Architect vs draftsman?

A draftsman could make the changes but they may or may not have the knowledge to deal with any structural changes. If you have a builder lined up they could easily make the changes for you.

I see a lot of plans from Madden Home Design. Pretty sure they are in Denham.

It’s weird to me that people look to save a few thousand on the plans for an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars that their family will live in for years. It’s the wrong place to trim your budget. That being said...

Architects are degreed professionals. 5 or 6 years of school, three years of internship and a professional exam. It’s a commitment. They are required to have yearly continuing education including codes, life safety, best practices, systems and materials. They have taken structures classes, mech and elec systems classes and most have years of experience applying that knowledge. Architects know history, styles, periods and proportions. Or should.

There are bad architects just like any other profession. Some have the stereotypical ego. But using references and looking at resumes and portfolios of work, usually posted online, it’s not hard to find a competent professional designer that will work with you and give ideas and insights you may not have even considered.

There are also some great builders and draftsmen out there too, but you are drawing from a different pool and there is more risk in that.

Obviously I recommend an architect, but more than that I’d recommend an appropriate amount of time to vet your options. Architect vs draftsperson isn’t really the way to approach it. Talk to people. Look at firms and examples. Look at the long term costs and consequences of this choice. This is where people look back in 5, 10, 15 years and regret not spending the time and/or money up front. Some look back 3 months and regret it.

Good luck.

Looking to build a 700k house. 70k for an architect vs 1 to 5k for a draftsman. I need to ad an entrance an move a couple walls to the plan we have.

To summarize the posts above:

A draftsman cost $1-5k. An architect costs $70k (verified as accurate).

For a custom home, the consensus is to find existing plans and move a few walls around or give them to the builder and he’ll have a guy tweak them. Just keep an eye out for adjustments like reduced roof pitch, smaller windows, etc. A good GC should be able to read plans from a draftsman.

I tried.

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ItNeverRains

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Any draftsman suggestions?

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You didn’t need an architect. A draftsman is perfectly capable of this in the residential construction world. An architect simply provides a higher level of quality and detail.

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Joel is this you? I’ve drawn houses with both over the last decade, I know the capabilities of both. My draftsman can trace another houseplan and add/remove certain aspects to meet buyer needs, but starting from scratch he’s about as “meat and potatoes” and unoriginal as it gets. I’m not saying this is every draftsman through the United States, just mine.

So I went with my architect.