Madden Home Design

Give some details of what you plan to build and where.

His plans are fine. It just depends on what you want. He has a pretty specific style and doesn't typically change it unless you want something completely different. If you notice, you don't see any two stories on his site. I'm not sure why, but I've had people tell me he doesn't like doing two story homes. (not first hand knowledge so take it with a grain of salt)

I don't ever suggest someone buying stock plans unless you are building a spec home. Plans from a draftsman (like Madden) aren't very expensive so go custom. At the very least, go customize a stock plan. You may be able to shave some of the square footage off of some stock plans while customizing the home to offset the cost of the plans. Either way, building a home is a big deal. Get what you want, not someone else's plans. That's just my $.02.

Most builders are.

Eta: they have to pay their subs from other jobs and skip steps to get draw from the bank. Ie do the floor before the painting is done.

They cant keep their stuff strait either and put things off.

I am in this line of work so my experience is a little different.
He did seem to sell one particular plan a bunch around here that the roof could not be framed like it was drawn several years back.
I redrew the roof plan for a couple different framers. Two said it was cheaper to pay us than to go back to him.

Just my experience, but if you go this route, I’d make damn sure all fees for changes are agreed upon before you buy that first set. There is a reason most of these “can set” draftsman are so cheap. They make their money on the back in once you’ve invested.

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but my builder was the biggest POS I have ever met.

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Who was your builder if you dont mind?

Is this a PlayStation game?

I’ve used Madden and Kabel.

Depending on the style of house you want, they are both okay.

The house I’m building now was designed by Madden. I took a stock plan and modified it with another stock plan, along with some minor changes.

He overcharged, and was very unresponsive to changes. He charged me like it was a full-on custom plan, then neglected to update details and changes from the stock sets. I love the house, but felt he was miserable to work with. Very nice guy, but poor customer service and didn’t seem like he cared.

Kabel was a very nice and friendly guy and willing to make the changes (our experience with him was very minor changes to a stock plan). He had a large backlog when we called him for this house, but at least answered the phone/returned calls/etc. My biggest complaint with Kabel was his lack of CAD drawings at the time. I understand he’s doing all CAD design now so at least that’s better.

How much they charge? Do you have an idea of what you want?

My builder was shite as well.... that house pretty much led to my divorce.

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If you're wanting a custom plan check Kabel Designs

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I don't know them personally and haven't worked with them. But they still hand draw plans. If it's b/t Madden and Kabel, go with Madden just for the software based design. Kabel's plan are good and it's hard to find a mistake, BUT it is 2017 and custom plans should be done using drafting software (autocad or otherwise).

If I'm building a custom house and want to bump a wall over a foot, it's easy for anyone to do on a PC. But if you ask Kabel to bump a wall on his stock plans (or after you've completed you custom plans), they will break out the liquid paper and literally white-out the dimension to overwrite it. Then you'll see a little (N.T.S.) on the plans which means "Not to scale". With the technology we have today, no floor plans, elevations, roof plans, etc should have be drawn "not to scale".

In addition to that, Kabel would be happy to sell you a set of plans where you want the house flipped. They break out the red stamp that says "BUILD HOUSE IN REVERSE". Sorry, but this is how mistakes are made. This is fine (I guess) for a spec house, but no one should settle for this when building their personal home.