The building specifications in blueprints are essential when making renovations,historically accurate restorations, orhiring contractors.
They tell contractors about your home’s foundation, elevation, and structural details.
Here’s how to find the floor plans for a house.
The Spruce / Ulyana Verbytska
They were built by tradition or methods passed on by other builders without putting the plan down on paper.
Some early manuals or pattern books had hazy instructions, such as “build in the usual way.”
They may also know local builders familiar with your home or style.
What Is a Stock Plan?
Stock plans were the blueprints for cookie-cutter homes.
They were also called catalog plans, stock building or house plans, mail-order plans, and patterns.
Anyone could buy stock plans for a house from a catalog and build it on a plot of land.
Local housing records may also have information on the prior ownership of your home.
Ask if it’s possible for you to look at their blueprints.
Planned and gated communities usually limit the available house styles, and many communities were formed using stock plans.
Ask if the neighbor has the builder or architect’s information.
Check With Municipal Records
communicate with the building inspector or assessor’s town or city hall office.
Builders mustget a permitbefore beginning new construction orremodeling an older home.
Permits often require floor plans and elevation drawings.
Look at Fire Insurance Maps
City Hall usually keeps records like fire insurance maps.
In the United States, many fire insurance maps date back to the 1870s.
A good bird’s-eye view map can provide a three-dimensional drawing of houses in your neighborhood.
Compare your findings with Google Maps.
Access Historical Archives
Many communities maintain archives with old photographs, building plans, and maps.
Some towns may have an official city or town historian who can advise you in your search.
Old publications like historic magazines or mail-order catalogs can help you locate vintage blueprints for your house.
In the 1940s and 1950s, catalogs featured mid-century modern and Cape Cod-style plans.
Start by asking a local architect or civil engineer.
Purchase a New Blueprint
Every modification made to your home leaves behind a trail of evidence.
Building professionals like architects or structural engineers can use field measurements and other clues to recreate the original plans.
Retroactively creating a blueprint should be a last resort.
