A-101Residential plans
Residential plans your field team can actually use
Builders who look for residential drafting services usually need more than drafting. Native Plans issues floor plans, elevations, sections, details and schedules as one set of construction documents, for projects across Nashville and Middle Tennessee. We draw for the people who price, permit and build from the sheets, so your superintendent's questions are answered on paper.
A-102Why it matters in the field
Gaps in the set show up as field questions.
- 01
Dimensions nobody has to guess
Walls dimensioned for framing, openings matched to the window schedule, and plate heights on every elevation.
- 02
Details where the questions come from
Eaves, porch ceilings, foundation transitions and stair headroom. The conditions your crews ask about get their own detail.
- 03
A set purchasing can quote from
Door and window schedules and called-out materials, so the bids that come back are pricing the same house.
A-103What's in the set
What's in a Native plan set.
Sheet count depends on the house and on what your jurisdiction wants in the permit drawings, and the sheets are agreed in the scope for each project. A set can include:
| Sheet | Drawing | What your team gets |
|---|---|---|
| A-000 | Cover and sheet index | Project information, a sheet list and general notes, so your PM and the plan reviewer find things fast. |
| A-001 | Site plan | The house placed on your survey, with setbacks, driveway and walks. |
| A-101 | Floor plans | Dimensioned plans for every level: walls, openings, stairs, room names and ceiling heights. |
| A-201 | Exterior elevations | All four sides, with materials called out and plate heights and roof pitches marked. |
| A-301 | Building sections | Floor-to-floor heights, plate lines, roof framing intent and stair headroom, in one cut through the house. |
| A-401 | Roof plan | Ridges, valleys, pitches and overhangs, so the truss supplier and the roofer are looking at the same roof. |
| A-501 | Wall sections and details | A typical wall section from footing to roof, plus the eave, porch and foundation conditions crews ask about. |
| A-601 | Door and window schedules | Sizes, types and rough openings, ready for your supplier to quote. |
| E-101 | Electrical and lighting plan | Available when the project needs it: fixture, switch and outlet locations, coordinated with the interiors package. |
NoteStructural design that needs an engineer comes from a licensed engineer. How their drawings come into the set is agreed in the scope for each project.
A-202Elevation study
From elevation study to rendering.
The facade gets worked out in elevation first: proportions, window rhythm, where the stone stops and the siding starts. The rendering comes after, once those decisions hold.
A-104Coordination
Drawn with the interiors and the site in hand.
The plan set is developed alongside the interiors package and the landscape plan. Kitchen and bath layouts are drawn from the actual selections, so blocking, rough-ins and cabinet runs match what purchasing orders.
The site plan and the landscape plan start from the same footprint, porch slabs and walks, so the plan set and the site never disagree about where the house ends.
A-105Scope by project type
Plan sets sized to the house.
- 01
Custom
Built around one family's program and one lot. The set gets most specific where the owner's choices touch framing and rough-ins.
- 02
Spec
Drawn to pencil: spans and plate heights that suit standard lumber, rooflines that frame easily, and a layout buyers at that price point expect.
- 03
Infill and community
Plans fitted to narrow lots, setbacks and height limits, with options that let one base plan work across several lots.
Engineering and licensed professionals
Native Plans is a residential design studio. When a project or jurisdiction calls for a licensed professional's stamp or engineered drawings, a licensed professional does that work, and how it comes into the set is agreed in the scope for each project. How stamps and engineering work.
A-101From the Forest Lawn set
The A101 sheet from Forest Lawn.
The ground floor plan from the Forest Lawn construction set: 77′-6″ × 74′-1½″ overall at ¼″ = 1′-0″, on a raised concrete foundation with 2×6 exterior walls, an 11′-0″ ground plate and trusses at 24″ o.c.
Related guides
- 01What's in a residential construction plan set, sheet by sheetA walk through the sheets of a residential plan set, with the Forest Lawn ground floor plan as the worked example.
- 02Architect, residential designer or drafter? Who does what on a Tennessee homeThe roles, the licensing line, and the questions to put to your building department.
A-106Questions
Questions about plan sets.
What's included in a Native plan set, and how many sheets?
A Native Plans set can include a cover sheet and index, site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections, roof plan, wall sections and details, and door and window schedules, with electrical and lighting plans when the project needs them. The sheets in each set are agreed in the scope for that project.
Sheet count depends on the house and what the jurisdiction asks for, so we don't quote a fixed number. See the sheet index for residential plans.
What is residential drafting?
Residential drafting is producing the drawings a house is priced, permitted and built from: floor plans, elevations, sections and details, drawn to scale with dimensions and notes.
At Native Plans, drafting is one part of residential design: the drawings are developed with the interiors and the site, by people who think about how the house will be framed and bought. See what's in a Native plan set.
What are construction documents?
Construction documents are the drawings and written specifications a building is built from. For a house, that usually means the plan set (site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections, details and schedules), any engineering drawings, and the finish and fixture specifications.
Our guide walks through a residential plan set, sheet by sheet.
Do you coordinate structural engineering?
Native Plans doesn't provide structural engineering. A licensed structural engineer does that work when a project needs it.
How we work with the engineer is agreed in the scope for each project: who hires them, which of our drawings they work from and how their beam sizes, foundation design and details come into the plan set.
Will the plans be ready to submit for a permit?
Native Plans draws each set to the submittal requirements we confirm with your jurisdiction at the start of the project. The jurisdiction issues the permit, and plan review comments are a normal part of the process. Whether we respond to comments on our drawings is agreed in the scope for each project.
Some jurisdictions also need documents from outside the design set, such as engineered drawings, energy compliance forms or site and utility approvals. We identify those early so they don't hold up the submittal.
How much does Native Plans charge?
Native Plans quotes each project after a short call, from the size and complexity of the house, which services you need, how many review rounds the scope includes and whether we start from your existing plans.
Design that repeats across lots changes the number too. We don't publish a rate card. Once we've talked, we recommend a scope and price it, so you're comparing a real number against a defined set of deliverables.
Bring us the lot and the program.
Send the survey if you have it, the program and your target price point. We'll come back with a scope for the plan set, or tell you plainly that we're not the right fit.