Are you dreaming of building a custom home on your land? Finding the right floor plan is an important step in turning that dream into reality. However, it's important to remember that the house plans you choose can significantly impact both the cost and functionality of your new home.
In this guide, we'll explore various methods to find floor plans for your house—from online resources to working with professionals. Whether you're just starting your home-building journey or looking to refine your approach, we’re providing our pro tips on how to make sure you get the absolute best bang for your buck.
A quick google search for “floor plans for houses” will lead you down a rabbit hole of seemingly endless options—which makes the internet an attractive (and sometimes overwhelming) starting point for many prospective homeowners. However, like most things you can purchase online, you’re bound to find both great plans and bad ones.
For that reason and more, it's important to approach online house plans with both enthusiasm and caution. After all, designers who sell plans on the internet have zero stake in the outcome of building that home—once you buy the plan, their job is done.
You also won’t really know if one of these pre-made plans works for you until you buy it and build the house—by then, it’s too late. So, what do you do?
We recommend using online house plans as a filter and idea generator.
Look at several of them, and use them to figure out what you want… as well as what you don’t want. Consolidate those features into a guide to your own custom house plan.
Let's talk about residential plan designers for a moment. Just like with online house plans (and just about everything else), you've got the good, the bad, and a whole in-between. Here's the tricky part about creating a house plan: you don't know how much it's going to cost to build until everything is laid out and you've tallied up all the materials and labor.
A well-meaning designer or architect without hands-on building experience might draw up plans that look great on paper and tick all your boxes—but there’s a good chance they don’t know very much about the actual construction costs. So, when you bring those plans to a builder, the home design has elements way out of your budget.
Another thing to keep an eye out for is non-standard features like unusual ceiling heights or oddly-sized windows and doors. These might look great on paper, but they often require custom-made parts or extra labor. For example, wall studs typically come pre-cut for standard 8', 9', or 10' ceilings. If your design calls for something different, someone's going to have to cut those studs by hand—and that means more time and money.
Here at Turner & Sons, we once worked on a house where the architect's plans would have had the front door hit the stairs before it could fully open. In another case, a designer added a bonus room that wouldn't even fit under the roof as it was drawn. Yikes.
These experiences show why it's so important to work with someone who knows both design and construction. You want a design that can be built efficiently and within budget.
Now, let's talk about design-build custom builders. These companies either have their own in-house design team or work closely with architects. That means they understand the balance between making your dream home a reality and keeping things practical.
Think about it this way: you're going to need a builder you can trust anyway, right? So why not start there? Find a great builder first, and let them guide you through the process.
After all, with a design-build approach, you're getting the best of both worlds. You'll end up with a design that's not just pretty, but actually livable. These builders have been in the trenches, so to speak. They know what works and what doesn't—even if something looks amazing on paper. Plus, they've got a built-in reason to keep your budget in check; they want to build your home, not just draw the plans and walk away.
If you choose a builder who's a pro at design-build custom homes, they'll have a tried-and-true process. You get to benefit from all that experience, you’ll get the most home possible for your money. By “most home”, we mean maximizing the things you want and need, while eliminating the things you don’t (so you don’t have to pay for them).
Want to see what we're talking about? Take a look at some of the house plans we've created for our previous clients. It'll give you an idea of how we turn dreams into reality.