Questions & Answers About BTS House Plans

Our house plans are a pictorial representation of what you want to build:

• They are a way for you to communicate to the builder exactly what you want in a home, addition or garage.
• They are the guidelines for bids, pricing, and they will become part of your construction documents.
• They are what the bank needs for loan purposes.
• They are what your town needs for permits, and they are what your builder needs for bidding and construction.
• All of our homes are designed with our unique super insulated exterior wall and roof design.
• All of our homes are designed with an intergrated HVAC system for superior energy efficiency and indoor air quality.
• The majority of our homes are designed with exposed wood beam cathedral ceilings.
• Our homes are all designed for radiant floor heating, several types are available.

Our house plans include:

• All elevations are shown at ¼" scale standard or 1/8"scale for larger homes that do not fit on the sheet size.
• All floor plans in ¼" scale complete with all necessary dimensions.
• The foundation plan. (Slab on grade or basement)
• All the necessary structural "cuts" or cross sections.
• We include window and door schedules that your builder will fill out.
• Generic kitchen layouts. Final kitchen design will be done by your builders. (Our kitchen just shows a generic layout primarily for window placement.)
• All required HVAC plans and specifications tayloerd to your needs, for yse by your contractors

BTS offers custom high tech electrical layouts (intergrated X10 Controls or similar) at an added charge, for ordinary electrical service you should sit down with your electrician to mark up a basic plan set.

Generic plumbing fixture locations are included. The plumbing fixture selection and piping is handled by you plumber.

Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) are an integral part of the home design and included on the plans. We are available to consult with your selected HVAC subcontractor as needed to ensure your home is provided with the exceptional HVAC system you expect.

Every situation is different but most people need the following sets of home plans:

• 1 set for your town. Check first though, they may want more!
• 1 set for your bank, if financing is involved.
• 1 set for yourself.
• 1 set for each bid you are requesting. You should request your sets back from builders or subcontractors once they submit their bid.
• At least 2 sets for the final builder.
• Generally, most clients order between 6 to 8 sets of home plans.

Yes we can.

Depending on the details of the house plan and the modifications that you may want, it is generally an inexpensive process and can usually be completed quite quickly.

Yes we do.

Custom plans, depending on the size and complexity of the home, generally take 4 to 8 weeks to complete.

We always recommend that you start your planning process as early as possible so that time is not too much of an issue. If you are cramped for time, we recommend that you chose a plan that is close to what you want and have us modify it instead. This is always a lot quicker.

A study set of plans will show all elevations and floor plans in 1/8" scale so that you have a better feel of exactly what the house will look like. These home plans include a sheet of furniture cutouts so that you can size furniture and make sure that the rooms are large enough for you. The last thing you want to do is build a house and not be able to put furniture in it!

The cost of a study set will be credited to your account if you order the full set of home plans.

If the house is to the right of the garage, breezeway, or side entry it is right hand plan. If the house is on the left, it's a left hand plan.

Although builders can build homes in the reverse without any problems, most of them want the plan exactly as it is to be built, so that there will be little room for error.

If you want our home standard plans reversed it's no problem with only $75.00 extra cost. All text and dimesions will be mirrored to read correctly. (Some companies only offer reverse image with lettering backward.)

No we do not. Most builders want to create their own materials list using matirals they are familiar with in your local area and to ensure nothing is left out, and most lumber yards will provide a materials list for you as part of their bid with thier stocked materials.

No, All plan fees are non-refundable since they are easily copied.

All of our plans and pricing square footage is the living floor space, measured from outside wall to outside wall. With open cathedrals, or two story living rooms, we count the square footage of the first floor only. Void areas in capes and some roof areas are not counted. Basements are not counted, unless there are rooms in them.

Garage square footage is priced separately and not counted as living space.

You generally need three things for a building permit:

1. A set of professionally drawn home plans, which we provide.
2. A plot plan showing your lot, setbacks and building locations. You or your builder generally provide the plot plan. We can provide this assistance for an additional fee.
3. A septic plan, if you are not on a town sewer. This plan can typically provided by a licensed site evaluator and septc system designer in your area.

All town and state codes are subject to frequent changes and local C.E.O. interpretation. It would be impossible for any design company to guarantee 100% complete compliance nationwide.

Our homes are designed in and for the northeast snowloads. Our stairs meet 99 B.O.C.A. or 03 I.R.C. If you have any doubts about your town approving our home plans, you should check with your town building inspector or C.E.O. to find out if anything special is required. You should do this before you order home plans from anyone. Our plans state: "The builder has our permission to add to, or delete from, any of our notes and or specifications if necessary for individual town code compliance."

With the exception of extremely unusual homes, almost none of our home plans need engineering approval. Should you request a design that requires some type of engineering, we or one of our affiliate firms will get the proper engineering approval required by your C.E.O., an additional fee may likely apply.

Our plans are based on 30 years of experience designing cutting edge HVAC systems and energy efficient structures by a Licensed Professional Engineer.

All home plans, are pictorial drawings of the expected end result. It is required of the builder to see that his construction meets all town and state codes at the time of construction. Our plans state this fact right on them.

Minimum sizes of steel or laminate beams are specified. The actual details of these items will be specified by your builder or supplier.

• Stock plans with no changes can generally be mailed to you within one week.
• Stock plans with changes take a little longer depending on the nature of the changes.
• Custom plans can take from 4 to 8 weeks depending on how long it takes to develop and get approval from you on floor plans and elevations.
• Different times of the year also factor into house plan production time as well. We are much busier in the spring and summer months than we are in the fall or winter.
• No matter what the type of plan, or time of year, we will do our best to get your plans to you when you need them. Try to order house plans as early in your planning phase as possible. You should pick out a plan today and build next week. The longer you sit on a plan the happier you'll be after it's built. Sitting on it for a while, allows you to work through the small details, rather than having a builder make revisions with his sledge hammer.

We would prefer that all house plan orders be placed either by phone or in person. We feel that personal contact assures that any and all of your questions are answered, and that you get exactly what you want. We feel this is much more personal than sending an e-mail order.

If you contact us with your number and a time to call, we will try to return your call at a time convenient for you. You can also reach us directly by simply calling 207-329-2454 anytime during Eastern Standard business hours.

Should you get an answering machine, it is because we are in a meeting, or on an outside call. If you leave your day and evening number we will try get back to you within 24 hours.

All of our home designs are sold with the understanding that they are for one house only, for the person named on the plans. If you wish to build more than one house from the same set of plans, we can negotiate the appropriate rates.

Copyright Information
All of our plans, designs, and printed material are copyrighted and protected under federal copyright laws. We retain the rights to all material.

• Our plans cannot be copied, or constructed from without our express written permission.
• Purchasing a set of plans does not transfer copyright ownership other than to give the purchaser permission to build one home.
• All of our designs are sold with the understanding that they are for one house only, for the person named on the plans.
• If plans are purchased for a "spec" house, the name of the lot and development will be needed for copyright purposes.
• Home plans sold to a developer building multiple homes, such as condos in the same development, will require special arrangements.
• When you purchase our home plans, you will receive one copy stamped "for building permit only". The remainder of the plan copies will be stamped "for bid or construction – not for building permit purposes".
• Plans may not be given, loaned, transferred, or resold without our express written permission.
• We request that all plans given out for bid purposes be returned to you once bids have been completed and submitted.