How to Get Buildable House Plans Unified Architecture Structure and Energy Design

Show Notes:

Most people assume that if they hire an architect and engineer, the plans they get will “just work.” This episode explains why that’s often not true — and how Landmark avoids the trap of unbuildable, disjointed plans by handling architecture, structural engineering, energy codes, and site planning as one unified process. Steve walks through real-world examples where independently created drawings clash: roof framing that won’t accommodate required insulation, beams that block plumbing and HVAC runs, flat‑land stock plans dropped onto steep sites, and window schedules that don’t match actual rough openings or energy‑code needs. He shows how Landmark’s integrated design approach aligns everything — structure, energy performance, grading, setbacks, and aesthetics — before you ever break ground, significantly reducing on‑site “to be determined” surprises, change orders, budget creep, and schedule headaches. You’ll also hear why Landmark’s guaranteed pricing, custom‑at‑no‑penalty floor plans, and owner‑builder‑friendly panelized system give you a clear, buildable set of plans and a predictable path from permits to a finished home that actually matches your lifestyle and your lot.

Transcript:

Steve Tuma: And what I find when I talk to customers is they don’t believe that you can pay someone to get a set of plans that isn’t buildable. And sometimes those unbuildable plans even get approved by building departments.

Interviewer: Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode 84 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

With me today, as he always is, is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993 — Mr. Steve Tuma.

Steve, how are you, man?

Steve Tuma: It’s a great day. I guess I always say that.

Interviewer: It is always a great day.

Steve Tuma: You know, we’ve got new projects, different projects, working on delivering homes — and you know, it’s just cool when a family gets a new home. They send pictures — “Look at this, look at what happened the first day.” You know, a couple days — we’re half framed. It’s an amazing time and, you know, we’re lucky we’re able to help customers build their new homes.

Interviewer: It’s always good to make people happy, I would think.

Steve Tuma: That’s what the game’s about. That’s what it is.

Interviewer: So today I thought we would talk about the total shebang when it comes to panelized home building. And I’m talking from design to delivery and the entire building of a panelized home from start‑to‑finish project.

Are you up for that?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. It’s a lot to cover, so we’ll probably have to condense a few points here, but get to the major overview of how we can help.

Interviewer: Right. Well let’s start with something fairly basic. How does Landmark Home & Land Company help with a seamless and unified design and build process — not fragmented building?

Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting about that is not a lot of people understand what that is. Because we’ve had customers — they’ll go get an architect, they’ll go get another structural engineer, they’ll get an energy‑calc person, and then they’ll be like, “Steve, I turned these plans in and I didn’t get permits.”

I’m like, “Well, because they weren’t done right.” And they say, “Well, it was an architect,” or, “It was an engineer.” It’s like, well that’s great, but you’ve got to put this together to make sure that everything matches up for your building site:

The home
The structural components
The architectural components
The energy efficiency
Green codes, if they apply
And then other concerns that come along in building

And that’s what we’re able to do — have a unified plan set so that they’re complete and thorough and make sense for a building department to understand. And then our plans aren’t just for the building department — they’re also meant for the actual building phases.

I’ve had people say, “Hey, I got a set of plans that’s meant for permits.” I’m like, “Well, sorry — is your intent just to get permits, or is your intent to also build a house?” You know, it doesn’t make sense just to get permits just to get them.

So I think that sometimes there’s different methods that people work. But at Landmark Home and Land Company, we work to make sure that the plans are unified.

What people may not understand is — let’s just take a roof of a home: a part of a home that’s made with a beam and a rafter, architecturally, for a certain look. A customer may want a 12‑inch fascia just to give a certain look to the house. The structural engineer may say, “Hey, you only need 2x8s or 2x10s for the rafters.”

So right there — let’s just go with 2×10. There’s a 2×10 structurally, a 2×12 architecturally. But maybe you’re in an area that needs more insulation and you need 16 inches of space. So if you have:

The architectural design
The structural design
The energy calculations

…all done independently, and no one works together, you might end up with everyone doing their work — but it doesn’t match.

So if the structural person says, “Hey, let’s put a 2×10 roof rafter up,” and then you need 16 inches for your insulation, you have a problem. So the structure doesn’t match up.

That’s the point I’m getting at: we work to look to make sure that the details are all put together and match throughout the design.

Now, I took a fairly simple example there in roof insulation on a beam‑and‑rafter type of roof system, but there’s a lot of other situations where that aligns with:

Grading plans
Structural engineering
Electrical engineering
Plumbing issues
Green‑code issues

…and a lot more. And also, sometimes just the customer’s concern on what they want the house to look like. So being able to wrap all those together so it makes sense is there.

What’s interesting to me is a lot of people say, “Oh, Steve, the changes on site…” And I’m like, well, to me a “change” is if someone goes through and says, “Hey, I want something different than planned.” But if there’s a change on site because something wasn’t designed right, the designers didn’t design it right.

So you don’t want to work in a system where it’s inherently set up to have changes on site. You don’t want to deal with:

All the change orders
The costs
The headache
The schedule changes

It’s just stressful. So it’s better to work to have a full set of plans that are completely designed up front. And we do our best to make sure that:

The site‑plan details match the architectural
The structural
The energy codes
The green codes
The grading plan or any terrain issues that are there

So it’s a lot of details. And that’s how we work with people to avoid the on‑site changes. It’s a lot of work, but it’s what we do as our project, and why we’re able to give a set price, give someone a set of plans that’s good for permits and building. And then when they’re assembling the home package, everything goes together as planned.

We’ve seen a lot of plans where, you know, there’s some details there — to someone that doesn’t understand it, it might seem to be complete, but in reality they’re not complete. For some reason, a lot of designers think that a lot of stuff gets worked out on site. I don’t understand that, because the nature of their job is to design it so it goes together right.

So it takes us, you know, a little extra effort to make sure we have all the components for a proper design.

Again, that might sound a little weird to people — to say, “But I paid my architect or I paid my engineer; shouldn’t they do that?” It’s like, well, they ...