USA Dream Home Designs Residential Drafting & Plan Sets

New Residential Home Plans

Everything you need to know before you request drawings for a new house—what plan sets typically cost, what's included, and how the process runs from intake to permit-ready drawings.

What "residential drafting" actually covers

Drafting a new home means translating your layout, square footage, and site details into a dimensioned, buildable drawing set—the documents your contractor uses to build and your building department uses to review and approve the project. Depending on scope, that can range from a floor plan and elevations you use for early budgeting, up to a full, engineered plan set ready to submit for a permit.

What it typically costs

Pricing scales with the living square footage of the home (and, for the two higher tiers, covered areas like garages and porches). Three common packages:

  • Design Package — $0.75 per sq ft of living space, $1,000 minimum. Dimensioned floor plans and exterior elevations. Good for early planning and budgeting, not typically sufficient for a permit on its own.
  • Full Architectural Plan Set — $1.00 per sq ft of living space plus $0.25 per sq ft of covered area, $1,500 minimum. Site plan, foundation plan, floor plans, elevations, cross section, roof plan, and electrical plan—generally what most counties require to pull a permit.
  • Architectural + Engineered Plan Set — $2.00 per sq ft of living space plus $0.25 per sq ft of covered area, $2,500 minimum. Adds floor joist layouts, footing sizes, header sizes, post/beam sizing, and shear wall information for jurisdictions that require engineered details.

See Design vs. Full Architectural vs. Engineered for help choosing between the three, and How Much Do House Plans Cost? for a deeper cost breakdown.

Note: Requirements vary by county and jurisdiction. We confirm what your specific project needs as part of your quote—pricing above is a starting reference, not a final price.

How the process works

You start with your ZIP code, project type, and rough square footage. From there we confirm jurisdiction details, scope the right plan tier, and move into drafting, revisions, and final delivery. Payment is typically 50% to begin and 50% at completion. Full walkthrough: New Build Plans: Step-by-Step Process.

What's in a full plan set

A permit-ready plan set is more than a floor plan—it's a coordinated set of sheets a plan reviewer and a builder both rely on. See What's Included in a Full Plan Set? for a sheet-by-sheet breakdown.

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