Erasable Vellums

Erasable Vellums are available for most of our house plans. They are intended for changes to be made by an experienced professional (architect, engineer, designer, builder) in the home design business. They usually must be erased with an electric eraser (the pink inserts which are more abrasive usually work best). Our standard erasable vellum order includes one set of vellums that you can erase, one set of blueprints for reference, and a one-time copyright release to make your own blueprints or copies for one project. (Contact us for the discount to allow for more than one house to be built.)

They can also be used by the homeowner (in conjunction with the builder) who wants to add or erase simple notes about what they would like to add to their house or to cross out some of the options on the plans. This information would then only need to be done once in pencil on the erasable vellums prior to making copies or blueprints. (For blueprint orders, those changes would have to be made 6 times - once on every set of drawings - and with complex issues like structural engineering this can be timely and therefore costly.)

Custom Energy Specifications

Our Erasable Vellum orders com with specifications that contain General Specifications and Custom Energy Recommendations which describe how to adapt the home to your location by evaluating the insulation values, windows, thermal mass, overhang lengths, and sometimes framing to accommodate necessary insulation. No matter where you live in the U.S. or Canada, we will make recommendations for you to adapt the home to your climate!

When you place an order, please advise us of the location in which you plan to build (city, state or province, county) and if you will have to orient the south side of the home other than due true (not magnetic) south and, if so, approximately how many degrees east or west of south your south wall will need to face. (Our specs will give you information on how to find out these important issues and assure that they are followed through on during construction.)

Mirror Reverse

Our erasable vellums are optionally available mirror reversed .(See price list or shopping cart for prices.)

Misc. Notes

The price for the Erasable Vellums is normally $200 more than the blueprints. See the price list for each house plan in our shopping cart. You may also later upgrade to CAD files from Blueprints or Vellums for a similar additional fee.

The Erasable Vellums can be modified by your local architect, designer, engineer, or builder who does not work with computer files, but please check with them first. The Erasable Vellums allow additional notes to be made related to construction issues related to high snow loads, earthquakes, unstable soils, or high winds since a structural engineer will most likely need to add to or change our drawings. (It is impossible to design a home that meets the extremes of all these conditions or at least it would then be over designed and therefore cost more than necessary to build.)

Most of our plans have originated from custom designs and have various levels of drawings and details included based on what the client requested from us. See each house plan description on the web site or in the flier, or look at the drawings included in a current Construction Review Set. (We often add to older plans so there is a chance that we have added drawings sheets since you Construction Review Set purchase. Email us with the date on your Construction Review Set and the number of pages and we can tell you what sheets, if any, have been added.)

We check and update our plans with each Blueprint, Vellum, or CAD file order (we've been told we are the only ones in the house plan industry that does this), but NOT with the Construction Review Set so later drawings you receive may differ somewhat, but will be equal to or better in quality and content from the Construction Review Set.

After you place your order for Blueprints, CAD files, or Erasable Vellums, please feel free to send us by email a list of concerns that you have or issues that you would like for us to address in the Custom Energy Recommendations. If they require little extra consulting and review time, we will most likely address them with no additional charge.

Our pre-designed plans were created for one particular client with unique requests based on their family, location, land slope, construction methods, climate, and budget although they were all concerned about passive solar. (Some more so than others, see the % of south glass with each plan.) Pay attention to your own needs and listen to your local builder, architect, structural engineer, energy professionals, etc. when you begin with our plans as they may recommend a change that is in your best interest. The Custom Energy Recommendations provided by Sun Plans will recommend energy-related elements best suited to your location for a particular plan. If you are not comfortable with the limits of adapting a pre-designed plan, then consider custom design by Sun Plans or others. If you are a very detailed type of person or have a complex site, a local full-service architect that can guide you all the way through construction, may best suit your needs as our limited-service internet-based design does have some limitations. (See more information about our Custom Design.)

Customer Support - buying a pre-designed plan does not come with the same level of customer support as does Custom Design or Custom Changes to one of our plans. Please scroll to the bottom of our FAQ page to see the general level of customer support provided.

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