Week 2: I Want To Move (or Remove) a Wall, Door or Window. Do I Need an Architect?
We’re counting down the top 10 questions homeowners ask us about designing a new kitchen. Don’t start your kitchen remodel without taking advantage of our hard-won knowledge built up over years of designing kitchens.
Last week, we answered Question 10: When remodeling my kitchen, where do I start? This week, Question 9.
Question 9: I Want To Move (or Remove) a Wall, Door or Window. Do I Need an Architect?
If you’re making structural or seismic changes, you need an architect or a structural engineer. We routinely move walls, windows and doors in our kitchen designs and refer our clients to an engineer to create structural drawings. Structural engineers work quickly and offer great value.
However, you will need more than structural drawings. You will need to-scale construction drawings. We routinely create a set of construction drawings including:
As-Built – drawings of the pre-remodel space and sometimes the whole house or lot,
Floor Plan – a bird’s eye view of the remodeled space showing walls, doors, windows, appliances, plumbing and more, like the one on the right,
Lighting Plan – again a bird’s eye view, this one shows the placement of your lights and outlets and addresses any energy requirements in the building code,
Elevations – a view of each wall, as though you were standing in front of it looking at it, showing the placement of all of the cabinets, wall sconces, electrical outlets and plumbing on that wall,
Detail Drawings – a study of a particular feature like the layout of your backsplash that shows the desired result to your contractor.
For our projects, the client’s general contractor takes the construction drawings Venue has created and the engineer’s structural drawings to the local building department to pull permits. Then, the construction drawings are referred to throughout the remodel.
Still have questions? Call 925-285-0815 or email jackie@venueathome.com now to schedule a 30-minute phone consultation. Yours FREE when you mention this blog post.
Next week we’ll answer Kitchen Design Questions 8 and 7: Who Should I Talk To First - A Designer Or A Contractor?
Jackie Lopey embraced her creativity and passion over 10 years ago when she left her corporate job in San Francisco to become an interior designer. Since then she has worked with over a hundred satisfied clients transforming hundreds of rooms, and Jackie’s reputation now precedes her as one of the top Certified Interior Designers in the East Bay. She has a keen eye for detail and uniquely intuits her clients wants and needs. If you want a home that is breathtaking and deeply personal, Jackie Lopey and her team at Venue are the experts you need to talk to.
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