From your lot to a permit, in six steps
No mystery and no sales call. Here is what happens, who does what, and where the limits are.
Know your lot
Lot width and depth, zoning district, setbacks, height limit, lot coverage, flood zone, slope and soil. Our free feasibility checklist lists the questions; the free Fit Check runs your address through the code's wind, snow, seismic, flood and frost gates and the state's rule on unstamped plans.
Browse and filter
Filter the catalog by building type, bedrooms, width, size, bays and price. Each plan page shows the 3-D view, floor plan, elevation, the sheet list and the structural members with their code trace.
Check the plan against your town
Email us with questions about a plan; we answer them in writing. The $49 feasibility report reads your town's zoning and submittal rules for the building you want and predicts which lane you are in. Its price is credited toward a set.
Choose your tier
PDF or CAD + PDF: the plan as drawn for the catalog envelope, a design document for you and your local professionals. Site-adapted permit set: the plan re-run for your address with your town's code, a site plan and a reviewer-ready compliance report. Prices on the pricing page.
You submit the permit
You, or your builder, file the application as owner of record, pay the town's fees and arrange inspections. We do not act as your agent. With a site-adapted set, one round of written responses to plan-review comments is included; revisions caused by our error are free in any round.
Build with your local team
Your contractor builds from the approved set. Trusses, mechanical, electrical and plumbing are designed and permitted by the trade or manufacturer, as the plans note. We can answer the contractor's questions about the drawings by email.
Unstamped where the law and the code allow it. Licensed review where they do not.
The standard set
The residential code contains prescriptive tables: pick the span, the snow load and the species, and the table gives the rafter. Where every element of a building can be taken from those tables, the code itself does not require an engineer's design, and several states let a company that is not an architect or engineer prepare the plans for one- and two-family homes and their accessory buildings. In those states, for buildings and sites inside the tables, we deliver an unstamped set with a compliance report that cites the table for every member. Every sheet carries a preparer statement saying the preparer is not a licensed architect or engineer.
Where it applies today: decks, sheds, garages and ADUs in Massachusetts on sites inside the code's prescriptive limits.
Reviewed and sealed by a licensed partner
If any gate fails (wind, seismic, snow, flood, soil, slope, an element outside the tables), if your state or town requires a seal, or if you simply want one, the same set is reviewed and sealed by an independent engineer or architect licensed in your state. They contract with you directly, set their own fee (typically about $1,000, quoted by them) and are the design professional of record. We charge a $500 coordination fee for adapting our files to their requirements. The licensee may require changes or extra information at their own fee.
Where it applies today: flood-zone lots, any site outside the prescriptive limits, and any Massachusetts town whose building department asks for a stamp.
Refund rule. If our gate check finds your project cannot use the prescriptive lane and you decline the sealed upgrade, we refund the site-adapted set price in full. The building official can still ask for a seal or changes on any project; that is their call, not ours, and our included response round applies.
Tables, not guesses
- Loads your town's record: code edition, published design criteria (Table R301.2), local amendments, zoning summary, stamp rules, submittal list. Every field carries its source and date; records older than 12 months block new orders until re-verified.
- Runs the gates first. Any FAIL routes the project to the licensed-review lane; any FLAG is confirmed by a person before issue.
- Selects footings, slabs, studs, headers, joists, rafters, braced-wall panels and fastening from the prescriptive tables of the adopted code, one module per code topic, each with its own tests.
- Draws the set (DXF, then PDF) and writes the compliance report from the same trace, so the sheets and the report cannot disagree.
- Never fills in a missing fact. Unknown soil, for example, uses the conservative value the code allows and is flagged; a flood zone or a steep lot stops the prescriptive lane.
Plain limits
- No engineering or architecture. No calculations, no judgement calls on structure. Anything that needs them goes to the licensed partner.
- No site visits, surveys, soil tests or inspections. Your survey or plot plan is the basis of the site plan, and it is marked as such.
- No zoning determinations, variances, wetlands, historic-district, septic or HOA approvals. We summarise published rules; the town decides.
- No promise of approval, review time or that unstamped drawings will be accepted. The building official has the final say.
- No mechanical, electrical, plumbing, sprinkler, energy-rating or truss design beyond what the permit drawings show.
- No legal, tax or investment advice about whether you may build, rent, or what the building adds in value.
Start with your address
The Fit Check is free and tells you which lane your lot is in. Serving Massachusetts; join the waitlist elsewhere.