How it works
Six steps, and you are told which one you are on.
The order matters more than it looks. Most of the expensive mistakes on a residential permit set are made before anything is submitted.
Tell us about your project
An address and what you want to build is enough. You are told straight away whether it is something this office can take on.
Site visit and existing conditions
What is actually there, measured once. Every sheet in the set then uses that same measurement.
Design and engineering
Plans, elevations and sections, with the structure designed alongside them rather than bolted on at the end.
Permit drawings
The full submittal package, drawn to one standard, with the code data pulled fresh for your address.
City submission and corrections
Assembled the way your city asks for it. Any correction letter is answered item by item against the reviewer's own numbering.
Permit approved
You get the approved set, and the deferred submittals and special inspections are already identified rather than discovered on site.
Before we start
Useful to send, and what comes back.
Useful to send
- The address, and what you want to build
- Any existing drawings, permits or reports for the property, however old
- Photos of the space, and of the electrical panel
- Where the project is: not drawn yet, in progress, about to submit, in plan check, or correction letter in hand
What comes back
- Whether the project is inside what this office can take on, said straight away
- What the set will need to contain for that city
- A fee for the scope, once the scope is actually known
- If it needs an architect, the referral instead of an invoice
Two things nobody tells you
How long a city takes is not knowable
First review on a residential permit is commonly a few weeks and can be much longer. Anyone who promises you a date is guessing. What can be controlled is how many rounds it takes, and that is decided by the quality of the set that goes in.
The review before the review
Every set gets an internal 35-point review before it is submitted, as a separate pass from the one that drew it. That is where the corrections are supposed to be found.
Already have drawings?
Upload your plans and find the problems before the city does.
We read your set against 35 written checks and tell you what a reviewer is going to raise, with the code section behind each one. It does not matter who drew it.
Step one
Tell us about your project.
That is the whole of step one. Everything after it is our job.