I am currently looking for a home for my family. I am an engineer, so I am very interested in seeing the Architectural, Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing design drawings of the residential homes that we are looking at.
Is it possible that there is a government place that keeps all this stuff on file?
It is possible they are on file where they were submitted at the permitting office. I would try there 1st and if they don’t, they should be able to send you where they are kept. Depending on how old the house is, it may have been purged. If you can find out the builder of the home, they may have it as well.
February 5th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
It is possible they are on file where they were submitted at the permitting office. I would try there 1st and if they don’t, they should be able to send you where they are kept. Depending on how old the house is, it may have been purged. If you can find out the builder of the home, they may have it as well.
References :
February 5th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Generally, working prints for homes (or any building, for that matter) are NOT kept in files by permitting offices except for government-owned structures (that would be an enormous archival nightmare.) Once the plan review is completed by an authority, they don’t keep copies. Even if they did they would not freely share them with anyone who did not own the property for privacy and security reasons. Also consider that building plans are proprietary and the property of the designer. Even if you were to buy a set of plans to build a house you are not permitted to copy them or sell or lend them to another party — that would undermine the designer’s right to profit from the value of his intellectual property.
You could probably contact the developer or builder if you are looking at newer homes and wanted to see typical plans for that particular model. If the house is more than a few years old your chances of finding that sort of documentation are pretty slim unless it was custom-built and the original owner kept a set.
References :
30 years in engineering, building and construction