General Information

Office Info:

Ejdesigns is located in Madison county; working with local builders and referred homeowners. A permanent office for meeting is not currently available, so plan intake will continue to occur by phone/email. Zoom type meetings are not available yet. Typical office hours generally Mon-Thurs 9am-5pm. Most messages will be replied to within 1-2 working business days.

Intake Procedure :

The process starts with a call/email of your ideas for your new home: style of house, estimated budget, desired square footage, rooms desired, porches, decks, or other preferred features. A generic questionnaire will also be provided to answer common plan related details. While a home can be completely designed from scratch, a rudimentary sketch or inspiration plan is a great help to better understand your preferences. Please limit other inspirational images to only the relevant essential details. A 1/3 down payment of the estimated total cost is required in order to start and receive the first preliminary.

Upon receipt of all information and after a few weeks for processing, you will receive a preliminary drawing to review which will contain the initial elevations, floor plans, section(s), and limited dimensions/notes.

After careful review, your preliminary revisions can then be conveyed by providing a marked-up PDF or scanned image and can be discussed further over the phone. A second or third preliminary is routine improve the initial designs. Lastly, upon your approval, the plans will proceed to be finalized.

A finalized plan is considered to have all the required elevations, plans, dimensions, notes, and details required to start construction estimates, obtain mnfr'd roof truss or mnfr'd joist drawings/layouts, and/or otherwise use for permit application. Payment in full is required to receive the finalized plans. Revisions requested to plans after finalizing are subject to hourly revision fees.

Engineering:

Engineering is offered as a pass thru service and only when required for a plan (such as structural concrete slabs, pier foundations, special soil conditions, tall framed walls & related wind bracing, steel beams, etc). Engineering is a separate fee and can cause delays in finishing plans. Engineer's turnaround time varies and is solely based off of their current workload schedule. Expedited engineering is not currently being offered. You may also use your preferred engineer if time is of the essence or other design practices are desired.

PDFs and Prints:

Preliminary, Revised, and Final plans will be provided by PDF only at this time. Prints can be made at your preferred local print shop. All PDFs are formatted to print to scale on large format paper. Printing from a typical home printer and viewing from a smart phone are not recommended. Many counties accept PDFs for permit application; job site prints should then only be made using the approved red-lined plan PDF you receive back from the building department.

Reminder:

Overall turn around time can vary depending on our workload, the builder's/owner's review time, and any required engineering. Estimations are not implied guarantees. Most new house plans take 6-8 weeks on average, but may conditionally take longer.

Finished House Plans will include any required Elevations, Foundation/Floor Plans, Notes/Details, Sections, Wind-bracing, but this is only part of the permit process. Any required surveys, site planning, soil reports, zoning permits, well/septic permits, manufactured truss drawings, manufactured joist drawings, etc. are to be provided/obtained by builder/homeowner and provided in addition to our plans at the time of permit application. Permit Forms are available from your building department website, including links to view statewide building codes. Materials lists, finishing schedules, and cost estimates are also typically provided by others.

Payments:

A work order will provided prior to the project's start. Fees for plans fall under an hourly or per square foot rate as described in your work order. Smaller projects and revisions to finalized plans fall under hourly drafting rates. Engineering costs are always in addition to plan costs.

1/3 down payment is due prior to completion of the first preliminary. The remaining balance is due upon completion of the finalized plans. PDF plans will not be released without payment received.

Sharing of proprietary designed CAD files are not part of the plan package, except upon a specific per project request and agreement.

Should you need to cancel or hold any plans, it is imperative to immediately notify our office to stop the work on your plans. You are responsible for payment of any work processed up to the point of notification.

Plans are custom drawn, cannot be returned, and belong to the respective client. Your plans will be saved in our file library for future use and not shared/ sold to another client without written permission.

Transfer of Liability:

EJDESIGNS, nor its owner, shall assume no responsibility/liability for any structure which is not constructed under their direct supervision. All construction shall comply with current local building codes whether shown on plan or not. Builder/owner is responsible to also fully review completed plans prior to applying for permit. Building department approved plans are designed based off of current prescriptive building codes, pre-engineered manufactured products, and project specific engineering (when required). Use of plans provided from EJDESIGNS for any purpose assumes a full transfer of liability from the plan designer directly to the builder/owner.