calguy1955 t1_jd7u2t1 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 1:46 PM

Reply to comment by drae- in LPT: If you're buying a house still under construction, photograph everything before the sheetrock goes up. Knowing exactly where the pipes, wires, and ducts are may prove invaluable some day, and even if you never use them the next owner will appreciate it. by Needleroozer

This is a myth perpetuated by the movies. You can’t go down to the “hall of records” and look at blueprints for every building to find out where the heating ducts are that lead to the treasure room. Once the city finalizes all of its inspections it gives the plans back to the builder and doesn’t keep a copy.

drae- t1_jd7z2ap wrote on March 22, 2023 at 2:21 PM

I'm an architectural technician. I literally design and build homes for a living. One of my primary tasks is to submit and obtain approval for planning and permits.

Yes, the city absolutely has a copy of the plans on file. For over a decade I griped and complained about lack of digital submission of plan, physical was required specifically because the city retains copies and didn't have the digital infrastructure in place to store electronic copies long term. My city installed this infrastructure only in about 2018.

Further I have done a number of renovations of old buildings. Our primary focus is infill and intensifying neighbourhoods, usually brownfield sites like old mills and factories. I've gone to the city on a number of occasions for plans. They generally had everything post 1950, and has spotty coverage on stuff between 1910 and 1950.

I literally have a print of an old factory plan framed behind me, and I got said copy from the city.

So unless I'm a movie character and don't know it, you absolutely can get copies from city Hall in any municipality I've worked in.

calguy1955 t1_jd8748p wrote on March 22, 2023 at 3:14 PM

I suppose it depends on the city or county. I worked doing due diligence for real estate transactions throughout California for over 20 years and the best I could ever find were simple site plans and maybe an elevation. No structural plans were ever saved. Maybe in todays digital world they are available but there’s nothing for the old buildings.

drae- t1_jd8ep67 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 4:02 PM

>Maybe in todays digital world they are available but there’s nothing for the old buildings.

Again, I literally have a print from a 100 year old factory behind my desk, which I sourced from my municipalities building department.

As I mentioned, I couldn't submit digitally for years specifically because they needed a paper copy for record.

In my experience if a permit was pulled for construction and municipality is organized they have a copy and can generally find it. Bigger cities stored it on microfilm. Of course some cities are shit shows and not organized at all. In my current jurisdiction the government responsible for planning items is the county, but for building items its the Town. One of the factories I renovated the fire department had copies of plans, the factory was old enough to predate the building department but not the fire department. Barking up the correct tree is half the battle.

anch_ahh t1_jdbghen wrote on March 23, 2023 at 4:49 AM

Architect here. What you said is absolutely untrue. Some counties may not require a permit for residential, but typically non-residential structures require a permit. Your county's permitting or records department has a copy of all permitted plans including structural, mechanical, electrical, and whatever else is required to get the permit. Now, how well they kept the records is another story. I've seen the historical stuff stored on microfiche or microfilm and you need to use a special machine to see it, however I believe some counties are making efforts to digitize their records. Also the accuracy of where things are is a hit or miss due to the nature of construction.