Winton Global / Norelco Cabinets Promotion Held Over!

Here is a little help with common mistakes in reading a plan:

1.Windows and doors are in feet and inches. Most people read a 4040 window ad 40 inches by 40 inches which would be (3'4")when really it is 4'0" x 4'0"  this is a common mistake on doors also as people read a 3068 door as a 30 inch door not a 3'0" door which is really 36" wide

2. Why is my door shown different than my estimate prior to drawing? The Square footage and window types and sizes are guessed when we are doing an estimate off of a planning website as we have to guess some of the measurements as they are not released until after the plan is purchased. This will lead to some slight changes in the door types on your plan and you may loose a foot or so. But the original estimate is usually really accurate.

3. What is the dashed line in the middle of the room indicating? the roofline being vaulted is usually indicated by a dashed line, usually the area where the ceiling goes flat is incicated by another dashed line and clearly marked.

4. Height in the upstairs of a 1.5 storey home. Due to the angle of the ceiling the height in some areas of the house will be too low to stand. this is indicated by a thin line on the drawing. If you want the height increased let us know and we can usually change the angle on the roof or add a dormer to accomodate the change in height needs.

5. Pantry cabinets as we are only providing the building of the shell we usually recommend goign to a kitchen designer to design your actual kitchen. Your plumber will want to look over the plan as sometimes it makes more sense to switch things around slightly in a bathroom to save costs. Although the designers do try to catch things like showers on outside walls, etc. your Fridge and oven choices will dictate the configuration of your kitchen also. We have ran into designs where a pantry cabinet as shown on the plan left no logical place for a light switch in the kitchen so it had to be replaced by an upper and lower cabinet.

6. Foundation footings seem huge. As the Winton package is created of wood and they are not foundation experts in your area they only provide a point load chart for your contractor. You can easily take this diagram to your contractor and they have no problem figuring out with the building inspector the minimum needed. Winton always puts in a standard footing size that is usually too large, especially on slab foundations. If you are doing a slab you can go to an engineer in your building area and save money by removing the footings and paying the engineer. In order to predict point loads we ask your foundation type choice. If pier and beam we will indicate all point loads for the piers, however some models will not work with this system and we warn this system is usually about $400 a pier so will not save money all the time.

7. Daylight basements and walkouts- it is clearly indicated on the drawings which area are concrete and which are wood framed. We recommend weighing the cost of goign concrete  to the floor joist as contractors charge extra for the stepping system to transition to wood and then you get the "shelf" in the foundation where the two materials meet. It is usually a cost savings of approx. $5000 to remove the wood package, windows and siding from the package, but you will be retaining all but the wall system. To remove this from your package please ensure you let us know if you are going to the floor joist in another material. (Poly Core system is not able to work with a pony wall so you MUST remove the pony wall framing from the package and order 8 foot walls in Poly Core).

8. I need more stairs or less stairs on my exterior deck. All of the exterior stairs are constructed on site due to unknown land grades. A bunch of material is sent so you can use at your discretion when constructing your exterior stairs (interior stairs are completely preassembled

9. Pocket doors sometimes can not be used when requested due to plumbing in the hiding wall for the door.

10. Where is my truss stamp? Your stamp will be provided once your 15% package deposit is recieved. Usually this is needed after the house is constructed and being inspected for framing

11. Where is my truss and floor joist layout? If you require these layouts prior to package delivery let us know as these are done during the finalization of the production layout so about 1 week prior to your package actually being cut up. Therefore your 15% package deposit is required

12. Where is my site layout? we do not provide a site plan layout. We do on turn key builds. These are easily hand drawn to scale on graphing paper or ordered through a surveyor ( who will most likely be there to pin out your homes location if in a development)

13. Where is my electrical and plumbing plan? These are costs that are only necessary on public or commercial buildings or if you are doing multiple builds of the same home. We recommend sending your plan to your electrician or plumber and they will quote you a price based on standard spec then you can do a walkthrough when the framing stage comes to finalize the locations. This is usually a great way to ensure things are placed where it makes sense.

14. Why are there so many teleposts in the foundation? this may be due to using the 2x10 or ibeam you can upgrade to the 4x2 webbed floor truss to remove the need for some teleposts ( the span is determined by the height of the unit so the basement height may change slightly but inside the basement your usually gain height due to the ability to rid yourself of the bulkheads as your venting, plumbing and electrical are in the floor system.