts of the building come together correctly. They are usually noted material calls and vertical dimensions.
perspectives: This refers to a either a sketch or drawing which is a view of a structure depicting it in 3d space. Lines and edges will converge to a vanishing point and foreshorten. Perspective drawing was a discovery during the Renaissance which gave depth to artwork and opened up a the 3d world to painting, drawings and even the 3d arts of sculpture and architecture. Anyway, they will give you a good idea of what your house will look like.
Our own terms for Plans vs Prints as used on the site:
Plans: You will see this word used on the web site - capitalized Plans. I am using this to refer to the Plans for a House, which means the content of the Prints that you order. That consists of not only the design of the house, but all the information added to the drawings to enable you to build the house. Just like when you "plan" to do something, these are Plans for making a House. This is not the physical thing, but rather it is intellectual property that makes up our designs.
Prints: I use this term to refer to the copies of the drawings that you order - capitalized Prints. This is a physical representation of the ideas that constitute the Plans for the House. They are in our case paper prints of the drawings that make up the Plans for the house.