Building in Florida

[simplerlife]

My wife and I are considering building one of the small cabins on some property we have in north Florida.  I wanted to see if there is anyone out there who has built one in Florida.  I am concerned about how the plans stack up against our Hurricaen wind codes.

Thnaks

[CREATIVE1]

You'll need to get a Florida structural engineer to revise and stamp the plans, usually for about 95 cents a square foot.  The people I know who have bought stock plans to build in Florida have all had to do that.  I know one who built a two story cabin, and they made him beef up the foundation and add lots of bolted-together wood (like 3 -4 x 12's) around the large expanses of glass.  I looked at that house while it was under construction.  The changes really added to construction costs.

[John Raabe]

Yes, places with high earthquake and wind loads are likely to require engineering on any submitted plans (stock or custom designed). How complex this will be will depend in part on the engineer and part on the site. Generally the plans on CountryPlans meet the prescriptive bracing requirements that satisfy load requirements in 95% of the US and Canada. Adding metal hardware may be all that is needed for a simple house but this will need to be determined by a local engineer.

[rwanders]

Watch out for "impact fees" imposed in Florida for new construction----we own land in Citrus County (west-central area) and if we wanted to put a "manufactured home' (double-wide trailer) on our own land it was over $10,000----plan review and inspection fees are extra!!