Every house plan package includes a full set of working drawings at ¼” scale that can be printed on 24 x 36 inch (Arch D) paper. Drawing sets include the following:

• General Notes & Code Criteria
• Floor Plans (All levels)
• Elevations (Front, Back, Left, and Right)
• Lighting and Electrical Plan
• Foundation Plan
• Floor Framing Plan
• Roof plan
• Sections
• Construction Details 
• Brace Frame Plan 

Each house plan design has three tiers available for purchase. Choose one that’s right for you!

• Single Use PDF - Build the house plan once as originally designed. Great for homeowners.
• Multi Build PDF - Build the house plan as many times as you wish without additional re-use fees.  Great for contractors & developers.
• Multi Build PDF + CAD - Customize the original house plan to meet your specific needs. Build it once or as many times as you wish without additional re-use fees.

Click here for more information about what’s included in our three house plan packages.

Home Plan Central house plans include all the drawings and details needed to get a permit in most jurisdictions. Home Plan Central is routinely successful in achieving building permits for its house plans in Kootenai County, Idaho and surrounding jurisdictions. In addition, we can also provide design details for North Dakota for any of our house plans at no extra charge.

Some jurisdictions have their own unique energy efficiency code or require energy calculations and analysis. Often your contractor will be able to help with this. In addition, some jurisdictions will ask for structural engineering calculations and a stamp from a structural engineer for certain sites and designs. You may also be required to meet local planning and design standards, local fire regulations, obtain ecological or historical review. A site plan, showing at minimum dimensioned property boundaries and house dimensions, may also be required.

Because each local jurisdiction has its own requirements, please be sure to check with your local building department. Many have all the information you will need available right on their websites. With the variation in codes, it is likely that at least some additional information will be necessary before submitting these drawings for permit in your specific part of the country. In the rare instance that you need to make significant changes to meet the needs for your site, consider our Multi Build PDF + CAD plan package and work with a local drafter to make changes.

Every house plan in the Home Plan Central library conforms to the 2009 International Residential Code, the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code, and the 2009 International Fire Code. (This is in keeping with the timeline of updates for the Kootenai County, Idaho building department.) While these are standardized building codes for residential construction, many jurisdictions apply their own code amendments. Check with your local building department for their specific requirements.

Home Plan Central is a residential design firm. We do not stamp any of our house plans. Fortunately, most jurisdictions do not require single family residential plans to be stamped by an architect or engineer. Again, check with your building department.

Wind and seismic design loads as well as soil conditions can vary from one location to another. As such, you may need to hire a structural engineer. In addition a geotechnical engineer is sometimes needed to analyze difficult site conditions. Your local building department is a great place to start to find out what is required to get a building permit.

All of our house plans are designed to conform to the Kootenai County design criteria, including:

• Seismic Zone C
• Minimum Fastest Mile Wind Speed 76 MPH (90 MPH, 3 Second Guest)
• Exposure B
• Assumed Soil Bearing Pressure 1500 PSF
• Minimum Frost Depth, 24 inches
• Roof Snow Load, 50 pounds
• Climate Zone 5

If the design requirements of your site and location vary from these design criteria, you may need to consult an engineer or drafter to make some modifications to the drawings before you are able to obtain a permit.

We are also happy to provide design details for North Dakota design criteria at no extra charge. Simply email us at info@homeplancentral.com.

The foundation type for each house plan is noted in the listing for that specific plan. We offer house plans on crawl spaces, slab on grade, and basements. We are also happy to convert any plan to crawl space or slab on grade at no extra charge. Most of our house plans can also be converted to a house with full unfinished basement for no extra charge. Email info@homeplancentral.com to get started.

All of the house plans in the Home Plan Central Library are designed with 2x6 exterior walls.

The overall building width and depth dimensions are available on each house plan listing page. Please note, this is measured from the outside face of stud.

Most house plans are designed with a 9’-0” ceiling height on the first floor, and 8’-0” on the second floor. Vaulted ceilings are usually noted on the color floor plan in the individual house plan listing.

House plans in the Home Plan Central library are typically dimensional composition asphalt shingles over 30 pound felt underlayment over plywood or OSB sheathing. The roof structure is assumed to be pre-manufactured trusses which will be engineered by your local supplier.

DF #2 or better (Douglas Fir) is used for all structural lumber.

To purchase one of our house plans, simply navigate to the house plan  listing you want. Look on the right hand side bar and choose from the three house plans packages then choose the license that’s right for your project (Single Build PDF, Multi Build PDF, or Multi Build PDF + CAD) from the drop down list. Finally click “Add to Cart”.

Your house plan will be added to your shopping cart. Simply click “check out” and enter your billing information on the checkout screen. (We accept Visa, Master Card, American Express, and Discover.) Then click “Confirm Your Order”. You will receive an email with a link to instantly access your digital house plan files.  

Prices for each house plan are shown on the individual house plan listing. Look on the right sidebar under the “choose license” dropdown. We have a simple three-tiered price structure with three levels of plan packages available for purchase.

All three of our house plans packages include the right to print as many copies of the plans as you need for your construction project. Please note, all of our packages include digital files only. You will not receive any printed plans in the mail. This way you won’t have to wait days or weeks for us to fulfill your order and ship paper plans to you. It also saves you money on shipping costs. You will receive your digital house plan files immediately upon completing your purchase!

If you purchase the Multi Build PDF or Multi Build PDF + CAD plan package, you may build the house plan design as many times as you like. You may only build the house plan design once if you purchase the Single Build PDF package.

You will receive your house plans within 10 minutes upon completing your purchase! You will receive an email with a link to instantly download your house plans up to 5 times.

Home Plan Central was incorporated in March 2002 as a full service design firm. (Bill Brown, the founder and president of the company has been designing house plans since 1978.) While we have expanded into providing quality pre-designed house plans to customers through our website, we do still accept a limited number of custom house clients. Please email at us at info@homeplancentral.com for more information.

If you simply need a house plan to be modified to a different foundation type (slab on grade, crawl space, or full unfinished basement), or need a right-reading reverse plan, or need design details for North Dakota, we can provide these modifications to you at no extra charge. Simply email us at info@homeplancentral.com to get started.

If you would like to make more significant changes to the design or materials, you will need to purchase our Multi Build PDF + CAD package. This will enable you to work with a local drafter to make your changes using CAD design software.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide technical support for modifications made to our house plans unless we made the changes for you. If you are working with a local designer to make changes, we recommend you contact them for assistance.

Simply contact us at info@homeplancentral.com to upgrade your plan package. Typically, you’ll just need to pay the difference between the new Multi Use PDF + CAD package and the one you’ve already purchased.

When you purchase our Multi Build PDF + CAD house plan package, you will receive complete 2D .dwg files created in Autocad 2015.