When planning a major remodel, renovation or addition to your existing home it’s likely your local building department will require a set of as-built plans, which illustrates your home in its current condition. Think of these drawings as the “BEFORE” set, and the final and approved construction documents as the “AFTER” set.
In a nutshell as-built drawings are detailed plans of your property that represents all structures and site conditions, as they exist today. These drawings are site measured and field verified and may include any of the following:
Site Plan.
This is an aerial view of your site that depicts your home and all existing structures situated on your plot of land, bordered by its property lines. It details all streets, driveways and easements, as well as all front, side and rear setback measurements specific to your property. Typically you’ll also require an assessor’s parcel map of your property, which is easy to obtain at
zimas.lacity.org. (Zone Information and Map Assess System).
Floor Plans.
The floor plans are scaled diagrams of one level of a structure as seen from above. It not only shows room sizes, but detailed door and window sizes and locations, existing cabinetry, appliances, fixtures, stairwells, ceiling heights, and mechanical equipment locations. This documents everything that exists on each floor of your house – now.
Exterior Elevations.
This is the vertical view of the building’s exterior, which typically shows the front, rear and sides of the house, including all door and window locations and heights, soffit and fascia details, siding materials, chimney locations and roof pitch, as it currently exists.
Roof Plan.
This depicts the layout of the rooflines complete with dormers, gables, ridges, hip and valleys. In the case of an addition, this plan will help you integrate a new roof seamlessly with the existing roofline.
Check with your local building and safety department and learn the extent of what type of as-builts plans they’ll require for your home renovation project. Depending on the scope and size, you may be lucky and only need to provide them with a portion of the existing house.
I encourage you leave questions or comments below this post, and fill out the form on the right hand side of this page to receive your free copy of my special report:
“How to Avoid the 15 Most Common Decorating Mistakes”
Article by Lori Gilder, Architectural Interior Designer, Los Angeles, Ca.
© 2009 Lori Gilder. Interior Makeovers Inc
After submitting the Typographic Land Survey and the site plan – complete with the locations of the proposed additions – the Geologists were able to analyze the Brown’s canyon property and determine the number of drill sites, test pits and drill depths required to collect sufficient soils for sampling.
The Geologist’s assessed that only one major drill site was necessary in Liz and Mark’s driveway – boring down 50’ for soil sampling rather than a more typical 30’ – and an additional 4 hand tool excavated test pits are required throughout the front and rear yards, relative to the proposed additions.
What To Expect:
According to the Geologist, Liz and Mark Brown’s current home is built on liquefaction soil. Welcome to California!
What is soil liquefaction?
Liquefaction occurs in saturated soils and sands. The soil transforms from a solid to a liquefied state. When liquefaction occurs (as in the event of an earthquake) the strength of the soil can be compromised temporarily by the shaking earth, and as a result, that soil deposit has a tough time supporting the structure’s foundation, which could cause it to tilt or sink. Think of it in terms of a “quicksand” scenario.
This geological investigation will identify those soil conditions and literally tell structural engineers how the foundation must be designed. Now you can see why digging and testing the soil conditions for this type of home addition and renovation project is imperative. Soil testing is an integral part of designing your home and more specifically the foundation it’s built on, as it has a direct link to the earth and rock below.
The required “Geological Engineering Liquefaction and Foundation Investigation”, will expose a variety of properties contained within the various layers of soil, which will in turn 
provide the structural engineer with all the information he’ll need to design the proper, solid foundation for all areas of this home renovation project.
Now it’s my job to provide the geologist with a Topographic Land Survey of the existing property (which the Browns had copies of from a few years back), and a site plan, indicating each new proposed addition to the existing structure. This information will provide the geologists with a roadmap as to the number of drill sites they’ll need to provide throughout the property.
I encourage you leave questions or comments below this post, and fill out the form on the right hand side of this page to receive your free copy of my special report: “How to Avoid the 15 Most Common Decorating Mistakes”
Article by Lori Gilder, Architectural Interior Designer, Los Angeles, Ca.
© 2009 Lori Gilder. Interior Makeovers Inc 
One of the main objectives for Liz and Mark Brown’s renovation and addition to their current home is to ensure the new construction blends in seamlessly with the old. And a well conceived home renovation project hinges on the precision planning and accurate measurements of a quality set of as-built plans.
These valuable drawings will be used to show what’s existing, what’s to be demolished, what’s remaining and the proposed new construction. Due to the size and scope of this particular project, we are required by our local building and safety department to submit a comprehensive set of as-built plans (Site Plan, Floor Plan, Exterior Elevations and Roof Plan) attached to the construction document set.
Unfortunately the only plans Liz was able to provide were partial plans of their home, from a past project that never happened. So I called upon my draftsman to meet at the site where we rolled up our sleeves and got to work measuring the exterior of the building – all doors, windows, roof pitches and soffit details. He then returned the following day with a plan of the building’s shell in hand, and over the next several hours measured the interior from top to bottom. All interior walls, cabinets, doors and windows, fixtures, appliances – the list goes on. It should take a week or two before we get them back. In the meantime there are plenty of other details to work on.
If your project involves a renovation or addition of any kind – before you even begin – take a trip down to your local building and safety office and tell them of your plans. They’ll be more than happy to guide you down the right path. Ask them for a Residential Plan Check List which will educate you on what you’ll need to provide the office for permitting and who you’ll need to hire to help get you there. A little research up front will save you time and money in the end.
I encourage you leave questions or comments below this post, and fill out the form on the right hand side of this page to receive your free copy of my special report: “How to Avoid the 15 Most Common Decorating Mistakes”
Article by Lori Gilder, Architectural Interior Designer, Los Angeles, Ca.
© 2009 Lori Gilder. Interior Makeovers Inc 
I learned what a “banquette” was at about 6 years old. (Although I wasn’t aware of the term at the time.) It was at my childhood friend Bobby’s house on Waverley Street – right there in his kitchen, sat two built-in upholstered benches, with a shiny white table in between – just like the ones you see at the diner. It was small, cozy, and the most unique thing I’d ever seen. I loved it!
I loved it so much I installed one in my own home – many years later. I love nestling in on the weekends with my morning coffee, lingering over great dinner conversations at my friend’s home – and I love designing them for my clients.
No two banquettes are the same. Each one has a personality of its own – fitting seamlessly in to the most unexpected spaces – never failing to provide a tremendous sense of style and comfort. It’s where families gather to share their events of the day and where we feel enveloped with a sense of warmth and protection at night. Best of all a banquette is suitable for any style of kitchen.
These banquettes typically require less space for traffic flow, provide great additional storage solutions and ultimately seats more than conventional table and chairs.
Take a look around your kitchen and neighboring spaces and see how you could make the most of your kitchen dining area with a space saving banquette. Maybe you have an old butlers pantry, awkward corner, inefficient laundry area or window alcove that’s a perfect fit. Bay windows are an ideal spot for banquette dining, and could potentially seat 6 – 8 people comfortably.
7 Tips To Consider When Designing And Building A Banquette.
Since the Brown’s took their time in assessing their family’s needs by asking themselves a litany of questions, they were able to evaluate their current situation, determine their goals and compile a solid dream home “wish list”. This is a critical step in the pre-planning process and makes all the difference between a good home renovation project – and a great one!
With a whole house remodel of this magnitude and a potential budget to match, it’s equally important to move on to the next set step of establishing a “need list”. More specifically, we need to determine what condition their house is currently in – and learn as much as we can about its weaknesses – both inside and out.
