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Part 4 — Exterior Elevations | Sheet by Sheet

  Four sides. One house. And every single one needs to be documented. Most permit reviewers look at elevations before they look at plans. Contractors use them to frame openings, apply cladding, and set window heights. HOA reviewers use them to check design compliance. If any elevation is wrong — the ripple runs through the entire build. What it shows: All four facades — front, rear, left, right Exterior finish materials and transitions Window and door locations and heights Roof pitch and overhang dimensions Finished floor and finished grade lines Building height for permit compliance Elevation option differences — Craftsman, Farmhouse, Traditional Why all four sides matter: Builders often focus on the front elevation — it sells the house. But the rear elevation is what gets framed. The side elevations show gable heights, window placements, and cladding transitions that contractors work from directly. A missing rear e...
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Part 2 — The Foundation Plan | Sheet by Sheet

 

Every house sits on it. Most problems start beneath it.

The foundation plan is the first structural sheet in the set — and the one that has to be right before anything else can move forward. Get it wrong and you're not fixing a drawing. You're fixing concrete.

What it shows:

  • Foundation type — slab, crawl space, or basement
  • Footing locations, sizes, and depths
  • Bearing wall locations above
  • Step footings on sloped lots
  • Anchor bolt and hold-down locations
  • Thickened slab areas under load points

The three foundation types:

Slab on grade — most common in NC, SC, GA. Concrete poured directly on prepared ground. Fast, cost-effective, but zero tolerance for grading errors.

Crawl space — elevated foundation with ventilated space below. Common in flood zones and sloped sites. More complex to document — vents, access points, and vapor barriers all need to be shown.

Basement — least common in the Southeast but critical to get right when specified. Waterproofing, egress windows, and structural walls all add complexity to the foundation plan.

Where builders get burned:

Wrong foundation type for the lot. A slab specified on a lot with significant grade change means expensive cut-and-fill work — or worse, a redesign after permits are pulled. The foundation plan should always be read alongside the site plan and grading plan, not in isolation.

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